Abstract This study presents a mechanistic computational modeling framework to estimate chemical dissipation half-lives in the human body. The physiologically based kinetic matrix was developed to simulate organ-specific and whole-body half-lives for 931 chemicals across four exposure routes, incorporating age- and gender-specific physiological parameters. A supplementary database containing human physiological data, physicochemical parameters, and simulation codes is provided for users to perform customized analyses. Model predictions show that whole-body half-lives are longest in infancy and old age and shortest in young adulthood, reflecting developmental patterns of liver and kidney function. Gender differences reverse around age six due to differing maturation trajectories. While physiological parameters mainly determine whole-body half-life, organ-specific results reveal consistently long half-lives in fat and short half-lives in the liver under oral exposure. Predicted and reported values align well, though overestimation can occur. The computational framework can be further refined with improved physiological and chemical-specific data.
How does the climatic experience of previous generations affect today's attention to environmental questions? Using self-reported beliefs and environmental themes in folklore, we show empirically that the realized intensity of deviations from typical climate conditions in ancestral generations influences how much descendants care about the environment. The effect exhibits a U-shape where more stable and more unstable ancestral climates lead to higher attention today, with a dip for intermediate realizations. We propose a theoretical framework where the value of costly attention to environmental conditions depends on the perceived stability of the environment, prior beliefs about which are shaped through cultural transmission by the experience of ethnic ancestors. The U-shape is rationalized by a double purpose of learning about the environment: optimal utilization of typical conditions and protection against extreme events.
Este artigo objetiva traçar um panorama geral acerca das exigências editalícias técnicas referentes ao Building Information Modeling – BIM, de modo a traçar limites e sugestões a serem observadas pelo poder público no momento de preparação editalícia. A partir de um estudo teórico sobre as capacidades técnico-operacional e técnico-profissional e da pesquisa empírica empreendida sobre o campo amostral de 25 (vinte e cinco) editais de licitação cujo objeto envolviam obras ou serviços de engenharia em BIM, serão apresentados os seus resultados quantitativos e qualitativos, tal como modalidades de licitação e critérios de julgamentos mais adotados e principais exigências concernentes à habilitação técnica referentes ao BIM. Por fim, serão arroladas as sugestões ao poder público, empresas e órgãos emissores de atestados de capacidade técnica a fim de se aprimorar e desenvolver a maturidade da utilização do BIM.
Environmental sciences, Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence
Olena Palyvoda, Tetiana Semenchuk, Eduard Rachkovskyy
Modern military conditions and tasks of post-war reconstruction require the development of effective strategies for the activity of transport enterprises of Ukraine to ensure the continuity of supplies of military and humanitarian goods. The purpose of the research was to create a model for the selection of optimal strategies for the development of transport enterprises of Ukraine in the conditions of uncertainty caused by the simultaneous influence of military aggression and the deepening of transport integration of Ukraine with the EU. The Saaty's method was selected for the study, which is based on the construction of fuzzy functions and is the most relevant in the context of the influence of a significant number of unstable exogenous and endogenous factors on the functioning of enterprises. In consideration of the evolving landscape of transportation in the European Union and Ukraine, the authors have distilled the overarching objectives of sustainable transportation development (economic, social, and environmental) into eighteen sub-objectives pertaining to the advancement of enterprises. These objectives are then subjected to expert evaluation. The article presents the findings of this expert ranking exercise, delineating the priorities for transportation enterprises in Ukraine across two distinct periods: the current state of martial law and the subsequent phase of post-war reconstruction. The authors have built a model for selecting optimal strategies for the development of a transport enterprise on the basis of a multi-level hierarchy of priority growth goals in two periods. As strategic alternatives, the authors have chosen the "strategy of limited growth"; "strategy of concentrated growth"; "strategy of diversified growth"; "strategy of integrated growth"; and "combined strategy". The paper determines that the appropriate growth strategies for transport enterprises during the period of martial law would be: a strategy of limited growth (rank 1.827) and a combined strategy (rank 2.0980). In the period of post-war reconstruction, the following growth strategies will be appropriate for implementation: concentrated growth (rank 3.0151) and integrated growth (rank 2.6783). The publication proposes a set of possible options for practical management actions in various functional areas of the transport enterprise (financial, organisational, marketing, social, technological, environmental) in accordance with the defined development strategies under martial law and post-war reconstruction. The practical application of the methodological approach to strategic management of transport enterprises in the context of economic uncertainty developed in the article will help to preserve domestic transport companies in the conditions of war and increase their competitiveness in the post-war period. The comprehensive implementation of the identified strategies will contribute to the development of innovative technologies, as well as European social and environmental transport standards in Ukraine.
Indonesia as a developing country is actively pursuing strategic policies to bring about change to become a more advanced country. One of its main initiatives is to utilize abundant natural resources, especially through nickel concessions, with the aim of positioning Indonesia as a center for the electric vehicle industry. However, the implementation of these policies often shows deviations in compliance with regulations, technical practices in the field, and aspects of humanitarian rights enshrined in the constitution. Although the goal is to minimize environmental damage, deviations in regulations and technical implementation often occur. Achieving balance is critical, emphasizing environmental preservation and citizens' inherent right to life. Effective execution requires the government to consistently comply with applicable laws and regulations in Indonesia. In addition, strict supervision of private entities involved in nickel mining concessions on important lands is essential. This monitoring ensures environmental sustainability and encourages the realization of sustainable development goals. The government's commitment to environmental protection must be in line with humanitarian principles, and not ignore the welfare of communities affected by nickel mining activities. Achieving a harmonious balance between economic development and ecological conservation is paramount. Therefore, the government must strengthen its regulatory framework, strengthening the legal basis that guides this strategic initiative. Indonesia's journey towards becoming a developed country depends on its ability to face the challenges posed by the nickel industry. Prioritizing environmental conservation and respecting citizens' rights are non-negotiable elements in this progress. By enforcing and strengthening the regulatory framework, the government can not only ensure sustainable development but also encourage a responsible and ethical approach to utilizing the country's natural resources.
Adversarial attacks in the physical world pose a significant threat to the security of vision-based systems, such as facial recognition and autonomous driving. Existing adversarial patch methods primarily focus on improving attack performance, but they often produce patches that are easily detectable by humans and struggle to achieve environmental consistency, i.e., blending patches into the environment. This paper introduces a novel approach for generating adversarial patches, which addresses both the visual naturalness and environmental consistency of the patches. We propose Prompt-Guided Environmentally Consistent Adversarial Patch (PG-ECAP), a method that aligns the patch with the environment to ensure seamless integration into the environment. The approach leverages diffusion models to generate patches that are both environmental consistency and effective in evading detection. To further enhance the naturalness and consistency, we introduce two alignment losses: Prompt Alignment Loss and Latent Space Alignment Loss, ensuring that the generated patch maintains its adversarial properties while fitting naturally within its environment. Extensive experiments in both digital and physical domains demonstrate that PG-ECAP outperforms existing methods in attack success rate and environmental consistency.
Patrick Chwalek, Sailin Zhong, Nathan Perry
et al.
This study presents a comprehensive dataset capturing indoor environmental parameters, physiological responses, and subjective perceptions across three global cities. Utilizing wearable sensors, including smart eyeglasses, and a modified Cozie app, environmental and physiological data were collected, along with pre-screening, onboarding, and recurring surveys. Peripheral cues facilitated participant engagement with micro-EMA surveys, minimizing disruption over a 5-day collection period. The dataset offers insights into urban comfort dynamics, highlighting the interplay between environmental conditions, physiological responses, and subjective perceptions. Researchers can utilize this dataset to deepen their understanding of indoor environmental quality and inform the design of healthier built environments. Access to this dataset can advance indoor environmental research and contribute to the creation of more comfortable and sustainable indoor spaces.
This paper examines the labor market impacts of the 2015 Mariana Dam disaster in Brazil. It contrasts two theoretical models: an urban spatial equilibrium model and a factor of production model, with diverging perspectives on environmental influences on labor outcomes. Utilizing rich national administrative and spatial data, the study reveals that the unusual environmental alteration, with minimal human capital loss, primarily affected outcomes via the factor of production channel. Nevertheless, spatial equilibrium dynamics are discernible within certain market segments. This research contributes to the growing literature on environmental changes and its economic consequences.
This article examines the legal and policy intersection of property rights and environmental law. Property rights are closely connected to and often in tension with many elements of environmental law and policy. Appropriate controls on the use of property rights and natural resources, and effectively managing the environmental consequences of such use, are critical in addressing the environmental challenges of our time. This paper first reviews the importance of property rights in the context of our legal, social, economic and political systems. It then examines the active use of property rights and mechanisms to address environmental challenges, including the creative and innovative use and development of new forms of property rights that have emerged in recent times. This is followed by a discussion of recent developments in restricting the use of property rights in land use and natural resource development to address environmental issues. The paper concludes with some ideas for future development of the law, and emerging new directions for future research. Throughout the paper, New Zealand will be used as a case study to reflect on the relationship between property rights and environmental protection.
In an age of fear, insecurity, and multiple and overlapping crises, the fortunes of ESG—the idea that companies should include environmental, social, and governance standards of good performance—are now steadily growing. This is all the truer in the West, where corporate financial misconduct and, more worryingly, corporate political activities impacting democratic processes, have become a matter of evident concern. Business scholars and policymakers are, however, still uncertain about which corporate activities merit an ESG label, with pressure groups pushing for their own ESG definitions and standards according to their agendas and beliefs. Against this background, this paper contributes to this Special Issues’ guiding question of how religions can act as agents of civic mobilisation by critically examining their role in addressing sustainability topics due to religious concerns from a legal perspective. This current paper hopes to create a preliminary intellectual bridge between two apparently unrelated fields of research (law and religion; corporate governance) that could help scholars in both areas to develop expertise and sophistication in applying their respective specialities to an otherwise unfamiliar area.
Indonesia has passed laws pertaining to mining, environmental protection, and a number of other topics pertaining to mining and the environment. Nevertheless, there has been no decrease in corruption cases or environmental degradation since the enactment of these multiple laws and regulations. In actuality, government representatives usually show leniency toward mining industry proprietors who disregard sound environmental guidelines. This is crucial because Indonesia has been working to address environmental issues and corruption for the past 20 years. This study details particular cases of conflict between mining and environmental laws as a result of unscrupulous behavior. This study also demonstrates how, at the implementation level, missing provisions result in a legal void. Uncertainty and divergent perspectives on how to carry out environmental management supervision in coal mining areas are brought about by inconsistent, ambiguous, and imprecise standards.
The research employs a normative legal framework. Materials have been acquired by looking through environmental and mining laws and regulations as well as reports from various authorities that follow the same topic. The study illustrates how regional governments were recognized as mining authorities in previous Indonesian mining law policies. Widespread mining corruption has resulted from the policy, involving local political figures and the private sector, especially in the area of business permits. The environment and ecosystem are in danger due to the irresponsibility of the regional political elites. Additionally, it is reminiscent of conflicting laws and regulatory bodies in the mining and environmental industries.
There is no doubt that water, or as it is often called, “blue gold”, is our elementary need or basic necessity. Without water, life and an adequate quality of life are unimaginable; together with air, water is one of our most important global resources. Albeit the protection of the right to water was only developed in the last century, its formal and essential elements and its place in the system of basic human rights have undergone significant development, its content is currently expanding, and its relationship with the rest of the basic human rights is sometimes still controversial. International law has been dealing with the right to water since the second half of the 20th century, but in the last couple of decades, in addition to environmental protection and nature protection law, other areas of law, such as constitutional law, have also shown interest to the right to water. Many countries have raised the right to water to a constitutional level, thereby emphasizing the importance and need for a constitutional protection of the right to water.
Comparative law. International uniform law, History of Law
Adrian Helmling-Cornell, Philippe Nguyen, Robert Schofield
et al.
The extreme sensitivity required for direct observation of gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO detectors means that environmental noise is increasingly likely to contaminate Advanced LIGO gravitational wave signals if left unaddressed. Consequently, environmental monitoring efforts have been undertaken and novel noise mitigation techniques have been developed which have reduced environmental coupling and made it possible to analyze environmental artifacts with potential to affect the 90 gravitational wave events detected from 2015-2020 by the Advanced LIGO detectors. So far, there is no evidence for environmental contamination in gravitational wave detections. However, automated, rapid ways to monitor and assess the degree of environmental coupling between gravitational wave detectors and their surroundings are needed as the rate of detections continues to increase. We introduce a computational tool, PEMcheck, for quantifying the degree of environmental coupling present in gravitational wave signals using data from the extant collection of environmental monitoring sensors at each detector. We find that PEMcheck's automated analysis identifies only a small number of gravitational waves that merit further study by environmental noise experts due to possible contamination, a substantial improvement over the manual vetting that occurred for every gravitational wave candidate in the first two observing runs. With the validation provided herein; PEMcheck will play a critical role in event validation during LIGO's fourth observing run as an integral part of the data quality report produced for each gravitational wave candidate.
Environmental contours are tools frequently used in the early design of marine structures. They provide a description of critical design conditions and serve as a means for simplifying expensive long-term response calculations. Here, we consider convex contours based on the assumption of convex failure sets. We provide a rigorous foundation for the existence of such contours when the underlying environmental factors are modelled by a general, possibly non-stationary, process. This constitutes a generalisation of existing theory and is done to properly account for empirically observed increases in extreme sea-states. Two definitions are proposed, based respectively on averages or quantiles of exceedence times, along with minimal conditions on the environmental processes to guarantee existence. In order to illustrate these methods we give two examples, including an empirical study containing a method for constructing contours based on the presented theory.
Lasy odgrywają istotną rolę w środowisku i gospodarce. Jednocześnie w wielowymiarowy sposób wpływają na zmiany klimatyczne i podlegają ich skutkom. Niniejszy artykuł jest próbą
opisu i oceny odpowiedzi prawa międzynarodowego i unijnego na pytanie o rolę lasów w polityce klimatycznej.
Environmental law, Regulation of industry, trade, and commerce. Occupational law
Many classical examples of models of self-organized dynamics, including the Cucker-Smale, Motsch-Tadmor, multi-species, and several others, include an alignment force that is based upon density-weighted averaging protocol. Those protocols can be viewed as special cases of `environmental averaging'. In this paper we formalize this concept and introduce a unified framework for systematic analysis of alignment models. A series of studies are presented including the mean-field limit in deterministic and stochastic settings, hydrodynamic limits in the monokinetic and Maxwellian regimes, hypocoercivity and global relaxation for dissipative kinetic models, several general alignment results based on chain connectivity and spectral gap analysis. These studies cover many of the known results and reveal new ones, which include asymptotic alignment criteria based on connectivity conditions, new estimates on the spectral gap of the alignment force that do not rely on the upper bound of the macroscopic density, uniform gain of positivity for solutions of the Fokker-Planck-Alignment model based on smooth environmental averaging. As a consequence, we establish unconditional relaxation result for global solutions to the Fokker-Planck-Alignment model, which presents a substantial improvement over previously known perturbative results.
Grzegorz Majewski, Bartosz Szeląg, Anita Białek
et al.
An innovative method was proposed to facilitate the analyses of meteorological conditions and selected air pollution indices’ influence on visibility, air quality index and mortality. The constructed calculation algorithm is dedicated to simulating the visibility in a single episode, first of all. It was derived after applying logistic regression methodology. It should be stressed that eight visibility thresholds (Vis) were adopted in order to build proper classification models with a number of relevant advantages. At first, there exists the possibility to analyze the impact of independent variables on visibility with the consideration of its’ real variability. Secondly, through the application of the Monte Carlo method and the assumed classification algorithms, it was made possible to model the number of days during a precipitation and no-precipitation periods in a yearly cycle, on which the visibility ranged practically: Vis < 8; Vis = 8–12 km, Vis = 12–16 km, Vis = 16–20 km, Vis = 20–24 km, Vis = 24–28 km, Vis = 28–32 km, Vis > 32 km. The derived algorithm proved a particular role of precipitation and no-precipitation periods in shaping the air visibility phenomena. Higher visibility values and a lower number of days with increased visibility were found for the precipitation period contrary to no-precipitation one. The air quality index was lower for precipitation days, and moreover, strong, non-linear relationships were found between mortality and visibility, considering precipitation and seasonality effects.
INTRODUCTION. The individual's right to health is a set of natural and positive legal frameworks that govern a person’s life activity, individual and family wellbeing, enforcement of health guarantees by the statesparticipants of universal and regional treaties of the field under question. The formation of this right stems from biological characteristics of each person, socio-economic conditions, environment, access to health and sanitation services, national health-care system progress, existence of vulnerable groups of population. Goals of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 (UN General Assembly resolution 70/1) include such essential aspects of the right to health as ending poverty and hunger in all its forms everywhere; promote food security and healthy lifestyle; the well-being of all individuals at any age; ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all; protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems; enhancement of the States capacity to prevent and reduce national and global health risks. According to the position of the World Health Organization (WHO) the right to health imposes on the States a legal obligation to ensure timely access to adequate levels of high-quality health care, clean and safe drinking water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, shelter, health-related information and education, gender equality. As a result, the considerable amount of attention is paid to the analysis of the content of general and specific international instruments at the universal level and the international legal specificities of enshrining and maintaining an individual's right to health. The text also places the emphasis on its normative framing in the law of the Council of Europe and the European Union, reflecting the decisions and rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).MATERIALS AND METHODS. The legal framework of the study is based on universal international treaties of the UN system, regional regulations of the Council of Europe and the EU, legal position of the UN specialized agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the ECHR. The scientific works of domestic and foreign authors related to the study of the right to health are used as a theoretical foundation. The research uses general scientific and special cognitive techniques wherein legal analysis and synthesis, systemic, formal-legal, comparative-legal, historical-legal and dialectical methods are applied.RESEARCH RESULTS. The research indicates that the modern international legal concept of the right to health is being developed at the universal and regional level. Furthermore, specific international legal guarantees for the protection of this right are emerging for special groups such as women and children, refugees, stateless persons and migrant workers, protected persons, the wounded and the sick – all persons affected by international armed conflicts. There is a certain trend in Council of Europe and EU law towards an extended interpretation of the human right to health responding to new challenges to the realization that right, concerning bioethics, human genome editing, and the effects of nuclear testing and environmental pollution.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Following a review of the content and implementation of the right to health in the universal and regional international legal systems for the human rights and freedoms protection, the authors suggest its incorporation in a group of personal rights, social benefits provided by the state, and simultaneously in a collective right to development pertaining to the population as a whole. The universal international legal institutions establishing special rights for vulnerable groups will continue to be applied by member states in the context of a situational response to the global needs of families, women and children, international migration, armed conflicts, environmental conditions, and bioethical issues. The authors encourage the complement of the European system of human rights protection with an additional protocol to the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950, involving the right to health security.
Law of nations, Comparative law. International uniform law
Although the concept of “sustainability” is attributed to Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the principle of inter-generational equity substantiating it is older, at least in the Romanian tradition. This article attempts to take the first steps in looking for the roots of environmental sustainability starting from the traditional wisdom synthesized in proverbs, focusing on the sustainable environmental management. For this purpose, the universal and international principles of environmental law, which are interconnected to the concepts of environmental management (responsibility for protecting the environment) and scientific management in general (functions of the management, decision theory) are used as the backbone of a taxonomic approach. The concept of managerial responsibility takes in ecology the form of individual, group and collective responsibility for the decisions and actions related to the protection of the environment, and also the form of social responsibility. This study continues previous researches of the authors, opening the way to other trans- and interdisciplinary studies. Its main limitation (to Romanian proverbs) gives a possible direction for further research.