Studies regarding copper ions removal from wastewaters using oak wood ash and the effect of exhausted ash as soil amendment
In: Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Chemia, Band 68, Heft 1, S. 193-209
ISSN: 2065-9520
In: Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Chemia, Band 68, Heft 1, S. 193-209
ISSN: 2065-9520
In: Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Chemia, Band 68, Heft 1, S. 49-58
ISSN: 2065-9520
In: Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Chemia, Band 68, Heft 2, S. 169-184
ISSN: 2065-9520
In: Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Chemia, Band 68, Heft 2, S. 23-36
ISSN: 2065-9520
In: Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Chemia, Band 68, Heft 4, S. 57-70
ISSN: 2065-9520
Defenders of male circumcision increasingly argue that female 'circumcision' (cutting of the clitoral hood or labia) should be legally allowed in Western liberal democracies even when non-consensual. In his target article, Richard Shweder (2022) gives perhaps the most persuasive articulation of this argument to have so far appeared in the literature. In my own work, I argue that no person should be subjected to medically unnecessary genital cutting of any kind without their own informed consent, regardless of the sex characteristics with which they were born or the religious or cultural background of their parents. Professor Shweder and I agree that Western law and policy on child genital cutting is currently beset with cultural, religious and sex-based double standards. We disagree about what should be done about this. In this commentary, I argue that 'legalising' childhood FGC so as to bring it into line with current treatment of childhood MGC is not an acceptable solution to these problems. Instead, all medically unnecessary genital cutting of non-consenting persons should be opposed on moral and legal grounds and discouraged by all appropriate means.
BASE
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), customary female genital modification practices common in parts of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East are inherently patriarchal: they reflect deep-rooted inequality between the sexes characterized by male dominance and constitute an extreme form of discrimination against women. However, scholars have noted that while many societies have genital modification rites only for boys, with no equivalent rite for girls, the inverse does not hold. Rather, almost all societies that practice ritual female genital modification also practice ritual male genital modification, often for comparable reasons on children of similar ages, with the female rites led by women and the male rites led by men. In contrast, then, to the situation for boys in various cultures, girls are not singled out for genital modification on account of their sex or gender; nor do the social meanings of the female rites necessarily reflect a lower status. In some cases, the women's rite serves to promote female within-sex bonding and network building—as the men's rite typically does for males—thereby counterbalancing gendered asymmetries in political power and weakening male dominance in certain spheres. In such cases, and to that extent, the female rites can be described as counter-patriarchal. Selective efforts to discourage female genital modifications may thus inadvertently undermine women-centered communal networks while leaving male bonding rites intact. Scholars and activists should not rely on misleading generalizations from the WHO about the relationship between genital cutting and the social positioning of women as compared to men. To illustrate the complexity of this relationship, we compare patterns of practice across contemporary societies while also highlighting anthropological data regarding pre-industrial societies. Regarding the latter, we find no association between the presence of a female initiation rite and a key aspect of patriarchy as it is classically ...
BASE
In order to meet climate goals, it will be necessary to significantly reduce the greenhouse gases emitted by homes. A key factor in the US is to reduce the on-site combustion of fossil fuels for heating end-uses and to replace this with use of electric heat pump technologies connected to a low-carbon grid. The replacement of natural gas furnaces with electric heat pumps is a key home decarbonization strategy. However, the potential for space heating electrification to reduce greenhouse gas emissions depends on the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) content of the electricity used by the heat pump. This varies considerably depending on the source of electricity, with large state to state variability. Furthermore, household energy costs are likely to be impacted by the electrification of space heating, because retail energy prices for both natural gas and electricity in each state vary by factors of seven and four, respectively. Contractors, energy programs, government and building code officials, as well as consumers need clear indications of the likely CO2e and energy cost impacts of proposed electrification projects, because these will affect decarbonization choices and rationales around scaled heating electrification. Government and utility programs also need to be aware of the likely outcomes of any supported/incentivized measures. In this paper, we investigate these effects by looking at new metrics to analyze the change in CO2e emitted and the cost to meet home heating loads when switching from a natural gas furnace to a heat pump for the contiguous 48 states of the mainland US.
BASE
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Routledge via the DOI in this record ; This commentary reflects on what has been learnt from government and public health responses to COVID-19, suggesting a tension between 'business as usual' forms of public health in the face of crisis, and the possibilities for a step-change towards a 'healthy publics' approach. We set out a range of ways that diverse, multiple publics have been implicated or brought into being during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we argue that these have generally been ignored or erased by agents or agencies of public health, keen to preserve certainty in their messaging and public confidence in their authority. We conclude with five principles for re-organising pandemic responses around a richer, more context-dependent and diverse account of 'the public'.
BASE
Campaigns to circumcise millions of boys and men to reduce HIV transmission are being conducted throughout eastern and southern Africa, recommended by the World Health Organization and implemented by the United States government and Western NGOs. In the United States, proposals to mass-circumcise African and African American men are longstanding, and have historically relied on racist beliefs and stereotypes. The present campaigns were started in haste, without adequate contextual research, and the manner in which they have been carried out implies troubling assumptions about culture, health, and sexuality in Africa, as well as a failure to properly consider the economic determinants of HIV prevalence. This critical appraisal examines the history and politics of these circumcision campaigns while highlighting the relevance of race and colonialism. It argues that the "circumcision solution" to African HIV epidemics has more to do with cultural imperialism than with sound health policy, and concludes that African communities need a means of robust representation within the regime.
BASE
Wilson and Zaki describe a "Novel Clitoral Reconstruction and Coverage With Sensate Labial Flaps" as a "potential remedy" for women who have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).1 We would like to discuss some scientific and ethical issues in relation to clitoral reconstruction (CR) surgery, touching on sociocultural, political, interpersonal, and psychological factors involved in promoting psychosexual health of women and girls with FGM/C.
BASE
In: Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Chemia, Band 67, Heft 2, S. 97-112
ISSN: 2065-9520
Schistosomiasis is a debilitating parasitic disease of poverty that affects more than 200 million people worldwide, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, and is clearly associated with the construction of dams and water resource management infrastructure in tropical and subtropical areas. Changes to hydrology and salinity linked to water infrastructure development may create conditions favorable to the aquatic vegetation that is suitable habitat for the intermediate snail hosts of schistosome parasites. With thousands of small and large water reservoirs, irrigation canals, and dams developed or under construction in Africa, it is crucial to accurately assess the spatial distribution of high-risk environments that are habitat for freshwater snail intermediate hosts of schistosomiasis in rapidly changing ecosystems. Yet, standard techniques for monitoring snails are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and provide information limited to the small areas that can be manually sampled. Consequently, in low-income countries where schistosomiasis control is most needed, there are formidable challenges to identifying potential transmission hotspots for targeted medical and environmental interventions. In this study, we developed a new framework to map the spatial distribution of suitable snail habitat across large spatial scales in the Senegal River Basin by integrating satellite data, high-definition, low-cost drone imagery, and an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered computer vision technique called semantic segmentation. A deep learning model (U-Net) was built to automatically analyze high-resolution satellite imagery to produce segmentation maps of aquatic vegetation, with a fast and robust generalized prediction that proved more accurate than a more commonly used random forest approach. Accurate and up-to-date knowledge of areas at highest risk for disease transmission can increase the effectiveness of control interventions by targeting habitat of disease-carrying snails. With the deployment of this new framework, local governments or health actors might better target environmental interventions to where and when they are most needed in an integrated effort to reach the goal of schistosomiasis elimination.
BASE
In: Journal of policy & governance, Band 2, Heft 2, S. 26-34
ISSN: 2564-212X
Children are the future of a country, and they should be at the center of the national development strategy and policies. However, these are also objects of vulnerability and abuse. Therefore, child protection and child-abuse prevention are the responsibilities of each country. In this article, the authors have mentioned and analyzed the following main issues: (i) The facts and the problem of child abuse in Vietnam; (ii) Causes of child abuse in Vietnam; (iii) Recommendations to improve laws and policies and the effectiveness of implementation of child abuse prevention and abatement in Vietnam.
In: Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Chemia, Band 67, Heft 4, S. 169-185
ISSN: 2065-9520