Topic Review
Reforming Forest Policies and Management in Russia
The future development of forest industries in Russia, besides the country’s geopolitical issues, could be seriously undermined by the depletion of forest resources available under the current model of forest management that mainly relies on clearcutting mature coniferous forests and leaving these areas for natural regeneration. The introduction of a new model that prioritizes efficient forest regeneration faces many problems on the ground. The efficiency of the use of funds allocated by both governmental and private logging companies for forest regeneration and subsequent tending of young stands should urgently be significantly increased. The government should also develop pragmatic economic incentives to encourage logging concession holders to switch to the new model and to address the problem of the spatial shift (demarginalization) of the country’s forest complex from northern and eastern “green fields” to secondary mixed and southern taiga forests. Instead of harvesting low-productivity northern taiga forests of European Russia and remote areas of Central and Eastern Siberia, wood sourcing should be mainly concentrated in the immediate vicinity of existing mills. Moreover, the development of “greenfield” projects in wilderness forest areas that currently lack any kind of infrastructure should not be encouraged. The focus on the regions with productive southern taiga, mixed and broadleaf forests, developed wood-processing infrastructure, and high forest roads density could ensure the economically beneficial transition towards resilient forestry.
  • 272
  • 08 Aug 2023
Topic Review
The Analysis of Chaos-Based Metaheuristic Methods
The concept of chaos has been applied extensively in various applications with the growth of nonlinear dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to the initial state. Chaos-based algorithms can generate a large number of different search points in a short time, which can help explore the optimization area more efficiently and quickly than traditional optimization algorithms. In this regard, a new method named CSCSO is proposed to improve the shortcomings of the recently proposed Sand Cat Swarm Optimization (SCSO) algorithm with this chaos theory. This algorithm has also been tested in engineering and social science-based constrained problems. Especially in social sciences, it solves basic problems with this kind of artificial intelligence-based mechanism instead of traditional methods such as questionnaires and fieldresearch.
  • 419
  • 07 Aug 2023
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Need for Widely Applicable Cultural Competencies in the Healthcare of Humans and Animals
This entry discusses the importance of cultural competence in the healthcare of humans and animals, its challenges, its mixed research results, and the need for widely applicable competencies. Although there is research evidence showing that cultural competence is linked with patient satisfaction, better doctor–patient relationships, adherence to therapy, and to some extent, better health outcomes, there is a huge variety of models and competencies in the literature, which has sometimes resulted in inclusive outcomes, confusion as to what constitutes the necessary competencies, and patchy implementation. In spite of the development of cultural competence in human healthcare, its implementation in veterinary medicine remains poor. On this note, the aims of this entry are to provide a brief overview of the cultural competence in healthcare and veterinary medicine and education, to outline the important facts, and to highlight the need for more standardisation in implementing and testing widely applicable cultural competencies for both human and veterinary healthcare.
  • 669
  • 07 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Inclusive Governance
Inclusive governance is strongly connected to, yet not limited to, notions such as good governance, and democratic governance, a human rights-based approach to development and legitimacy. Inclusive governance is an intrinsic value within governance and has become an integral feature of the good governance agenda aiming at achieving a better world through establishing fair, judicious, transparent, accountable, and inclusive political systems and decision-making processes in public institutions.
  • 2.9K
  • 07 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Residential Complex Regulate Residents’ Behaviour
Due to the spatial orientation of social interactions, semi-public spaces in these buildings are unable to host residents’ interactions due to a lack of appropriate arrangements/establishment of tangible and visible objects. The influential components, however, have rarely been identified in residential complexes. Social interaction can, therefore, be improved through green space, brightness, accessibility, and furniture in common areas. Residential complexes with clustered arrangements have not performed well in creating social interaction due to the lack of defined spaces and territories for people, but multi-core, mixed, and linear complexes that define several open and semi-open spaces have been more successful in the amount of social interaction of residents.
  • 318
  • 07 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Dhaka Metro Rail
The Dhaka Metro Rail (DMR) has been constructed as part of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority’s 20-year Strategic Transport Plan to reduce traffic congestion in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The DMR is the first urban rail transit system in Bangladesh and has the potential to change the existing modal share. Commuters have mixed responses about the daily commuting on the DMR and mode choice behavior.
  • 1.0K
  • 04 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Influencing Factors of Digital Village Development in China
Digital rural construction is an important strategy for rural revitalization. In terms of dynamic evolution, the core density curve of China’s digital rural construction shifted to the right between 2011 and 2021, accompanied by gradient influence and a multipolar development trend; local general budget revenue, the per capita disposable income of rural residents, rural infrastructure investment, computer ownership per 100 rural residents, added value of primary industry, education level, and rural power generation are some of the factors that affect the development level of China’s digital countryside. 
  • 372
  • 04 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Social Innovations Dissemination
Although there is great interest on the global stage in promoting plant-based diets (PBDs) to achieve some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the results of their adoption are unsatisfactory. Academics propose to entangle this effort by addressing the challenges of dissemination of social innovations (SIs). SIs generate different adoption attitudes, some of them related to socio-psychological aspects on the part of potential adopters. This research work aims to better understand the adoption of SIs, such as PBDs, which may induce socio-psychological concerns in potential adopters. In this sense, this research postulates that current perspectives on the dissemination and adoption of SI offer partial insights into understanding the shift to PBD. To overcome these limitations, a holistic process perspective of the adopter’s decision-making to change diet is derived and proposed. An exploratory, abductive, and theory-building effort has been carried out, based on a cross-analysis of three different adopter profiles, with a total of 69 semi-structured interviews. A new model for a comprehensive understanding from the adopter’s perspective on dietary change is outlined with new socio-psychological insights emerging from the adopter’s viewpoint. Additionally, the new model offers renewed opportunities for practitioners in terms of PBD implementation, usage, and policy.
  • 345
  • 03 Aug 2023
Topic Review
High-Quality Tourism Destinations Based on Spatiotemporal Big Data
A tourism destination is a region where tourist activities take place; this can be either a special tourist site or any area in a city where tourist activities occur. It is one of the most important parts of the entire tourism process. Creating high-quality tourism destinations can provide tourists with high-quality experiences and improve the overall living environments in an area, thereby pleasing locals and attracting visitors from far and wide.
  • 364
  • 03 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Parental Involvement and Learners with Intellectual Disability
Intellectual disability is a lifelong condition with an estimated prevalence rate of 1–3% of the global population. Intellectual disability has a prehistorical origin that can be traced back to the Greek and Roman eras. Historic intellectual disability definitions were based solely on intelligence, with an emphasis on routine care and maintenance rather than treatment and care. Considering that learners with intellectual disabilities require more support in adaptive behavior and reasoning than their peers without intellectual disabilities, meeting these needs can be challenging for parents shortly after learning of the intellectual disability diagnosis; thus, parenting a child with intellectual disabilities is likely to result in some stress for parents. Therefore, parents require information, knowledge, and additional support in raising a learner with intellectual disabilities to enhance their support for these learners and increase their level of independence and development.
  • 459
  • 02 Aug 2023
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