Summary

Environmental science emerged from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment. Today, it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems. Environmental studies are incorporating more of the social sciences in order to understand human relationships, perceptions and policies towards the environment. This entry collection features information about design and technology for improving environmental quality in every aspect.

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Topic Review
Bacillus cereus sensu lato
The potential presence of spore-forming bacteria related to the Bacillus cereus group in Mexican chili powder elaborated from Capsicum annuum L. is of commercial and clinical interest, because chili powder is an essential spice in the Mexican diet and in diets around the globe.
  • 1.2K
  • 16 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Carbon Polygons and Carbon Offsets
The most important area of study concerning carbon polygons is the problem of assessing the reserves and trends in the stability of organic matter in the soil of natural ecosystems. An adequate assessment of these stocks should be based on verified methods for determining the content of organic matter (direct and indirect methods and the problem of the correlation of results) and on unified ideas about the depth and regularity of sampling within soil profiles and monitoring sites. This problem is particularly relevant to the development of a spatial network of carbon polygons in the Russian Federation.
  • 925
  • 17 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Blind Obedience to Environmental Friendliness
we borrow insights from the behavioral decision making literature on preference reversal to introduce an opposite phenomenon—that is, consumers buying an environmentally friendly product even though they do not evaluate it highly.
  • 969
  • 16 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Toxicity of Ageratina adenophora on Animals
Ageratina adenophora is one of the major invasive weeds that causes instability of the ecosystem. Research has reported that A. adenophora produces allelochemicals that inhibit the growth and development of food crops, and also contain some toxic compounds that cause toxicity to animals that consume it.
  • 1.1K
  • 15 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Product Attributes, Evaluability, and Consumer Satisfaction
Consumer satisfaction is considered essential to long-term business success. Organizations have a need to produce products and services that yield highly satisfied and loyal consumers. Having loyal consumers reduces the costs for firms, since the expenses for acquiring new consumers are much higher than those for keeping existing ones. Studying the factors that determine consumer satisfaction is of vital importance for a company, as consumer satisfaction has been described as the best indicator of a company’s future profits. In addition, several studies have indicated that there are positive effects of consumer satisfaction on overall brand equity and its different aspects, i.e., retailer awareness, retailer associations, the retailers’ perceived quality, and retailer loyalty. Most studies of consumer satisfaction have been based on the overall satisfaction with a product as a whole, while only a few have related consumer satisfaction to the performance of product attributes. We aimed to study which type of product attribute leads to the most satisfaction, thus providing clues for providers to improve their products. We focused on attribute evaluability and analyzed the ease or difficulty in evaluating a product’s attribute. This was assumed to be related to consumer satisfaction Although evaluability has usually been manipulated experimentally, we studied evaluability as a consumer’s perceptions of product attributes. We aimed to show the effects of attribute evaluability on consumer satisfaction outside of the laboratory context, in a real consumer setting. This aim matched the endeavor in research to study the scaling-up of small-scale laboratory findings to larger markets and settings, as advocated by List.  Another basic process in the formation of consumer satisfaction is a judgment of product performance that is relative to the reference point of the product’s performance expectations. In general, the positive disconfirmation of expectations (the perceived realizations of performance exceeding expectations) will lead to consumer satisfaction, whereas negative disconfirmation (the perceived realizations of performance falling short of expectations) induces dissatisfaction. From prospect theory, it is known that negative deviations from a reference point are judged more negatively than their commensurate positive deviations are judged positively, thus indicating asymmetric effects of product evaluations.  A hitherto under-researched topic is whether consumer satisfaction differs when it is due to an attribute expectation disconfirmation of easy-to-evaluate versus difficult-to-evaluate attributes. This topic is theoretically interesting, because such differences may be driven by different psychological processes. Also, it is of practical significance, because it provides a clue to providers in regard to the type of product attributes for which negative expectation disconfirmation needs to be avoided. We consider attribute evaluability as a factor that moderates the effects of attribute disconfirmation on consumer satisfaction.
  • 2.1K
  • 15 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Improving Water Efficiency in a Swimming-Pool Complex
Concomitantly, the possibility of recycling and reusing the water from filter backwashing was evaluated. The pools consumed 25.6% of water, the filter backwashing 24.5%, and the showers 34.7%. Despite the current impossibility of reducing water consumption in pools and filter backwashing, it is feasible to promote more efficient use of water through reducing water consumption by adopting simple water-saving initiatives for showers, taps, and flushing cisterns. These were organized into three distinct scenarios: (a) flushing cistern volume adjustment and the replacement of washbasin and kitchen taps; (b) flushing cistern volume adjustment and shower replacement and (c) flushing cistern volume adjustment, shower, washbasin, and kitchen taps replacement. Under scenarios 1, 2, and 3, the water consumption reduction was 8.0, 13.2, and 20.4%, respectively. The initial investment for scenario 1 was €2290.5, €859.0 for scenario 2 and €3149.5 for scenario 3; the annual water bill reduction was €7115.4, €11,518.1, and €17,655.9, respectively. Therefore, the turnover of the investment was four (scenario 1), one (scenario 2), and three months (scenario 3). The filter washings attained the required standard for irrigation after being subjected to 15 h of sedimentation. 
  • 1.4K
  • 14 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Potentiality of Vermicomposting
Vermicomposting is a biological process of decomposition of degradable residues through the digestive tracts of earthworms. It has been studied since long and still very important and relevant mostly in the viewpoint of organic waste recycling and biofertilizer production. Though wide range of literature are available on the topics, however, there are still unknowns that need to be additionally explored to maximize the potential of vermicompost.
  • 1.9K
  • 12 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Informational Perspective on Evolutionary Theory
Countless informational proposals and models have explored the singular characteristics of biological systems: from the initial choice of information terms in the early days of molecular biology to the current bioinformatic avalanche in this “omic” era. Herein we propose an enlarged informational perspective, grounded on the information flow and coding mechanisms in the living cell, and extended along the complexity growth in the evolutionary process.
  • 793
  • 12 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Cross-Sectoral Digital Platform and Innovation Ecosystem Development
A cross-sectoral ecosystem is considered to be a mechanism for the cross-sectoral interaction of an unlimited number of actors of a certain technological sector of the economy in a platform-based single digital circuit that provides digital tools and services to ensure accelerated growth and reduce costs through synergy from multilateral interaction based on common rules and principles of self-government, digital transparency, networking, and equality for all participants.
  • 1.8K
  • 12 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Pitahaya (Selenicereus Megalanthus Haw.)
The Dragon fruit, known as pitaya or pitahaya, belongs to the Cactaceae family, which originated from the southern and central regions of Mexico and America, and is separated in two genera: Hylocereus and Selenicereus. It is a nutritious and exotic fruit cultivated throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Pitahaya production has attracted interest in the United States, Australia, Southeast Asia, Israel and other regions. This fruit has gained considerable attention from consumers because it is a unique fruit that can tolerate drought stress and contains a considerable amount of nutrients. It is rich in polyphenols, vitamins, sugar, amino acids and betalain pigments.
  • 2.0K
  • 11 Nov 2021
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