Bensonismail3180

The spreading of misinformation and disinformation is a great problem on microblogs, leading user evaluation of information credibility a critical issue. This study incorporates two message format factors related to multimedia usage on microblogs (vividness and multimedia diagnosticity) with two well-discussed factors for information credibility (i.e., argument quality and source credibility) as a holistic framework to investigate user evaluation of microblog information credibility. Further, the study draws on two-factor theory and its variant three-factor lens to explain the nonlinear effects of the above factors on microblog information credibility. An online survey was conducted to test the proposed framework by collecting data from microblog users. The research findings reveal that for the effects on microblog information credibility (1) argument quality (a hygiene factor) exerts a decreasing incremental effect; (2) source credibility (a bivalent factor) exerts only a linear effect; and (3) multimedia diagnosticity (a motivating factor) exerts an increasing incremental effect. This study adds to current knowledge about information credibility by proposing an insightful framework to understand the key predictors of microblog information credibility and further examining the nonlinear effects of these predictors.An increase in private vehicle fleet and usage exacerbates the overuse of petroleum products, air quality degradation, and public health risks, among other drawbacks. This study investigated the energy and environmental benefits for private passenger vehicles under various scenarios in Metro Manila, the Philippines. The findings are informative to design policy implications for energy and environmental benefits. The study applied the Gaussian copula-based multinomial logit (MNL)-linear regression to develop the household vehicle ownership and energy consumption model using the disaggregated data of 1,795 households collected in 2017. The simulated vehicle fleet and energy consumption were then adopted to extrapolate energy demand, emissions, and public health risks for a 2010-2050 horizon using the bottom-up approach. Under the baseline scenario, the energy demand and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will reach 5.45 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) and 16.93 million tonnes (Mt) in 2050, respectively. The amounts of hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX), particulate matter 10 (PM10) and particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) emissions, and economic loss of health risks will be 6,214 tonnes (t), 62,136 t, 536 t, 10,550 t, 1,348 t, 996 t, and 237 Million USD, respectively, under the baseline scenario in 2050. Improvement of accessibility significantly reduces energy demand and CO2 emissions. Introduction of Euro 6 cars and Euro 4 buses and Public Utility Jeepneys noticeably improves public health. The new tax schedules on gas and vehicle maximize the tax revenue. click here of all the mentioned alternatives can achieve sustainable mobility and urbanization.The COVID-19 pandemic created a critical need for citizen volunteers working with government to protect public health and to augment overwhelmed public services. Our research examines the crucial role of community volunteers and their effective deployment during a crisis. We analyze individual and collaborative service activities based on usage data from 85,699 COVID-19 volunteers gathered through China's leading digital volunteering platform, as well as a survey conducted among a sample of 2,270 of these COVID-19 volunteers using the platform and interviews with 14 civil society leaders in charge of coordinating service activities. Several results emerge the value of collaboration among local citizens, civil society including community-based groups, and regional government to fill gaps in public services; the key role of experienced local volunteers, who rapidly shifted to COVID-19 from other causes as the pandemic peaked; and an example of state-led coproduction based on long-term relationships. Our analysis provides insight into the role of volunteerism and coproduction in China's response to the pandemic, laying groundwork for future research. The findings can help support the response to COVID-19 and future crises by more effectively leveraging human capital and technology in community service delivery.Demand for rice consumption in Africa has outstripped the current local production capacities. As a result, African markets have become heavily dependent on importation, especially from Asia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rice production in both Asia and Africa is likely to be reduced. It is also likely that the major Asian rice exporting countries will resort to stockpiling of their local production, and restrict volumes of (or ban) rice exportation. Such measures could affect demand-supply dynamics and trigger a price crisis in African rice markets. Based on the lessons learnt from the Ebola and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemics and the 2007-08 food price crisis, African nations need to moderate the impact of such a crisis through appropriate policy actions.Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are now a prominent policy instrument for conserving tropical forests. PES are voluntary, direct, and contractual an ES buyer pays an ES steward for adopting conservation practices for a fixed term. A defining feature of PES is its 'quid pro quo' conditionality, e.g. stewards are paid only if they deliver contracted conservation outcomes. Most studies on PES effectiveness focus on the steward's compliance with contract conditions. By contrast, the buyer's compliance has received scant attention despite the fact that PES programs across the globe have delayed payments, suspended re-enrollment, or shut down altogether. 'Use-restricting' PES depend on the continued flow of funding to pay for conservation; however, institutional, political, and economic factors can disrupt or terminate PES funding. What happens when the PES money unexpectedly runs out? Do stewards continue to conserve or revert to their former practices? We use mixed methods to study equity concerns and forest outcomes of an unexpected, two-year interruption in conservation payments to 63 private landowners residing in Ecuador's Amazon and enrolled in the Socio Bosque program, compared to similar landowners who did not enroll. Using quasi-experimental methods, we found that during the payment suspension period enrolled properties did not maintain their conservation outcomes where deforestation pressures were high (e.g. close to roads). Where deforestation pressures were low, enrolled properties continued to conserve more, on average, than similar properties not enrolled. Findings from 40 interviews and 26 focus groups conducted before, during, and after the payment suspension exposed profound landowner uncertainty regarding their contract rights. Poor official communication and imbalanced PES contract terms reinforced power inequalities between the state and rural ES stewards. Our work highlights the need to plan for financial volatility and to protect participants' rights in PES contract design.Migrant workers play a significant role in the economy of Bangladesh, pumping approximately USD15 billion into the economy that directly contributes to the socio-economic development of Bangladesh every year. These workers and their dependents are in a socially vulnerable and economically difficult situation due to the dire impacts of the COVID-19. Migrant workers from Bangladesh in other countries are facing adverse impacts such as unemployment, short working hours, isolation, poor quality of living, social discrimination and mental pressure while their dependents at home are facing financial crisis due to the limited or reduced cash flow from their working relatives. A significant number of migrant workers have been sent back to Bangladesh and many are in constant fear of being sent back due to the impacts of COVID-19 in their host countries. Thus, COVID-19 intensifies numerous socio-economic crises such as joblessness, consumption of reserve funds by family members, and shrinking of the country's remittance inflow. In this situation, the most urgent and important need is to give financial security and social safety to the workers abroad and those who have returned to Bangladesh. Apart from diplomatic endeavors to maintain the status quo of policy, the government of Bangladesh may take initiatives to provide financial support to these workers as a short-term strategy to overcome hardships during the pandemic and design a comprehensive plan with a detailed database of all migrant workers to create a need-based and skilled workforce as a long-term solution. These strategies can mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 at present and address migration related problems in future.Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic may leave many people behind through a variety of exclusion processes as basic information about the virus and its spread is shared with the public. We conduct a rapid virtual audit of pandemic related press briefings and press conferences issued by governments and international organizations in order to assess if responses have been inclusive to the hearing-impaired communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We analyze COVID-19 press conferences and press briefings issued during Feb-May 2020, for over 123 LMICs and for international organizations (e.g. #link# the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO)). link2 Our virtual audit shows that only 65% of countries have a sign language interpreter (SLI) present in COVID-19 press briefings and conferences. This number is smaller in low-income countries (41%) and Sub-Saharan African countries (54%). Surprisingly, none of the international organizations including the WHO has a SLI present during COVID-19 press briefings. We recommend all countries and international organizations to reconsider ways to make press conferences accessible to a wide audience in general, and to the hearing impaired communities in particular by including a SLI during their COVID-19 briefings, a primary step towards upholding the sustainable development pledge of "no one gets left behind."One of the immediate responses to COVID-19 has been a call to ban wildlife trade given the suspected origin of the pandemic in a Chinese market selling and butchering wild animals. link3 There is clearly an urgent need to tackle wildlife trade that is illegal, unsustainable or carries major risks to human health, biodiversity conservation or meeting acceptable animal welfare standards. However, some of the suggested actions in these calls go far beyond tackling these risks and have the potential to undermine human rights, damage conservation incentives and harm sustainable development. There are a number of reasons for this concerns. First calls for bans on wildlife markets often include calls for bans on wet markets, but the two are not the same thing, and wet markets can be a critical underpinning of informal food systems. Second, wildlife trade generates essential resources for the world's most vulnerable people, contributing to food security for millions of people, particularly in developing countries. Third, wildlife trade bans have conservation risks including driving trade underground, making it even harder to regulate, and encouraging further livestock production.