Existing methods used to screen chemical inventories for hazardous substances that may pose risks to humans and the environment are evaluated with a holistic mass balance modeling approach. The model integrates persistence (P), bioaccumulation (B), toxicity (T), and quantity (Q) information for a specific substance to assess chemical exposure, hazard, and risk. P and B are combined in an exposu...

In environmental soil-landscape modeling (ESLM), the selection of predictive variables is commonly contingent on the researchers’ domain expertise on soileenvironment processes. This variable selection strategy may suffer bias or even fail in regions where the process knowledge is insufficient. To overcome this problem, this study demonstrates a holistic ESLM framework which consists of five co...

On the political and policy front, interest has increased in making communities more "age-friendly", an ongoing trend since the World Health Organization launched its global Age-Friendly Cities project. We conceptualize age-friendly communities by building on the WHO framework and applying an ecological perspective. We thereby aim to make explicit key assumptions of the interplay between the pe...

in addition to attention to natural light as a renewable, costless and environment-friendly source of energy in the late 20th century, numerous studies have been conducted into the effect of natural light on human being’s soul and body and all such studies reiterate the undeniable role of natural lighting on people’s behavior, attitudes, and efficiency. however, in spite of the awareness of the...

In addition to obviating the use of synthetic agrochemicals and emphasizing farming in accordance with agro-ecological guidelines, organic farming acknowledges the integrity of plants as an essential element of its natural approaches to crop production. For cultivated plants, integrity refers to their inherent nature, wholeness, completeness, species-specific characteristics, and their being in...

Energy consumption of data centers increased continously during the last decades. As current techniques for improving their energy efficiency are usually limited to one type of data center components, it is difficult to employ them for a holistic optimization which may utilize synergies between all components. This paper introduces architecture and working principles of the novel energy managem...