Urban green spaces are essential for maintaining biodiversity, mitigating climate-related impacts, and enhancing human well-being. Despite growing interest in biodiversity-friendly urban green space management, the socio-ecological factors associated with user support remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates users’ and administrative perspectives on biodiversity-friendly green space management at Justus Liebig University of Gießen, Germany, using an integrated socio-ecological approach. Survey data from 464 respondents were analyzed to examine biodiversity awareness, sense of responsibility, willingness to participate, and management preferences, as well as key barriers and facilitators associated with support for biodiversity-friendly management. Respondents showed high biodiversity awareness (96.5%) and sense of shared responsibility (74.7%), and favored semi-natural, multifunctional urban green spaces such as wildflower meadows (86.2%). These positive attitudes contrast with trends in green space availability, as contextual spatial per capita analysis (2010–2024) revealed a continuous decline in green space availability, underscoring increasing pressure on green infrastructure and the urgent need for management strategies aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.7. Exploratory structural equation modeling suggested that concern about climate change, recognition of habitat function, and social responsibility were positively associated with stated support for biodiversity-friendly management, whereas preferences for tidy lawns and perceived health risks showed negative associations with acceptance. This study contributes to broader discussions on socio-ecological urban transitions and suggests that participatory planning, best-practice examples, and communication strategies emphasizing ecological, climatic, and well-being benefits may help strengthen support for biodiversity-friendly management while aligning green space governance with biodiversity and sustainability objectives.
Bone tissue engineering has attracted considerable interest as a strategy to address the limited regenerative capacity of large bone defects. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds based on polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin (GEL), incorporating varying ratios of bioactive glass (BG) and nano-strontium carbonate (nSrCO3), were fabricated using extrusion-based 3D printing. The printed scaffolds exhibited well-defined, interconnected porous architectures with uniformly distributed nanoparticles. BG-containing scaffolds showed smoother fiber morphology and fewer surface particulates, with the PCL–GEL/BG formulation achieving the highest porosity (88.67 ± 4.12
This study aims to investigate the effects of Land use/cover change (LUCC) and spatial processes on carbon sequestration (CS) in the Karaj landscape (KL), Iran that has experienced rapid urbanization in recent decades. This research is structured around the central hypothesis that rapid urbanization drives carbon sequestration loss primarily through the spatial processes of landscape fragmentation and the attrition of carbon-rich land covers, and that these impacts are quantifiable both biophysically and economically. The study uses a combination of Markov chains, InVEST, and decision trees to evaluate two scenarios of LUCC and CS for the years 2006, 2023, and 2040. The results show that the KL has undergone significant changes in LUCC and CS from 2006 to 2023, and these changes are projected to continue until 2040. The main changes include the expansion of settlements and the decrease of rangeland, which have led to substantial reductions in CS in the landscape. The results also show that the spatial processes that have the most negative impact on CS are "creation" in settlements and "attrition" in cropland and rangeland, which result in the loss of carbon-rich land cover types. The study also estimates the economic losses associated with the reduction of CS from 2006 to 2040, which amount to millions of dollars. The study provides useful insights for urban planners and policymakers who are concerned with the effects of LUCC and spatial processes on CS and other ecosystem services in the KL.
In the present work, the energy and exergy analysis was carried out for a diesel engine fueled with soybean oil biodiesel and its blends at different temperatures and two speeds (1200 and 1600 rpm). To simulate the combustion process, a single-zone combustion model was developed. A comprehensive MATLAB-based simulation tool incorporating multiple combustion by-products was developed to perform detailed energy and exergy evaluations. Simulated in-cylinder pressure profiles for pure diesel fuel were benchmarked against experimental observations, demonstrating strong correlation and reliability. The model also provided insights into both instantaneous and cumulative forms of energy and exergy at various crank angles for three biodiesel blend ratios—B20, B40, and B100. The results indicate that the total exergy of B100 is approximately 50
Marital relationship quality is a strong predictor of overall health, making it a critical target for prevention and intervention efforts. In Iran, rapid cultural shifts have reshaped marital dynamics, highlighting the need for accessible psychological support. Relational Savoring (RS), a brief attachment-based program, aims to strengthen relationship quality by guiding individuals to re-experience moments of positive connectedness. The present study is the first to evaluate a 4-week, group-based RS program in Iran among 96 female spouses, testing its effects on affective (positive emotion, relationship closeness) and cognitive (relationship satisfaction) domains at post-treatment and three-month follow-up, compared to a no-treatment control. The study also tested an exploratory research question regarding whether sharing savored memories with one's partner between sessions had a differential impact relative to the traditional relational savoring protocol, which does not prescribe sharing. Results showed that the RS-Combined condition (pooling both savoring conditions) produced greater improvements across all outcomes at post-treatment with small effect sizes (marginal R2 = 0.02-0.05), although these effects were not sustained at the three-month follow-up. Comparisons between the two savoring conditions (RS-No Share versus RS-Share) revealed mixed patterns: sharing was linked with stronger gains in positive emotion at post-treatment, whereas not sharing was associated with greater improvements in relationship closeness and satisfaction at post-treatment. We interpret these findings to suggest preliminary promise for RS, particularly RS-No Share, in improving short-term outcomes for Iranian wives. Future work should examine ways of prolonging the effects observed in this study.
