Search Results (43)

While the speed of the transition to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) depends on real-world driving behaviors and socioeconomic conditions, relevant predictions are often not based on real trip data. This study analyzes over 200,000 private car trips, tracked via onboard telematics across Italy, in order to assess the feasibility of replacing internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) with BEVs. Given that drivers are resistant to changing their habits, we introduce the E-Private Mobility Index, which quantifies the percentage of traditional cars at present that are functionally compatible with a medium BEV, assuming home charging. Nationwide, this index reaches 30%, but only 15% of car owners would also see financial benefits. By quantifying both the potential to replace traditional cars with electric ones and the associated economic impacts, our analysis supports sustainable mobility by offering insights into the rate of penetration of sustainable and green mobility, in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal. With its unprecedented statistical significance, the study not only provides a data-driven upper threshold of BEV penetration but also offers a flexible framework for shaping future policies, allowing the adaptation of parameters and assumptions to guide a scalable transition to electric private mobility. Full article

Dog and cat preference has been associated with a few factors, like owner personality traits, but data regarding other aspects of preference ontogeny and the impact of preferences on pet wellbeing have yet to be examined. In this exploratory study, several of these characteristics, such as exposure to pets when young and as adults and current pet interactions and diet were analyzed from internet survey data. We found that more people identified as dog people (63.3%) versus cat people (36.7%) and preference for dogs remained consistent from childhood to adulthood compared with cats. In individuals who changed species preference, a lack of childhood exposure to cats (47.2%) was significantly associated with the group that changed preferences from dogs to cats from childhood to adulthood, compared with dog ownership as a child in the group that changed preferences from cats to dogs (24.4%). The number of cats and dogs in the home directly correlated with species preference (p < 0.001). Dwelling location was also significantly associated with species preference, with cat people being more likely to live in an urban area and dog people in a rural area (p = 0.002). More time was spent in both active and passive interactions with pets of the preferred species. Cats owned by cat people were more likely to be fed prescription diets compared with cats owned by dog people (p < 0.001). Interestingly, dog people were more likely to feed both their cats (p = 0.012) and dogs (p < 0.001) a raw diet compared with cat people. Additional research is needed to understand the development and impact of owner species preferences on pets to identify risks of suboptimal wellbeing. Full article

William Courtenay, 3rd Viscount Courtenay and 9th Earl of Devon (1768–1835), has been most remembered for his romantic relationship with author and slave owner, William Beckford (1760–1844), which scandalized London society in 1784. However, the 9th Earl’s life after this event has received little attention despite his artistic contributions to the built environment of his ancestral home of Powderham Castle in Devon. In the 1790s, he created a series of flower watercolors on paper and cabinets under the supervision of his drawing master, William Marshall Craig (c.1765–1827). These artworks complicate ideas about gendered expectations of amateur artistic subjects, with flower painting being largely understood as a feminine accomplishment. This article explores the Earl’s watercolors in the context of the spaces at Powderham to argue they are evidence of his effeminate behavior and participation in female activities alongside his thirteen sisters. The association of these objects with a man attracted to those of his own sex contribute to studies of queerness, amateur art, and the country house in the late eighteenth century. Full article

Despite many dogs living in homes in the UK, there is still more to know about the welfare of those individual animals. Past research has shown that owners’ thoughts and behaviours have a substantial impact on their dog’s welfare. This study aimed to better understand owners’ pre-purchase behaviours, knowledge and understanding, and ownership practices, and explore any associations between these factors and their dog’s welfare. We conducted further analysis of the data collected by People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) for their 2017 PDSA Animal Welfare (PAW) Report (n = 1814). We extracted variables to describe owner demographics (7), pre-purchase behaviours (1), knowledge and understanding (4), welfare indicators, (2) and ownership practices (4), and we tested for an association between these variables. We found more pre-purchase research was carried out by younger respondents and those with a higher education level. Also, more research was associated with feeling more informed about the five welfare needs and knowing to seek help for behaviour from appropriate sources. Overall, the study found several novel and significant results worthy of note and further exploration but did not find any strong connections between the variables. Full article

Since 2008, the company Airbnb has brought significant changes to the hospitality industry worldwide. Experiencing remarkable growth, it currently offers over six million listings in 191 countries across one hundred thousand cities. Airbnb has gained immense popularity among travellers seeking accommodations globally. Consequently, Airbnb generates extensive datasets from its listings that contain rich features that have captured the attention of researchers. These datasets offer potentially valuable information that can be extracted to greatly assist individuals and governments in making more informed decisions. Pricing rental properties on Airbnb still presents a challenge for owners, as it directly impacts customer demand. This research aimed to conquer the challenge by developing a sustainable price prediction model for Airbnb listings by incorporating property specifications, owner information and customer reviews. By utilising this model, owners can estimate the expected value of their Airbnb listings. We trained and fine-tuned several machine learning models using an Airbnb listing dataset from Barcelona. Performance evaluation metrics, such as mean squared error (MSE), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE) and $R^2$ score were then used to compare the models. To enhance the performance of the predictive models, sentiment analysis was used to extract relevant features from customer reviews. Feature importance analysis was also conducted to determine which attributes were the most influential on listing price predictions. The results show that the Lasso and Ridge models outperformed the others considered in the study, with an average $R^2$ score of 99%. We found that amenities-related features had a negligible impact on all models’ performance. The most significant features found were polarity (positive/negative sentiment), the number of bedrooms, the accommodation’s maximum capacity, the number of beds and the quantity of reviews received by the listing in the past 12 months, respectively. We found that certain room types (categorized as entire home/apartment, private room or shared room) are associated with lower predicted prices. Full article

The rental of houses is a common economic activity. However, there are many inconveniences that arise when renting a property. The lack of trust between the landlord and the tenant due to fraud or squatters makes it necessary to involve third parties to minimize risk. A blockchain (such as Ethereum) provides an ideal solution to act as a low-cost intermediary. This paper proposes the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on ERC-4519 for smart home tokenization. The ERC-4519 is an Ethereum standard for describing NFTs tied to physical assets, allowing smart homes (assets) to be linked to NFTs so that the smart homes can interact with the blockchain and perform transactions, know their landlord (owner) and assigned tenant (user), whether they are authenticated or not, and know their operating mode (NFT state). The payments associated with the rental process are made using the NFT, eliminating the need for additional fungible tokens and simplifying the process. The entire rental process is described and illustrated with a proof of concept using a Pycom Wipy 3.0 as a smart home gateway and a smart contract programmed in Solidity, which is deployed on the Goerli Testnet for Ethereum. Experimental results show that the smart home gateway takes a few tens of milliseconds to complete a transaction, and the transaction costs of the relevant functions of the smart contract are quite affordable. Full article

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns provided an opportunity to assess what factors, including changes in an owner’s routine and time spent at home, were associated with changes in dog behaviour. We undertook a longitudinal survey over a period of 8 months during which we asked about people’s work patterns, dog management, and their dogs’ behaviour. Generalized linear models revealed that the pre-existence of signs of potential separation-related problems, and especially vocalisation, self-injury, and chewing to escape confinement, was associated with an increase in a range of separation issues. Dogs showing separation-related signs prior to COVID were also more likely to develop more problems during lockdown. Management changes tended to result in increased physical and social stress, with a range of potential compensatory actions taken by the dog, however these signs of stress did not generally appear to be connected to separation-related issues. Survival analysis was used to investigate the emergence of specific issues over time. This indicated that a change to working from home was related initially to a decreased risk of aggression towards the owner, but over time, those who continued to work from the home were at an increased risk of this problem. No other significant time-related relationships were found. Full article

In recent years, therapy dogs in medical and assisted living facilities have become popular in Japan, and the demand for such dogs has increased. However, some owners have their dogs take this test, which evaluates the dog’s talent, without understanding what is required of the test. The system needs to teach owners in an understandable way whether their dog is suitable to become a therapy dog so that the owners can determine if their dog is ready to be tested. Therefore, we suggest that easy at-home testing is likely to encourage dog owners to apply for their dog to take the aptitude test. If more dogs take the test, more therapy dogs can be born. The purpose of this study was to identify the personality traits of therapy dogs that pass the aptitude test by using the Canine Behavior Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ). The C-BARQ was administered to dogs that previously passed the aptitude test for therapy training at the Hokkaido Volunteer Dog Association, assessing their behavioural displays. A factor analysis was conducted for each questionnaire item, and a total of 98 items were analyzed. Data were collected from the results of 110 dogs encompassing 30 dog breeds, with the most common breeds including Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, and Toy Poodles. Factor analysis revealed that 14 extracted factors should be evaluated. Given these personality traits and the fact that breed and age did not influence aptitude, we believe that a variety of dogs have the potential to become therapy dogs. Full article

Although much of the literature on pets in disasters associates the failure to evacuate pets with a weak or absent human–animal bond, rapid-onset disasters challenge the foundations of that claim. Colorado’s Marshall Fire, which occurred on 30 December 2021, took the lives of more than 1000 pets. The fire began in open grassland and quickly became an “urban firestorm” when it spread into densely populated areas. Due to the timing of the fire’s onset, owners could not return home to rescue their pets. Although first responders, volunteers, and other evacuees rescued some animals, many died inside their homes. Analysis of qualitative interviews with a small sample of pet owners whose animals died in the fire reveal the factors that prevented owners from rescuing their pets. Through analysis of traditional and social media, and emergency notifications, this research presents a timeline of events on the day of the fire and examines pitfalls in evacuation notification. Participant observation and field conversations provide insight into the impact of the fire on veterinary clinics. The study concludes with suggestions intended to reduce future mass deaths of animals. Full article

One of the most challenging problems related to the operation of smart microgrids is the optimal home energy management scheme with multiple and conflicting objectives. Moreover, there is a noticeable increase in homes equipped with renewable energy sources (RESs), where the coordination of loads and generation can achieve extra savings and minimize peak loads. In this paper, a solar-powered smart home with optimal energy management is designed in an affordable and secure manner, allowing the owner to control the home from remote and local sites using their smartphones and PCs. The Raspberry Pi 4 B is used as the brain of the proposed smart home automation management system (HAMS). It is used to collect the data from the existing sensors and store them, and then take the decision. The home is monitored using a graphical interface that monitors room temperature, humidity, smoke, and lighting through a set of sensors, as well as PIR sensors to monitor the people movement. This action enables remote control of all home appliances in a safe and emission-free manner. This target is reached using Cayenne, which is an IoT platform, in addition to building some codes related to some appliances and sensors not supported in Cayenne from scratch. Convenience for people with disabilities is considered by using the Amazon Echo Dot (Alexa) to control home appliances and the charging point by voice, implementing the associated code for connecting the Raspberry pi with Alexa from scratch, and simulating the system on LabVIEW. To reach the optimal operation and reduce the operating costs, an optimization framework for the home energy management system (HEMS) is proposed. The operating costs for the day amounted to approximately 16.039 €. There is a decrease in the operating costs by about 23.13%. The consumption decreased after using the smart HAMS by 18.161 kWh. The results of the optimization also show that the least area that can be used to install solar panels to produce the desired energy with the lowest cost is about 118.1039 m², which is about 23.62% of the total surface area of the home in which the study was conducted. The obtained results prove the effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of automation, security, safety, and low operating costs. Full article

Home heating, cooling and ventilation are a major concern for those living in low-quality built environments, particularly those with high occupancy rates (crowded houses). In New Zealand, both owner-occupiers and tenants can experience problems associated with poor Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), such as poor thermal comfort and dampness, when Heating Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems are not installed, improperly installed or too expensive to run. Occupants of poorer households are the most affected by high installation or running costs of HVAC systems, and are also more likely to live in households with a higher level of crowding. Poor IEQ in housing is associated with adverse health outcomes, particularly respiratory illness. This paper outlines the IEQ problems experienced by households living in an area of New Zealand with higher levels deprivation and shows how an HVAC system could be employed to remedy poor IEQ. This report presents a case study of a house with poor IEQ that was selected from a survey conducted across 24 homes in the Manukau, Auckland region of New Zealand. The IEQ results are presented for this house, which performs poorly in terms of relative humidity, temperature and thermal comfort. This house is then analysed using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach in ANSYS CFX 2021R1 based on the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Airconditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standard 55-2017 and a model of temperature and air flow is created in the software, which can identify ways to improve these parameters in the house. These results are compared with the New Zealand Healthy Homes Standards 2019. The simulation showed the system was capable of lifting the indoor temperature to above $21 ℃$, eliminating cold spots and improving thermal comfort, and reduced relative humidity to below 50%. Full article

Coenurosis due to Taenia multiceps has emerged as a major concern to small ruminant-owning communities in northern Tanzania. Although a high incidence of disease has been reported, gaps still remain in our knowledge of the disease problem across different agro-ecological settings. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of coenurosis in small ruminants and taeniid infection in dogs and identify risk factors for infection. Questionnaire surveys, postmortem examination of small ruminants, and coproscopic examination of dog faeces were used to collect data on reported coenurosis cases and taeniid infections, respectively. The twelve-month period prevalence of coenurosis in small ruminants was 8.4% (95% CI 8.2–8.6). The prevalence of taeniid infection in dogs was 12.5% (95% CI 9.1–17.4). The village-level prevalence of coenurosis in sheep and goats was significantly correlated with taeniid infection prevalence in dogs (r = 0.51, p = 0.029). Multivariable analysis indicated that home slaughter was significantly associated with the livestock owner-reported neurological syndrome due to coenurosis in sheep and goats (OR = 13.3, 95% CI 4.2–42.0, p < 0.001) and the practice of offering discarded brains to dogs was significantly associated with taeniid infection prevalence in dogs (OR = 2.80, 95% CI 0.98–7.98, p = 0.05). Coenurosis is a major disease problem in livestock-keeping communities of northern Tanzania, but there is little awareness of transmission risks associated with home slaughter and dog feeding practices. There is a need for veterinary and animal health services to engage more actively with communities to increase awareness of the transmission cycle of T. multiceps and the preventive measures that can be taken to reduce the impact of disease in livestock-dependent communities. Full article

Mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs), including those caused by flaviviruses, remain human health problems for developing and urbanizing economies. This cross-sectional study examined risks of flavivirus exposure through a survey regarding knowledge and practices of pig farmers, and serological analysis of pigs in peri-urban and suburban Hanoi city. A total of 636 pig sera from 179 pig farms in 4 districts, namely, Chuong My, Dan Phuong, Ha Dong, and Bac Tu Liem, were analyzed by a competitive ELISA designed for flavivirus antibody detection. The results indicated a low level of awareness about MBDs among pig farmers, and a high seroprevalence in pigs at 88.5% (95%CI = 85.8–90.9%). Moreover, common practices of pig owners to prevent mosquitoes at home and farm did not show a significant reduction in flavivirus exposure in pigs. At animal level, significant associations between seropositive pigs and the farms with more than 60 pigs, and the district location were found. Farm-level multivariable analysis did not identify significant risk factors for flavivirus exposure. The study suggests that improving awareness of pig owners about MBDs in Hanoi city may be warranted to reduce the risk for MBD flavivirus infections in both humans and pigs. Full article

Urinary tract infections (UTI) caused by Escherichia coli are frequently diagnosed in humans and companion animals. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)- and cephalosporinase (pAmpC)-producing Escherichia coli are worldwide-disseminated and frequently multidrug-resistant, hence leading to treatment failure and public health concerns. This study aimed to characterize and compare ESBL/pAmpC-producing E. coli strains causing community-acquired UTI in companion animals and non-related humans. Third-generation cephalosporin (3GC)-resistant E. coli (companion animals n = 35; humans n = 85) isolated from patients with UTI were tested against 14 antimicrobials following CLSI guidelines. PCR-based assays were used to detect the major E. coli phylogenetic groups, pathogenicity associated-islands (PAIs), virulence genes, and ESBLs/pAmpC resistance genes. ESBL/pAmpC-producing E. coli isolates were typed by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) and PCR. E. coli strains from companion animals and humans shared two MDR high-risk clonal lineages: ST131 and ST648. To the best of our knowledge, this study reports the first description of E. coli ST131 clade C1-M27 and the clonal lineage ST131 clade A in humans with community-acquired UTI in Portugal. Considering that companion animals with UTI are generally treated at home by the owners, measures should be implemented to avoid the spread of multidrug-resistant high-risk clones to humans and their household environment. Full article

With the increase in meals eaten outside the home, sodium reduction in restaurant foods is essential for reducing sodium intake. This study aimed to assess the stages of behavioral change for reducing sodium and the differences in perceptions among restaurant staff by stage. Restaurant owners and cooks (n = 313) in Seongnam, South Korea were surveyed on their stage of behavioral change, practices, and perceptive factors related to sodium reduction in restaurant meals using a questionnaire. The proportion of behavioral change by stage was 20.4% in the maintenance and action (MA) stage, 32.3% in the preparation (P) stage, and 47.3% in the pre-preparation (PP) stage, which included contemplation and pre-contemplation stages. The items that represent differences among the groups were recognition of social environment for sodium reduction, practice of weighing condiments and measuring salinity, and feasibility of actions related to low-sodium cooking. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios for practice and perceptive factors by using stage of behavioral change as the independent variable. Factors associated with being in the MA stage were weighing condiments, measuring salinity, and high feasibility of actions related to low-sodium cooking. Recognition of sodium labeling and anticipation of better taste by reducing sodium increased the odds of being in the P stage rather than the PP stage. These results suggest that customized stepwise education and support are needed for the efficacy of restaurant-based sodium reduction programs. Full article