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Investigating the Impact of Nature in Designing Cultural Environments for Children
244-256Views:342There is a tendency to communicate with nature in human beings as a set of emotional experiences. This study investigates the impact of organic architecture in creating cultural spaces for children. The concepts of nature, naturalist architecture and children educational psychology, from the perspective of scholars and researchers in this area are investigated. The children’s perception of nature and their feelings were assessed and one hundred forty respondents among the instructors of cultural centres in different regions of Tehran have answered the questionnaires. To investigate the hypotheses, Univariate T - test and F - test were applied. The results showed that the stimulation of the natural environment has a positive and meaningful effect on curiosity, participation, and fantasy in children, while they show their impressions of nature indirectly. Therefore, designing applicable spaces according to children’s physics, using appropriate colours and furniture as well as more environmentally-related spaces, can have positive effects on social participation, intuitive and verbal skills of the children.
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The Role of Employee Participation and Resistance in the Success of Change Management
22-30Views:689Successful change in the lives of organizations has played a particularly important role in the recent turbulently changing decades, and leadership-follower relationships need to be addressed in order to maintain performance. Participation should be ensured for members of the organization and emerging resistance should be addressed. The subject of my research was to examine whether the assessment of the success of change is influenced by the provision of opportunities for employees to make suggestions and their opposition to change. By performing chi-square tests, I came to the conclusion that if the opinion of the worker is heard, they are more likely to judge the change to be successful, however, the manager is not affected by the involvement of the employees in this. However, there is a correlation between employees' resentment to change and the success of change, both from the employee and managerial side, change is more unsuccessful if resentment develops. Based on the results, both factors are important. It is worth drawing the attention of managers to the need to ensure participation, as failure to do so can lead to dissatisfaction among employees, which can also have a negative impact on the success of the organization.
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Discussion on São Paulo Mobility Plans
17-33Views:327Since urbanization rising and urban demographic increase, urban transportation has been an important life quality aspect and a strategic decision for cities. Mobility seems to follow citizens' behavior and be influenced by urban cultural changes at the same pace it influences back the city routine and resident’s conduct. The discussion around the future of mobility gained new magnitude nowadays since some sort of vehicles have proved themselves as the cause of significant environmental impact, while others showed themselves as alternatives of low impact for different reasons – from quality public transportation to individual transport with minimized emissions. The city of São Paulo in Brazil published its Master Plan in 2014 and its Mobility Plan in 2015, analyzing the current situation and proposing a future for the city’s transportation system. This paper intends to analyze both plans, construe the popular participation in their formulation and application, discuss how data and strategy were presented and whether they are aligned with other countries’ thinking on the subject. As a city of over 10 million inhabitants, in a Metropolitan Region of 39 cities with over 20 million inhabitants, the transportation system of São Paulo is not an easy or single-solution issue. It is known the need for a combination of different transportation modes, requiring likewise new visions for all methods. Owing to the fact that modes complete each other and, in that manner, may reach a wider range of options for the population to plan daily life, then a system with a great variety of modes ensures the best functioning of them all. This paper focuses on an outsider view that searches for answers and solutions on the São Paulo transportation system, having as a base what is considered outstanding in the world for this issue.
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Advancing Sustainable Waste Management through National Recycling Rate under SDG 12.5.1
61-72Views:457Solid waste management remains a pressing environmental challenge in both developed and developing nations. Recycling has been promoted globally as a key pathway to sustainability, yet recycling rates often provide only a partial picture of performance. In many contexts, challenges such as poorly regulated recycling policies, informal sector dominance, and practices that prioritize profit over environmental sustainability limit progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.5.1, which tracks the national recycling rate. This study investigates the extent to which recycling rates reflect sustainable waste management and identifies the underlying factors that influence their effectiveness. The major objective of this study is to evaluate recycling rates as an indicator of sustainable waste management. This is further specified by: (i) examining recycling practices in selected countries (Germany, South Korea, USA, Brazil, and India), (ii) identifying key drivers and barriers that influence recycling performance, and (iii) assessing the implications of recycling rates for sustainable waste management systems. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining secondary data analysis, comparative country assessment, and policy review. Results show that recycling rates are useful but insufficient as a stand-alone measure of sustainability, since they are influenced by broader elements such as policy enforcement, economic incentives, public participation, and market structures. The findings highlight that Nigeria’s recycling rate remains significantly low compared to leading economies, underscoring the need for integrated waste management reforms. This research contributes to environmental management discourse by demonstrating that while recycling rates provide a benchmark for SDG 12.5.1 monitoring, they must be interpreted alongside contextual drivers to ensure meaningful progress towards sustainable waste management.
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Constantly Changing: Revitalization of Our Existing Building Stock with a User-centric Approach Through the Comparison of Three Hungarian Examples
94-110Views:693Our built environment’s community-oriented spaces are rapidly becoming obsolete in response to current social, cultural and economic demands. The renovation project of the tímárház Szárító műhely in Debrecen presents a new potentional transformation model in the region with a focus on community-creating and cultural awareness. The incremental, cost-effective small-scale intervention and adaptive reuse of the building’s spaces provide an opportunity to preserve its values and swiftly respond to evolving needs. In order to validate the underlying principles of the interventions proposed in the plan, it will be compared to two similar-minded examples, the Művészeti Ellátó in Eger and Szabadkikötő in Pécs. The projects were examined through the processes occuring within their respective life cycles, as their transformations exhibit recurring patterns. The analyses were conducted based on interviews with the creators, online articles, studies and on-site visits.
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Opportunities to the urban air quality of characterization by the cost-effective electrochemical sensors
1-16Views:214The quality of urban is more and more affected by the accelerating urbanization. The efficiency of improving air quality can be increased by providing local information on each pollutant source. The aim of our activity is providing real-time high-spatial reasultion data about air quality of the Hungarian capital city, Budapest. In this paper, results of testing and calibration of different low-cost electrochemical sensors and localization of them are represented. The first selected sensor is suitable for detecting carbon dioxide (CO2), alcohols, benzene (C6H6), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ammonia (NH3). The RingAir initiative also aims to involve the urban population in active environmental monitoring activities, therefore in the future we are planning to implement a more detailed and continuously updated monitoring system with the participation of a Budapest bicycle courier service and some of the city's population.
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Studies on Consumer Motivation Among Users Of Fitness Services
442-453Views:451The rate of inactivity experienced world-wide is the cause of numerous health problems. The sedentary lifestyle of the population represents a great burden to a nation’s economy. The health indicators of Hungary are below the European average, not only those concerning physical activity, but also with respect to smoking, nutrition, and alcohol consumption [1]. In 2013, only 38% of the Hungarian population exercised regularly, while 62% rarely or never [2]. The diseases associated with inactivity represent a higher burden to the economy than the costs of raising the level of activity would be [3]. Based on previous studies, the motivating factors for leisure athletes in Hungary are the preservation of health, to increase physical strength, relaxation, recreation, the love of exercising, and stress management [4; 5]. The sports facilities available to a wide range of people, the fitness clubs offer the possibility to join regular sports activities, which is why it is necessary to examine the motivation behind the participation of athletes taking part in the trainings provided by fitness facilities. Many previous studies examined the goals of athletes and the motivational factors behind exercising, and came to the conclusion that trainings held in fitness rooms and at home are related to intrinsic motivational factors, while taking part in other sports activities are related to intrinsic motivational factors [6; 7]. The focus of my study are leisure athletes using the services provided by fitness clubs (753 people), of whom I evaluated the motivational factors behind taking part in trainings. The results show that the motivational factors driving consumers of fitness services show a ranking that is identical to those of other leisure athletes, with most of them taking part in fitness trainings in order to preserve their health, to improve physical strength, and for recreational purposes, while the improvement of physical appearance also plays an important role.
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Segmenting the Impact of Organizational Structure and Leadership on Project Resilient and Project Success in the Ethiopian Construction Industry: a FIMIX-PLS & PLS-POS Approach
73-103Views:269This research looks at the vital roles of leadership and organisation design in the attainment of project resilience and success in the construction sector. Informed by contemporary theories on organisational resilience and leadership, a framework was developed and rigorously tested against data using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and with more advanced techniques of segmentation (FIMIX-PLS and PLS-POS) to identify and take into consideration unobserved heterogeneity. Using data collected from project professionals, resilient leadership and adaptive organisation design were shown to be critical to project resilience, but the effect of leadership and organisation design on project resilience differed from segment to segment as well as across demographics. The ex-post analysis suggested that the awareness of resilience, practical experience and higher education exacerbated the relationships between aspects of resilient leadership and project resilience, as well as between adaptive organisation design and project resilience. The analysis also showed that relationships between leadership, organisational structure, and resilience can be mediated by demographic factors, such as awareness, experience, and education. The findings highlighted the importance of fostering inclusive, participative type leadership styles and continuous forms of experiential learning to enhance resilience outcomes. The value of specific indicators such as team participation in decision making or the leader's self-confidence was also identified as being critical aspects of resilient organisational structures and effective leadership. The implications of this study were important for each group of stakeholders: organisations should encourage resilience-based leadership, experiment with multi-dimensional flexible team structures and create a culture of continued, experiential learning and communications as knowledge and industries evolve. The theoretical contributions that validated the effects of segments of latent variables and offered insight into the added value of using segmentation were positive contributions to theory. Limitations, such as sample size and sector, stimulate avenues for future work and in particular reinforce the case for longitudinal, cross-sector research to build sectors’ internal and external constructs of project resilience. Future research needs to apply multi-facilitated empirical, qualitative and advanced analytics means to enable further quantification, and complexity in project survival, success and resilience.
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Characteristics of Knowledge Economy in Respect of Hungary
1-11Views:296The examination of the economic role of information, knowledge, human capital and investment into the human capital has come into the limelight over the last decades. Analyses include the characterisation of knowledge economy and the relationship between knowledge economy and market challenges. In this paper we examine the definition and indicators of knowledge-based economy. We analyse the trend of the participation rate in formal and non-formal education as a knowledge input, furthermore we examine the gross domestic expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP with particular attention to Hungary.
