Relationship between the Outdoor Physical Environment and Student's Social Behaviour in Urban Secondary School

AbstractSchool environment is important to the child's development. Theories of environmental psychology suggest that environmental context influences social attitudes and behaviour. The research focuses on the relationship between the outdoor physical environment of urban schools and the students’ social behavior of two secondary schools in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. The findings demonstrate that some relationships exist between the outdoor physical environment of the school and the students’ social behaviour. The design and planning of the school's external environment should give more consideration on creating conducive learning environment that could foster positive social behavior especially for urban schools

Effects of Listening to Al Kauthar Verse on Brain Physiology

This paper investigates the outcomes of a preliminary research brainwaves reaction when listening to Al-Khauthar. Quantitative electroencephalogram machine (EEG) was used to observe and record the brainwave activities while listening to Al- Khauthar. Findings shows that the dominant brainwave during listening to Al- Khauthar is Delta with 27.97 MV . In addition, the findings obtained from the data collected; it show that all brain regions which are Prefrontal, Frontal,Occipital, Post-central, Parietal and Temporal lobe are involved. Delta waves helped to stimulate the growth hormone and repair the brain cells or tissues. To conclude, listening to Al- Khauthar brought about calmness and relaxation to body and mind. Listening to the verse might stimulates the production of growth hormone and melatonin that control our sleep and wake up activites and consequently our relaxation

Socio-spatial inequality of privatisation approach to service delivery of electricity in Nigeria

The pursuit of the public welfare should be of paramount concern to any good government to alleviate poverty in tandem with the Millennium Development Goals. As developing nations in the world aspire to meet the vision 20:2020, it is imperative that whatever economic approach, model or strategy adopted must not be at the expense of the welfare of the citizens. In western industrialised world, privatisation is used to improve the lives of citizens where market competition in the provisions of goods and services thrive for the benefit of an egalitarian and equitable society. However, the outcomes of privatisation in most developing countries are not as intended, as the social costs far supersede its benefits, owing to some reasons the paper is out to discuss. As a conceptual paper with discussions based predominantly on secondary data sources cum literature, this paper seeks to explain the socio-inequality and poverty laden outcomes of privatisation policy of service delivery of electricity in Nigeria. Privatisation policy has been claimed to adversely impinged the welfare of the populace, making the poor, poorer. Based on identified theoretical gap of non-harmonising policies with actual situation on ground, this paper argues that the issues of social inequality are occasioned by privatisation policy, and identifies the shortcomings of this approach to service delivery of electricity. The paper recommends taking areal reality and spatial dimension into consideration for decision making, policy resolution and implementation in Nigeria

Sustaining privatisation of electricity service delivery in Nigeria: a resolution between aspatial and spatial planning approach

The symbiotic relationship of the concept of Aspatial and spatial planning approach to power reform cannot be underestimated, as it is critical to the sustainable service delivery of electricity to the target population, especially in Nigeria and other developing countries. As problem statement, the planning of service delivery of electricity supply, most often, had always been approached from the aspatial level of planning that is, “mere policy statement”, just as issue of privatization of electricity service delivery in Nigeria, without much relevance to spatial dimensional aspect. This lopsided planning approach to service delivery of public utilities generally and in particular electricity supply has consequently been the raison d’etre for; poor implementation of its laudable privatisation policy, inability to achieve the goals of its well-articulated and full packaged Strategies. The skewed distribution of electrical facilities, ineffective and malfunctioning conditions, overstretching and overloading of available facilities, incessant power failure, general poor electricity service delivery, inter alia, in Nigeria are attributable to non-adherence to spatial planning approach. The study, methodologically drawn from relevant literatures and tertiary sources of data, objectively aimed at stressing the symbiotic importance of spatial planning approach to the sustainability of aspatial planning strategies. Comprehensive planning, adequate available spatial data, involvement of relevant stakeholders, among others were the suggested recommendations, with main focus on privatization approach to service delivery of electricity in Nigeria

Leadership styles: incentive or disincentive approach in addressing street vendor problems in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia

The problems of street vendors have long been experienced by most big cities in Indonesia. A newly emerged city leadership style in Jakarta and Bandung City shows two different approaches towards sustainable solution of street vendor problem. While Governor of Jakarta applies an incentive approach to street vendors by transferring them from the streets of Jakarta to appropriate place, Mayor of Bandung City applies disincentive approach to the buyers of street vendors by giving penalty to those making transaction with the vendors in "red zone". This study was undertaken in Jakarta Metropolitan, the Capital City of Indonesia and Bandung City, the Capital City of West Java Province. The choice of Jakarta and Bandung was based mainly on the new paradigm of city leadership in Indonesia as reflected by these two leaders of the city. They are both out-of-the-box leaders. Both approaches exhibit the positive results on the easiness of traffic in the area, positive image of the area as perceived by most citizens, and cleanliness

Is mom energy efficient? a study of gender, household energy consumption and family decision making in Indonesia

This study highlights gender-related factors and attempts to understand their influence in residential energy consumption. This pilot study was done in Bandung City, Indonesia. It employed a questionnaire survey and face to face interviews. Questionnaires were randomly distributed to the households in Bandung City. In this study, energy consumption included household uses of power for lighting, entertainment, thermal comfort and cooking. Energy consumption was estimated based upon electrical and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption. The results showed that when the decisions about energy expenditure and control of energy consumption in the household were solely made by a woman, energy consumption tended to be the lowest. There are three possible ways decision can be made, by the wife, husband and a joint decision. This evidence suggests several things. They are that (1) women are good household energy managers, (2) men may be careless with respect to energy consumption, (3) women may be more cautious about household expenditures, and (4) when joint decisions were made the husband and wife relied-upon-each-other in reaching agreement. This suggests useful entry points for energy efficient initiative

Creating the Synergy of Land Use, Transport, Energy and Environment Elements towards Climate Change Co-benefits

Land use, transport, energy consumption and air quality issues in a city are interconnected and therefore form a nexus. This study attempts to analyze this nexus by identifying the magnitude and quality of the links among the elements. The study was undertaken in Bandung City, Indonesia by analyzing the concen-tricity of land use of the city, computing traffic loads at some primary radial trunk roads towards city center, assessing transport energy and air quality in the study area. Analysis on the present linearity of the nexus was also conducted by acquiring relevant secondary data as well as information from the separate study by the first authors in the same city. A quantitative analysis was undertaken to corroborate the rela-tionships among linear connections of the elements. The result exhibits that the interconnections among elements in the nexus do exist. It also shows that the interconnection of the nexus i.e. land use, transport, energy consumption and air quality is linear and it requires a synergistic efforts to enhance the strategies towards climate change co-benefits. By looking at the nexus as a policy arena, the study proposes prospec-tive policy directions that could lead to synergize co-benefits of climate change and accordingly contribute to climate change adaptation of the city and the reduction of climate change impacts

Planning implications of guarded neighborhoods in Malaysia

The increased prevalence of enclosed communities began to draw attention from researchers and commentators worldwide as early as the 1970s. Although much of the early discussion concerned communities in the United States, gated communities were well documented on most continents and in diverse contexts by the 2000s. In Malaysia, in response to perceived market demand for residential enclaves due to globalization and modernization, a number of private developers have created bespoke gated communities. However, less research has been conducted on the retrofitting of existing residential neighborhoods (guarded neighborhoods) with security measures or the `ad hoc' privatization of such neighborhoods. Therefore, drawing on case studies of older, access-controlled residential communities, this article investigates urban planners' perceptions of talks about the planning implications of guarded neighborhoods in the Malaysian state of Selangor. As individual local community groups mobilize to levy what amounts to an additional local tax to finance dedicated guards and gates at the street level, urban planners regularly encounter a conflict between `good-neighborhood' principles and the importance of social-spatial integration. Malaysia's government authorities encourage citizens to enclose local spaces despite the legal prohibition on enclosure and the adverse effects of such interventions on physical and social integration in existing urban residential neighborhoods

Sustainable solid waste management practices and perceived cleanliness in a low income city

Waste reduction and waste separation are two preferred practices in sustainable solid waste management (SSWM). These two methods are seemingly impossible to implement without high awareness within the communities as well as a strong commitment and support from the city authorities. Despite the limited extent of these practices, this study attempts to analyze the current SSWM practices in Makassar City, Indonesia. The SSWM practices focused on waste separation and waste recycling. Assessing waste separation and recycling practices were carried out by field observations, focus group discussions, interviews with the actors, and a questionnaire survey. To avoid significant bias in the responses on perceived cleanliness of the city, we classified the respondents into three groups. Group 1 consists of all eligible members of local communities involved in daily solid waste management activities - common households. Group 2 consists of those actively involved in waste separation activities - SSWM households. Group 3 was composed of those institutionally responsible for conducting solid waste management. The primary result of this study shows that the presence of community practices on waste reduction and waste separation was strongly correlated to a sense of cleanliness in the community. This result implicitly indicates that by a using positive environmental image and performance within a locality, the community can become enthusiastically involved and push for sustainable SWM practices