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To examine whether quality-of-life of a home's occupants varies in northern and southern hemisphere homes when the orientation of the home is always to the eastern sun (as prescribed by Maharishi Vedic Architecture) not orientated differently in northern and southern hemispheres to maximise light (as prescribed by western and Feng Shui architecture design).

A theoretical discussion of the use of sunlight and orientation in western, Feng Shui and Vedic approach to architecture, and then a cross-sectional quantitative survey conduced in 14 countries.

The lived experience of 158 home occupants in Maharishi Vedic Architecture did not vary from northern to southern hemispheres.

Research of this type has never been carried out before on Maharishi Vedic Architecture, except for one other study published in 2020 by these authors which considered the lived experience of home occupants. The amount of research on the basics of Vastu architecture is minimal.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the relationship between emotion and European energy forward prices of oil, gas, coal and electricity during normal times and periods of extreme price movements.

Methodology/Approach – We use a biorhythm approach characterized by the seasonal affective disorder (SAD) variable to study the impact of emotion on energy markets. Normal times and periods of extreme price movements are approximated by OLS and quantile estimations, respectively.

Findings – We use European energy forward prices of oil, gas, coal, and electricity. European equity future index (Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50) and euro/dollar US exchange rate are used as control variables for economic and financial environment. Estimating OLS and quantile regressions, we find that seasonal patterns have a significant impact during extreme volatility periods only. Further investigations reveal that the SAD effect is significant during periods of price decrease, but insignificant during price increase times. The out-of-sample predictive ability properties show that our “SAD model” outperforms significantly the pure “macroeconomic” one.

Originality/Value of chapter – This topic is novel in energy finance since I use psychological background theory to understand energy price dynamics. I illustrate the relevance of our approach by comparing the out-of-sample predictive ability of our model against macroeconomic one. My results could be considered to improve energy porfolio allocation.

We examine the global warming temperature data sets of Jones et al. (1999) and Vinnikov et al. (1994) in the context of the multivariate deterministic trend-testing framework of Franses and Vogelsang (2002). We find that, across all seasons, global warming seems to be present for the globe and for the northern and southern hemispheres. Globally and within hemispheres, it appears that seasons are not warming equally fast. In particular, winters appear to be warming faster than summers. Across hemispheres, it appears that the winters in the northern and southern hemispheres are warming equally fast whereas the remaining seasons appear to have unequal warming rates. The results obtained here seem to coincide with the findings of Kaufmann and Stern (2002) who use cointegration analysis and find that the hemispheres are warming at different rates.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the sustained growth of sweet cherry exports in recent years in Argentina and to what extent the coordination mechanisms between public and private institutions can explain the growth.

The research method used in the paper is descriptive and based on in-depth interviews with producers, agencies and institutions from the cherry industry. Qualitative results are complemented with analysis of key market data.

The sweet cherry industry in Argentina underwent a shake up with entry of new vertically integrated players and the technological upgrade of traditional producers that resulted in an export boom. The transformation of the industry was induced by the global market conditions and, more importantly, the promotion and complementarities achieved through a strong public–private partnership. Despite the constant increase in global demand for counter-season cherries, exports from Argentina are currently struggling to sustain growth. Among various bottlenecks, the authors find the instability of government policies (e.g. labor law, tax system, economic and trade policies) as the main cause for the slowdown in investment and expansion of the planted area.

The paper highlights the importance of understanding the growth process of an industry and the different ways in which public and private sectors can enhance export performance. The relationship between the success of private–public partnerships and the particular configuration and characteristics of the industry deserve further study. The usual limitations from single-case studies apply.

The study has two contributions. First, the study uncovers the economics underlying the development and configuration of the sweet cherry industry in Argentina. Second, the study documents a successful case of private–public partnership to boost exports and reach new markets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of Australian climate scientists in advancing the state of knowledge about the causes and mechanisms of climatic change and variability in the Southern Hemisphere during the 1970 and 1980s.

The paper uses the methods and insights of environmental history and the history of science to analyse archival and published data pertaining to research on atmospheric pollution, the Southern Oscillation and the regional impacts of climate change.

Australia's geopolitical position, political interests and environmental sensitivities encouraged Australian scientists and policymakers to take a leading role in the Southern Hemisphere in the study of global environmental change.

This article builds on critiques of the ways in which planetary and global knowledge and governance disguise the local and situated scientific and material processes that construct, sustain and configure them.

The subject of this paper is seasonal variation in the return on stocks. The phenomenon we analyze here is known as the “Halloween effect” or the trading strategy “sell in May and go away.” The authors test the hypothesis that stock markets tend to return considerably less in the six months beginning in May than in the other half of the year. This effect has shown persistency over time and is seemingly large enough to be a candidate for economic significance.

The authors analyze monthly data from 13 countries for the period 1958–2019, using the Kruskal–Wallis test, t-test and a boot-strap based estimator. In addition, we look a sub-periods for a larger group of countries and include data on both stock returns and interest rates.

The authors find a strong seasonal effect in a large majority of the markets, with the period from November to April seeing higher returns than the other six months of the year. This result also holds for a larger sample of countries based on data from a shorter period. The effect is found to be economically significant in most countries in the sample. The authors examine one potential explanation for seasonal variation in stock returns, i.e. seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The authors find some, albeit weak, support for this hypothesis.

This paper uses a rich dataset that has not been used for this purpose before and robust tests of statistical and economic significance to shed light on an important aspect of global financial markets.

This review deals with the pros and cons of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on human beings and the role of textile clothing and the chemicals used for textiles to protect from their harmful effects.

UV radiation (UVR) which has further divided into UVA, UVB, and UVC. Almost 100% of UVC and major portion of UVB are bounced back to stratosphere by ozone layer while UVA enters the earth atmosphere. Excessive exposure of solar or artificial UVR exhibit potential risks to human health. UVR is a major carcinogen and excessive exposure of solar radiation in sunlight can cause cancer in the lip, skin squamous cell, basal cell and cutaneous melanoma, particularly in people with the fair skin.

This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the harmful effects of UVR on human skin, factors affecting UV irradiance and factors affecting UV protection offered by textile clothing.

Effect of fiber properties, yarn properties, fabric construction, fabric treatments and laundering has been reviewed along with the identification of gaps in the reported research. A comparison of inorganic and organic UV absorbers has also been given along with different testing and evaluation methods for UV protective clothing.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how Argentina has successfully developed a non-traditional export business such as blueberry, explain the causes of the most recent competitive crisis and analyze the emerging public–private strategies as a response.

The unit of analysis of this study is the blueberry agro-system which is a complex network of backward, forward and lateral linkages with specialized buyers, suppliers, institutions and other economic agents. Considering the qualitative and relational nature of the dimensions studied, a case study methodology was adopted. The data were collected from primary and secondary sources through in-depth interview techniques and documentary analysis. These techniques were complemented by the processing of quantitative information to enrich the analysis and put the case into a broader context.

The main finding of this study is that Argentina's export-oriented business model based on off-season high prices and scarcity of supply in the Northern Hemisphere markets must be revised and reformulated. This revision, already underway, was triggered by the Peruvian competition and is driven by the firm compromise of companies and chambers and in many cases has the backing of public bodies; this revision is an open-ended process in which the success of efforts to recreate profitability and competitiveness of the sector is not guaranteed.

The case study methodology implemented in the study implies that the main findings cannot be directly extrapolated to other fruits or crops. In fact, lessons and policy implications for other sectors should be conceived with caution. Another limitation is that the research relies on the perspectives of domestic stakeholders who have to respond and adapt to specific rules established by traders and supermarkets. The views and perspectives of these big companies, which manage a buyer-driven global value chain, could not be incorporated and is an area for further research.

The study uses the concept of temporal window to analyze the business opportunity for off-season fresh fruits exports. This concept is a key to understand both the development of a modern value chain in a South American country to market blueberries in the Northern Hemisphere and the crisis created by the emergence of new more competitive suppliers such as Peru. The main explanatory factors are historical, technological, institutional, firm-related and market.

Looks at the problem of global warming from the viewpoint of wholeness. That is, the problem of global warming will be looked at in a comprehensive study considering several aspects of the cosmos, the Earth, and the phenomenon of life. With such a broad understanding in mind, first analyzes both the disadvantageous and advantageous aspects of the current global warming. Second, compares three typical environmental conditions in which humans have lived. Third, employing the concept of global warming, looks at the myth of how ancient civilizations appeared and disappeared. Then, considering our Earth system as an open system travelling in the universe, provides an explanation for the current global warming and for global climate changes. It is expected that the explanation presented can be applied to produce long‐term predictions for climate changes.

The chapter discusses pedagogical models of digital learning in the United Kingdom with a focus on online and blended learning, rolled out as a case study in one university. The chapter appraises the effectiveness of the model that implemented and foregrounded the evidence in the wider literature on models of digital learning in higher education. The chapter provides thematic analysis and methodological opportunities for the improvement of practice and presents a set of implementation implications and pitfalls to avoid for higher education institutions in Africa. Furthermore, a number of trends regarding the blending of learning and communication synchrony in digital learning have also been identified.