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This paper reviews the possibilities of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreading from infected humans to pet animals and from pet animals to other animals and humans.

A systematic literature review and meta-analysis were performed on research articles from November 2019 to August 2020. This study explored urgently needed research issues on COVID-19 infection spreading across animals and humans and vice versa.

Essential and much needed precautionary measures and necessary preventive steps to protect pet animals from infection were highlighted.

Essential investigation and experiment results were highlighted. The necessary measure to prevent the spread of infection among and across species and people was analyzed.

Because of the anisotropy of the process and the variability in the quality of printed parts, finite element analysis is not directly applicable to recycled materials manufactured using fused filament fabrication. The purpose of this study is to investigate the numerical-experimental mechanical behavior modeling of the recycled polymer, that is, recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), manufactured by a deposition FFF process under compressive stresses for new sustainable designs.

In all, 42 test specimens were manufactured and analyzed according to the ASTM D695-15 standards. Eight numerical analyzes were performed on a real design manufactured with rPET using Young's compression modulus from the experimental tests. Finally, eight additional experimental tests under uniaxial compression loads were performed on the real sustainable design for validating its mechanical behavior versus computational numerical tests.

As a result of the experimental tests, rPET behaves linearly until it reaches the elastic limit, along each manufacturing axis. The results of this study confirmed the design's structural safety by the load scenario and operating boundary conditions. Experimental and numerical results show a difference of 0.001–0.024 mm, allowing for the rPET to be configured as isotropic in numerical simulation software without having to modify its material modeling equations.

The results obtained are of great help to industry, designers and researchers because they validate the use of recycled rPET for the ecological production of real-sustainable products using MEX technology under compressive stress and its configuration for numerical simulations. Major design companies are now using recycled plastic materials in their high-end designs.

Validation results have been presented on test specimens and real items, comparing experimental material configuration values with numerical results. Specifically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no industrial or scientific work has been conducted with rPET subjected to uniaxial compression loads for characterizing experimentally and numerically the material using these results for validating a real case of a sustainable industrial product.

The purpose of this paper is to review cases about complaints of abortuses handling in Hong Kong, and to further propose policy recommendations to help comfort parents with respect and dignity toward abortuses.

There is a systematic review of articles/newspapers related to the practice and regulation of abortuses handling in Hong Kong and overseas countries. Also, point of views among stakeholders are selected from: newspapers, patients’ groups, Hong Kong SAR Government’s websites, radio programmes’ interviews, related organizations’ websites, blogs from legislative councilors and lawyers.

Since parents suffered from miscarriage before 24 weeks’ pregnancy are increasingly willing to share their experiences and struggled for arranging a legal funeral for their children, Hong Kong SAR Government is able to understand these parents’ needs and hence set up more “Angel Garden” in both the public and the private cemeteries. Yet, the provision of funeral and cremation services are still not comprehensive. Existing measures from Mainland China and overseas countries to handle abortuses and to provide support for parents are analyzed. More critically, ethical concern on handling abortuses as one of the clinical wastes is further included in the discussion.

Although all less than 24 weeks’ fetuses cannot be given any Certificate of Stillbirth, respect and dignity can still be presented toward their parents by flexible regulation. After discussing the related measures on handling abortuses from other countries, some of their humane regulations are feasible to be applied to Hong Kong.

The study proposes Material Flow Analysis (MFA) methodology as a tool to measure and qualify food waste in the Italian beef supply chain in each stage of the food supply chain, from farm to fork. In particular, the authors attempt to: (1) measure resources consumption and waste generation toward companies' and policymakers' sustainable evaluations; (2) enhance consumers' education in the field of agri-food resilience and sustainability.

MFA is applied to the entire Italian sector of beef consumed as packaged fresh product in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis regards bovine, which represent roughly one-third of the national meat flow. To collect data, bottom-up and top-down mixed approach is applied. Subsequently, MFA results are used to calculate the wastage-related losses in terms of embedded natural resources (e.g. water, energy).

In 2020, it results that the Italian meat industry slaughtered more than 1.15 Mt of bovine to produce approximately 0.29 Mt of fresh meat, 0.69 Mt of by-products and over 0.015 Mt of food waste at households, while 0.15 Mt of beef meat is destined to catering services and food industry (out-of-boundaries). In terms of hidden natural resources, it emerged that, on average, more than 94bn m3 of water, approximately 101,000 TJ of energy and over 11,500 t of PET and PE trays are required to sustain the entire beef system.

This research is one of the few studies proposing MFA methodology as a tool to measure food waste and hidden associated flows in the agri-food sector. This analysis shows its utility in terms of natural resources (water, energy, materials) and waste quality/quantity evaluation, hidden flows accounting and development of new educational strategies toward food waste minimization and sustainability at household consumption.

In cities with high density, heat is often trapped between buildings which increases the frequency and intensity of heat events. Researchers have focused on developing strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of heat in cities. Adopting green infrastructure and cooling pavements are some of the many ways to promote thermal comfort against heat. The purpose of this study is to improve microclimate conditions and thermal comfort levels in high-density living conditions in Seoul, South Korea.

This study compares six design alternatives of an apartment complex with different paving and planting systems. It also examines the thermal outcome of the alternatives under normal and extreme heat conditions to suggest strategies to secure acceptable thermal comfort levels for the inhabitants. Each alternative is analyzed using ENVI-met, a software program that simulates microclimate conditions and thermal comfort features based on relationships among buildings, vegetation and pavements.

The results indicate that grass paving was more effective than stone paving in lowering air temperature and improving thermal comfort at the near-surface level. Coniferous trees were found to be more effective than broadleaf trees in reducing temperature. Thermal comfort levels were most improved when coniferous trees were planted in paired settings.

Landscape elements show promise for the improvement of thermal conditions because it is much easier to redesign landscape elements, such as paving or planting, than to change fixed urban elements like buildings and roads. The results identified the potential of landscape design for improving microclimate and thermal comfort in urban residential complexes.

The results contribute to the literature by examining the effect of tree species and layout on thermal comfort levels, which has been rarely investigated in previous studies.