bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Historical Global Review of Acid-Volatile Sulfide Sediment Monitoring Data
Authors: Hall Lenwood W. , Anderson Ronald D.
Published: September 2022

Acid-volatile sulfides (AVS) are strongly associated with the bioavailability of some divalent metals such as cadmium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc. However, the global spatial variability of AVS for aquatic systems is unknown. The specific goals of this study were to: (1) summarize all available AVS monitoring data from all types of freshwater and saltwater waterbodies (streams/creeks, rivers, lakes/ponds/reservoirs and estuarine/marine areas) and (2) compare AVS concentrations from these various types of waterbodies considering both soil type classification and biomes. AVS measurements were reported from 21 different countries. A total of 17 different soil types were reported for all waterbody types and both podzols and luvisols were found in all waterbody types. Nine different biomes were sampled for all waterbody types. The temperate broadleaf and mixed forest biome was sampled for AVS in all waterbody types. Mean AVS concentrations ranged from 0.01 to 503 µmoles/g for 140 different waterbody types and the 90th centile for all these waterbodies was 49.4 µmoles/g. A ranking of waterbody type means from low to high AVS measurements showed the lowest mean value was reported for streams/creeks (5.12 µmoles/g; range from 0.1 to 39.8 µmoles/g) followed by lakes/ponds/reservoirs (11.3 µmoles/g; range from 0.79 to 127 µmoles/g); estuarine/marine areas (27.2 µmoles/g; range from 0.06 to 503 µmoles/g) and rivers (27.7 µmoles/g; range from 1.13 to 197 µmoles/g). The data provided in this study are compelling as it showed that the high variability of AVS measurements within each waterbody type as well as the variability of AVS within specific locations were often multiple orders of magnitude differences for concentration ranges. Therefore, a comprehensive spatial and temporal scale sampling of AVS in concert with divalent metals analysis is critical to avoid possible errors when evaluating the potential ecological risk of divalent metals in sediment.
A Practical Accessibility Evaluation Method for Port-Centric Coal Transportation Chains: Considering the Environment and Operational Adaptability
Authors: Dong Min , Li Yuhao , Xu Xinglu , Zha Yaping
Published: September 2022

Improving the accessibility of coal transportation is a crucial issue for energy security, national defense, and livelihoods. In this study, a method to evaluate the performance of the port-centric coal transportation chain (PCTC), which is a crucial part of the international coal production and delivery process, is proposed. After analyzing the features of the port-centric coal transportation chain, a practical accessibility evaluation model is established based on the gravity model. Both the foreland and hinterland features are considered in the model. Based on the features of coal transportation, the concept of port operational adaptability is introduced to indicate the port’s ability to manage a fluctuating irregular workload. Moreover, environmental factors, including transportation emissions and dust pollution, are included in the evaluation system. Based on real data collected from China’s north-south coal transportation corridor, a case study presents the implementation of this comprehensive evaluation system in practice. This evaluation system enables us to determine the vulnerable areas in the coal maritime transportation network and provides a decision-making basis for both shippers and port owners.
African Indigenous Female Entrepreneurs (IFÉs): A Closed-Looped Social Circular Economy Waste Management Model
Authors: Chineme Atinuke , Assefa Getachew , Herremans Irene M. , Wylant Barry , Shumo Marwa
Published: September 2022

Uncontrolled waste disposal sites remain prevalent in low- and lower-middle-income countries, with organic waste constituting between 50 and 80% of the total openly dumped waste volumes. Waste-to-wealth initiatives focused on biowaste enterprises through female entrepreneurs can advance the eradication of open dumps while creating economic opportunities. This study, therefore, proposes an organizational model that leverages Indigenous female institutions, circular economy concepts, and a closed-loop biowaste management technique that mitigates the open-dump challenge. The Indigenous female entrepreneur (IFÉ) business model leverages circular economy and social circular economy models in the application of a low-tech insect-based biowaste conversion that valorizes municipal solid waste into products that can be reintegrated into the environment and community. The model will be utilized in a Tanzanian pilot study using co-production strategies to derive a sustainable biowaste enterprise. Co-production sees users as authorities in their own circumstances and treats them as primus inter pares with experts, thus facilitating the integration of the relational element of Indigenous societies and motivating cultural appreciation. Conversely, co-production will necessitate revisions to the model in every location where it is applied. The model was successfully test-run in a high-income country, but future research, including the pilot study, will validate the model and highlight innovations.
Integrated Farming Systems as an Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change: Case Studies from Diverse Agro-Climatic Zones of India
Authors: Paramesh Venkatesh , Kumar Parveen , Shamim Mohammad , Ravisankar Natesan , Arunachalam Vadivel , Nath Arun Jyoti , Mayekar Trivesh , Singh Raghuveer , Prusty Ashisa K. , Rajkumar Racharla Solomon , Panwar Azad Singh , Reddy Viswanatha K. , Pramanik Malay , Das Anup , Manohara Kallakeri Kannappa , Babu Subhash , Kashyap Poonam
Published: September 2022

Climate change impacts agricultural productivity and farmers’ income, integrated farming systems (IFS) provide a mechanism to cope with such impacts. The nature and extent of climatic aberrations, perceived impact, and adaptation strategies by the farmers reduce the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate 2160 IFS farmers about their perceptions of climate change, barriers, and the likelihood of adapting to the negative impacts of climate change. The study observed an increasing rainfall trend for humid (4.18 mm/year) and semi-arid (0.35 mm/year) regions, while a decreasing trend was observed in sub-humid (−2.02 mm/year) and arid (−0.20 mm/year) regions over the last 38 years. The annual rise in temperature trends observed in different ACZs varied between 0.011–0.014 °C. Nearly 79% of IFS farmers perceived an increase in temperature, decreasing rainfall, variability in the onset of monsoon, heavy terminal rains, mid-season dry spells, and frequent floods due to climate change. The arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, and humid farmers’ adapted several measures in different components with an adaption index of 50.2%, 66.6%, 83.3%, and 91.6%, respectively. The majority of the IFS farmers perceived constraints in adopting measures to climate change, such as meta barriers, capacity barriers, and water barriers. Therefore, we infer that educated farmers involved in diversified and profitable farms with small to medium landholdings are concerned more about climate change in undertaking adaptive strategies to reduce the environmental impact of climate change.
Grassroots Innovation for Urban Greening within a Governance Vacuum by Slum Dwellers in Dhaka
Authors: Sultana Razia , Birtchnell Thomas , Gill Nicholas
Published: September 2022

The nature-based solutions of slumdwellers are paramount to the ongoing integrity of major cities in the global South. The paper investigates the urban-greening decision-making of slum citizens whose civic participation finds support in shared governance initiatives: non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs). The background informing the conceptual framework guiding this research derives from socio-technical transitions scholarship on critical niches in grassroots innovations. The objective of this research is to examine how slum dwellers are implementing urban greening in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The research considers how slum dwellers manage a governance vacuum through civic participation with NGOs and CBOs. The methods in this study comprise qualitative fieldwork in Dhaka and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and citizens. The research findings show that a governance vacuum requires an adjustment to the perspective on grassroots innovations to endure in the global South in contexts where there is limited opportunity locally for intermediaries to achieve scale. There is a limit to the extent that the critical niches perspective applies to grassroots innovations in greening Dhaka’s slums; therefore, we contribute nuance as a refinement to the approach. The study offers a complementary explanatory framework for how NGOs, CBOs and other intermediaries at the grassroots contend with, and even thrive within, a vacuum of governance in the enactment of urban greening in Dhaka’s slum settlements.
Biofortification—Present Scenario, Possibilities and Challenges: A Scientometric Approach
Authors: Srivastav Pooja , Vutukuru Mahesh , Ravindran Gobinath , Awad Mohamed M.
Published: September 2022

Biofortification refers to the process by which food crops are improved by the application of biotechnology, conventional plant breeding, and agronomic practices to increase the bioavailability of their nutritious components to human consumers. The biofortification of staple crops is a long-term, sustainable solution to address nutritional inadequacies. Thus, it is a practical and cost-effective way to provide micronutrients to communities that have limited access to various meals and other micronutrient therapies. Existing therapies, such as supplementation and industrial food fortification, which are insufficient to eliminate micronutrient deficiencies on their own, are complemented by biofortification. However, biofortification offers two substantial competitive advantages: the capacity to reach underserved rural communities and long-term cost-effectiveness. Biofortified crops can also be used to target rural populations with limited access to various dietary options or other micronutrient therapies. Hence, an attempt is made herein to provide an overview of the biofortification literature by employing scientometric and network analysis tools to examine records extracted from the Scopus database that were published between 2010 and 2021. This study investigates the most influential authors and journals, top-contributing institutions and countries, variations across publication years, co-occurrence analysis of keywords, and bibliographic coupling of sources. The results obtained through this study describe the real impact of the research published to date and its usage.
Exploring Natural and Social Factors Affecting Road Disruption Patterns and the Duration of Recovery: A Case from Hiroshima, Japan
Authors: Sansano Rodelia , Chikaraishi Makoto
Published: September 2022

For the past few decades, the occurrence and severity of disasters have been increasing. This study empirically explores factors affecting road disruption patterns and the duration of road recovery based on the road network disruption and recovery record in Hiroshima, Japan, over the last 19 years, using (1) a binary logit model to identify factors affecting the disruption probability of each road link, and (2) a survival model to identify the factors affecting the recovery duration. We divided the factors into social and natural factors, where the former might be easier for policy makers to control. Results show that not only natural factors, but also social factors, particularly who manages the road, significantly affect both the probability of road disruptions and road recovery duration. This implies that the ability and available resources that each road manager has firstly affects the quality of the road, which in turn affects the probability of it being disrupted, and secondly affects the quickness of taking recovery actions. This points to potential avenues for improving coordination across cities, prefectures, and national road managers in managing roads during disasters.
Plastic Waste Recycling, Applications, and Future Prospects for a Sustainable Environment
Authors: Maitlo Ghulamullah , Ali Imran , Maitlo Hubdar Ali , Ali Safdar , Unar Imran Nazir , Ahmad Muhammad Bilal , Bhutto Darya Khan , Karmani Ramesh Kumar , Naich Shamim ur Rehman , Sajjad Raja Umer , Ali Sikandar , Afridi Muhammad Naveed
Published: September 2022

Plastic waste accumulation has been recognized as one of the most critical challenges of modern societies worldwide. Traditional waste management practices include open burning, landfilling, and incineration, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions and economic loss. In contrast, emerging techniques for plastic waste management include microwave-assisted conversion, plasma-assisted conversion, supercritical water conversion, and photo reforming to obtain high-value products. Problems with poorly managed plastic waste are particularly serious in developing countries. This review article examines the emerging strategies and production of various high-value-added products from plastic waste. Additionally, the uses of plastic waste in different sectors, such as construction, fuel production, wastewater treatment, electrode materials, carbonaceous nanomaterials, and other high-value-added products are reviewed. It has been observed that there is a pressing need to utilize plastic waste for a circular economy and recycling for different value-added products. More specifically, there is limited knowledge on emerging plastic waste conversion mechanisms and efficiency. Therefore, this review will help to highlight the negative environmental impacts of plastic waste accumulation and the importance of modern techniques for waste management.
Mathematical Model for the Generalized VRP Model
Authors: Agárdi Anita , Kovács László , Bányai Tamás
Published: September 2022

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a highly investigated logistics problem. VRP can model in-plant and out-plant material handling or a whole supply chain. The first Vehicle Routing Problem article was published in 1959 by Dantzig and Ramser, and many varieties of VRP have appeared since then. Transport systems are becoming more and more customized these days, so it is necessary to develop a general system that covers many transport tasks. Based on the literature, several components of VRP have appeared, but the development of an integrated system with all components has not yet been completed by the researchers. An integrated system can be useful because it is easy to configure; many transportation tasks can be easily modeled with its help. Our purpose is to present a generalized VRP model and show, in the form of case studies, how many transport tasks the system can model by including (omitting) each component. In this article, a generalized system is introduced, which covers the main VRP types that have appeared over the years. In the introduction, the basic Vehicle Routing Problem is presented, where the most important Vehicle Routing Problem components published so far are also detailed. The paper also gives the mathematical model of the generalization of the Vehicle Routing Problem and some case studies of the model are presented.
Factors Affecting the Parental Intention of Using AVs to Escort Children: An Integrated SEM–Hybrid Choice Model Approach
Authors: Mao Yueqi , Mei Qiang , Jing Peng , Zha Ye , Xue Ying , Huang Jiahui , Shao Danning , Luo Pan
Published: September 2022

Automated vehicle (AVs) technology is advancing at a rapid pace, offering new options for school travel. Parents play a decisive role in the choice of their child’s school travel mode. To enable primary and secondary school students to take AVs to and from school, it is necessary to understand the factors that affect parents’ intentions toward the new school travel mode. This study has three primary aims: (1) Discovering parents’ intentions to escort children by AV and their potential determinants. (2) Constructing the Hybrid Choice Model (HCM) to examine the effects of parents’ socioeconomic attributes, psychological factors, and travel attributes on using AVs to escort their children. (3) Raising practical implications to accelerate AV applications in school travel. The findings suggested that knowledge of AVs is the most important factor influencing parental intentions. Perceived usefulness, attitude, and perceived risk had significant effects on parental intentions. The direct effects of public engagement and perceived ease of use on parental intentions were not significant. Finally, this research can provide decision-making support for the government to formulate measures to promote AV application in school travel.
Research on Elevation Survey Method of Sea-Crossing Bridge under Adverse Conditions
Authors: Xiao Jun , Xian Jianping , Li Song , Zou Shuai
Published: September 2022

Aiming to survey scenarios of offshore projects with difficult horizontal elevation transmission and long-distance, all-weather elevation monitoring operations, a long-distance, total station, trigonometric leveling based on dynamic compensation is proposed. The feasibility of this method was verified by an outdoor survey experiment, and the range of transverse coverage and accuracy reached by this method was quantitatively analyzed. The results indicate that this method shows a good correction effect on the survey results of test points under different environmental conditions, which proves that this method is feasible. The correction effect of this method is affected by the distance between the test point and the datum point; within the range of 60 m horizontally from the datum point, an assurance rate of about 90% can be achieved for the error range of 20 mm. Combining with the built-in ATR (Automatic Target Recognition) technology of the total station, this method can make the elevation survey result reach the accuracy of millimeter level under the range of about 1000 m, by obtaining multiple groups of data and then calculating the mean value. This paper provides a new method for the elevation transfer of sea-crossing bridges under long-distance conditions and harsh environmental conditions.
Using Artificial Intelligence to Predict Students’ Academic Performance in Blended Learning
Authors: Hamadneh Nawaf N. , Atawneh Samer , Khan Waqar A. , Almejalli Khaled A. , Alhomoud Adeeb
Published: September 2022

University electronic learning (e-learning) has witnessed phenomenal growth, especially in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This type of education is significant because it ensures that all students receive the required learning. The statistical evaluations are limited in providing good predictions of the university’s e-learning quality. That is forcing many universities to go to online and blended learning environments. This paper presents an approach of statistical analysis to identify the most common factors that affect the students’ performance and then use artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict students’ performance within the blended learning environment of Saudi Electronic University (SEU). Accordingly, this dissertation generated a dataset from SEU’s Blackboard learning management system. The student’s performance can be tested using a set of factors: the studying (face-to-face or virtual), percentage of attending live lectures, midterm exam scores, and percentage of solved assessments. The results showed that the four factors are responsible for academic performance. After that, we proposed a new ANN model to predict the students’ performance depending on the four factors. Firefly Algorithm (FFA) was used for training the ANNs. The proposed model’s performance will be evaluated through different statistical tests, such as error functions, statistical hypothesis tests, and ANOVA tests.
Temperament, Character and Cognitive Emotional Regulation in the Latent Profile Classification of Smartphone Addiction in University Students
Authors: Choi Dong-Hyun , Jung Young-Su
Published: September 2022

The frequency of smartphone use has been increasing since COVID-19, and the problem of smartphone addiction is expected to intensify in modern society where smartphones have diverse uses. According to a recent study, cognitive emotional regulation strategies have proven to be effective in deepening or alleviating smartphone addiction. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of smartphone addiction according to various psychosocial approaches, including the cognitive emotional regulation strategy. The purpose of this study is to classify the potential profiles of smartphone addiction and to verify the trends and differences of the classified groups. A total of 333 college students with an age range of 22–25 were targeted. All subjects were asked to take the Smartphone Addition Scale Based on Behavioral Addiction Criteria (SAS-B), Temperature and Character Inventory (TCI), and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). In order to conduct a person-centered approach, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used, and it was analyzed using Mplus 7. As a result, there were significant differences in the classification of potential groups for smart addiction. It was found that there is a high correlation between temperament and character in smartphone addiction and cognitive emotional regulation strategies. This study is expected to be useful as basic data for treatment and preventive approaches according to smartphone addiction in the future.
A Comprehensive Literature Review on Sustainable Horizontal Collaboration
Authors: Mrabti Nassim , Hamani Nadia , Delahoche Laurent
Published: September 2022

Horizontal collaboration is one of the most effective strategies applied to address issues related to sustainability and the adverse effects of commodity distribution. Although it has received increased attention in recent years, no synthesis has been conducted to present the main practices and sustainability indicators used to assess the performance of horizontal collaboration. In addition, the factors that can further improve the performance of horizontal collaboration in terms of sustainability have not been presented in any literature review. Thus, we expose, in this paper, a review of the existing studies dealing with horizontal collaboration, and we define the key indicators used to measure its performance. The most commonly used practices of horizontal collaboration are also illustrated. In fact, the main objectives of the present study are to highlight the impact of certain factors on the success of collaboration and to identify several guidelines for researchers and companies wishing to implement horizontal collaboration.
A Bibliometric Analysis of the Studies on Self-Healing Concrete Published between 1974 and 2021
Authors: Alzard Mohammed H. , El-Hassan Hilal , El-Maaddawy Tamer , Alsalami Marwa , Abdulrahman Fatma , Hassan Ashraf Aly
Published: September 2022

Research on self-healing concrete has flourished in recent years. This paper aims to comprehensively understand the current research situation and future development directions of self-healing concrete. It summarizes and analyzes the publications on self-healing concrete from 1974 to 2021 to reveal the current key research topics and development trends and identifies the most productive research constitutes. The bibliometric analysis software Biblioshiny was used to analyze 1433 documents written by 2961 authors and published in 450 sources retrieved from Scopus. The analysis included an overview of the leading information and an analysis of the authors, countries, universities/institution, publications, and keywords. Results obtained from the author analysis suggest that tracking the work of the most productive authors is essential, as it will provide researchers with valuable information, such as possible leads and ideas for future research work and collaboration opportunities. Countries, universities/institutes, and publications analysis revealed that more collaboration leads to more exposure and a higher citation rate, significantly promoting self-healing research development. A keywords analysis highlighted the focus areas in self-healing concrete and presented potential gaps in the literature. The findings of this study will provide scholars with a comprehensive understanding of the current research work in the field of self-healing concrete and its future directions. Results can also benefit stakeholders in making effective decisions to direct the development of the self-healing industry.
An Integrated Assessment of the Horticulture Sector in Northern Australia to Inform Future Development
Authors: Sangha Kamaljit K. , Ahammad Ronju , Mazahar Muhammed Sohail , Hall Matt , Owens Greg , Kruss Leanne , Verrall Gordon , Moro Jo , Dickinson Geoff
Published: September 2022

The horticulture sector in northern Australia, covering north of Western Australia (WA), Northern Territory (NT), and north Queensland (QLD), contributes $1.6 billion/year to the Australian economy by supplying diverse food commodities to meet domestic and international demand. To date, the Australian Government has funded several studies on developing the north’s agriculture sector, but these primarily focused on land and water resources and omitted an integrated, on-ground feasibility analysis for including farmers’/growers’ perspectives. This study is the first of its kind in the north for offering a detailed integrated assessment, highlighting farmers’ perspectives on the current state of the north’s horticulture sector, and related challenges and opportunities. For this, we applied a bottom-up approach to inform future agriculture development in the region, involving a detailed literature review and conducting several focus group workshops with growers and experts from government organisations, growers’ associations, and regional development agencies. We identified several key local issues pertaining to crop production, availability of, and secure access to, land and water resources, and workforce and marketing arrangements (i.e., transport or processing facilities, export opportunities, biosecurity protocols, and the role of the retailers/supermarkets) that affect the economic viability and future expansion of the sector across the region. For example, the availability of the workforce (skilled and general) has been a challenge across the north since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Similarly, long-distance travel for farm produce due to a lack of processing and export facilities in the north restricts future farm developments. Any major investment should be aligned with growers’ interests. This research highlights the importance of understanding and incorporating local growers’ and researchers’ perspectives, applying a bottom-up approach, when planning policies and programs for future development, especially for the horticulture sector in northern Australia and other similar regions across the globe where policy makers’ perspectives may differ from farmers.
COVID-19: Understanding Novel Pathogens in Coupled Social–Ecological Systems
Authors: Baker Susan , Bruford Michael W. , MacBride-Stewart Sara , Essam Alice , Nicol Poppy , Sanderson Bellamy Angelina
Published: September 2022

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the spread of COVID-19 is explored using a social-ecological systems (SES) framework. From an SES perspective, the pandemic is the outcome of feedback loops and cascading interactions within an anthropologically disturbed system. However, the SES framework tends to overemphasize human agency as drivers of system disequilibrium. Drawing on posthumanism theory in social science, the agency of the non-human world also plays a critical role in disturbances in SES. Non-human agency is incorporated into the SES framework, applying it to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the spread of COVID-19, and public health responses. The paper is interdisciplinary, and a non-systematic literature review was combined with Socratic dialogue to examine how human-induced changes trigger feedbacks in SES, such as SARS-CoV-2. The non-human world, embedded within a coupled system of material relations; the natural/biological element, that finds expression in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and in generating the genome novel recombinant, which aligns with the conceptualization of the non-human as “vibrant”, all play a role in shaping systems dynamics. This calls into question the anthropocentric view that human agency has the capacity to drive ecosystem dynamics. The implications for SES theory are discussed and we conclude with a case for a new ethics of interdependency to better serve SES analysis. The implications for practice, particularly considering projected future novel virus outbreaks, are discussed.
Comparative Assessment of Sponge City Constructing in Public Awareness, Xi’an, China
Authors: Luo Pingping , Zheng Yue , Wang Yiyi , Zhang Shipeng , Yu Wangqi , Zhu Xi , Huo Aidi , Wang Zhenhong , He Bin , Nover Daniel
Published: September 2022

Climate change and urbanization are causing increasingly frequent urban flooding in countries around the world. Various innovative approaches have emerged to address this challenge. In China, the Sponge City was first proposed in 2012 to achieve an urban hydrological balance through natural storage, natural infiltration and natural purification. This article presents a comparative investigation (using a survey method) of new and old communities in Xixian New District and Xi’an in September 2021 to investigate public awareness of the Sponge City and understand levels of satisfaction and acceptance. Individuals of the same age or education residing in the Sponge City generally know more about the Sponge City and were more willing to accept it than those in traditional cities. Moreover, the residents of Sponge City understand the Sponge City concept well, with a majority of the respondents (71.82%) expressing clear understanding on the conception of Sponge City. However, residents in a traditional city exhibited much less understanding of the concept (44.24%). Furthermore, for those living in the same area, people who are younger or have higher education exhibited a clearer understanding of and acceptance of the Sponge City and local government. In this survey, the average scores (assign values to the different responses, then average and percent it) of respondents in Xixian New District with master’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees and high school degrees or below were evaluated at 76.88, 67.94 and 62.15, respectively, compared to 62.07, 50.18 and 50.78 in Xi’an. Lastly, we found that differences in living environment have a significant influence on residents’ perceptions. Residents living in the Sponge City are generally satisfied with the travel and living conditions and greatly support the local government. Meanwhile, this study will help relevant authorities pay more attention to residents’ opinions and help them to formulate policies to spread the concept of Sponge City and encourage residents’ participation.
Accelerating the Transition to a Circular Economy for Net-Zero Emissions by 2050: A Systematic Review
Authors: Khalifa Ahmed A. , Ibrahim Abdul-Jalil , Amhamed Abdulkarem I. , El-Naas Muftah H.
Published: September 2022

Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will require tackling both energy-related and non-energy-related GHG emissions, which can be achieved through the transition to a circular economy (CE). The focus of climate change crisis reversal has been on the energy-related continuum over the years through promoting renewable energy uptake and efficiency in energy use. Clean energy transition and efficiency gains in energy use alone will not be sufficient to achieve net-zero emissions in 2050 without paying attention to non-energy-related CO2 emissions. This study systematically reviews the CE literature across different themes, sectors, approaches, and tools to identify accelerators in transitioning to a CE. The study aims to understand and explore how technology, finance, ecosystem, and behavioral studies in the CE paradigm can be integrated as a decision-making tool for CE transition. The material analysis was carried out by identifying the main characteristics of the literature on CE implementation in the agriculture, industry, energy, water, and tourism sectors. Results of the literature survey are synthesized to engender clarity in the literature and identify research gaps to inform future research. Findings show that many studies focused on technology as an accelerator for CE transition, and more studies are needed regarding the CE ecosystem, financing, and behavioral aspects. Also, results show that CE principles are applied at the micro-, meso-, and macro- (national, regional, and global) levels across sectors with the dominance of the industrial sector. The agriculture, water, and energy sectors are at the initial stages of implementation. Additionally, the use of carbon capture and utilization or storage, conceptualized as a circular carbon economy, needs attention in tackling CE implementation in the energy sector, especially in hydrocarbon-endowed economies. The major implication of these findings is that for CE to contribute to accelerated net-zero emission by 2050, coordinated policies should be promoted to influence the amount of financing available to innovative circular businesses and technologies within an ecosystem that engenders behavioral change towards circularity.
Evaluation of Terrestrial Water Storage Changes over China Based on GRACE Solutions and Water Balance Method
Authors: Zhang Menglin , Teng Yanguo , Jiang Yazhen , Yin Wenjie , Wang Xuelei , Zhang Dasheng , Liao Jinfeng
Published: September 2022

Accurate estimation of terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) is crucial for the sustainable management of water resources and human living. In this study, long-term TWSA estimates are reconstructed by integration of multiple meteorological products and the water balance (WB) method at 0.5° × 0.5° resolution, generating a total of 12 combinations of different meteorological data. This scheme is applied to 10 river basins (RBs) within China and validated against GRACE observations and GLDAS simulations from 2003 to 2020. Results indicate that similar seasonal characteristics can be observed between different precipitation and evapotranspiration products with the average correlation coefficient and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient metrics larger than 0.96 and 0.90, respectively. Three GRACE solutions indicate similar seasonal variations and long-term trends of TWSA over 10 RBs, with the correlation above 0.90. Similar performance can also be observed concerning the root mean square error and mean absolute error metrics. Nevertheless, WB-based TWSA estimates represent larger discrepancies compared to GRACE observations and GLDAS simulations. Specifically, the variation amplitude and long-term trend of WB-based results are much larger than that of the GRACE observations, which is mainly caused by the inaccuracy of remote sensing products and the neglect of anthropogenic activities. Comparable TWSA estimates independently computed from the WB method can only be achieved in 4 out of 10 RBs. This study can provide insightful suggestions for an enhanced understanding of TWSA estimates and improving the performance of the water balance method.
Autonomous Innovations in the Rural Communities of Developing Countries I—A Narrative Analysis of Innovations and Synergies for Integrated Natural Resource Management
Authors: Tajima Hidetomo , Sato Tetsu , Takemura Shion , Hori Juri , Makino Mitsutaku , Rampisela Dorothea Agnes , Shimagami Motoko , Matewere John Banana , Ndawala Brighten
Published: September 2022

Vulnerable sectors of the population living in poverty in developing countries are highly dependent on renewable natural resources for their livelihoods and daily lives. Sustainable resource management, improving the well-being of vulnerable people, and building resilience to shocks are global challenges. This study analyzed the outcomes of various autonomous innovations by the people themselves and the enablers of these innovations in the communities of developing countries. This analysis of 20 autonomous innovations from six countries revealed that these innovations produced outcomes that simultaneously improved multiple indicators of human well-being, including “basic materials for a good life”, “safety”, “health”, and “good social relations”. The process of promoting public values, such as education, health improvement, and landscape conservation as a by-product of collective actions was an important enabler of these innovations, as well as the innovator’s proactive attitude toward continuous improvement. Public values and supporting ecosystem services were emphasized from the early stages of collective actions, to realize synergies toward integrated natural resource management. It is also important to achieve conditions in which collective actions could be practiced autonomously and adaptively. These results revealed the great potential of autonomous innovations emerging among socially vulnerable groups and the important mechanisms for promoting autonomous innovations for the transformation of social-ecological systems toward sustainable futures.
Can Supplier Concentration Improve Corporate Risk Taking? Moderating Effects of Digital Transformation
Authors: Yang Yuanxi , Guo Jingxian
Published: September 2022

The competitive and cooperative relationships between suppliers and enterprises have important implications for enterprise strategy and operational decisions. Using data from listed manufacturing companies in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper empirically examines the impact of supplier concentration on corporate risk taking and its underlying mechanism. The results support the cooperative view of industrial organizations in a supply chain, which states that the higher the supplier concentration, the greater the level of corporate risk taking. The results are robust to various measures of the supplier concentration (Supply), sample selectivity bias, and endogeneity tests. This paper also shows that digital transformation has a moderating effect on supplier concentration and corporate risk taking. The supplier concentration can significantly increase risk taking in companies that have implemented digital transformation, while the effect is not significant in companies that have not implemented digital transformation. The conclusions drawn from this study provide practical guidance on industrial organization relationship coordination and digital transformation, suggesting that the implementation of digital transformation can help a firm to establish and consolidate a good relationship with suppliers and improve operational efficiency.
An Integrated Two-Dimension Linguistic Intuitionistic Fuzzy Decision-Making Approach for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Supplier Selection
Authors: Li Chong , Huang He , Luo Ya
Published: September 2022

With the rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their applications in problems such as power line inspection, selecting the appropriate UAV supplier according to several sustainable attributes has attracted many interests. In this regard, an integrated multiattribute group decision-making (MAGDM) method based on the best-worst method (BWM) and MULTIMOORA method with two-dimension linguistic intuitionistic fuzzy variables (2DLIFVs) is proposed in this paper for the selection of UAV suppliers. First, the 2DLIFV is utilized to represent the uncertain, fuzzy, and linguistic evaluations of the experts on the evaluation attributes. Second, the two-dimension linguistic intuitionistic fuzzy BWM (2DLIF-BWM) is introduced to compute the weights of the attributes. Then, a novel expert weight calculation method that combines the uncertainty degree and consensus degree of the experts is introduced. Next, the 2DLIF-MULTIMOORA method is proposed, where the aggregation operators and distance measures of the 2DLIFVs are used to determine the ranking results of different alternatives. Finally, a real case of selecting a sustainable UAV supplier for power line inspection is presented to illustrate the process of the proposed method. The experimental results are further analyzed through sensitivity and comparative analyses to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. From the results, it can be found that the proposed method can more flexibly represent the uncertain assessments while providing reasonable and reliable results.
Impact of Perceived Value and Community Attachment on Smart Renovation Participation Willingness for Sustainable Development of Old Urban Communities in China
Authors: Ding Qingyang , Zhang Tong , Zhu Xin , Zhang Jin
Published: September 2022

The transformation of old neighborhoods involves many important types of livelihood development projects, of which smart transformation is considered one of the most important tasks at present. The smart transformation of old neighborhoods provides an important means to promote sustainable development; however, enhancing the willingness of residents to participate is an important prerequisite for the smart transformation of old neighborhoods. Considering perceptive value acceptance theory and community ownership theory in the field of information management and sociology, we study the intention of residents in old communities to participate in intelligent transformation and its influence mechanisms. Our results show that willingness to participate in the smart renovation of old residential areas is positively affected by the perceived value of smart renovation and the sense of community attachment of residents. The sense of community plays an intermediary role in the relationship between perceived value and willingness to participate in smart renovation. At the same time, the perceived value of intelligent renovation of old residential areas and a sense of community have chain mediating effects between perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, perceived risk, perceived cost, and willingness to participate. This paper not only achieves theoretical expansion but also provides good support for accelerating the intelligent transformation of old communities in China.
Blockchain-Enabled Open Quality System for Smart Manufacturing: Applications and Challenges
Authors: Ali Shujaat , Shin Wan Seon , Song Hojun
Published: September 2022

In this technological development era, new trends and approaches related to quality management are emerging. Although many studies have focused on quality management in Industry 4.0, new technologies face difficulties in resolving problems arising from lack of trust, transparency, integrity, track-and-traceability, connectivity, and responsibility in evaluating quality. In this article, we discuss the potential of blockchain to deliver business value with transparent quality by introducing a new quality concept called “open quality”. A systematic literature review presents the increased visibility of open quality across the manufacturing system, based on which a “blockchain-enabled open quality” (OQB) framework in the fourth industrial revolution is proposed. The research contributes by providing a platform to share manufacturing information regarding quality within the entire system, thus ensuring that all members and processes of the system obtain verified information to enhance trust, transparency, and track-and-traceability. By this, manufacturers are able to meet the expectations of the customer and stakeholder with an improved product and system quality. In addition, the potential threats associated with OQB system implementation and their possible solutions are also discussed. Moreover, research gaps that can be explored in future study and the opportunities for new concepts of quality in Industry 4.0 are presented.
Digital Rural Construction and Farmers’ Income Growth: Theoretical Mechanism and Micro Experience Based on Data from China
Authors: Chen Wei , Wang Quanzhong , Zhou Hong
Published: September 2022

This study analyzes the effect of digital rural construction on farmers’ income growth and the underlying mechanism using a 2SLS instrumental variable approach based on the county digital village index developed by Peking University and AliResearch, as well as micro-survey data of farmers in China. After fully correcting for endogeneity and verifying the robustness of the models, we found that digital rural construction has a significant positive impact on farmers’ total household income, wage income, and property income, while also inhibiting the growth of net agricultural income. Furthermore, we found that digital rural construction increases farmers’ income mainly by promoting non-agricultural employment and asset transformation. In terms of heterogeneity analysis, digital rural construction has a greater effect on increasing farmers’ income with high physical and human capital, but it is not beneficial to farmers with moderate social capital. It also has a greater effect on increasing farmers’ income in villages with better infrastructure. In addition, digital rural construction more significantly increases farmers’ income in the eastern, central, and southern regions of China compared with the western and northern regions. These findings provide new empirical evidence of the effect of digital rural construction on farmers’ income growth in China and other developing countries.
Dr. Vasfi Samim (1905-1981): A successful veterinarian, artist and sportsman in Albania
Authors: SİNMEZ Çağrı Çağlar , ŞAHİN Batuhan
Published: September 2022

This biographical research aims to reveal the professional life and scientific works of Dr. Vasfi Samim. Dr. Vasfi Samim (1905–1981) was an internationally renowned Albanian veterinarian registered in the Ottoman State Register, who has been considered as an accomplished veterinarian, zootechnist, artist as well as sportsman in Albania. After graduating from the Higher Veterinary School (Baytar Mekteb-i Alisi) in Istanbul in 1927, Dr. Vasfi Samim completed his doctorate in the field of veterinary zootechny at the Berlin Higher Veterinary School in 1931. Upon returning to his country, he provided the structuring and development of animal health, breeding and zootechnical disciplines at international standards through serving important administrative duties. Dr. Vasfi Samim has 27 scientific articles on veterinary infectious diseases, animal breeding, selection, and crossbreeding as well as 11 books with social, cultural and political themes, 16 stories, 43 essays, and 23 theater works. He also played in Fenerbahçe, one of Türkiye’s well-established sports clubs, and in Albanian football teams, and became an exemplary role model by being a manager in the national and international promotion and development of Albanian sports. Dr. Vasfi Samim should be remembered as an influential veterinarian, and an intellectual personality for the region he was grown in and for the world.