bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Eco-Friendly Optimum Structural Concrete Mix Design
Authors: Gerges Najib N. , Issa Camille A. , Sleiman Elias , Aintrazi Sara , Saadeddine Jad , Abboud Remi , Antoun Marc
Published: July 2022

Concrete, the most consumed man-made material worldwide, has shaped the environment and the modern world. Even though concrete is a major contributor to the carbon footprint, it is indispensable for building the sustainable world of tomorrow. Researchers have been exploring ways to reduce the carbon footprint and to implement strategical waste management plans in which wastes are repurposed. Pollution has been a challenge for almost all countries, especially with the increase in the release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the emissions resulting from wastes in unmanaged landfills. Additionally, the areas available for landfills have become scarce. Daily all around the world, generated are wastes such as wood ash, waste glass, used tires, construction debris, and demolition wastes. These wastes usually accumulate in landfills for years, as they are mostly nondecomposable. This research explores a solution to this twofold problem in which concrete components are replaced by wastes and by-products, which in return reduces the need for raw materials that have a significant carbon footprint and repurposes wastes as part of a circular economy. In this research, wood ash is used as a partial replacement of cement and sand, fine crushed glass and crumb rubber as partial replacements of sand, and crushed glass and recycled concrete aggregates as partial replacements of gravel. The optimum eco-friendly structural concrete mix was determined to be the combined mix consisting of 5% wood ash as a partial replacement of cement; 20% wood ash, 20% fine crushed glass, and 2% crumb rubber as partial replacements of sand; and 5% crushed glass and 50% recycled concrete aggregates as partial replacements of coarse aggregates. By mass, the recycled waste materials constituted 32% of the mix, translating into 34% of its volume. Additionally, identified were mixes that may be used for structural applications.
Typological Features and Determinants of Men’s Marriage Expenses in Rural China: Evidence from a Village-Level Survey
Authors: Duan Zhuqing , Jin Xiaoyi , Teng Jiaxuan
Published: July 2022

Poverty due to the high marriage expenses in rural China has drawn considerable attention. In this paper, based on the data of the “Hundreds of Villages Survey in China” conducted in 2018, we analyze the characteristics, trends, and typological features of rural men’s marriage expenses, and identify the determinants of rural men’s marriage expenses types under the guidance of marriage exchange theory. With the help of latent profile analysis, multinomial logit analysis, and OLS analysis, this study firstly identifies four types of marriage expenses for Chinese rural men including the “bride price & marital house”, the “mixed”, the “bride price biased”, and the “marital house biased”, and secondly finds significant associations of educational level matching, occupational level matching, and type of urbanization with different types of rural men’s marriage expenses. If a rural man has a higher education than his wife, his marriage costs are less likely to be “bride price biased”, and when his occupational level is higher, his marriage cost is more likely to be “marital house biased”, which means greater financial pressure on him. Our research verifies the theory of marriage exchange into the quantitative analysis of marriage expenses for the first time, which effectively explains the reasons for the rising cost of marriage and provides an empirical basis for effectively managing this social problem.
Environmental Effects of Technological Improvements in Polysilicon Photovoltaic Systems in China—A Life Cycle Assessment
Authors: Jia Haicheng , Liang Ling , Xie Jiqing , Zhang Jianyun
Published: July 2022

Due to increasing pollution and the overexploitation of traditional energy, there is both an environmental and a resource threat to sustainable development. China’s government prioritizes the optimization of resource structures with photovoltaic industrial support policies to address the potential hazards of traditionally highly polluting energy resources. However, applying green energy resources is not a panacea for solving existing industrial pollution as environmental problems cannot be solved with the level of optimized energy types. Instead, it is necessary to further explore the potential carbon emissions from clean energy resources. Therefore, we construct a polysilicon PV system’s whole life cycle carbon emission model by applying the LCA method and further building the emission coefficient model. More specifically, we divided the system’s carbon emissions into six components and calculated each part separately. In addition, we further applied the case analysis method. We analyzed the carbon emissions of the 280 MW solar cell production project of a leading global PV module company in China. The research results indicated that polysilicon companies should proactively develop advanced production technologies to upgrade energy-saving and environmental safety measures to reduce resource and energy consumption from raw materials in the final disposal process.
Driving Forces of Tourism Carbon Decoupling: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China
Authors: Tang Qunli , Wang Qianqian , Zhou Tiancai
Published: July 2022

Although decoupling tourism growth from carbon emissions is vital for sustainable tourism development, the driving forces of tourism carbon decoupling in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) are little known. Herein, our study applies the geo-detector model and the Tapio decoupling index to investigate the decoupling trend and driving mechanism of the tourism economy in the YREB from carbon emissions from 2009 to 2019. Our results show that (1) the tourism carbon decoupling status has gradually evolved from connection to decoupling, and the average decoupling index was optimized from 1.36 in 2011 to 0.34 in 2019; (2) the dominant factors promoting the evolution of decoupling are the industrial structure (with an average q of 0.64 (2009–2019)) and the urbanization index (with an average q of 0.61 (2009–2019)), with government policy, technological innovation capability and consumption, and regional GDP also being important drivers; and (3) the double and nonlinear enhancement between the driving factors imply that regions in poor decoupling areas, such as Shanghai and Chongqing, can promote the evolution of decoupling through multi-factor interactions to realize the sustainability of the tourism industry. Finally, an integrative and proactive policy framework that has important theoretical, methodological, and management implications for the construction of green demonstration areas in the YREB is proposed.
Students’ Learning on Sustainable Development Goals through Interactive Lectures and Fieldwork in Rural Communities: Grounded Theory Approach
Authors: Ohta Ryuichi , Yata Akiko , Sano Chiaki
Published: July 2022

Sustainable social-resource-based community management and sustainable development goals (SDGs) are crucial for community sustainability and sustainable development, respectively, and SDG education is vital to motivate people to continue SDG-appropriate activities. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the SDG education of Rural Japanese University students using the grounded theory approach and investigate how their ideas about future work subsequently change. This study analyzes the learning and attitude changes in students enrolled in an elective SDG course and establishes the learning theory behind SDG education in rural universities. In this approach, student SDG education consists of three themes and eleven concepts. Through SDG education based on interactive lectures and rural fieldwork, participants reconsider community and society concepts in an SDG-minded framework. Based on this new perspective, participants begin considering community sustainability by gaining new insight from a first-person standpoint. Participants acquire SDG-minded working competencies, such as collaborative advancement, respect for inclusive societies, community revitalization from different perspectives, and mindset reconstruction. SDG educational processes were conducted in rural communities through university student SDG education, which deepened their understanding of community sustainability. Thus, SDG education should employ real practitioners to university curricula and deal with cultural and traditional diversity via effective collaboration.
Cloud-Based Collaborative Road-Damage Monitoring with Deep Learning and Smartphones
Authors: Ramesh Akshatha , Nikam Dhananjay , Balachandran Venkat Narayanan , Guo Longxiang , Wang Rongyao , Hu Leo , Comert Gurcan , Jia Yunyi
Published: July 2022

Road damage such as potholes and cracks may reduce ride comfort and traffic safety. This influence can be prevented by regular, proper monitoring and maintenance of roads. Traditional methods and existing methods of surveying are very time-consuming, expensive, require a lot of human effort, and, thus, cannot be conducted frequently. A more efficient and cost-effective process is required to augment profilometer and traditional road-condition recognition systems. In this study, we propose deep-learning methods using smartphone data to devise a cost-effective and ad-hoc approach. Information from sensors on smartphones such as motion sensors and cameras are harnessed to detect road damage using deep-learning algorithms. In order to give heuristic and accurate information about the road damage, we used a cloud-based collaborative approach to fuse all the data and update a map frequently with these road-surface conditions. During the experiment, the deep-learning models achieved good prediction accuracy on our dataset, and the cloud-based fusion approach was able to group and merge the detections from different vehicles.
Environmental and Economic Implication of Implementation Scale of Sewage Sludge Recycling Systems Considering Carbon Trading Price
Authors: Zhang Jiawen , Liang Zhiyi , Matsumoto Toru , Zhang Tiejia
Published: July 2022

With China’s ongoing economic development and increasing emphasis on environmental protection, the number and treatment capacity of sewage plants is increasing annually. Simultaneously, sludge production is increasing. In recent years, researchers have investigated various approaches to the environmental and economic analysis of sludge treatment and recycling systems (STRS). These investigations did not take the universal law of different capacities for environmental impact and STRS economics into account. The aim of this study was to analyze the scale effect of STRS with different technologies (i.e., incineration, aerobic composting, used in material (brick), anaerobic digestion) on the environment and economy. Moreover, the cost–benefit impact of introducing a carbon- trading mechanism into the STRS to achieve carbon neutrality was analyzed. After reducing carbon emissions through by-products of STRS, the carbon emission quota can be sold, which will generate income. The results show that the break-even scales for incineration, anaerobic composting, used in building material (brick), and anaerobic digestion are 54,899, 6707, 48,775, and 4425 t/y, respectively. The break-even scale of each system decreased after the introduction of the carbon trading system into the STRS. These findings could provide critical technical information for superior decision-making in sewage sludge recycling systems.
Research on the Deployment of Joint Dedicated Lanes for CAVs and Buses
Authors: Luo Qingyu , Du Rui , Jia Hongfei , Yang Lili
Published: July 2022

CAVs (Connected Autonomous Vehicles) can be effective in improving the efficiency of transportation, but heterogeneous multi-modal traffic flows may hinder this efficiency. This paper addresses the issue of heterogeneous traffic flows affecting the efficiency of transportation when CAVs enter the market and proposes a joint dedicated lane for CAVs and buses. In the bi-level program model for the joint dedicated lane, the lower-level is aimed at the multi-modal traffic assignment problem, while the upper-level is aimed at system optimality. For the lower-level, the paper examines the characteristics of various traffic flows in a mixed traffic flow, investigates the impact of CAV mixing on the road link’s capacity, calculates the travel time of various traffic modes accordingly, and generates a generalized travel cost function for each mode, which is solved using the diagonalized weighted successive averaging method (MSWA) algorithm. The upper-level issue considers the continuity of dedicated and non-dedicated road segments, and the goal is to reduce the overall cost for all travelers by utilizing the dedicated road deployment scheme as the decision variable, which is addressed using a genetic algorithm. Finally, numerical examples and sensitivity analyses are designed accordingly. The numerical example demonstrates that the joint dedicated lane not only lowers the overall cost of the system, but also enhances the efficiency of CAV and bus travel, optimizing the road network and promoting bus and CAV travel modes. The sensitivity analysis shows that in order to set up a joint dedicated lane, the frequency of bus departures and the penetration of CAVs are conditions that must be considered, and that the benefits of a joint dedicated lane can only be fully realized if the frequency of bus departures and the penetration of CAVs are appropriate.
Effects of the Olympic Announcement and the Actual Event on Property Values: The Case of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games
Authors: Han Seung-Jin , Lee Won-Jae , Kim So-Hee , Yoon Sang-Hoon , Ryu Won Shick , Pyun Hyunwoong , Kim Daehwan
Published: July 2022

This study investigates the effects of the Olympic announcement and the actual event on property values in the host region using the case of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. We collected Korean government-issued apartment transaction data in the host city, Gangneung, and other cities. We performed propensity score matching to generate a suitable control group compared to units in Gangneung and exploited difference-in-difference analyses to test the impact of the announcement and the actual event separately. The results show that the Olympic announcement increased property values in Gangneung by 5.5% compared to propensity-matched units, and the effects are mostly shown in units in downtown Gangneung. Units close to the KTX station and the Olympic arena observed additional increases in housing prices. During the actual Olympic event, property values in Gangneung increased by 8.3% after the KTX station opened, but the actual event period and Athletes’ Village opening did not generate additional effects. The additional increases in housing prices close to the opening of the KTX station were found for units close to the KTX station, the Olympic arena, and Athletes’ Village.
Climate Change—Between “Myth and Truth” in Romanian Farmers’ Perception
Authors: Micu Marius Mihai , Dinu Toma Adrian , Fintineru Gina , Tudor Valentina Constanta , Stoian Elena , Dumitru Eduard Alexandru , Stoicea Paula , Iorga Adina
Published: July 2022

The study analyzes the awareness of the effects of climate change on agriculture and the measures that should be implemented in this regard from the farmer’s perspective, taking into account the financial and promotional measures supported by the European Union for farmers. Thus, the study tracks the level of openness of farmers to implementing the measures that European policy makers will take in the coming period. Taking into account the fact that agriculture plays a particularly important economic role, due to the share of agricultural products in Romania’s total exports, particularly in plant production, a quantitative survey was carried out among Romanian farmers, using a questionnaire as an instrument, with a total of 407 respondents. The farmers interviewed undoubtedly recognize that the problems they face are caused by the effects of climate change and are willing to adapt, seek and implement the necessary solutions. The most problematic climatic phenomenon identified by farmers (71.5%) is drought, with negative effects on their activity. At the same time, 54.15% of the respondents believe that the effects of climate change are affecting their business through lower yields. Although the farmers interviewed are willing to implement solutions to combat climate effects, 80.34% of them are not considering revising cropping patterns, giving more importance to market demand than to practices that protect the environment. In conclusion, as long as farmers feel and understand the effects of climate change, it cannot be a myth, especially if they are willing to adapt to these challenges.
Enhanced Phosphorus Recovery as Vivianite from Anaerobically Digested Sewage Sludge with Magnetic Biochar Addition
Authors: Liu Yuan , Jin Jie , Li Jiawei , Zou Ziwei , Lei Renchan , Sun Jintao , Xia Jinxia
Published: July 2022

Sustainable phosphorus (P) recovery from sewage sludge is crucial to reconciling the simultaneous shortage and excess of P. In this study, magnetic biochar (MBC) was synthesized and innovatively applied to enhance P recovery as vivianite. The effects of anaerobic digestion (AD) time, hydrothermal (HT) pretreatment temperature and MBC dose on vivianite formation were investigated using batch experiments and a modified sequential P extraction protocol. The P fractionation results showed that the concentration of pure vivianite-bound P (Fe(II)-P) reached a maximum on the 10th day of AD treatment, and then declined sharply due to vivianite oxidation and P limitation. HT pretreatment operated at relatively high temperatures (135 and 185 °C) reduced vivianite formation; this negative effect of HT pretreatment was partially compensated by MBC supplementation. The proportion of Fe(II)-P in the solid phase of sludge was substantially raised up to 57.1% from 8.3~17.4% with an increasing dose of MBC from 0 to 12.5 g/L, indicating that MBC had a markedly enhanced effect on vivianite formation; this could be attributed to the MBC-improved Fe(II) production, as evidenced by the elevated proportion of Fe(II) in Fe2p XPS spectra and the increased ratio of Fe(II)-P to oxidized vivianite-bound P (Fe(III)-P) in the sludge after MBC supplementation. MBC addition also decreased the proportion of water-extractable P by sorption and promoted organic P decomposition, which further facilitated vivianite production. These findings reveal a new strategy for enhancing P recovery from HT-pretreated AD sludge.
Negotiating Sustainability Transitions: Why Does It Matter? What Are the Challenges? How to Proceed?
Authors: Majer Johann M. , Trötschel Roman
Published: July 2022

Why Does It Matter [...]
Open Innovation and Sustainable Innovation Performance: The Moderating Role of IP Strategic Planning and IP Operation
Authors: Zhang Huiying , Chen Xiguang
Published: July 2022

In recent years, open innovation and intellectual property rights have become critical factors to gain superior sustainable innovation performance. However, existing literature pays little attention to different open innovation strategies and their interplay with different IP management approaches in improving sustainable innovation performance. Drawing on the contractual/non-contractual view, this study explores how external partnering and external sourcing affect sustainable innovation performance, and the moderating role of IP strategic planning and IP operation. An empirical study is performed based on an innovation survey with one sample of 764 manufacturing firms. The results show that both external partnering and external sourcing can enhance sustainable innovation performance. Moreover, both IP strategic planning and IP operation play a positive moderating role in the relationship between open innovation and sustainable innovation performance. IP operation functions well once firms engage in open innovation, while IP strategic planning functions well when firms are open to some certain extent. This study provides important implications for sustainability research and managerial practice.
Numerical Experiments on Low Impact Development for Urban Resilience Index
Authors: Ho Hao-Che , Lee Hong-Yuan , Tsai Yao-Jung , Chang Yuan-Shun
Published: July 2022

Low impact development (LID) has become one of the strategies that effectively mitigate the impacts of climate change. In addition to the ability to reduce nonpoint source (NPS) pollution caused by flash floods from the surface runoff, LID has also been applied to control water quantity under extreme rainfall events. Due to the fact that studies about LID configuration optimization tended to control water quantity and gradually ignored the main functions of water quality treatment, this study aims to consider water quantity and quality to estimate the benefits and optimal configuration of LID by Non-Dominated Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II). In addition, regarding to the outlet peak flow, hydrologic footprint residence (HFR) was considered to be the water quantity indicator due to the ability to represent the dynamics of flow changes, and the modified quality indicator (Mass Emission First Flush ratio, MEFF30) was corrected to represent the pollutant transport process in a large catchment area. The results show that the flood and MEFF30 reduction rate of LID are inversely proportional to rainfall duration and intensity. The benefit of pollutant reduction, which can still be maintained by 20% and 15% under a big return period and the long duration was about three times than the quantity control. Taking the cost into account, although the rain barrel had the best effect of reduction per unit area, green roofs and permeable pavements had a higher unit cost reduction rate due to the lower costs. The upper and middle reaches of the open channel and the confluence of rainwater sewers should be the optimal LID configuration to achieve the benefits of both flood and pollution reduction.
Can Moderate Agricultural Scale Operations Be Developed against the Background of Plot Fragmentation and Land Dispersion? Evidence from the Suburbs of Shanghai
Authors: Shi Yishao , Yang Qianqian , Zhou Liangliang , Shi Shouzheng
Published: July 2022

Agricultural scale management has become the inexorable trend of modern agricultural development. Plot consolidation and centralized land management are traditionally viewed as the premise and foundation of agricultural scale operations in Europe, India, and China. In order to quantitatively verify whether this view is suitable for Shanghai suburbs, this paper measured the dynamic evolution characteristics of agricultural land and agricultural operations scale in suburban Shanghai at the plot level and peasant household level, using landscape metrics and agricultural statistics methods, respectively. At the city or regional level (the suburbs of Shanghai), the driving mechanism of the change of landscape aggregation degree of farmland was revealed using principal component analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The results show that (1) in the suburbs of Shanghai, the expansion of the plot scale is restricted by various objective conditions, and the plot fragmentation pattern is inevitable and will exist for a long time; (2) the degree of land management dispersion exhibits an overall increasing trend; (3) moderate scale operations at the peasant household level generally demonstrate an increasing trend and are not obviously correlated with changes in the plot scale; and (4) service scale operations represent the main remedy for future agricultural development; (5) the improvement of agricultural mechanization level was positively correlated with the cultivated land aggregation index (AI), but economic development, industrial restructuring, and urbanization were negatively correlated with the AI of cultivated land. The results show that the appropriate scale of management of agriculture can still be developed in the suburbs of metropolis against the background of land fragmentation and dispersion. Of course, it is essential to change the concept and path of agricultural scale management development.
Sustainable Agro-Food Supply Chain in E-Commerce: Towards the Circular Economy
Authors: Prajapati Dhirendra , Zhou Fuli , Dwivedi Ashish , Singh Tripti , Lakshay Lakshay , Pratap Saurabh
Published: July 2022

The continuous decline in the sustainable agro-food supply chain (AFSC) towards a Circular Economy (CE) has become a matter of great concern for the key stakeholders, including government organizations, businesses, end-users, and farmers. In line with this, the main purpose of this study is to develop a sustainable food Supply Chain Network (SCN). The SCN enables the collection of agro-food grains from different farmers’ locations and delivers the same to food processing units. To design an efficient and effective sustainable pickup and delivery network, a Mixed-Integer Non-Linear Programming (MINLP) mathematical model is formulated. The proposed model achieves the sustainability goal by minimizing the collection costs. The developed MINLP model is solved by using an exact optimization approach in LINGO 18 software. Further, to test the efficacy of the developed model, various computational experiments are performed, varying from small to large size data. The results of these experiments reflect that our model can support businesses in designing an efficient and effective sustainable pickup and delivery network. Lastly, it has been shown that innovative packaging materials can help to minimize the wastage of food.
Spatial Pattern Evolution Characteristics and Influencing Factors in County Economic Resilience in China
Authors: Song Guandong , Zhong Sheng , Song Liuguang
Published: July 2022

In the face of shocks, a region’s economic resilience decides whether it can quickly recover or slip into long-term economic stagnation. This study took 2801 counties in China as the research object and distinguished them into long-term and short-term economic resilience by taking 2007–2020 as the research time period, and used spatial autocorrelation, the semi-variance function, and the geodetector method to analyze the spatial evolution pattern and driving mechanism of economic resilience of China’s counties in different time periods. The research found that: (1) From a long-term perspective, the economic resilience of China’s counties was dominated by the moderate level of resilience, and although its characteristics varied slightly over time, the overall performance showed that the level of resilience was increasing. Over time, the number of counties with very high levels of resilience has been increasing, and the number of counties with very low levels has been gradually decreasing. (2) In terms of spatial layout, China’s county economic resilience exhibited spatial autocorrelation, with similar areas clustered and distributed spatially, with high-high concentration (H-H) and hot spot (99% confidence) areas distributed in the eastern coast and its hinterland, and low-low concentration (L-L) and cold spot (99% confidence) areas distributed in Inner Mongolia and the northeast. The evolution of its spatial pattern was influenced by both stochastic and structural factors, and the spatial divergence was mainly reflected in the northeast–southwest direction, while the northwest–southeast direction was more balanced. (3) Long-term economic resilience and short-term economic resilience had different influencing factors. The industrial structure diversification index, which characterized economic factors, could significantly improve the long-term economic resilience of cities, while the influencing factors of short-term economic resilience differed from period to period.
Potential Impacts of Industrialization on Coastal Fresh Groundwater Resources in Bangladesh
Authors: Khan Mahfuzur R , Hasan Fuad , Islam Majidul , Chowdhury Masuma , Sadeak Sumiya , Amin Al , Hossain Farhad , Ahmed Kazi Matin
Published: July 2022

Bangladesh is overly dependent on groundwater and the demand in the near future is expected to increase, as the country is experiencing rapid development and industrial growth. This study assesses the prospect and sustainability of groundwater in Mirsharai Upazila, Chattogram, where a large industrial area, namely ‘Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar (BSMSN)’, is taking shape. The physical aquifer system was characterized and groundwater quality was mapped. There is one thick aquifer in the northernmost part of the upazila, which splits into three separate aquifers in the south. Water quality indexing suggests that the deep (>130 m) groundwater throughout upazila is good (n = 5) to excellent (n = 18), while the shallow groundwater is mostly poor to unsuitable for both drinking and irrigation purposes. Because of the close proximity to the sea and the presence of thick clays above the deep freshwater aquifer in the BSMSN area, heavy industrial abstraction poses a threat to the lateral intrusion of seawater and land subsidence. Even a small subsidence in the project area at only a couple of meters above sea level would jeopardize the entire project. This study recommends limiting the use of the deep fresh groundwater for the current population of the upazila.
Wind Speed Prediction Model Based on Improved VMD and Sudden Change of Wind Speed
Authors: Wang Shijun , Liu Chun , Liang Kui , Cheng Ziyun , Kong Xue , Gao Shuang
Published: July 2022

An accurate wind speed prediction system is of great importance prerequisite for realizing wind power grid integration and ensuring the safety of the power system. Quantifying wind speed fluctuations can better provide valuable information for power dispatching. Therefore, this paper proposes a deterministic wind speed prediction system and an interval prediction method based on the Lorentzian disturbance sequence. For deterministic forecasting, a variational modal decomposition algorithm is first used to reduce noise. The preprocessed data are then predicted by a long and short-term neural network, but there is a significant one-step lag in the results. In response to such limitation, a wind speed slope is introduced to revise the preliminary prediction results, and the final deterministic wind speed prediction model is obtained. For interval prediction, on the basis of deterministic prediction, the Lorenz disturbance theory is introduced to describe the dynamic atmospheric system. B-spline interpolation is used to fit the distribution of Lorenz disturbance theory series to obtain interval prediction results. The experimental results show that the model proposed in this paper can achieve higher forecasting accuracy than the benchmark model, and the interval prediction based on the Lorentzian disturbance sequence can achieve a higher ground truth coverage rate when the average diameter is small through B-spline interpolation fitting.
Coping Strategies for Household Food Insecurity, and Perceived Health in an Urban Community in Southern Mozambique: A Qualitative Study
Authors: Militao Elias M. A. , Salvador Elsa M. , Silva José P. , Uthman Olalekan A. , Vinberg Stig , Macassa Gloria
Published: July 2022

In low- and middle-income countries, food insecurity (FI) is a living reality for many households, particularly among the most vulnerable groups. The burden of household FI in Mozambique and how FI and coping strategies relate to perceived health are unknown. This study investigated the lived experiences and coping strategies of food-insecure households, along with their perceived health. Altogether, 16 in-depth interviews were performed, audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. A qualitative content analysis was carried out and five themes emerged: lived experiences of FI, coping strategies used in situations of FI, food choices, climate change and food security, and FI and perceived health. A wide range of lived experiences and coping strategies were reported, including cooking whatever is available, skipping meals, receiving money or food from friends and relatives, eating unsafe and low-quality foods, taking on additional work, cooking least-preferred foods, and having a monotonous and less-nutritious diet. Furthermore, the participants reported emotional distress, anxiety and depression, substance use, and other negative health outcomes. Some had diagnoses of hypertension, diabetes or HIV/AIDS. The findings suggest the need for employment creation and women’s empowerment, as well as the implementation of appropriate policies and programmes to alleviate household FI.
Experiment and Model Study on the Destination of 3,5,6-Trichloro-2-pyridinol in the Purple Soil of Southwestern China with a High Ratio of Biochar Applied
Authors: Sun Shanggui , Ren Dongxing , Lei Wenjuan , Zhou Xiangyang
Published: July 2022

3,5,6-Trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP), the main degradation production of the pesticide chlorpyrifos and the herbicide triclopyr, features anti-degradation and high water solubility that challenge the in situ prevention of the migration of TCP from soils to water bodies. Biochar is a widely used amendment, but previous studies focused on the low content of biochar application that restricted the off-site prevention. In this study, therefore, both experiments and models were employed to explore the destination of TCP in purple soil, an Entisol with low organic matter content, large pores, and high water conductivity in southwestern China with a high ratio of biochar applied. Soil columns were homogeneously packed by mixing biochar at 0, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%, then the impulsive input of the breakthrough curves was used to explore the adsorption and desorption process of TCP, and the release of adsorbed TCP was traced by Br−. Following the dynamic outflow during the adsorption processes was simulated using the cumulative distribution function of gamma distribution, and the release of TCP was simulated by coupling the mass balance equation and first-order decay kinetics equation. The results revealed that the adsorption ability of the soil increased exponentially with the content of mixed biochar, implying a much larger increment at high content. For the removal rate of 90%, e.g., the increment was about 20 mg/kg when the content of biochar was raised from 15% to 20%, while it was about 7 mg/kg when the content was raised from 0 to 5%. The dynamic release and the unreleasable TCP could be well simulated by the first-order decay kinetics equation and the logarithmic model, respectively. The releasable TCP showed an increase–decrease pattern, and the maximum was observed at a 5% biochar content. These results above will provide a systematic experimental scheme, model support, and data reference to control organic pollutants with high solubility, stability, and strong migration using biochar in an off-site pattern such as an ecological ditch system.
Research on Digital Restoration of Plain Unlined Silk Gauze Gown of Mawangdui Han Dynasty Tomb Based on AHP and Human–Computer Interaction Technology
Authors: Liu Kaixuan , Zhao Jiayu , Zhu Chun
Published: July 2022

In 1972, the Plain Unlined Silk Gauze Gown unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Dynasty tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province, China, received attention from various fields such as archeology, cultural relics conservation, textile and costume because of its light texture and exquisite craftsmanship. However, due to it being unearthed decades ago and imperfect preservation measures being used, it has been increasingly damaged by the influence of the external environment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to carry out archeology, restoration and protection of the Plain Unlined Silk Gauze Gown. In this paper, the Plain Unlined Silk Gauze Gown is taken as the research object, and the costume pattern is obtained through 3D interactive pattern-making technology. Then virtual simulation technology is used to digitally restore the Plain Unlined Silk Gauze Gown in combination with the fabric, color and pattern of the costume. Finally, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method are introduced to evaluate the virtual simulation effect of the costume. The results show that the virtual simulation effect of the Plain Unlined Silk Gauze Gown is very good. From the results of the costume restoration, the AHP captures the uncertainty in the process of costume virtual simulation evaluation, quantifies the judgments with weights, reduces the subjectivity of the evaluation process, and provides a scientific and effective method for evaluating the virtual simulation effect of ancient costumes.
Online Platform Customer Shopping Repurchase Behavior Analysis
Authors: Ji Chong , Zhao Wenhui , Wang Hui , Yuan Puyu
Published: July 2022

With the rapid development of the world economy and the progress of modern science and technology, e-commerce has gradually spread to the public. For the online shopping platform, the number of online stores has increased rapidly, especially so in recent years. Mastering the rules of customers’ shopping behavior will help the stores to stand out amidst such a fiercely competitive environment. Taking the cosmetics industry in online shopping as an example, this paper studies the purchase behavior of online platform customers. Through the analysis of order data, it is found that the number of customers’ repurchase times and the corresponding number of people conform to the law of power-law distribution. On this basis, the customer attributes of repurchase behavior are analyzed and demonstrated, and the influences of different factors, such as region, postage, and usage of clients, on the customer repurchase rate and the relationship between the number of orders and the number of days between repurchase are revealed. The analysis results can provide better sustainable operation decision support for online platform operators and improve the overall repurchase rate and benefits of stores.
Implementation of a 3D Coupled Hydrodynamic–Biogeochemical Model in Kuwait Bay
Authors: Araújo Maria Amélia V. C. , García-García Luz , Aldridge John
Published: July 2022

Production of farmed fish is increasing worldwide and in areas which have traditionally not had large scale farming, specifically regions of high sea temperature. This research presents a methodology to assess the impacts of these developments on water quality and to manage them in the context of other discharges into the marine environment. Kuwait Bay, in Kuwait, is used as a case study for these types of environments, where the impacts of finfish farms are assessed regarding their location by implementing a 3D coupled hydrodynamic–biogeochemical model. The model was validated against a monthly climatology of field data for hydrodynamics and biogeochemical parameters. Results show that the impact of a farm size with an average historical production is minimal, with a slight increase in nutrient concentrations (0.4%) and in chlorophyll-a and oxygen (less than 1%) compared to the baseline (no farm). When the farm was located outside the bay, at the southern coast, the impact was even smaller. This suggests that the flushing conditions of the location are a prime consideration and can help mitigate the impacts of larger farm sizes.
Opportunities for the Scale-Up of Irrigation Systems in Ghana, West Africa
Authors: Baldwin Grace L. , Stwalley Robert M.
Published: July 2022

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports approximately 1.9 million hectares (Mha) total of potential irrigatable lands in Ghana. However, the total water-managed area in the country was estimated to be only approximately 30,900 hectares (ha) in 2000 or 1.7% of the possible area. The government ultimately intends to add a total irrigatable area of 500,000 ha or more, thereby increasing the total coverage to 28% of the country’s potential. This would be beneficial because Ghana is not currently agriculturally independent and seeks to make substantial efforts in the scale-up of irrigation technologies to decrease the country’s reliance on the importation of agricultural goods. Unfortunately, the state of available technical literature for the very specific subject of agricultural water resources in a small African country is limited and generally only thinly published. A successful review of the published literature was conducted by expanding the search parameters until an adequate level of material became available to accurately describe the situation. The adaptive review process to access progressively more relevant information is presented in the methodology. The country’s total water withdrawal was quantified. The constraints on water resource development within Ghana’s socio-political environment were examined, and opportunities for technical improvement were identified. If well-managed, the country’s surface water and largely untapped groundwater systems are sufficient to meet most domestic and irrigation purposes. This analysis should provide significant aid to the government, non-governmental organizations, and aid agencies working to improve agricultural productivity via the scale-up of irrigation systems in Ghana and other similar countries.
Freedom of Choice—Organic Consumers’ Discourses on New Plant Breeding Techniques
Authors: Mandolesi Serena , Cubero Dudinskaya Emilia , Naspetti Simona , Solfanelli Francesco , Zanoli Raffaele
Published: July 2022

In recent years, there have been significant developments in biotechnology, specifically regarding New Plant Breeding Techniques (NPBTs). Such advancements have been driven by the need to develop improved and more sustainable crops while reducing pesticides and fertilisers. NPBTs include a heterogeneous group of methods that allow performing plant mutations more precisely than in genetically modified (GM) technologies, saving time and effort. Although some experts consider NPBTs an opportunity for organic farming expansion, the European Court of Justice in 2018 pronounced against their use in organic farming since all plants obtained by NPBTs should follow the same regulations as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). This study aims to understand consumers’ attitudes and viewpoints towards new breeding techniques. Focus groups and Q methodological approach were used to uncover consensus and divergence among organic consumers in seven selected European countries (Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom). Results of qualitative studies suggest that organic consumers are generally hostile towards NPBTs in organic farming. Using Q methodology, three distinct factors were identified: the “Risk Averse”, the “Technological Optimists”, and the “Socially Concerned”. The results highlight that consumers’ subjective knowledge and understanding of NPBTs diverge from the discourse of NPBTs lobbyists and proponents.
Evaluation of Co-Composting as an Alternative for the Use of Agricultural Waste of Spring Onions, Chicken Manure and Bio-Waste Produced in Moorland Ecosystems
Authors: Oviedo-Ocaña Edgar Ricardo , Hernández-Gómez Angelica , Dominguez Isabel , Alexis Parra-Orobio Brayan , Soto-Paz Jonathan , Sánchez Antoni
Published: July 2022

Composting is an adequate method for treating and valorizing agricultural waste such as those from spring onion (SO) cultivation and chicken breeding (chicken manure–CM). However, the low content of Total Organic Carbon in the waste from SO and the high concentration of total nitrogen in CM are limitations for the composting process. This research studied the co-composting of SO and CM in a moorland ecosystem, together with locally available co-substrates such as biowaste (BW) and woodchips (WC), focusing on the effect of co-composting in process development and end-product quality. A pilot-scale experiment was carried out using three treatments in triplicated composting piles: (i) Treatment A: 43% CM + 41% BW + 16% WC; (ii) Treatment B: 52% CM + 32% SO + 16% WC, and (iii) Treatment C: 70% SO + 30% WC. Treatments A and B reached thermophilic temperatures after two days of the process start and remained at that level for 17 days. However, treatment B reached environmental temperature during curing in a shorter time (43 days) than treatment A (53 days). Treatment C did not achieve thermophilic temperatures. Tests carried out at the end of the process showed end-product stability and non-phytotoxic characteristics (germination indexes 80%). The fertility index of the products showed that treatments A and B presented values of 4.3 (over 5.0) while treatment C obtained a value of 2.5. From the perspective of agricultural use, products from the three treatments had limitations due to deficiencies in essential nutrients like phosphorus. Still, they had potential as a soil amendment for restoration processes. In summary, we have demonstrated that this waste, in combination with other organic materials, could be a good amendment for the composting process and the end product.
Transformation of the Concept of Talent Management in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as the Basis for Sustainable Development
Authors: Stopochkin Artem , Sytnik Inessa , Wielki Janusz , Karaś Elżbieta
Published: July 2022

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is an objective result of technological progress, which will radically change the traditional ways of doing business. This will also contribute to radical changes in the human’s role in the labour market. Employees with high qualifications and developed social-behavioural skills will experience high demand in the labour market, and a consequence of this will be necessary transformations of the talent management concept. This study aims to demonstrate the need to change the talent management concept in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The conducted research is based on the analysis of statistical data regarding labour productivity in the economic system EC-27. Economic and mathematical modelling techniques have been used for the analysis of selected statistical indicators (places of convergence and divergence, places of growth, declining and side trend have been found). As a result of the studies performed, a method of calculating the original Index the lack of talents in the economic system. The results of the completed research demonstrate: on the one hand, on the market, there is a shortage of talent and a transformation of the labour market is required for organizational and technological reasons; on the other hand, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the accompanying transformation of economic processes create new requirements for human resources. In such conditions, the role of human capital development process management increases significantly, and the necessary transformation of the talent management concept is increasingly becoming a key element that directly determines the sustainable development of social and economic systems. The transition to this concept should proceed through modern technologies and digital solutions, pursuing the main goal, being to provide a continuous process of not only searching for talents but also creating talents by delivering knowledge and forming skills as required by technological progress.