bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Biodegradable UV-Protective Composite Film from Cellulosic Waste: Utilisation of Cotton Gin Motes as Biocomponent
Authors: Cai Zengxiao , Haque Abu Naser Md Ahsanul , Dhandapani Renuka , Naebe Maryam
Published: December 2023

With an increase in environmental pollution and microplastic problems, it is more urgent now to replace non-biodegradable films with biodegradable films that are low-cost and from renewable resources. Cotton gin motes (GM), a type of cellulosic waste that is generated from cotton ginning, is an excellent candidate for fabricating biodegradable films due to its properties and abundance. In this study, GM was first mechanically milled into a fine powder, followed by compounding with polycaprolactone (PCL) and extruded to produce composite pellets which were then compress-moulded into composite films. This environmentally friendly process used physical processing and all the materials were consumed in the process without generating any waste residue. To improve the compatibility and mixing properties between GM and PCL, the use of a plasticiser (polyethylene glycol) was considered. A high content of GM powder (up to 50%) was successfully compounded with the polymer. The SEM images of the composite films showed smooth surface morphology and well-distributed GM powder in the PCL matrix. The added advantage of compounding GM with the polymer matrix was that the composite film developed UV-shielding properties due to the presence of lignin in the GM powder. This property will be critical for films used in UV-resistance applications. Furthermore, the composite even with high GM content (50%), showed good mechanical properties, with 9.5 MPa yield strength and 442% elongation, which was only a 50% decrease in elongation when compared with clear PCL film. The soil biodegradation of GM composite films under controlled temperature (20 °C) and humidity (50%) for 1 month showed around 41% weight loss. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of GM to be used as a biodegradable and UV-protective composite film for a wide array of applications, such as packaging and UV-protective coverings.
Synthesis of a Reactive Cationic/Nonionic Waterborne Polyurethane Dye Fixative and Its Application Performance on Viscose Fiber Fabrics
Authors: Deng Changyu , Jin Jiacheng , Zhang Hong , Li Jiahui , Pei Kemei
Published: December 2023

A series of cationic waterborne polyurethane (CWPU) emulsions was synthesized with isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) as hard segments; polyol (N210) and polyethylene glycol (PEG-2000) as soft segments; N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) as a hydrophilic chain extender; and trimethylolpropane (TMP) as a crosslinker. Then, the effects of the R-value, MDEA content, and TMP content on the properties of the CWPU emulsion, film, and fabric treatment were investigated. The results indicated that when the R-value was 3.0, the MEDA content accounted for 4.0% of the solid and the TMP content accounted for 1.0% of the solid. CWPU has excellent storage stability. Applying it to the fixing treatment of the viscose fiber fabrics can effectively improve the color fastness to rubbing, elasticity, surface smoothness, and anti-static properties.
Navigating Religious Difference in Spiritual Care
Authors: Schipani Daniel S.
Published: December 2023

During the last two decades there has been growing research on intercultural and, more recently, interreligious care in the face of increased, global pluralization. Representatives of various traditions are making substantial contributions beyond the pioneering work of Christian clinicians and theoreticians. This essay addresses one of the challenges and opportunities associated with multi-faith contexts: the methodological and clinical question of how spiritual caregivers can effectively engage significant difference in interreligious caregiving situations. Therefore, the twofold goal of the article is to understand and to foster competent practice by counselors, psychotherapists, chaplains, pastors and other spiritual caregivers. The body of the text describes and illustrates five strategies that caregivers can employ plus a review of seven categories of therapeutic interventions.
Embracing Life: Gustav Landauer’s Anarchism as Rejection of Death
Authors: Pisano Libera
Published: December 2023

This paper examines Gustav Landauer’s mystical anarchism, focusing on the concept of overcoming death as a core element of his thought. It explores Landauer’s rejection of death as both a linguistic superstition and a limited worldview, emphasizing the collective whole over individualism. The essay suggests that Landauer’s representation of revolution moving from space to time includes his account of mystical anarchy, which fosters a deep connection with the past and a sense of unity with the world and humanity. This shift in perspective promotes a more fulfilling and meaningful existence within a larger, authentic community that is an antidote to the constraints of death.
Constraint-Aware Policy for Compliant Manipulation
Authors: Saito Daichi , Sasabuchi Kazuhiro , Wake Naoki , Kanehira Atsushi , Takamatsu Jun , Koike Hideki , Ikeuchi Katsushi
Published: December 2023

Robot manipulation in a physically constrained environment requires compliant manipulation. Compliant manipulation is a manipulation skill to adjust hand motion based on the force imposed by the environment. Recently, reinforcement learning (RL) has been applied to solve household operations involving compliant manipulation. However, previous RL methods have primarily focused on designing a policy for a specific operation that limits their applicability and requires separate training for every new operation. We propose a constraint-aware policy that is applicable to various unseen manipulations by grouping several manipulations together based on the type of physical constraint involved. The type of physical constraint determines the characteristic of the imposed force direction; thus, a generalized policy is trained in the environment and reward designed on the basis of this characteristic. This paper focuses on two types of physical constraints: prismatic and revolute joints. Experiments demonstrated that the same policy could successfully execute various compliant manipulation operations, both in the simulation and reality. We believe this study is the first step toward realizing a generalized household robot.
A Bayesian Source Model for the 2022 Mw6.6 Luding Earthquake, Sichuan Province, China, Constrained by GPS and InSAR Observations
Authors: Xu Guangyu , Xu Xiwei , Yi Yaning , Wen Yangmao , Sun Longxiang , Wang Qixin , Lei Xiaoqiong
Published: December 2023

Until the Mw 6.6 Luding earthquake ruptured the Moxi section of the Xianshuihe fault (XSHF) on 5 September 2022, the region had not experienced an Mw >6 earthquake since instrumental records began. We used Global Positioning System (GPS) and Sentinel-1 interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) observations to image the coseismic deformation and constrain the location and geometry of the seismogenic fault using a Bayesian method We then present a distributed slip model of the 2022 Mw6.6 Luding earthquake, a left-lateral strike-slip earthquake that occurred on the Moxi section of the Xianshuihe fault in the southwest Sichuan basin, China. Two tracks (T26 and T135) of the InSAR data captured a part of the coseismic surface deformation with the line-of-sight displacements range from ∼−0.16 m to ~0.14 m in the ascending track and from ~−0.12 m to ~0.10 m in the descending track. The inverted best-fitting fault model shows a pure sinistral strike-slip motion on a west-dipping fault plane with a strike of 164.3°. We adopt a variational Bayesian approach and account for the uncertainties in the fault geometry to retrieve the distributed slip model. The inverted result shows that the maximum slip of ~1.82 m occurred at a depth of 5.3 km, with the major slip concentrated within depths ranging from 0.9–11 km. The InSAR-determined moment is 1.3 × 1019 Nm, with a shear modulus of 30 GPa, equivalent to Mw 6.7. The published coseismic slip models of the 2022 Luding earthquake show apparent differences despite the use of similar geodetic or seismic observations. These variations underscore the uncertainty associated with routinely performed source inversions and their interpretations for the underlying fault model.
Why Rivers Disappear—Remote Sensing Analysis of Postmining Factors Using the Example of the Sztoła River, Poland
Authors: Lupa Michał , Pełka Aleksandra , Młynarczuk Mariusz , Staszel Jakub , Adamek Katarzyna
Published: December 2023

The impact of mining effects is undoubtedly an important research topic, especially in the case of assessing the effects of postmining factors. This study examines the drought in the Olkusz region using satellite imagery (Sentinel-2) and remote sensing indices. The analysis reveals that the region experienced multiple types of drought, including hydrogeological drought due to groundwater level lowering caused by mining activities, agricultural drought resulting from insufficient soil moisture, hydrological drought characterized by reduced water flow in rivers, and meteorological drought linked to decreased precipitation and high temperatures. This study demonstrates the usefulness of optical imaging and remote sensing indices in monitoring and assessing drought conditions. The results indicate significant changes in vegetation health and water content, as well as alterations to the natural environment within the region. This research highlights the importance of considering both human-induced and natural factors when evaluating drought phenomena. Continued monitoring and expansion of the study area would provide valuable insights into the long-term effects of weather conditions and the broader impacts on the ecosystem.
Color-Based Point Cloud Classification Using a Novel Gaussian Mixed Modeling-Based Approach versus a Deep Neural Network
Authors: Štroner Martin , Urban Rudolf , Línková Lenka
Published: December 2023

The classification of point clouds is an important research topic due to the increasing speed, accuracy, and detail of their acquisition. Classification using only color is basically absent in the literature; the few available papers provide only algorithms with limited usefulness (transformation of three-dimensional color information to a one-dimensional one, such as intensity or vegetation indices). Here, we proposed two methods for classifying point clouds in RGB space (without using spatial information) and evaluated the classification success since it allows a computationally undemanding classification potentially applicable to a wide range of scenes. The first is based on Gaussian mixture modeling, modified to exploit specific properties of the RGB space (a finite number of integer combinations, with these combinations repeated in the same class) to automatically determine the number of spatial normal distributions needed to describe a class (mGMM). The other method is based on a deep neural network (DNN), for which different configurations (number of hidden layers and number of neurons in the layers) and different numbers of training subsets were tested. Real measured data from three sites with different numbers of classified classes and different “complexity” of classification in terms of color distinctiveness were used for testing. Classification success rates averaged 99.0% (accuracy) and 96.2% (balanced accuracy) for the mGMM method and averaged 97.3% and 96.7% (balanced accuracy) for the DNN method in terms of the best parameter combinations identified.
A Systematic Review of Radiative Transfer Models for Crop Yield Prediction and Crop Traits Retrieval
Authors: Ishaq Rana Ahmad Faraz , Zhou Guanhua , Tian Chen , Tan Yumin , Jing Guifei , Jiang Hongzhi , Obaid-ur-Rehman
Published: December 2023

Radiative transfer models (RTMs) provide reliable information about crop yield and traits with high resource efficiency. In this study, we have conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to fill the gaps in the overall insight of RTM-based crop yield prediction (CYP) and crop traits retrieval. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, 76 articles were found to be relevant to crop traits retrieval and 15 for CYP. China had the highest number of RTM applications (33), followed by the USA (13). Crop-wise, cereals, and traits-wise, leaf area index (LAI) and chlorophyll, had a high number of research studies. Among RTMs, the PROSAIL model had the highest number of articles (62), followed by SCOPE (6) with PROSAIL accuracy for CYP (median R2 = 0.62) and crop traits (median R2 = 0.80). The same was true for crop traits retrieval with LAI (CYP median R2 = 0.62 and traits median R2 = 0.85), followed by chlorophyll (crop traits median R2 = 0.70). Document co-citation analysis also found the relevancy of selected articles within the theme of this SLR. This SLR not only focuses on information about the accuracy and reliability of RTMs but also provides comprehensive insight towards understanding RTM applications for crop yield and traits, further exploring possibilities of new endeavors in agriculture, particularly crop yield modeling.
Non-Contact Thermal and Acoustic Sensors with Embedded Artificial Intelligence for Point-of-Care Diagnostics
Authors: Rodríguez-Cobo Luís , Reyes-Gonzalez Luís , Algorri José Francisco , Díez-del-Valle Garzón Sara , García-García Roberto , López-Higuera José Miguel , Cobo Adolfo
Published: December 2023

This work involves exploring non-invasive sensor technologies for data collection and preprocessing, specifically focusing on novel thermal calibration methods and assessing low-cost infrared radiation sensors for facial temperature analysis. Additionally, it investigates innovative approaches to analyzing acoustic signals for quantifying coughing episodes. The research integrates diverse data capture technologies to analyze them collectively, considering their temporal evolution and physical attributes, aiming to extract statistically significant relationships among various variables for valuable insights. The study delineates two distinct aspects: cough detection employing a microphone and a neural network, and thermal sensors employing a calibration curve to refine their output values, reducing errors within a specified temperature range. Regarding control units, the initial implementation with an ESP32 transitioned to a Raspberry Pi model 3B+ due to neural network integration issues. A comprehensive testing is conducted for both fever and cough detection, ensuring robustness and accuracy in each scenario. The subsequent work involves practical experimentation and interoperability tests, validating the proof of concept for each system component. Furthermore, this work assesses the technical specifications of the prototype developed in the preceding tasks. Real-time testing is performed for each symptom to evaluate the system’s effectiveness. This research contributes to the advancement of non-invasive sensor technologies, with implications for healthcare applications such as remote health monitoring and early disease detection.
Automated Point Cloud Registration Approach Optimized for a Stop-and-Go Scanning System
Authors: Park Sangyoon , Ju Sungha , Nguyen Minh Hieu , Yoon Sanghyun , Heo Joon
Published: December 2023

The latest advances in mobile platforms, such as robots, have enabled the automatic acquisition of full coverage point cloud data from large areas with terrestrial laser scanning. Despite this progress, the crucial post-processing step of registration, which aligns raw point cloud data from separate local coordinate systems into a unified coordinate system, still relies on manual intervention. To address this practical issue, this study presents an automated point cloud registration approach optimized for a stop-and-go scanning system based on a quadruped walking robot. The proposed approach comprises three main phases: perpendicular constrained wall-plane extraction; coarse registration with plane matching using point-to-point displacement calculation; and fine registration with horizontality constrained iterative closest point (ICP). Experimental results indicate that the proposed method successfully achieved automated registration with an accuracy of 0.044 m and a successful scan rate (SSR) of 100% within a time frame of 424.2 s with 18 sets of scan data acquired from the stop-and-go scanning system in a real-world indoor environment. Furthermore, it surpasses conventional approaches, ensuring reliable registration for point cloud pairs with low overlap in specific indoor environmental conditions.
The Influence of External Parameters on the Ripeness of Pumpkins
Authors: Emah Kubiat , Hu Linli , Boamah Solomon , Chukwuka Sylvester , Tiika Richard John , Zhang Kai , Tie Jianzhong , Tang Zhongqi , Yu Jihua
Published: December 2023

Growing pumpkins in controlled environments, such as greenhouses, has become increasingly important due to the potential to optimise yield and quality. However, achieving optimal environmental conditions for pumpkin cultivation requires precise monitoring and control, which can be facilitated by modern sensor technologies. The objective of this study was to determine the optimal placement of sensors to determine the influence of external parameters on the maturity of pumpkins. The greenhouse used in the study consisted of a plastic film for growing pumpkins. Five different sensors labeled from A1 to A5 measured the air temperature, humidity, soil temperature, soil humidity, and illumination at five different locations. We used two methods, error-based sensor placement and entropy-based sensor placement, to evaluate optimisation. We selected A3 sensor locations where the monitored data were close to the reference value, i.e., the average data of all measurement locations and parameters. Using this method, we selected sensor positions to monitor the influence of external parameters on the maturity of pumpkins. These methods enable the determination of optimal sensor locations to represent the entire facility environment and detect areas with significant environmental disparities. Our study provides an accurate measurement of the internal environment of a greenhouse and properly selects the base installation locations of sensors in the pumpkin greenhouse.
VaBTFER: An Effective Variant Binary Transformer for Facial Expression Recognition
Authors: Shen Lei , Jin Xing
Published: December 2023

Existing Transformer-based models have achieved impressive success in facial expression recognition (FER) by modeling the long-range relationships among facial muscle movements. However, the size of pure Transformer-based models tends to be in the million-parameter level, which poses a challenge for deploying these models. Moreover, the lack of inductive bias in Transformer usually leads to the difficulty of training from scratch on limited FER datasets. To address these problems, we propose an effective and lightweight variant Transformer for FER called VaTFER. In VaTFER, we firstly construct action unit (AU) tokens by utilizing action unit-based regions and their histogram of oriented gradient (HOG) features. Then, we present a novel spatial-channel feature relevance Transformer (SCFRT) module, which incorporates multilayer channel reduction self-attention (MLCRSA) and a dynamic learnable information extraction (DLIE) mechanism. MLCRSA is utilized to model long-range dependencies among all tokens and decrease the number of parameters. DLIE’s goal is to alleviate the lack of inductive bias and improve the learning ability of the model. Furthermore, we use an excitation module to replace the vanilla multilayer perception (MLP) for accurate prediction. To further reduce computing and memory resources, we introduce a binary quantization mechanism, formulating a novel lightweight Transformer model called variant binary Transformer for FER (VaBTFER). We conduct extensive experiments on several commonly used facial expression datasets, and the results attest to the effectiveness of our methods.
Multi-Scale-Denoising Residual Convolutional Network for Retinal Disease Classification Using OCT
Authors: Peng Jinbo , Lu Jinling , Zhuo Junjie , Li Pengcheng
Published: December 2023

Macular pathologies can cause significant vision loss. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of the retina can assist ophthalmologists in diagnosing macular diseases. Traditional deep learning networks for retinal disease classification cannot extract discriminative features under strong noise conditions in OCT images. To address this issue, we propose a multi-scale-denoising residual convolutional network (MS-DRCN) for classifying retinal diseases. Specifically, the MS-DRCN includes a soft-denoising block (SDB), a multi-scale context block (MCB), and a feature fusion block (FFB). The SDB can determine the threshold for soft thresholding automatically, which removes speckle noise features efficiently. The MCB is designed to capture multi-scale context information and strengthen extracted features. The FFB is dedicated to integrating high-resolution and low-resolution features to precisely identify variable lesion areas. Our approach achieved classification accuracies of 96.4% and 96.5% on the OCT2017 and OCT-C4 public datasets, respectively, outperforming other classification methods. To evaluate the robustness of our method, we introduced Gaussian noise and speckle noise with varying PSNRs into the test set of the OCT2017 dataset. The results of our anti-noise experiments demonstrate that our approach exhibits superior robustness compared with other methods, yielding accuracy improvements ranging from 0.6% to 2.9% when compared with ResNet under various PSNR noise conditions.
Survey on Energy Harvesting for Biomedical Devices: Applications, Challenges and Future Prospects for African Countries
Authors: Olivier Djakou Nekui , Wang Wei , Liu Cheng , Wang Zhixia , Ding Bei
Published: December 2023

Self-powered biomedical devices, which are the new vision of Internet Of Things (IOT) healthcare, are facing many technical and application challenges. Many research works have reported biomedical devices and self-powered applications for healthcare, along with various strategies to improve the monitoring time of self-powered devices or to eliminate the dependence on electrochemical batteries. However, none of these works have especially assessed the development and application of healthcare devices in an African context. This article provides a comprehensive review of self-powered devices in the biomedical research field, introduces their applications for healthcare, evaluates their status in Africa by providing a thorough review of existing biomedical device initiatives and available financial and scientific cooperation institutions in Africa for the biomedical research field, and highlights general challenges for implementing self-powered biomedical devices and particular challenges related to developing countries. The future perspectives of the aforementioned research field are provided, as well as an architecture for improving this research field in developing countries.
Towards Quality Education: An Entrepreneurship Education Program for the Improvement of Self-Efficacy and Personal Initiative of Adolescents
Authors: Martín-Gutiérrez Ángela , Montoro-Fernández Elisabet , Dominguez-Quintero Ana
Published: December 2023

In recent decades, youth unemployment has been the focus of attention of international and community bodies in the area of social rights. Specifically, there is a need to promote attitudes and skills to access employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. The measures implemented have not been effective. In 2023, Spain had the highest youth unemployment rate in the European Union (29.6%). An improvement in the level and quality of education and training of young people would reduce their level of unemployment. Entrepreneurship education is, therefore, a necessary value in the society of the 21st century since it is a tool for the development and growth of the younger population. In the entrepreneurship education model proposed in this study for adolescents, we focus on the capacities of self-efficacy and personal initiative as precursors of entrepreneurial behavior. This paper analyzes the differences between the mean values of the variables before and after the implementation of the educational program and the influence or correlation between the variables. The main results are threefold: (i) the educational program implemented improves the mean values of the two variables analyzed; (ii) self-efficacy exerts a positive or direct influence on personal initiative, and (iii) the educational program improves or reinforces the positive influence of self-efficacy on personal initiative.
Education-to-Work Transitions in Former Communist Countries after 30-Plus Years of Transformation
Authors: Roberts Ken , Pantea Maria-Carmen , Dabija Dan-Cristian
Published: December 2023

This paper reviews how young people’s education-to-work transitions have changed since 1989 in former communist countries that have subsequently become full members of the European Union (EU). The sudden collapse of the command economies led to an equally abrupt breakdown in earlier routes into working life. Subsequently, the new independent states have reconstructed their education and training, and their market economies have developed. They now exhibit similar variations in rates of youth unemployment, progression through higher education, and mixtures of academic and vocational secondary education as older EU member states. However, there are features that continue to set all ex-communist countries apart, irrespective of whether they have become full EU members. These are low local rates of pay and westward migration. Its new member states have joined the Southern countries in a European periphery. Yet, there may be sufficient winners in the European core and periphery to keep Europe united.
Assessment of the European Emissions Trading System’s Impact on Sustainable Development
Authors: Di Foggia Giacomo , Beccarello Massimo , Arrigo Ugo
Published: December 2023

This study explores the interaction between the emission trading system and the Sustainable Development Goals. Using an empirical analysis of a sample of European installations covered by the Emission Trading System from 2016 to 2021, we assessed how the system internalized the costs of carbon emissions across economic sectors and analyzed its impact on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The results revealed that while the increased efficiency of the emissions trading system had positive effects on environmental taxation and the reduction in economic losses due to climate change, challenges persist in natural resource use and energy dependence. This study offers new insight into the carbon ability pricing policies to properly allocate environmental costs. This study highlights the importance of integrating complementary policy instruments to strengthen effectiveness, given the link between the selected sustainable development and circular economy variables. The results provide stakeholders and policymakers with essential information for optimizing environmental policies and developing integrated approaches. If well implemented, such policies can effectively contribute to the fight against climate change and promote sustainable development by reducing social and environmental costs.
Comparative Environmental Evaluation of Sewage Sludge Treatment and Aggregate Production Process by Life Cycle Assessment
Authors: Yang Seong-Jun , Eom Ji-Young , Lee Myung-Jin , Hwang Dae-Hwan , Park Won-Bin , Wie Young-Min , Lee Ki-Gang , Lee Kang-Hoon
Published: December 2023

This study evaluated the environmental impact of landfill, incineration, and lightweight aggregate production for sewage sludge management techniques and compared the utilization of sewage-produced lightweight aggregates with natural aggregates in terms of building material production. Two scenarios were established for the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the sludge and associated product that was carried out after sludge generation. Sludge incineration and landfill deposition includes emissions from the drying, transportation, incineration of sludge, and landfill, and the production of lightweight aggregates and natural aggregates includes transportation to manufacturing facilities, the manufacturing processes themselves, and transportation of the produced aggregates to construction sites. We calculated the amount of pollutant emissions for each process in each scenario and analyzed the environmental impact index considering the environmental impact of each pollutant using the Open LCA program. The parameters used for the environmental impact index analysis for sludge management are potential acidification, climate change, eutrophication potential, human toxicity, photochemical oxidation, and stratospheric ozone depletion. The environmental impact values of lightweight aggregates (LWA) are GWP 100 441 kg CO2_Eq, AP 2.73 × 10−2 kg SO2_Eq, EP 4.46 × 10−3 kg PO4−_Eq, HTP 4.15 × 10−2 kg, 1,4-DCB_Eq, POCP 1.64 × 10−3 kg CH4_Eq, and ODP 3.41 × 10−7 kg CFC-11_Eq. We found that these values were low compared to landfill and incineration as a sewage sludge disposal method and compared to natural aggregate as a construction material production method. The environmental impact index analysis during LCA of lightweight aggregates produced from the sludge verified its positive environmental impact compared to the other potential methods of sludge management.
Unveiling the Untapped Potential of Green Consumption in Tourism
Authors: Vilkaite-Vaitone Neringa , Tamuliene Vilma
Published: December 2023

This paper aims to systematically review the existing literature to better understand multiple, complex facets of green consumption behaviour in the tourism sector and identify areas for future research. This review followed the PRISMA approach and analysed 92 studies published between 2009 and 2023 in high-impact journals. The present systematic review of scholarly studies on green consumption behaviour in tourism contributes to the existing literature, providing up-to-date research findings. Research has shown that studies on green consumption behaviour have predominantly centred on the accommodation industry. The Theory of Planned Behaviour has been widely utilised as a theoretical framework for such research. However, previous findings lack generalisability, and cross-cultural comparisons are insufficient. As a result, it is imperative to conduct additional research to create frameworks and models that can assist marketers in diverse cultural contexts. Additionally, expanding the scope of inquiry into green consumption behaviour within the tourism sector is crucial.
Emerging Dynamics of Training, Recruiting and Retaining a Sustainable Maritime Workforce: A Skill Resilience Framework
Authors: Caesar Livingstone Divine
Published: December 2023

The maritime industry is regarded as the fulcrum of the global economy. It contributes significantly in diverse ways to the movement of goods. To effectively deliver on its mandate, maritime transportation needs to be sustainable. In the absence of a resilient and highly adaptive workforce; however, it is impossible to address the tangible set of economic, environmental and social expectations for the sector. From a human capital perspective, this paper explores the emerging dynamics of producing a sustainable workforce for global maritime transportation. Results from a recent study involving 305 ship officers (web-based survey) are compared with new changes (from academic sources and industry reports) in the maritime transportation sector. The comparison (findings) highlights emerging changes within the global maritime workforce and the implications for skill development. It also emerged that the shortage of highly skilled talent (on both the landside and seaside) is a critical challenge and is being exacerbated by growing industry changes. Ultimately, these developments endanger sustainable maritime transportation. Consequently, the paper proposes a skill resilience framework with which industry stakeholders could identify skill gaps among the workforce and improve training content to produce an adaptive workforce capable of handling emerging challenges.
Development of a Novel High Head Impulse Hydro Turbine
Authors: Aggidis George , Židonis Audrius , Burtenshaw Luke , Dubois Marc , Orritt Stephen , Pickston Dominic , Prigov George , Wilmot Luke
Published: December 2023

The Pelton turbine has been widely regarded as the most efficient hydro turbine for high-head applications. However, the Pelton turbine buckets, especially the area commonly referred to as the ‘splitter’, are highly susceptible to erosion, drastically reducing efficiency over prolonged periods of time. This paper demonstrates a novel turbine idea that has been validated through both computational and experimental methods. This turbine addresses the issues associated with the erosion of the splitter through a redesign of the Pelton turbine to remove the need for a splitter and therefore potentially reducing downtime due to maintenance. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results show that the turbine is capable of efficiencies greater than 82% with room for further improvement. The practical experimental results also show efficiencies within 6% of an optimized Pelton turbine. The results from this study indicate that through further optimization this turbine design could provide a means to produce power outputs similar to conventional Pelton turbines, with the added benefit of lower maintenance costs.
Millennial Heterosexual Couples’ Sustainable Consumption Choices: An Exploratory Study into Decision-Making
Authors: Bhaduri Gargi , Kim-Vick Jihyun , Blanken Madeline
Published: December 2023

This research sought to explore the influences and motives that lead to decision-making of, and behavioral changes toward, sustainable consumption in heterosexual married couples. Understanding how different factors affect couples’ consumption decision-making dynamics can help provide successful methods to promote behavior towards sustainable consumption. For this study, semi-structured interviews were employed to explore couples’ sustainable consumption behaviors. A total of six heterosexual couples (12 individual participants) provided in-depth narratives regarding their sustainable consumption and behavioral patterns. Four major themes that emerged include: (1) the meaning of sustainable consumption for the couples and their lack of confidence in their knowledge, (2) shopping decisions regarding sustainable consumption, (3) life events that influenced the couples’ views and behaviors towards sustainable consumption, and (4) the motivations behind sustainable consumption. In spite of the small sample size, the findings of the study can be used by businesses to develop more effective marketing strategies. The study results can help businesses understand heterosexual married couples’ sustainable consumption decision-making processes and persuade them to make decisions about the company’s sustainable product offerings.
Kano Model Analysis of Digital On-Farm Technologies for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation in Livestock Farming
Authors: Münster Pia , Grabkowsky Barbara
Published: December 2023

In the EU, agriculture contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Germany, over half of the GHG emissions from agriculture can be directly attributed to livestock farming. To combat the progressing climate change, GHG emissions must be significantly reduced. Digital solutions, particularly decision support systems (DSS), are promising tools to assist livestock farmers in achieving the globally agreed GHG reduction goals. However, there is a lack of studies addressing DSS requirements for reducing GHG emissions in livestock on the farm level. Users’ feedback on technologies can support identifying areas for enhancement and refinement. This study identifies, categorizes, and ranks fourteen DSS features aimed at supporting GHG reduction based on their impact on customer satisfaction. A quantitative online questionnaire using the Kano model surveyed livestock farmers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction levels with these features. Results gathered from 98 responses across German federal states highlighted the significance of data authority and integrability, with their absence causing dissatisfaction. Multi-target optimization emerged as an attractive feature, positively impacting satisfaction. Connectivity and market perspective, however, appeared indifferent. The findings guide DSS developers in prioritizing attributes crucial for customer satisfaction. It also helps to focus on must-have attributes to preserve customer satisfaction and ensure successful GHG reduction implementation.
A Cohort Study Investigating Zearalenone Concentrations and Selected Steroid Levels in Patients with Sigmoid Colorectal Cancer or Colorectal Cancer
Authors: Lisieska-Żołnierczyk Sylwia , Gajęcka Magdalena , Dąbrowski Michał , Zielonka Łukasz , Gajęcki Maciej T.
Published: December 2023

The aim: In this study was to determine if sigmoid colorectal cancer (SCC) and colorectal cancer (CRC) in women (W) and men (M) is accompanied by zearalenone (ZEN) mycotoxicosis and changes in selected steroid levels. Materials and Methods: This cohort study was conducted on female and male patients selected from a population based on the presence of SCC or CRC, which was accompanied by the presence or absence (control group) of ZEN in their blood. The control group consisted of 17 patients with symptoms of SCC and CRC, where ZEN and its metabolites were not detected in the peripheral blood. The experimental groups comprised a total of 16 patients with SCC and CRC, where ZEN, but not its metabolites, was detected in their peripheral blood samples. Results: In groups SCC and CRC, the ZEN levels were very high, in the range from 214 to 289 ng/mL of blood. Considerable variations were observed in the concentrations of steroid hormones. Estradiol (E2) levels ranged from 166.25 (group C) to 325 pg/mL (group CRC) in women and from 98 (group C) to 95.5 pg/mL (group CRC) in men. Progesterone (P4) levels ranged from 12.09 (group C) to 13.64 ng/mL (group SCC) in women and from 6.98 (group CRC) to 12.01 ng/mL (group C) in men. Conclusions: These results indicate that post-menopausal women and similarly aged elderly men have a high and individualized demand for estrogen that is relatively effectively met by ZEN, which triggers qualitative changes in estrogen receptors. The shortage of ZEN metabolites (values under the sensitivity of the method) confirmed the high estrogen demand in the studied subjects. The presence or absence of ZEN could have influenced the therapeutic outcomes in the analyzed patients.
Analysis of Stormwater and Rainwater Harvesting Potential Based on a Daily Water Balance Model: A Case Study of Korea
Authors: Khan Amjad , Park Yoonkyung , Park Jongpyo , Sim Inkyeong , Kim Reeho
Published: December 2023

The increasing intensity of rainfall resulting from climate change is projected to worsen the inundation of urban areas by floods. As a viable alternative, stormwater harvesting presents an opportunity to enhance water supply reliability while reducing pressure on both water resources and urban stormwater drainage systems. The stored rainwater can be supplied with a radius of one kilometer around the storage facility, so less pumping energy is consumed compared to supplying the stored rainwater far away from the storage facilities. To visually depict the characteristics of the selected storage facility, land cover maps were created using ArcGIS. These maps were created for a circular region with a radius of one kilometer around each studied storage facility. In this study, a daily water balance model was formulated using spreadsheets to assess the potential of harvesting stormwater and rainwater for various pre-existing storage facilities. Five different types of storage facilities were selected for this study. The term “SRWH facility evaluation criteria” as a whole is used for the storm or rain (SR) water supply satisfaction rate, the SR guarantee rate, and the SR utilization rate. The results provide evidence that, for each selected studied storage facility, the SR water guarantee rate can potentially surpass 70% under conditions of low water demand. Moreover, we investigated the potential of the existing storage facilities to work as multifunctional resources, while the original purpose for which each facility was constructed remains un-affected.
Comparative content analysis of biologically active substances in citrus peel
Authors:   FSAEI HE I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Russia (Sechenov University), Bayramov M.D. , Nesterova O.V. ,   FSAEI HE I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Russia (Sechenov University), Dobrokhotov D.A. ,   FSAEI HE I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Russia (Sechenov University), Zavadskiy S.P. ,   FSAEI HE I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Russia (Sechenov University), Zhevlakova A.K. ,   FSAEI HE I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Russia (Sechenov University)
Published: December 2023

The analysis of the documents of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation shows that in 2021, there were 38.44 million cases of acute upper respiratory infections of multiple and unspecified localization, which accounted for 75.8% of all infectious and parasitic diseases. Researchers are interested in the creation of drugs for the treatment and prevention of acute respiratory viral infections using extracts and essential oils of plants with antiviral activity. Among the significant number of essential oil plants with potential antibacterial and antiviral effects, plants of the citrus family are of particular interest. The citrus fruits are widely used by the food industry, and the peel of the fruits is an industrial waste of food production. It is known that the peel of orange, tangerine, and lemon contains such valuable biologically active groups of substances as flavonoids, polyphenolic compounds, and essential oil, which allows considering this product as a potential source of novel medicines and preventive agents. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of aqueous and aqueous-alcoholic extracts from citrus peel using a complex of pharmacopoeial qualitative reactions. The quantitative determination of the content of extractive substances extracted with 45% and 70% ethyl alcohol and water was carried out, and the quantitative content of essential oil, flavonoids, tannins, and ascorbic acid was established.
Problems of bowel preparation for colonoscopy (review)
Authors:   FSBI Ryzhikh National Medical Research Center of Coloproctology of the Ministry of Health of Russia, Voskanyan A. S. , Vaganov Yu. E. ,   FSBI Ryzhikh National Medical Research Center of Coloproctology of the Ministry of Health of Russia, Galyaev A. V. ,   Multidisciplinary Clinic Real Trans Hair T LLC, Kiseleva A. O. ,   FSBI Ryzhikh National Medical Research Center of Coloproctology of the Ministry of Health of Russia, Rybakov E. G. ,   FSBI Ryzhikh National Medical Research Center of Coloproctology of the Ministry of Health of Russia
Published: December 2023

Inadequate bowel preparation leads to wasting work time and losing clinic and patients money. it puts patients at additional risk which is associated with repeat colonoscopy and potential complications. А critical review of the current literature has been performed to develop an individual preparation algorithms for high risk patients. The search was done in PubMed and E-library databases using the keywords: «Colonoscopy», «Colon cleaning», «Bowel», «Quality of colonoscopy», «colonoscopy», «preparation». CONCLUSION: an individualised scheme of preparation for colonoscopy looks to be promising. An additional improving result of the colonoscopy can be achieved with the patients training — information brochure, videos or text messages.
The evolution of the Caprini score
Authors:   Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Lobastov K. V. , Kovalchuk A. V. ,   Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Schastlivtsev I. V. ,   Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Laberko L. A. ,   Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow
Published: December 2023

The article is a narrative review of the literature that addresses the issues of individual risk assessment of hospital-acquired VTE using the Caprini score. It provides modern epidemiological data confirming the high medical and social significance of the problem of hospital venous thrombosis. The questions of the natural evolution of the Caprini score since the publication of the initial version in 1991 are discussed, a comparative analysis of the modifications of 2005, 2010 and 2013 is carried out, and the features of validation studies that have proven the superiority of the classical version of 2005 are discussed. Attention is paid to the problem of integrating the Caprini score into medical documentation with automation of the process of risk assessment and the appointment of preventive measures. The issue of heterogeneity of approaches to dividing patients into risk groups for developing VTE in accordance with the assessed scores is discussed separately; data from modern studies are presented confirming the existence of very high (9–10 points) and extremely high (≥11 points) risk groups that require an individual approach to prevention of thrombotic complications. Summary data are provided on the frequency of registration of VTE in accordance with Caprini scores in patients of various medical profiles based on a meta-analysis of 68 validation studies. The possibility of using patient-oriented questionnaires based on the Caprini score is discussed, which demonstrate high consistency with the original scale, but have not yet been studied in prospective studies. Revised algorithms are proposed to individually assess the risk of VTE using the 2005 vers of the Caprini score and prescribe adequate prophylaxis. It is concluded that the Caprini score still continues to improve and evolve in accordance with general trends in the development of medicine and healthcare, while maintaining the status of the most studied and in demand system for individual assessment of the risk of developing hospital-acquired VTE.