bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Negative Campaign on Telegram: The Political Use of Criticism during the 2021 Community of Madrid Elections
Authors: Tirado-García Alejandra
Published: February 2023

Mobile instant messaging services have become a standard tool for political actors in communicating with citizens, especially during electoral campaigns. Telegram predominates in this context of disintermediated communication with the electorate. This platform enables parties to issue electoral information while taking advantage of this private space to criticize their adversaries. They do it with messages linked to negative emotions that generate a deeper impact on the audience, although they imply risks such as political polarization. This research analyzes the use of criticism to the adversary by political parties on Telegram during the electoral campaign. For this purpose, a descriptive study with an exploratory purpose was chosen, and a quantitative content analysis was carried out on 710 messages published on Telegram by the main political parties that stood for the elections to the Community of Madrid held in 2021. These parties are the PP, Ciudadanos, Podemos, Más Madrid, and Vox. The PSOE has been excluded as they did not make any publication during the analyzed period. The results show that criticizing the adversary is an emerging communication strategy in political parties on Telegram. Unlike other social media such as Facebook, the attacks on rivals are used on this platform mainly by the parties in the government, who focus their criticism on the president of the Spanish state. The attacks are mainly directed at the professional trajectory of their rivals and question the credibility of any action carried out by them.
Negotiating and Voicing: A Study of Employment Experiences among Vietnamese Marriage Immigrant Women in Taiwan
Authors: Wu Ya-Ling
Published: February 2023

Applying a sociocultural approach and poststructural feminist theories as its framework, this study analyzed interviews with nine Vietnamese marriage immigrant women in Taiwan to explore their employment experiences in the process of crossing national and cultural boundaries. These low-skilled women labored to accumulate essential capital and struggled to be workers in demand. They accepted the improved employment quality that was affected by gendered racialization. Stable employment empowered these women, and some even divorced to achieve personal autonomy. The results of this study suggest that employment was significant for the daily lives of these immigrant women. Obviously, their prior socialization in Vietnam and the life experiences and economic structure in Taiwan interacted to contribute to these women’s work experiences, and they continually developed agency and a voice to create their positions and life meanings by participating in the Taiwanese labor market. This study recommends further investigation of marriage immigrant women’s identities and voices in the workplace and their expression of sexuality and femininity in employment.
How Rural Residents Access News and Its Influence on Social Trust: Based on the Data of the China Family Panel Studies
Authors: Liu Yusong , Zheng Linyi , Qian Wenrong
Published: February 2023

The Internet is bound to profoundly impact public social trust. This study empirically investigated the impact of rural residents’ access to information on social trust based on the tracking survey data of Chinese households, which covered a sample size of 12,042 rural residents from 25 provinces and cities. We found that: (1) The modes of access to information had a significant positive impact on rural residents’ social trust. Specifically, as the time spent using the Internet or television for news increased, rural residents’ trust in others also increased, which is known as the “media propaganda and mobilization effect.” The use of the Internet had a higher impact coefficient than the use of TV. (2) A substitution effect was detected between the ways rural residents accessed news via the Internet and television. (3) Rural residents used the Internet less frequently than urban residents to obtain news but were more influenced by the Internet regarding social trust. (4) The information-disadvantaged groups among rural residents were mainly women, old people, and people with low education. The government should attach great importance to the influence of media on social trust and needs to actively improve the digital literacy of disadvantaged groups of rural residents and combat and eliminate the “digital divide” to enhance rural residents’ social trust.
Evolution of Spatial Structure of Tourist Flows for a Domestic Destination: A Case Study of Zhangjiajie, China
Authors: Liu Tianzhi , Luo Fen , He Jiawen
Published: February 2023

Transportation facilitates the flow of tourists generating tourist flows, which produce flow effects on the spatial scale. By analyzing the evolution of tourist flows in Zhangjiajie by various modes of transportation over a long time series, the results show that the degree of development of the destination transportation network affects the dominance of the tourism node. Specifically, in the “train period”, Zhangjiajie, Changsha, Fenghuang, and Jishou core destinations become dominant with the “Matthew Effect”. In the “road period”, Jishou and Mengdonghe destinations decline, with the “Filtering Effect”. In the “high-speed railway period”, Zhangjiajie and Changsha are connected with more distant origins, and the “Diffusion Effect” occurs. It is worth noting that the development of high-speed rail has created a substitution effect for trains over long distances, and self-driving has created a substitution effect for trains over short and medium distances.
Environmental Performance and Corporate Governance: Evidence from Japan
Authors: Abedin Syeda Humayra , Subha Silima , Anwar Mumtaheena , Kabir Md. Nurul , Tahat Yasean A. , Hossain Mohammed
Published: February 2023

This study investigates the impact of corporate governance on corporate environmental performance among Japanese companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the period 2006–2019. Using fixed-effects modelling for 4617 firm-year observations from 2006–2019, we demonstrate that board independence, board diversity, and the presence of environmental management committees are significantly associated with improved environmental performance. However, a large board reduces the environmental performance, and CEO duality does not appear to be a significant factor affecting a firm’s environmental performance. Additionally, we show a consistent result when we proxy environmental performance by total carbon emissions.
Comprehensive Review on Waste Generation Modeling
Authors: Šomplák Radovan , Smejkalová Veronika , Rosecký Martin , Szásziová Lenka , Nevrlý Vlastimír , Hrabec Dušan , Pavlas Martin
Published: February 2023

Strategic plans for waste management require information on the current and future waste generation as a primary data source. Over the years, various approaches and methods for waste generation modeling have been presented and applied. This review provides a summary of the tasks that require information on waste generation that are most frequently handled in waste management. It is hypothesized that there is not currently a modeling approach universally suitable for forecasting any fraction of waste. It is also hypothesized that most models do not allow for modeling different scenarios of future development. Almost 360 publications were examined in detail, and all of the tracked attributes are included in the supplementary. A general step-by-step guide to waste generation forecasting, comprising data preparation, pre-processing, processing, and post-processing, was proposed. The problems that occurred in the individual steps were specified, and the authors’ recommendations for their solution were provided. A forecasting approach based on a short time series is presented, due to insufficient options of approaches for this problem. An approach is presented for creating projections of waste generation depending on the expected system changes. Researchers and stakeholders can use this document as a supporting material when deciding on a suitable approach to waste generation modeling or waste management plans.
Vs30 Prediction Models Based on Measured Shear-Wave Velocities in Tangshan, China
Authors: Fang Yi , Li Hao , Li Yu , Chen Guoxing , Lv Yuejun , Peng Yanju
Published: February 2023

Vs30 (equivalent shear-wave velocity of soil layers within a depth of 30 m underground) is widely used in the field of seismic engineering; however, due to the limitation of funds, time, measuring devices, and other factors, the depth for testing shear-wave velocity in an engineering site rarely reaches 30 m underground. Therefore, it is necessary to predict Vs30 effectively. We analyzed the existing models using 343 boreholes with depths greater than 30 m in Tangshan, China. It shows that the topographic slope method is not suitable for predicting Vs30 in Tangshan. The Boore (2011) model overestimates, while Boore (2004) underestimates Vs30 in Tangshan, while Junju Xie’s (2016) model has ideal prediction results. We propose three new models in this paper, including the bottom constant velocity (BCV) model, linear model, and conditional independent model. We find that the BCV model has limited prediction ability, and the linear model is more suitable when z ≤ 18 m, while the conditional independent model shows good performance under conditions where z > 18 m. We propose that the model can be accurately and effectively applied in Tangshan and other regions with low shear-wave velocity.
Prospects for Sustainable Production of the Banija Spotted Pig in Relation to Fattening, Carcass, and Meat Quality Traits: A Preliminary Study
Authors: Luković Zoran , Škorput Dubravko , Karolyi Danijel , Kaić Ana
Published: February 2023

The Banija spotted pig (BS) is a Croatian autochthonous breed that was officially recognised in 2018. The breed remains threatened with extinction and is on its way to establishing a production cycle that will ensure long-term conservation and sustainability. However, there is a general lack of data on the production traits of BS pigs. The aim of this work was therefore to identify the main fattening, carcass and meat quality traits of the BS pig and to assess the suitability of the breed for sustainable pork production. A total of ten pigs were fattened in a semi-free-range production system up to the average final body weight of 162 ± 17.3 kg. At the end of fattening, the growth, carcass and meat quality traits (pH, meat colour and water holding capacity) of the BS pig were determined and the gross margin based on the production of value-added meat products was calculated and compared with other Croatian local pig breeds. The results, which are to be considered preliminary due to the small data set, show that the fattening and slaughter characteristics of the BS pig are satisfactory and consistent with the characteristics of the breed and the husbandry practices adapted to semi-free-range farming. Furthermore, the meat quality showed suitability for processing for most traits, while the calculation of gross profit confirms the advantage of this breed for a well-rounded production cycle compared with related local pig breeds.
Assessment of Eight Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) Cultivars for Drought Stress Tolerance through Molecular, Morphological, and Physiochemical Parameters
Authors: Essa Shaimaa M. , Wafa Hany A. , Mahgoub EL-Sayed I. , Hassanin Abdallah A. , Al-Khayri Jameel M. , Jalal Areej S. , El-Moneim Diaa Abd , ALshamrani Salha M. , Safhi Fatmah A. , Eldomiaty Ahmed S.
Published: February 2023

Determining and improving drought-tolerant cultivars is a major goal of plant breeding to face climate change. The productivity of faba bean in Egypt is affected by abiotic stresses, especially drought stress. This study evaluated eight Egyptian faba bean cultivars for drought tolerance under three soil water regimes consisting of well-watered (100% field capacity), moderate drought stress (50% field capacity), and severe drought stress (25% field capacity) regimes in pots under greenhouse conditions using biochemical, physiochemical, and molecular parameters. The cultivars Nubariya 1, Nubariya 3, and Giza 716 showed the highest proline content values under 50% field capacity conditions, with 4.94, 4.39, and 4.26 mmol/g fresh weights, respectively. On the other hand, the cultivars Sakha 1, Sakha 4, Nubariya 1, and Nubariya 3 exhibited the highest proline contents (7.8, 7.53, 6.17, and 6.25, respectively) under 25% field capacity treatment. The molecular profiling was conducted using SCoT and SRAP approaches. Fresh leaves were utilized to extract the DNA, and ten primers for SRAP and six for SCoT were used in the PCR procedures. SCoT and SRAP-PCR generated 72 loci, of which, 55 were polymorphic, and 17 were monomorphic. SCoT and SRAP each had 48 and 24 total loci, respectively. The average polymorphism (%) values achieved via SCoT and SRAP were 70.93% and 80%, respectively. Based on the molecular profiles, the cluster analysis identified three clusters. The first cluster comprised Giza 716 cultivars; the second cluster included Sakha 1, Sakha 3, Sakha 4, and Akba 3300 cultivars; the third cluster comprised two cultivars Nubariya 1 and Nubariya3. According to the study’s findings, Sakha 1, Sakha 4, Nubariya 1, and Nubariya 3 are remarkable parents for developing drought-tolerant faba bean genotypes. Additionally, this study concluded that SRAP and SCoT markers recreated trustworthy banding profiles to evaluate the genetic polymorphism among faba bean cultivars, which are regarded as the cornerstone for genetic improvements in crops.
Forecast of Short-Term Passenger Flow in Multi-Level Rail Transit Network Based on a Multi-Task Learning Model
Authors: Feng Fenling , Zou Zhaohui , Liu Chengguang , Zhou Qianran , Liu Chang
Published: February 2023

With the refinement of the urban transportation network, more and more passengers choose the combined mode. To provide better inter-trip services, it is necessary to integrate and forecast the passenger flow of multi-level rail transit network to improve the connectivity of different transport modes. The difficulty of multi-level rail transit passenger flow prediction lies in the complexity of the spatiotemporal characteristics of the data, the different characteristics of passenger flow composition, and the difficulty of research. At present, most of the research focuses on one mode of transportation or the passenger flow within the city, while the comprehensive analysis of passenger flow under various modes of transportation is less. This study takes the key nodes of the multi-level rail transit railway hub as the research object, establishes a multi-task learning model, and forecasts the short-term passenger flow of rail transit by combining the trunk railway, intercity rail transit and subway. Different from the existing research, the model introduces convolution layer and multi-head attention mechanism to improve and optimize the Transformer multi-task learning framework, trains and processes the data of trunk railway, intercity railway, and subway as different tasks, and considers the correlation of passenger flow of trunk railway, intercity railway, and subway in the prediction. At the same time, a new residual network structure is introduced to solve the problems of over-fitting, gradient disappearance, and gradient explosion in the training process. Taking the large comprehensive transportation hub in Guangzhou metropolitan area as an example, the proposed multi-task learning model is evaluated. The improved Transformer has the highest prediction accuracy (Average prediction accuracy of passenger flow of three traffic modes) 88.569%, and others methods HA, FC-LSTM and STGCN are 81.579%, 82.230% and 81.761%, respectively. The results show that the proposed multi-task learning model has better prediction performance than the existing models.
Exploring City Image Perception in Social Media Big Data through Deep Learning: A Case Study of Zhongshan City
Authors: Su Lei , Chen Weifeng , Zhou Yan , Fan Lei
Published: February 2023

Based on Kevin Lynch’s cognitive method of urban image and Weibo’s review data, this study constructs a research framework with three modules as the core: city image structure, city image types, and cultural service evaluation. First, the geospatial information carried by comments is analyzed by GIS to obtain the image structure of the city; second, the picture data in the comments are divided into image types and the type ratio is calculated by the image semantic segmentation method based on deep full convolution neural network. Finally, the text data in the comments are extracted from the semantic word frequency analysis to evaluate the cultural service perception index words of the city image and combined with the analysis of the city image structure and the city image type so as to obtain the integrated comprehensive perception of the city image. The research shows that the introduction of big data and deep learning methods into city image research can make up for the shortcomings of traditional research samples, expand the dimension and breadth of urban cognition, reveal the social, cultural, and functional characteristics of the city, and is an important supplement to the five-element model of city image depicting the material form of the city. In addition, the results of the empirical study, taking Zhongshan City as an example, have implications for the realistic urban spatial planning, urban landscape design, and tourism industry layout of Zhongshan.
Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Green Innovation: Evidence from China’s Provincial Panel Data
Authors: Chen Lifeng , Guo Fuxuan , Huang Lingyan
Published: February 2023

The last couple of decades have witnessed growing interest in the academic literature in the conciliation of finance and sustainable development. Foreign direct investment (FDI) faces increasing pressure from both host and home country towards adoptinsg sustainable approaches. Such solutions can be green innovation (GI) for climate change, environmental risks, green processes and products that allow tracking the carbon footprint, as well as many other green technologies. Based on the macro-level data of 31 provinces in China from 2003 to 2020, this paper employed policy environment (PE) and marketization level (ML) as moderating variables to further investigate the impact of FDI on GI. Our results show the following: (1) FDI has a significant positive and dynamic evolution feature of diminishing marginal efficiency on GI. (2) The heterogeneity analysis of regional regression shows that FDI significantly increases GI in the eastern and western regions. In contrast, FDI in the central region inhibits GI but not significantly. (3) Both PE and ML can positively moderate the impact of FDI on GI. Furthermore, our empirical results of the robustness test of 2SLS and GMM are highly consistent with the main test. The conclusions of this paper provide policy implications for local governments to fully and effectively utilize foreign capital for green innovation activities.
Research on the Openness of Digital Platforms Based on Entropy-Weighted TOPSIS: Evidence from China
Authors: Fu Wei , Sun Jie , Lee Xiaodong
Published: February 2023

Regarding digital platforms in recent years, the abuse of a platform’s dominant position, applications monitoring user behaviour, the difficulty of exiting digital platforms, and the inability of users to transfer data on platforms have become increasingly acute, which makes the evaluation of the openness of digital platforms extremely urgent. This paper applies the relatively objective entropy-weighted TOPSIS method to construct a digital platform openness index (DPOI) to evaluate the openness of 22 digital platforms in China. The research found that there are certain institutional constraints and obstacles in the access, transaction, exit, and transfer of different types of digital platform, and it is necessary to sustainably improve the openness of digital platforms to bring convenience to users in the future. Our results not only update the practical data on the openness of emerging digital platforms, but also enrich the literature in the field of digital platform openness, which has significant implications for evaluating the openness of digital platforms in emerging markets such as China.
Dynamic Strength Characteristics of Cement-Improved Silty Clay under the Effect of Freeze-Thaw Cycles
Authors: Ma Zheng , Xing Zhen , Zhao Yingying , Hu Yiru
Published: February 2023

In the seasonally frozen soil regions of northern China, silty clay is widely used as a subgrade bed filler in heavy-haul railway construction. In this paper, the influence of freeze-thaw cycles on the dynamic strength properties (strength parameters and dynamic critical stress) of silty clay fillers before and after cement improvement was investigated by a series of dynamic triaxial tests under different confining pressure conditions, and the test results were quantified to analyze the improvement effects of cement improvement. The results show that cement modification can significantly improve the dynamic strength parameters (dynamic strength, dynamic strength index, and critical dynamic stress) of silty clay before and after freezing and thawing. The dynamic strength of cement-improved silty clay (CSC) was improved by 2.8 to 5.2 times compared to silty clay, and a high level of dynamic strength can be maintained after multiple freeze-thaw cycles. The dynamic cohesion was increased by 1.5 to 3 times and the dynamic internal friction angle was increased by 1.5 to 4 times. The attenuation rate of the critical dynamic stress of CSC with the number of freeze-thaw cycles was greater than that of the plain filler, while the relative lifting effect of the critical dynamic stress of the cement improvement was significant after three freeze-thaw cycles, and the maximum value was reached at a cycle number of three, with a relative increase of 2.5 times. A new index of critical dynamic stress attenuation of CSC for freeze-thaw cycles was introduced, which provides a useful reference for subgrade improvement and reinforcement along the silty clay railway in northern China.
WAMS-Based Fuzzy Logic PID Secondary Voltage Control of the Egyptian Grid
Authors: Abdalla Omar H. , Fayek Hady H.
Published: February 2023

This paper presents the application of fuzzy logic PID secondary voltage control to the Egyptian power system model. The study included tertiary voltage control, Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) configuration, a selection of pilot buses, and fuzzy logic PID secondary voltage control to improve the system performance. The secondary voltage control was applied using a fuzzy PID coordinated controller, a reactive power integral controller, Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVRs), and regional generators. The tertiary voltage control was implemented based on the optimal power flow to maximize the reactive power reserve. A novel optimization technique is presented to select pilot buses based on different operating conditions and compared to other techniques. The optimal WAMS configuration included the best allocation of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs), and the required communication infrastructure considering geographical regions with minimum cost. The Egyptian power grid considering 500/220 kV level is simulated by using DIgSILENT software to perform static and dynamic analyses, while the WAMS optimization problems and fuzzy logic PID controller design are performed by employing MATLAB software.
An Autonomous Marine Mucilage Monitoring System
Authors: Sanver Ufuk , Yesildirek Aydin
Published: February 2023

Mucilage bloom is a current issue, especially for countries in the Mediterranean Basin, due to economic activities and ecological effects. The main causes are increased nutrient load due to organic and industrial pollution in the sea, global warming, and meteorological conditions at a level that can trigger mucilage bloom. It is important to take permanent measures to combat the increased nutrient load causing mucilage. However, there are various actions that can be performed during the mucilage bloom period, especially the collection of mucilage on the sea surface. Surface vehicles can be used to monitor and collect mucilage on the sea surface. The aim of this study is to design an autonomous marine mucilage monitoring system for systems such as unmanned surface vehicles (USV). We suggest monitoring the risky Marmara Sea continuously and recording some of the key parameters using a USV. The onboard solution proposed in this study has an architect based on a three-tier mucilage monitoring system. In the first tier, the sea surface is scanned with camera(s) in a certain radius in real time. When mucilage-candidate areas are determined, the vehicle is directed to this region autonomously. In the second tier, seawater in the region is measured in real time with some onboard sensors, pH level, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen level. The third tier is where real samples at three different depths are collected (if possible) for detailed posterior lab analysis. We have compared image processing, CNN (ResNet50), kNN, SVM, and FFNN approaches and have shown that the accuracy of our proposed mucilage classification method offers better and more promising performance.
Analysis and Experimental Validation of Single-Phase Cascaded Boost AC–AC Converter with High Voltage Gain
Authors: Osheba Dina S. M. , Ahmed Sayed M. , Lashine Azza E.
Published: February 2023

This article presents a single-phase cascaded AC–AC converter with boosting capability for power-quality issues. A high voltage gain can be obtained based on the number of cascaded units. The basic construction of one unit in the cascaded connection requires only two four-quadrant switches with a low-voltage rating. The performance features for the topology are a unity power factor that is close to unity on the input side, high steady-state performance, and fast dynamic response. The operation modes and mathematical model for the topology are presented. An appropriate PI-based control method/strategy is created, so the converter may continue to run while attaining the desired voltage gain, even if one of the cascaded units fails. The control circuit’s ability to maintain the continuity of matching the input current waveform with the input voltage waveform allows a decrease in the THD with different operating conditions. Moreover, the ability to solve a dead time problem carried out by the control circuit leads to a reduction in voltage stress. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed technique were demonstrated via a computer simulation using MATLAB/Simulink. Moreover, an experimental setup for the system was built in the laboratory to validate the practicability of the system, which was tested under different conditions. The good agreement obtained between the theoretical and experimental results endorses the validity of the designed circuit.
Valorization of Lyophilized Olive Mill Wastewater: Chemical and Biochemical Approaches
Authors: Dali Imen , Abdelwahab Abdelrahman T. , Aydi Abdelkarim , Fares Nouha , Eladeb Aboulbaba , Hamzaoui Mondher , Abderrabba Manef , Abdelfattah Marwa A. , Guetat Arbi
Published: February 2023

Lipid composition and antioxidant activity have been carried out in order to valorize the composition of olive mill wastewater extracts with different solvents (supercritical carbon dioxide, n-hexane, dichloromethane and ethanol). The antioxidant activity was evaluated using ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) and DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) tests. The total phenolics and flavonoid contents were, also, determined. The chemical composition of the extracted oil was established, respectively, by gas chromatography–flame ionization detector and high-performance liquid chromatography methods. The results showed that the oleic acid and equivalent carbon number of forty-eight were the major compounds of the analyzed oils. Residual olive mill wastewater from the Sousse region displayed the highest DPPH radical-scavenging activity (31.10 ± 0.10 μg/mL). The chemical analysis of extracts of OMWs showed that the n-hexane fraction contained an abundance of oleic acid (61.62%) and an equivalent carbon number of forty-eight (53.14%). The best antioxidant activity was determined for the ethanol fraction (14.5 μg/mL). The final results showed a significant difference and variations in polar and apolar components. Moreover, n-hexane extracts showed high percentages of Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) with 64% of OMWs oil composition and the dichloromethane extracts contained the largest amount of flavonoids (160.30 ± 1.70 mg EQ/g DM).
The Challenges of Sustainable Tourism Development in Special Environmental Protected Areas: Local Resident Perceptions in Datça-Bozburun
Authors: Sezerel Hakan , Karagoz Deniz
Published: February 2023

This study depicts the challenges and opportunities of sustainable tourism development in Special Environmental Protected Areas with a Datça-Bozburun Peninsula case study via a mixed method. Relying on the social exchange theory and triple bottom line approach, this study is one of the first studies to deal with the development of tourism in SPAs and the support given to tourism in a multifaceted way. The study depicts tourism’s economic, sociocultural, and environmental effects in the context of destination development stages. It also determines these variables’ effects on tourism support. With these aspects of the study, we found that the propositions of social exchange theory are validated. While economic, social, and cultural impacts affect tourism support, the environmental impact does not affect tourism support. The qualitative findings suggest that tourism development shifted from nature-based tourism with foreigners to mass tourism with locals. The low interest of local tourists in water sports and the lack of promotion are important dynamics behind the development of local mass tourism in Datça with a sun-sand-sea orientation. Besides the lack of emphasis on the special protected areas’ unique hallmarks, the deficiencies in coordination and pitfalls in monitoring resources are unique challenges for sustainable tourism development.
A Prosumer Power Prediction Method Based on Dynamic Segmented Curve Matching and Trend Feature Perception
Authors: Chen Biyun , Xu Qi , Zhao Zhuoli , Guo Xiaoxuan , Zhang Yongjun , Chi Jingmin , Li Canbing
Published: February 2023

With the massive installation of distributed renewable energy (DRE) generation, many prosumers with the dual attributes of load and power supply have emerged. Different DRE permeability and the corresponding peak-valley timing characteristics have an impact on the power features of prosumers, so new models and methods are needed to reflect the new features brought about by these factors. This paper proposes a method for predicting the power of prosumers. In this method, dynamic segmented curve matching is applied to reduce the complexity of source–load coupling features and improve the effectiveness of the input features, and trend feature perception based on a temporal convolutional network (TCN) was applied to grasp the power trend of prosumers by predicting the multisegment trend indexes. The LST-Atten prediction model based on a temporal attention mechanism (TAM) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network was applied to predict “day-ahead” power, which combines the trend indexes and similar curve sets as the input. Simulation results show that the proposed model has higher accuracy than individual models. Furthermore, the proposed model can maintain prediction stability under different renewable energy permeability scenarios.
A Novel Integrated q-Rung Fuzzy Framework for Biomass Location Selection with No Apriori Weight Choices
Authors: Krishankumar Raghunathan , Mishra Arunodaya Raj , Rani Pratibha , Cavallaro Fausto , Ravichandran Kattur Soundarapandian
Published: February 2023

Biomass is a promising form of clean energy that could be utilized worldwide for huge household demand. As the world is constantly fighting climate change and carbon emissions, the adoption of biofuels for households minimizes the ill effects on the ecosystem from households. A recent report from IndiaSpend shows that Indian households bring approximately 3.78 tonnes/capita of carbon, which includes electricity, consumables, and food sources. To bring a balance between utilization demand and ecofriendliness within the household, biomass is an attractive option. Location for producing biomass is a crucial decision problem as it involves multiple criteria that are competing and conflicting with one another. Previous studies on location selection for biomass cannot promptly model uncertainty and consider hesitation and interactions of experts and criteria. To handle these issues, a novel integrated decision approach is put forward. Initially, a generalized orthopedic structure is adapted to model uncertainty from three dimensions. Further, the weights of experts and criteria are determined via variance measure and the CRITIC method. A ranking procedure is put forward with combined compromise solution formulation for rational selection of biomass production location. The usefulness of the developed framework is testified by using a case example and comparison with extant approaches, revealing the superiorities and limitations of the framework.
Research on the Coastal Landscape Pattern Index in the District of Nansha
Authors: Liu Xiaojuan , Huang Jun , Liu Wei , Ding Ye , Ge Lipeng
Published: February 2023

The regional ecological security and sustainable development are impacted by the changing terrain pattern. It is important to investigate the temporal and spatial shifts in coastal city landscape patterns As they have significant directing implications for coastal city landscape pattern improvement. The analytical results of the landscape pattern index of the coastal zone in the Nansha District of Guangzhou are investigated at three levels: patch level scale, type scale, and overall landscape scale, utilizing the method for calculating the LPI, which is based on site type data and land use data for the years 1987 to 2020. The findings indicate that: (1) From 1987 to 2012, Nansha made the landscape patches uniform and continuous, the water patches remained intact, the city expanded more quickly from 2013 to 2020, and the landscape fragmentation increased year by year. As human beings surround coastal zones with various productive activities. The heterogeneity of the center urban landscape is particularly significant, and the spatial pattern of different landscape types and their composition on land tends to be intricate. (2) The shift in arable land, water, and building land is shown by the type-scale landscape index. The development of urbanization causes patches of arable land to lose their dominating status quickly, while water bodies continue to hold the third-place position, and construction land takes its place as the most complex patch. (3) The overall landscape scale index shows that in the Nansha District the patch size of different landscape types increased from 1995 to 2002 before tending to stabilize. This finding suggests that as urbanization accelerated, leading to an overall patch fragmentation increase, composition tended to become more complex. In addition to providing a theoretical framework for investigating the relationship between changes in landscape pattern and ecological processes in the coastal zone, this study identifies a landscape pattern index that can quantify the complexity of the distribution of landscape types in the coastal zone of the Nansha District. We also offer a land use optimization strategy for Nansha’s ecological space and land use, which will serve as methodological guidance and a point of reference for the long-term sustainable development of the urban cluster’s ecological environment based on the fusion of land and water. These recommendations are derived from the study’s results.
Assessing Carbon Reduction Potential of Rooftop PV in China through Remote Sensing Data-Driven Simulations
Authors: Jiang Hou , Lu Ning , Wang Xuecheng
Published: February 2023

Developing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) has become an important initiative for achieving carbon neutrality in China, but the carbon reduction potential assessment has not properly considered the spatial and temporal variability of PV generation and the curtailment in electricity dispatch. In this study, we propose a technical framework to fill the gap in assessing carbon reduction potential through remote sensing data-driven simulations. The spatio-temporal variations in rooftop PV generations were simulated on an hourly basis, and a dispatch analysis was then performed in combination with hourly load profiles to quantify the PV curtailment in different scenarios. Our results showed that the total rooftop PV potential in China reached 6.5 PWh yr−1, mainly concentrated in the eastern region where PV generation showed high variability. The carbon reduction from 100% flexible grids with 12 h of storage capacity is close to the theoretical maximum, while without storage, the potential may be halved. To maximize the carbon reduction potential, rooftop PV development should consider grid characteristics and regional differences. This study has important implications for the development of rooftop PV and the design of carbon-neutral pathways based on it.
Impact of Digital Finance on Green Technology Innovation: The Mediating Effect of Financial Constraints
Authors: Tang Decai , Chen Wenya , Zhang Qian , Zhang Jianqun
Published: February 2023

Green technology innovation is crucial for achieving sustainable development. This paper establishes fixed effect and mediation effect models to study how digital finance influences corporate green technology innovation and the moderating role of financial constraints using the data of Chinese A-share public businesses from 2011 to 2020. The results show that, first, green technology innovation is facilitated by digital finance, and both the coverage breadth and use depth play important roles. Second, digital finance encourages business innovation in green technology by alleviating financial constraints. Third, in state-owned businesses and businesses located in the eastern regions, digital finance has a more visible driving impact on green technology innovation. The aforementioned findings offer insightful research to encourage the balanced growth of digital finance and better enable corporate green technology innovation.
A Comprehensive Review on the Integration of Antimicrobial Technologies onto Various Surfaces of the Built Environment
Authors: Yong Ling Xin , Calautit John Kaiser
Published: February 2023

With the recent surge in interest in microbial prevention, this review paper looks at the different antimicrobial technologies for surfaces in the built environment. Every year, more than 4 million people are at risk of dying due to acquiring a microbial infection. As per the recent COVID-19 pandemic, such infections alone increase the cost and burden to the healthcare system. Therefore, mitigating the risk of microbial infection in the built environment is one of the essential considerations in our preparedness for future pandemic situations. This is especially important for a dense population within urban cities and for indoor environments with higher concentrations of indoor contaminants due to poorer ventilation. The review assesses antimicrobial technologies developed in the last two years and their potential and suitability for implementation on surfaces within a building, and it also suggests key considerations when developing these technologies for a built environment. The keywords in the main search include “antimicrobial”, “coating”, and “surfaces”. The work found various studies describing the potential use of antimicrobial technologies for different material surfaces. Still, a more thorough investigation and upscaling of work are required to assess their suitability for built environment applications. The widely diverse types of built environments in public areas with their varying purpose, design, and surfaces also mean that there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for every space. In order to improve the adoption and consideration of antimicrobial surfaces, the built environment industry and stakeholders could benefit from more in-depth and long-term evaluation of these antimicrobial technologies, which demonstrate their real-time impact on various built environment spaces.
Sustainability Assessment of Buildings Indicators
Authors: Rodrigues Leonardo , Delgado João M. P. Q. , Mendes Adélio , Lima António G. B. , Guimarães Ana S.
Published: February 2023

The building sector is responsible for a high environmental impact, namely during construction, maintenance, demolition, and lifetime. It is then urgent to develop tools for guiding all stockholders to make buildings more sustainable. In order to make the sustainability assessment of a building, it is necessary to make a survey of the most appropriate parameters for this analysis and organize them hierarchically. The first sustainability certification rating tools were developed in the 90′s of the last century, namely Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM), which allow for the quantitative sustainability assessment of different types of buildings. After the first developments, many authors joined in the endeavor of producing easier-to-use and more accurate sustainability assessment systems using sustainability indicators and their respective weights. This work provides a rational pathway throughout the relevant literature on sustainability indicators, comparing indicators proposed by different authors and different sustainability certification systems.
A Review of Climate-Smart Agriculture: Recent Advancements, Challenges, and Future Directions
Authors: Zhao Junfang , Liu Dongsheng , Huang Ruixi
Published: February 2023

Global climate change has posed serious threats to agricultural production. Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ensuring food security are considered the greatest challenges in this century. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a concept that can provide a solution to the challenges that agricultural development faces. It can do so in a sustainable way by increasing adaptability, decreasing GHG emissions, and ensuring national food security. So far, little research has systematically reviewed the progresses in CSA in developing and in developed countries. A review on the recent advancements, challenges, and future directions of CSA will be quite timely and valuable. In this paper, the definition and development goals of CSA are identified. Then, the recent advancements of CSA in developing and in developed countries are reviewed. The existing problems and challenges in CSA are analyzed and pointed out. Finally, the proposals on prospects and directions for CSA in the future are proposed. Using advanced internet technology to ensure agricultural information security, improvement of cropping patterns, and management techniques, carrying out “internet + weather” service and improving the quality of agricultural service, and conducting agricultural weather index-based insurance are considered as the main direction of future development of CSA. This review provides new ideas and strategies for strengthening ecological environmental protection, promoting agricultural green development, and mitigating climate change.
Unintended Consequences of Housing Policies: Evidence from South Korea
Authors: Kim Chunil , Ko Jinsoo
Published: February 2023

South Korea has crafted a series of policy measures to regulate or stimulate housing markets. One interesting feature is that policy makers and market observers have paid enormous attention to one particular housing market, the Greater Gangnam Area in Seoul. The area is an upscale and self-sufficient urban neighborhood with high-priced residential properties; the nation’s housing policies have been directed toward tempering housing price appreciation there. This leads to the following research question: whether the housing policy tools achieved the intended goals or not. This study examined the differential impacts of government-initiated policy measures on housing submarkets in the primary real estate market. Quasi-experimental econometric evaluations, which are AITS-DID methods, revealed that recent policy measures did not achieve the intended goal of housing price stabilization. Rather, those policy instruments brought about unintended consequences. The Housing Welfare Roadmap measure was intended to cool down the Gangnam housing market, but it in fact increased the Gangnam housing prices by 5.69 percent points in comparison to the non-Gangnam area. In order to tackle housing market imbalances, the government should devise long-term urban and regional planning strategies to create self-sustaining communities suitable for various population groups so that they can compete with existing strong real estate markets.
Intelligent Separation and Identification of Sub-Information Based on Dynamic Mathematical Model
Authors: Zhang Xiuquan , Shen Lin
Published: February 2023

P-sets (P stands for Packet), a set pair with dynamic and law characteristics, are made up of an internal and an outer P-set, which is obtained by introducing dynamic characteristics into the Cantor set and improving the Cantor set. The concepts of αF-sub-information, αF¯-sub-information, and (αF,αF¯)-sub-information are presented in this paper based on P-sets, and it is then suggested that the relationship between the generation of sub-information and its attribute, the process of attribute reasoning, reasoning structure, and sub-information intelligent separation-acquisition be explored. These findings were used to design a sub-information intelligent separation-identification algorithm. By using these results, the application of intelligent separation and the identification of case information are given.
A Hybrid Algorithm for the Heterogeneous Fixed Fleet Open Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows
Authors: Ahmed Zakir Hussain , Yousefikhoshbakht Majid
Published: February 2023

Nowadays, using a rental fleet to transport goods for delivering to customers at a particular time frame is very important in the services and industry. That is why, in this study, we consider the heterogeneous fixed fleet open vehicle routing problem with time windows, which is one version of the vehicle routing problem with time windows. The problem has not attracted attention so much in the operational research literature than the usual vehicle routing problem. The problem consists of determining the minimum cost routes for a fleet of a fixed number of vehicles with various capacities in order to fulfil the demands of the customer population. Moreover, the vehicles start at the headquarters and terminate at one of the customers. In this study, we introduce a mixed integer programming model and then integrate an exact algorithm to solve this model. Furthermore, a hybrid algorithm (HA) based on modified rank-based ant system is developed and then its efficiency is compared with the exact method and some metaheuristic methods on some standard instances in literature. The results proved the effectiveness of our proposed HA.