bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Structure and Meaning in the Interpretation of the Laozi: Cheng Xuanying’s Hermeneutic Toolkit and His Interpretation of Dao as a Compassionate Savior
Authors: Assandri Friederike
Published: April 2022

Cheng Xuanying’s Expository Commentary to the Daode jing presents the Laozi as the origin of Daoism—a Daoism which, by his time in the seventh century, included many beliefs and concepts coopted from Buddhism. The commentary is representative of chongxuan xue (Twofold Mystery philosophy), which is characterized by the integration of Buddhist concepts and methods into the interpretation of the Laozi. Taking the integration of the Buddhist concept of the bodhisattva as universal savior of limitless compassion, this paper investigates the “why” and “how” of this cooption. The question of why Cheng Xuanying wanted to read the Daode jing as a testimony to Laozi and Dao being a compassionate, universal savior is addressed with a contextualization of the commentary in its time and location: early Tang Chang’an. Next, the paper discusses, in detail, the hermeneutic tools Cheng Xuanying used to achieve his reading. Cheng Xuanying integrated his commentary and the original text of the Laozi in a complex structure, combining the kepan technique, interlinear interpretation, and added structuring comments, in addition to what might be termed “strategic citations”. This paper analyzes how he worked with these means to construct arguments and specific readings of the Laozi.
A New Perspective on Four Decades of Changes in Arctic Sea Ice from Satellite Observations
Authors: Wang Xuanji , Liu Yinghui , Key Jeffrey R. , Dworak Richard
Published: April 2022

Arctic sea ice characteristics have been changing rapidly and significantly in the last few decades. Using a long-term time series of sea ice products from satellite observations—the extended AVHRR Polar Pathfinder (APP-x)—trends in sea ice concentration, ice extent, ice thickness, and ice volume in the Arctic from 1982 to 2020 are investigated. Results show that the Arctic has become less ice-covered in all seasons, especially in summer and autumn. Arctic sea ice thickness has been decreasing at a rate of −3.24 cm per year, resulting in an approximate 52% reduction in thickness from 2.35 m in 1982 to 1.13 m in 2020. Arctic sea ice volume has been decreasing at a rate of −467.7 km3 per year, resulting in an approximate 63% reduction in volume, from 27,590.4 km3 in 1982 to 10,305.5 km3 in 2020. These trends are further examined from a new perspective, where the Arctic Ocean is classified into open water, perennial, and seasonal sea ice-covered areas based on sea ice persistence. The loss of the perennial sea ice-covered area is a major factor in the total sea ice loss in all seasons. If the current rates of sea ice changes in extent, concentration, and thickness continue, the Arctic is expected to have ice-free summers by the early 2060s.
Fully Deformable Convolutional Network for Ship Detection in Remote Sensing Imagery
Authors: Guo Hongwei , Bai Hongyang , Yuan Yuman , Qin Weiwei
Published: April 2022

In high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery (HRSI), ship detection plays a fundamental role in a wide variety of applications. Despite the remarkable progress made by many methods, ship detection remains challenging due to the dense distribution, the complex background, and the huge differences in scale and orientation of ships. To address the above problems, a novel, fully deformable convolutional network (FD-Net) is proposed for dense and multiple-scale ship detection in HRSI, which could effectively extract features at variable scales, orientations and aspect ratios by integrating deformable convolution into the entire network structure. In order to boost more accurate spatial and semantic information flow in the network, an enhanced feature pyramid network (EFPN) is designed based on deformable convolution constructing bottom-up feature maps. Additionally, in considering of the feature level imbalance in feature fusion, an adaptive balanced feature integrated (ABFI) module is connected after EFPN to model the scale-sensitive dependence among feature maps and highlight the valuable features. To further enhance the generalization ability of FD-Net, extra data augmentation and training methods are jointly designed for model training. Extensive experiments are conducted on two public remote sensing datasets, DIOR and DOTA, which then strongly prove the effectiveness of our method in remote sensing field.
Heterogeneous Urban Thermal Contribution of Functional Construction Land Zones: A Case Study in Shenzhen, China
Authors: Wang Han , Li Bingxin , Yi Tengyun , Wu Jiansheng
Published: April 2022

Anthropogenic interferences through various intensive social-economic activities within construction land have induced and strengthened the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects in global cities. Focused on the relative heat effect produced by different social-economic functions, this study established a general framework for functional construction land zones (FCLZs) mapping and investigated their heterogeneous contribution to the urban thermal environment, and then the thermal responses in FCLZs with 12 environmental indicators were analyzed. Taking Shenzhen as an example city, the results show that the total contribution and thermal effects within FCLZs are significantly different. Specifically, the FCLZs contribution to UHI regions highly exceeds the corresponding proportions of their area. The median warming capacity order of FCLZs is: Manufacture function (3.99 °C) > Warehousing and logistics function (3.69 °C) > Street and transportation function (3.61 °C) > Business services function (3.06 °C) > Administration and public services function (2.54 °C) > Green spaces and squares function (2.40 °C) > Residential function (2.21 °C). Both difference and consistency coexist in the responses of differential surface temperature (DST) to environmental indicators in FCLZs. The thermal responses of DST to biophysical and building indicators in groups of FCLZs are approximately consistent linear relationships with different intercepts, while the saturation effects shown in location and social-economic indicators indicate that distance and social-economic development control UHI effects in a non-linear way. This study could extend the understanding of urban thermal warming mechanisms and help to scientifically adjust environmental indicators in urban planning.
Assessing School Travel Safety in Scotland: An Empirical Analysis of Injury Severities for Accidents in the School Commute
Authors: Fountas Grigorios , Olowosegun Adebola , Basbas Socrates
Published: April 2022

School travel has been a significant source of safety concerns for children, parents, and public authorities. It will continue to be a source of concerns as long as severe accidents continue to emerge during pupils’ commute to school. This study provides an empirical analysis of the factors influencing the injury severities of the accidents that occurred on trips to or from school in Scotland. Using 9-year data from the STATS19 public database, random parameter binary logit models with allowances for heterogeneity in the means were estimated in order to investigate injury severities in urban and rural areas. The results suggested that factors such as the road type, lighting conditions, vehicle type, and age of the driver or casualty constitute the common determinants of injury severities in both urban and rural areas. Single carriageways and vehicles running on heavy oil engines were found to induce opposite effects in urban and rural areas, whereas the involvement of a passenger car in the accident decomposed various layers of unobserved heterogeneity for both area types. The findings of this study can inform future policy interventions with a focus on traffic calming in the proximity of schools.
Mathematics and Poetry · Yang–Baxter Equations, Boolean Algebras, and BCK-Algebras
Authors: Kalkan Tugce , Nichita Florin F. , Oner Tahsin , Senturk Ibrahim , Terziler Mehmet
Published: April 2022

The current paper explores the potential of the areas between mathematics and poetry. We will first recall some definitions and results that are needed to construct solutions of the Yang–Baxter equation. A new duality principle is presented and Boolean coalgebras are introduced. A section on poetry dedicated to the Yang–Baxter equation is presented, and a discussion on a poem related to a mathematical formula follows. The final section presents our conclusions and further information on these topics.
Simulation of CO2 Capture Process in Flue Gas from Oxy-Fuel Combustion Plant and Effects of Properties of Absorbent
Authors: Huang Xiaoting , Ai Ning , Li Lan , Jiang Quanda , Wang Qining , Ren Jie , Wang Jiawei
Published: April 2022

Oxy-fuel combustion technology is an effective way to reduce CO2 emissions. An ionic liquid [emim][Tf2N] was used to capture the CO2 in flue gas from oxy-fuel combustion plant. The process of the CO2 capture was simulated using Aspen Plus. The results show that when the liquid–gas ratio is 1.55, the volume fraction of CO2 in the exhaust gas is controlled to about 2%. When the desorption pressure is 0.01 MPa, desorption efficiency is 98.2%. Additionally, based on the designability of ionic liquids, a hypothesis on the physical properties of ionic liquids is proposed to evaluate their influence on the absorption process and heat exchanger design. The process evaluation results show that an ionic liquid having a large density, a large thermal conductivity, and a high heat capacity at constant pressure is advantageous. This paper shows that from capture energy consumption and lean circulation, oxy-fuel combustion is a more economical method. Furthermore, it provides a feasible path for the treatment of CO2 in the waste gas of oxy-fuel combustion. Meanwhile, Aspen simulation helps speed up the application of ionic liquids and oxy-fuel combustion. Process evaluation helps in equipment design and selection.
Recent Advances on Ionic Liquid Uses in Separation Techniques
Authors: Ruiz-Ángel María José , Carda-Broch Samuel
Published: April 2022

Ionic liquids (ILs) are non-molecular solvents; specifically, molten salts with low melting points, often below 100 °C and even below room temperature, thus allowing these solvents to remain liquid [...]
A Nematode Community-Based Integrated Productivity Efficiency (IPE) Model That Identifies Sustainable Soil Health Outcomes: A Case of Compost Application in Carrot Production
Authors: Habteweld Alemayehu , Kravchenko Alexandra N. , Grewal Parwinder S. , Melakeberhan Haddish
Published: April 2022

Percent soil organic matter (SOM), pH and crop yield are among the biophysicochemical process-driven soil health indicators (SHIs). However, identifying sustainable soil health conditions using these SHIs is limited due to the lack of Integrated Productivity Efficiency (IPE) models. We define IPE as a concept that identifies best-to-worst-case soil health outcomes by assessing the effect of agronomic practices on weighted abundance of functional guilds (WAFG) of beneficial soil organisms and SHIs simultaneously. Expressing WAFG of all beneficial nematodes (x-axis) and SHIs (y-axis) as a percent of untreated control and regression of x and y reveals four quadrants describing worst-to-best-case outcomes for soil health and sustainability. We tested the effects of composted cow manure (AC) and plant litter (PC) applied at 135 (1×), 203 (1.5×), and 270 (2×) kg N/ha on WAFG, SOM, pH, and yield in a sandy clay loam field of a processing carrot cultivar over three growing seasons. Untreated control and urea at 1× served as experimental controls. Data that varied by time and were difficult to make sense of were separated into sustainable, unsustainable, or requiring specific modification to be sustainable categories by the IPE model. Within the sustainable category, all AC treatments and 2× rate of PC treatments had the best integrated efficiency outcomes across the SHIs. The IPE model provides a platform where other biophysicochemical process-driven SHIs could be integrated.
Perceived ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and Consumers’ Responses: The Mediating Role of Brand Credibility, Brand Image, and Perceived Quality
Authors: Koh Hee-Kyung , Burnasheva Regina , Suh Yong Gu
Published: April 2022

This paper explores whether consumers’ perceptions of environmental, social and governance initiatives can impact on attitude, and how three brand-related constructs—brand credibility, brand image and perceived quality—mediate this relationship. An online survey was conducted with 458 South Korean consumers, and the data were investigated through a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. The empirical results indicated direct positive effects of social and governance dimensions of perceived ESG on brand credibility, brand image, and perceived quality. However, no direct impact of the environmental dimension of perceived ESG on brand-related constructs was identified. Further, the results confirmed that brand credibility, brand image and perceived quality partially mediate the relationship between perceived ESG and attitude. Based on the findings, this paper suggests implications and future research directions.
Influencing Factors and Path Analysis of Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization: Econometric Evidence from Hubei, China
Authors: Li Zhi , Zhu Ming , Huang Huang , Yi Yu , Fu Jingyi
Published: April 2022

The importance of supporting agricultural mechanization in agri-food supply chains to achieve agricultural and rural development has been comprehensively recognized. There has been a surge in the attention given to Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (SAM) in the context of developing countries. However, it is important to address the major challenge of studying the important factors and the influencing path of SAM. As a representative province of China’s agricultural development, Hubei has developed significantly in terms of agricultural mechanization in the past 20 years. Therefore, using a literature review, representative field survey data, and statistical analytical approaches, 28 relevant factors related to SAM were extracted, and the main influencing factors of SAM were determined by building an integrative conceptual framework and using the corresponding structural equation model based on partial least squares (PLS-SEM). The relationships and influencing paths between the factors were analyzed, and a confirmatory measurement model and a structural model of the effects on sustainable agricultural mechanization were constructed. The results show that (1) the PLS-SEM model fits the experimental data well and can effectively reflect the relationships among factors in this complex system; (2) within the factors influencing the development level of SAM in Hubei, China, the economic factors have the greatest weight, whereas government policy factors are the core elements promoting development, and environmental factors are the most noteworthy outcome factors; and (3) economic and policy factors play a very obvious role in promoting SAM through the influencing paths of agricultural production and agricultural machinery production and sales. Ultimately, corresponding suggestions have been put forward for decisions regarding the implementation of SAM for similar countries and regions.
Technological Revolution and Circular Economy Practices: A Mechanism of Green Economy
Authors: Khan Syed Abdul Rehman , Umar Muhammad , Asadov Alam , Tanveer Muhammad , Yu Zhang
Published: April 2022

Rising environmental concerns, Industry 4.0 technologies, and circular economy (CE) practices are the prevailing business considerations of the current time, and they are transforming business models. Keeping in view the importance of these considerations, this work looks into the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in adoption of CE practices and the impact of CE practices on firms’ performance. The current study collected data from 213 automotive firms located in Eastern European countries including Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. Using Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM), the current study provides some important findings. Firstly, Industry 4.0 technologies significantly enhance circular economy practices. Secondly, circular economy practices are found to be positively related with environmental and operational performance. Lastly, higher economic and operational performance boost organizational performance. Hence, the current study provides deeper understanding regarding performance implications of Industry 4.0 technologies and offers insights about ways of promoting sustainable performance in the current age of digitization.
The Dual Effects of Consumer Satisfaction on Brand Switching Intention of Sharing Apparel
Authors: Wang Ying , Xiao Zengrui
Published: April 2022

Previous studies have found that consumer satisfaction is negatively associated with brand switching intention in the common purchasing context; is this still true in the context of sharing apparel? This study aims to investigate the effect of consumer satisfaction on the brand switching intention of sharing apparel and to reveal the mechanism by exploring the mediating effects of brand trust and platform trust, integrating the moderating effect of variety seeking. Data were acquired from 346 consumers of sharing apparel through an online questionnaire survey. Hypotheses were tested in a moderated mediation model, with the bootstrapping method using the PROCESS program in SPSS. The empirical results demonstrated that the overall impact of consumer satisfaction on brand switching intention was not significant, while the mediating effect of brand trust was significantly negative, and the mediating effect of platform trust was significantly positive. The moderating effect of variety seeking on the relationship between brand trust and brand switching intention was not significant, while the positive effect of platform trust on brand switching intention was stronger at higher levels of variety seeking. In addition, the mediating effect of platform trust on the relationship between consumer satisfaction and brand switching intention was also stronger at higher levels of variety seeking. Therefore, there are dual effects of consumer satisfaction on brand switching intention of sharing apparel through the different mediating effects of brand trust and platform trust. Based on these findings, we recommend that sharing apparel platforms could enlarge their return by fostering emerging brands or private brands, while premium brands should be cautious about fostering potential competitors when cooperating with sharing platforms.
The Influence of CSR on Airline Loyalty through the Mediations of Passenger Satisfaction, Airline Brand, and Airline Trust: Korean Market Focused
Authors: Chung Sukhoon , Park Jin-Woo , Lee Sangryeong
Published: April 2022

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a significant factor in determining business sustainability. This trend is particularly evident in the airline industry, as airlines endeavor to navigate highly competitive market circumstances. CSR activities constitute a significant duty as one of the survival strategies and to sustain their business based on the customer loyalty in the airline industry in Korea. The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of CSR on airline loyalty through meaningful mediators within the airline industry in order to elicit important insights and provide relevant conclusions for airline experts to apply toward business sustainability. This study employed three factors—passenger satisfaction, airline brand, and airline trust—as key mediators between CSR and airline loyalty. An online survey was carried out through private SNS channels targeting airline service users, and 312 completed surveys were collected. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) enabled the study to determine that CSR activities among airlines significantly impact passenger satisfaction, airline brand, and airline trust. Moreover, passenger satisfaction and airline trust have a notable influence on airline loyalty. Limitations and implications for both academia and management are also presented based on the results of this research.
How Comprehensive Innovation Reform Pilot Improve Urban Green Innovation Efficiency?—Evidence from China
Authors: Liu Tengfei , Li Zhiying , Zhang Can , Xia Qiu
Published: April 2022

Innovation policy is important to sustainable development. However, few scholars have paid attention to the impact of Comprehensive Innovation Reform Pilot (CIRP) Zone Policy on urban green innovation efficiency. To fill this gap, this paper uses difference-in-differences and robustness tests to explore the impact of CIRP on urban Green Innovation Efficiency (GIE) in 275 cities in China from 2008 to 2017. The impacts are investigated in terms of the innovation-driven effect, talent cluster effect, and market effect. The results show that: (1) the impact of CIRP on the GIE of pilot cities significantly increased by 12% from 2008 to 2017, indicating that the innovation policy for sustainable development has an important positive effect on urban green innovation; (2) CIRP has improved the overall innovation level and talent cluster, accelerated the marketization process, and promoted the GIE of the pilot cities; and (3) the analysis of urban heterogeneity showed that CIRP has a greater impact on GIE in central cities in China than in western and eastern cities. The impact on GIE in low-administrative-level cities is greater than in high-administrative-level cities. It is suggested that the government takes the lead in green innovation and improves the talent introduction measures and green financial services. Achieving green innovation and development is the common goal of many countries around the world. The research results provide implications about introducing innovative policies for sustainable development in other countries and regions, especially developing countries that face the dilemma between economic growth and environmental protection.
A Review of Organic Waste Treatment Using Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)
Authors: Amrul Nur Fardilla , Kabir Ahmad Irfana , Ahmad Basri Noor Ezlin , Suja Fatihah , Abdul Jalil Nurul Ain , Azman Nur Asyiqin
Published: April 2022

The increase in solid waste generation is caused primarily by the global population growth that resulted in urban sprawl, economic development, and consumerism. Poor waste management has adverse impacts on the environment and human health. The recent years have seen increasing interest in using black soldier fly (BSF), Hermetia illucens, as an organic waste converter. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) feed voraciously on various types of organic waste, including food wastes, agro-industrial by-products, and chicken and dairy manure, and reduce the initial weight of the organic waste by about 50% in a shorter period than conventional composting. The main components of the BSFL system are the larvero, where the larvae feed and grow, and the fly house, where the adults BSF live and reproduce. It is essential to have a rearing facility that maintains the healthy adult and larval BSF to provide a sufficient and continuous supply of offspring for organic waste treatment. The BSF organic waste processing facility consists of waste pre-processing, BSFL biowaste treatment, the separation of BSFL from the process residue, and larvae and residue refinement into marketable products. BSFL digest the nutrients in the wastes and convert them into beneficial proteins and fats used to produce animal feed, and BSFL residue can be used as an organic fertilizer. This review summarizes the BSFL treatment process to provide an in-depth understanding of the value of its by-products as animal feed and organic fertilizer.
Safety-Management Practices and the Occurrence of Occupational Accidents: Assessing the Mediating Role of Safety Compliance
Authors: Ajmal Muhammad , Isha Ahmad Shahrul Nizam , Nordin Shahrina Md , Al-Mekhlafi Al-Baraa Abdulrahman
Published: April 2022

This study examines the impact of critical safety-management practices on the occurrence of occupational accidents by means of safety compliance in Malaysia’s oil and gas industry. This study employed a cross-sectional design, in which data were collected from oil and gas downstream operations in five states within Malaysia using the convenience-sampling technique. The valid data of 280 responses were analyzed with Smart-PLS, and the structural-equation-modeling technique was applied. The study’s outcome revealed that safety-management practices (i.e., safety training, workers’ involvement, safety communication and feedback, management commitment to safety, safety-promotion policies, and safety rules and procedures) were significantly associated with occupational accidents via safety compliance. Thus, this study is helpful for practitioners and researchers to understand the importance of safety-management practices in reducing occupational accidents.
Flowering, Nutritional Status, and Content of Chloroplast Pigments in Leaves of Gladiolus hybridus L. ‘Advances Red’ after Application of Trichoderma spp.
Authors: Andrzejak Roman , Janowska Beata
Published: April 2022

In this study, we attempt to assess the influence of Trichoderma spp. on the flowering and nutritional status of Gladiolus hybridus L. ‘Advances Red’, as well as on the content of chlorophyll a + b and carotenoids in the leaves. During both years of the experiment, there was a treatment in which Trichoderma fungi were not used (control), and in another treatment, plants were treated with these fungi. After five weeks of cultivation, when leaf apexes were visible above the surface of the substrate, each plant was irrigated with a suspension (20 mL) of mix of Trichoderma spp. (T. viride Schumach-Tv14, T. harzianum Rifai-Thr2, T. hamatum/Bonord/Bainier-Th15). The treatment of the plants Trichoderma-spp. improved their uptake of macro- (P, K and Ca) and micronutrients (Zn, Fe and B), and increased the chlorophyll a + b and carotenoids in their leaves. Trichoderma spp. accelerated the flowering of Gladiolus hybridus L. ‘Advances Red’ by 10–14 days. The fungi stimulated the elongation of inflorescence shoots and inflorescences, in which the number of flowers increased, but flower diameter did not change. Trichoderma spp. improved the nutrients uptake, chlorophyll a + b and carotenoids, and flowering; hence, Trichoderma spp. treatment is suggested for enhancing inflorescence and inflorescence shoots in Gladiolus hybridus.
How Strong Sustainability Became Safety
Authors: Randall Alan
Published: April 2022

The core commitment of strong sustainability, SS, is that nature really is different: there are strict limits to the substitutability of natural and other kinds of capital. Initially, the threat to sustainability was perceived as human greed and impatience, and the goal of SS to address resource scarcity was to sustain resource stocks, the flow of environmental services, and/or the harvest for human benefit. For landscapes and ecosystems, the SS goal was preservation, often in a gestalt framing: preserved or not. Two developments beginning around the mid-20th century—increasing awareness of the variability of natural systems, and the revolutionary changes in thinking motivated by the study of complex dynamic systems, CDS—re-oriented SS toward Safety, i.e., minimizing exposure to risk defined as threat of harm. Around 2010, the sustainability agenda for CDS shifted from identifying early warning indicators enabling timely interventions to forestall adverse regime change to promoting resilience by expanding scale and encouraging patchwork patterns of systems in various stages of their adaptive cycles. Nevertheless, the need for natural resources to substitute for depleted exhaustibles suggests a continuing role for commercial agriculture, plantation forestry, and managed fisheries. I conclude with a paradox still to be resolved: the need for continued and increased production from renewable resources to replace depleted exhaustibles suggests SS-motivated management practices that seem obsolete from a CDS perspective.
Morphological and Biochemical Properties in Fruits of Naturally Grown Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas L.) Genotypes in Northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina
Authors: Skender Azra , Hadžiabulić Semina , Ercisli Sezai , Hasanbegović Jasna , Dedić Samira , Almeer Rafa , Sayed Amany A. , Ullah Riaz , Assouguem Amine
Published: April 2022

The cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) is considered to be one of those medicinal plants with important nutritional and therapeutic properties. The plant shows resistance against abiotic and biotic stressors in natural growing conditions and could be suitable to use in sustainable fruit production. This study was carried out on 22 local cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) genotypes, which were grown northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fruits of these 22 genotypes were harvested and analyzed during the ripening period in 2018/2019. Fruit weight, length, and width ranged from 1.38 to 3.01 g, 13.84 to 19.43 mm, and 10.92 to 14.79 mm, respectively. Dry matter content was determined to be the lowest at 11.67% and the highest at 21.89%. The genotypes had vitamin C content between 25.85 and 58.75 mg/100 g. Total phenolic and anthocyanin content were found to be quite variable among genotypes and ranged from 1240 to 6958 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE) per 100 g fresh weight (FW) and 55.57 to 205.6 mg cyaniding-3-glucoside equivalents (CGE) per 100 g FW, respectively. The content of phosphorus and iron were between 155.52 to 263.06 mg per 100 g and 0.25 to 0.93 mg per 100 g, respectively. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that the first and second components accounted for 44.05% and 60.50% of the total variance, and the major proportion of the first and second components were the morphometric properties and chemical traits of the cornelian cherry fruits. The results revealed that the characterized genotypes could be important for cornelian cherry breeders as ready crossing materials to obtain new cornelian cherry varieties and shows the potential of certain genotypes as a valuable source of natural antioxidants. The results may have served as a guide towards the development of sustainable production programs for cornelian cherries as well.
Research on Spatial Planning of Petrochemical Industrial Parks from the Perspective of Symbiosis: Example of Yueyang Green Chemical Industry Park
Authors: Wang Min , Yuan Xiaohan , Yang Shuqi , Abudu Kahaer , Qin Kongtao
Published: April 2022

As a practical exploration of industry ecologicalization, ecoindustrial parks (EIP) serve as an effective approach to sustainable development. Different from western industrialized countries, China is accelerating its industrialization, and the philosophy of symbiosis is embodied more in the requirements of economy and environmental protection in the production process than in the long-term social and environmental mutual construction. EIPs are a regional system consisting of nature, industry, and society, and the key to achieve industrial symbiosis is systematically allocating resources for industry, city, and people through planning. Based on engineering practice, the authors selected the special space of China Yueyang Petrochemical Industrial Park as the object of discussion, addressing the main problems and challenges facing its development, and focusing on the relationship between industrial symbiosis and spatial symbiosis. From the analysis of the current situation, the circular symbiotic industrial chain network, and the layout of the symbiotic park are included in the spatial planning of the industrial park.
A Revision for the Different Reuses of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Water Bottles
Authors: Ajaj Rahaf , Abu Jadayil Wisam , Anver Hamna , Aqil Eman
Published: April 2022

According to studies on global plastic manufacturing and the resulting pollution, plastic wastes have been identified as a serious environmental concern. The impact of plastic garbage on marine species, humans, and the environment is a source of public concern, necessitating the need to save ecosystems and the lives that depend on them. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water bottles have a significant carbon footprint and represent tremendous waste. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), PET water bottles are widely utilized, with yearly consumption reaching 450 water bottles per person. This study aims to review the literature on using PET water bottles in the UAE. A systematic literature search was conducted on journal articles, peer-reviewed journal articles, etc., published in the last 12 months. The main aspects of this systematic literature review include information on how plastic wastes are managed in the UAE and worldwide. In addition, it discusses the public health effects caused by plastic wastes, how the consumers of plastic bottles responded to the environmental policies, and so on. The article selection criteria included studies related to plastic water bottles in the UAE, waste management, environmental consequences, etc. A total of 30 articles were selected by initial screening, and 20 met the selection criteria and were included in the final review. To establish the credibility of this research, we understood that it was necessary to survey the UAE population to see the best approach to deal with PET water bottles.
Gazing into the Crystal Ball: A Review of Futures Analysis to Promote Environmental Justice in the UK Water Industry
Authors: Bowman Bryony M. , Hunt Dexter V. L. , Rogers Chris D. F.
Published: April 2022

Water is a vital and multifunctional resource for our society, economy and ecosystems; thus, how water is managed now and into the future has wide-reaching consequences. Sustainable water management and environmental justice therefore become key topics; a discussion of these terms is explored in the context of the UK water industry, which provides the focus for this study. This systematic review explores how considerations of the future have been applied in water research. The literature is reviewed with respect to (1) defining the end goal, (2) the use of futures analysis and (3) possible evaluation methods, including a discussion on the boundaries applied to each of the studies. A growing body of research associated with decision-making applying future scenarios was identified. However, the methods of application varied substantially, with holistic analyses largely lacking. The formulation of methods appears to be specific to the goal that is sought as well as the cultural influence of the region in which the analysis was developed and deployed. This paper presents a case for the visualisation of catchment characteristics and interdependencies to enable transparency in decision-making. This should reflect not only the current system but also a range of potential futures to enable appraisal of impacts.
Measurement of China’s Building Energy Consumption from the Perspective of a Comprehensive Modified Life Cycle Assessment Statistics Method
Authors: Liu Qiurui , Huang Juntian , Ni Ting , Chen Lin
Published: April 2022

This paper proposes a new life cycle assessment (LCA) statistics method to calculate the energy consumption of Chinese buildings from the perspective of LCA under the sustainable supply chain system. We divide the life cycle of buildings into the materialization stage, the construction stage, and the operation stage. Based on the new LCA statistics method, we obtain the following findings. First, the growth of total building energy consumption has slowed down since 2014, and its share of the Chinese total energy consumption levels off, remaining at about 40%. In 2018, the stages of materialization, construction, and operation account for about 34.02%, 4.65%, and 61.33% in total building energy consumption, respectively. Second, the materialization and operation stages are the main sources of energy consumption in the whole supply chain. Energy consumption in the materialization stage has been declining year by year since 2014, due to the impact of energy-saving policy. Moreover, we find that energy consumption in the operation and construction stages has been increasing year by year. Finally, in the life cycle of Chinese buildings, energy consumption in the operation stage plays a dominant role. This paper puts forward some managerial suggestions to relevant departments and provides some measures to optimize energy consumption in the Chinese building industry.
Measuring Environmental Worldviews: Investigating the Dimensionality of the New Environmental Paradigm Scale for Children in a Large Central European Sample
Authors: Berze Iván Zsolt , Varga Attila , Mónus Ferenc , Néder Katalin , Dúll Andrea
Published: April 2022

A complex research program linked to the national Sustainability Thematic Week (STW) educational program was launched in 2020 to examine Hungarian primary and secondary school students’ environmental attitudes, behaviors, and awareness. The Hungarian newly developed version of the New Ecological Paradigm Scale for Children was used in a large sample (N = 9396). The results of a set of factor analyses suggested that the NEP Scale for Children cannot be considered unidimensional. We found three distinct and valid factors (Questioning of Human Intervention, Rights of Nature, and Eco-Crisis) with significant associations, having partially different directions, with gender, age, pro-environmental behavior, and economic-technical aspects of environmental worldviews, providing thus new evidence for the highly complex structural characteristics of pro-environmental attitudes and worldviews. Our results might contribute to solving the issues, misunderstandings, and challenges that are related to the dimensionality of the NEP Scale and, even after decades of use, make the comparison of international research difficult.
Constructing the Transitions and Co-Existence of Rural Development Models
Authors: Sili Marcelo , Haag María Isabel , Nieto María Belén
Published: April 2022

The rural world in Latin America is becoming more complex and diverse. In recent decades, new non-traditional productive activities have emerged, technological change has increased, local culture and tradition have been revalued and rural tourism has been developed, among other dynamics. Scientific and technological change, greater concern for the environment and new consumption patterns are at the root of these changes. It can be said that Latin America has begun a process of transition to new models of rural organization and development. Returning to the conceptual framework of innovation, the hypothesis underlying this work is that emerging initiatives constitute niche activities which, over time, become integrated into the territories, resulting in two types of situations: co-presence of activities and actors, with conflicts and competencies that prevent the construction of synergistic development dynamics, or co-existence, with shared articulations and projects between activities and actors. To account for this hypothesis, three experiences in Argentina are analyzed: one is the emergence of agroecological activities in regions dominated by production systems linked to exports; the second case of analysis is the emergence of tourism in traditional rural areas; the third, the emergence of more innovative and sustainable livestock farming. This research is qualitative and exploratory, based on interviews with key actors in all these activities.
Sandstone Modeling under Axial Compression and Axisymmetric Lateral Pressure
Authors: Kolesnikov Gennady , Gavrilov Timmo
Published: April 2022

The problems of the mechanical state of rocks and other brittle materials are studied from different sides in a large number of publications, the flow of which does not weaken with time, which is explained by the relevance and complexity of these problems. Quantitative values of strength and other characteristics of such materials can be obtained experimentally or using numerical and analytical models. This work is aimed at developing an analytical model for analyzing the state of brittle material on the example of sandstone under axial compression and axisymmetric proportional lateral pressure. The research uses methods of modeling mechanical systems based on the basic ideas of fracture mechanics. For axial compression with proportional lateral pressure, the equation of the load–strain curve is obtained, and the functions of residual life and damage are justified; effective stresses and effective modulus of elasticity are determined; a calculation algorithm and examples of its application are given. The results of the simulation are consistent with the experimental data known from the literature. The results obtained to a certain extent clarify the understanding of the mechanism of rock damage and destruction under axial compression with lateral pressure.
Applications of Symmetric Conic Domains to a Subclass of q-Starlike Functions
Authors: Khan Shahid , Khan Nazar , Hussain Aftab , Araci Serkan , Khan Bilal , Al-Sulami Hamed H.
Published: April 2022

In this paper, the theory of symmetric q-calculus and conic regions are used to define a new subclass of q-starlike functions involving a certain conic domain. By means of this newly defined domain, a new subclass of normalized analytic functions in the open unit disk E is given. Certain properties of this subclass, such as its structural formula, necessary and sufficient conditions, coefficient estimates, Fekete–Szegö problem, distortion inequalities, closure theorem and subordination results, are investigated. Some new and known consequences of our main results as corollaries are also highlighted.
Coupled Projection Transfer Metric Learning for Cross-Session Emotion Recognition from EEG
Authors: Shen Fangyao , Peng Yong , Dai Guojun , Lu Baoliang , Kong Wanzeng
Published: April 2022

Distribution discrepancies between different sessions greatly degenerate the performance of video-evoked electroencephalogram (EEG) emotion recognition. There are discrepancies since the EEG signal is weak and non-stationary and these discrepancies are manifested in different trails in each session and even in some trails which belong to the same emotion. To this end, we propose a Coupled Projection Transfer Metric Learning (CPTML) model to jointly complete domain alignment and graph-based metric learning, which is a unified framework to simultaneously minimize cross-session and cross-trial divergences. By experimenting on the SEED_IV emotional dataset, we show that (1) CPTML exhibits a significantly better performance than several other approaches; (2) the cross-session distribution discrepancies are minimized and emotion metric graph across different trials are optimized in the CPTML-induced subspace, indicating the effectiveness of data alignment and metric exploration; and (3) critical EEG frequency bands and channels for emotion recognition are automatically identified from the learned projection matrices, providing more insights into the occurrence of the effect.
A Systemic Analysis of Vestigial Racism in Housing Finance
Authors: Voyer John J.
Published: April 2022

Systemic racism, which exists when minorities experience harmful outcomes from implicit or explicit bias, has recently been a much-discussed phenomenon. Systemic racism may exist, even though explicit bias is mostly illegal, because of structures of policy or behavior that generate deleterious outcomes. Bank financing for housing purchase or improvement is one such structure. An overtly discriminatory policy facilitated by an agency of the United States government, “redlining” on “residential security maps” depicted supposedly high-risk lending areas in red. These historical maps have led to low housing values today in formerly redlined areas. Even though the practice has been illegal for decades, traditional lenders nowadays decline loans in those areas because they are too small to be profitable. A system dynamics model shows the systemic structure of this situation. The model simulates various policies for its solution. Robust (but expensive) policies involve subsidies to lenders or lending from governments or nonprofits. Less robust but potentially cheaper policy would require lenders to make small loans anyway. Any of these policies would help break the adverse reinforcing loop of declining housing, inability to borrow to improve the housing, and further housing decline.
Toward SDM-Based Submarine Optical Networks: A Review of Their Evolution and Upcoming Trends
Authors: Papapavlou Charalampos , Paximadis Konstantinos , Uzunidis Dimitrios , Tomkos Ioannis
Published: April 2022

Submarine networks have evolved alongside terrestrial ones over the past several decades. Although there are similarities between these two network categories (e.g., the need to cover ultra-long-haul distances and transport huge amounts of data), there are also important differences that have dictated their different evolutionary paths. Space division multiplexing (SDM) promises to be the ultimate solution to cover future capacity needs and overcome problems of both networks. In this work, we review recent and future submarine technologies, focusing on all critical sectors: cable systems, amplifiers’ technology, submarine network architectures, electrical power- feeding issues, economics, and security. Such an analysis, with the level of detail provided in this manuscript, is not available in the literature so far. We first overview all recently announced SDM-based submarine cable systems, compare their performance (capacity-distance product), and analyze the reasons that led to the first SDM submarine deployment. Also, we report up-to-date experimental results of submarine transmission demonstrations and perform a qualitative categorization that relies on their features. Moreover, based on all latest advances and our study findings, we try to predict the future of SDM submarine optical networks mainly in the fields of fiber types, fiber counts per cable, fiber-coating variants, modulation formats, as well as the type and layout structure of optical amplifiers. More specifically, results show that SDM can offer higher capacities (in order of Pb/s) compared to its counterparts, supported by novel network technologies: pump-farming amplification schemes, high counts up to 50 parallel fiber pairs, thinner fiber coating variants (200 μm), and optimum spectral efficiency (2–3 b/s/Hz). Finally, we conclude that tradeoffs between capacity and implementation complexity and cost will have to be carefully considered for future deployments of submarine cable systems.
A Meta-Analysis of the Characterisations of Plastic Ingested by Fish Globally
Authors: Lim Kok Ping , Lim Phaik Eem , Yusoff Sumiani , Sun Chengjun , Ding Jinfeng , Loh Kar Hoe
Published: April 2022

Plastic contamination in the environment is common but the characterisation of plastic ingested by fish in different environments is lacking. Hence, a meta-analysis was conducted to identify the prevalence of plastic ingested by fish globally. Based on a qualitative analysis of plastic size, it was determined that small microplastics (<1 mm) are predominantly ingested by fish globally. Furthermore, our meta-analysis revealed that plastic fibres (70.6%) and fragments (19.3%) were the most prevalent plastic components ingested by fish, while blue (24.2%) and black (18.0%) coloured plastic were the most abundant. Polyethylene (15.7%) and polyester (11.6%) were the most abundant polymers. Mixed-effect models were employed to identify the effects of the moderators (sampling environment, plastic size, digestive organs examined, and sampling continents) on the prevalence of plastic shape, colour, and polymer type. Among the moderators, only the sampling environment and continent contributed to a significant difference between subgroups in plastic shape and polymer type.