bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Achieving Optimal Paper Properties: A Layered Multiscale kMC and LSTM-ANN-Based Control Approach for Kraft Pulping
Authors: Shah Parth , Choi Hyun-Kyu , Kwon Joseph Sang-Il
Published: March 2023

The growing demand for various types of paper highlights the importance of optimizing the kraft pulping process to achieve desired paper properties. This work proposes a novel multiscale model to optimize the kraft pulping process and obtain desired paper properties. The model combines mass and energy balance equations with a layered kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) algorithm to predict the degradation of wood chips, the depolymerization of cellulose, and the spatio-temporal evolution of the Kappa number and cellulose degree of polymerization (DP). A surrogate LSTM-ANN model is trained on data generated from the multiscale model under different operating conditions, dealing with both time-varying and time-invariant inputs, and an LSTM-ANN-based model predictive controller is designed to achieve desired set-point values of the Kappa number and cellulose DP while considering process constraints. The results show that the LSTM-ANN-based controller is able to drive the process to desired set-point values with the use of a computationally faster surrogate model with high accuracy and low offset.
Development of Energy-Rich and Fiber-Rich Bars Based on Puffed and Non-Puffed Cereals
Authors: Bourekoua Hayat , Djeghim Fairouz , Ayad Radia , Benabdelkader Ayoub , Bouakkaz Abdelbasset , Dziki Dariusz , Różyło Renata
Published: March 2023

The purpose of this work is to develop two types of dietary supplements for celiac (energy-rich and fiber-rich bars) as well as to optimize the formulations of bars made from puffed and non-puffed cereals. To optimize the combination of components, a mixture design was created. Based on sensory evaluation, optimal bars were selected, which were then evaluated in terms of biochemical properties, color and antioxidant properties. The main results indicate that the combination of 37.5 g of cereals, 22.5 g of seeds, and 40 g of binder is optimal for the energy bars with non-puffed cereals, followed by 54.57 g of cereals, 10.43 g of seeds, and 35 g of a binder for fiber-rich bars with non-puffed cereals. In contrast, the optimal recipe for energy bars with puffed cereals consisted of 35.42 g of cereals, 20.07 g of seeds, and 44.51 g of binder, and for fiber-rich bars with puffed cereals, it consisted of 50 g of cereals, 15 g of seeds, and 35 g. The biochemical composition indicates that fiber-rich bars are also energetic, with more than 300 kcal/100 g. All bars are rich in antioxidants, with total polyphenol values exceeding 4.97 mg GAE/g d.w. Customers prefer the bars with puffed cereal the most.
Fouling of the Nanofiltration Membrane NF270 Used for Separation of Fermentation Broths: Impact of Feed Pretreatment Process
Authors: Tomczak Wirginia
Published: March 2023

Recent findings regarding nanofiltration (NF) have led to indications that it can be successfully used for separation of various biological solutions. As a novelty, this paper is the first to investigate the impact of the feed pretreatment process on the NF membrane performance used for separation of 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) fermentation broths. For this purpose, prior to the NF process, the feed was purified by microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) processes. Subsequently, the long-term NF process was carried out with the use of a commercial, flat-sheet, thin-film, polyamide NF270 nanofiltration membrane. Thereinto, to determine the dominant fouling mechanism, Hermia’s model was used. With regards to the pretreatment processes performed, it has been determined that the MF membrane (0.14 µm) provided the reduction in the number of bacteria cells present in the permeate, while the UF membrane (450 Da) allowed obtaining the sterile permeate. Consequently, the NF permeate flux for the UF permeate was significantly higher. Analysis of the fouling mechanisms showed that during the separation of the MF permeate, formation of a cake layer on the NF membrane surface was dominant. In turn, with regards to the UF permeate, membrane blocking occurred in two separate phases involving standard blocking and then cake layer formation. Finally, a strategy of NF membrane cleaning with the use of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution has been proposed.
A Transformed Approach for Benchmarking the Performance of ‘Sustainable’ Infrastructure
Authors: Hayes Samantha , Desha Cheryl , Caldera Savindi , Gibbs Mark
Published: March 2023

Environmental sustainability priorities for infrastructure development have traditionally focused on aspects including minimising negative impacts in areas such as water and air quality, erosion control, biodiversity and waste management, both in compliance and voluntary frameworks. Associated project performance priorities have focused on avoiding damage beyond ‘pre-project baselines’. In contrast, ‘best practice’ regenerative performance requires infrastructure project outcomes that not only avoid damage but contribute positively to social and ecological systems. For such best practice to become mainstream, industry frameworks, standards and rating schemes must evolve. However, there is limited knowledge regarding ‘how’ regenerative performance could be encouraged as a business-as-usual infrastructure expectation. This paper therefore explores the potential for a benchmarking methodology called Ecological Performance Standards (EPS) as a transformed approach to facilitate the mainstreaming of regenerative performance expectations. Three research workshops (Phoenix, AZ, USA; Sydney and Brisbane, Australia) were undertaken to investigate the potential for this methodology in infrastructure applications. Mapping was undertaken to align the EPS process steps with associated infrastructure lifecycle phases. Research findings include the synthesis of key opportunities for capturing EPS within infrastructure sustainability rating schemes to leverage current efforts and pivot towards regenerative performance. The authors present a comprehensive matrix mapping 18 ecosystem services against the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Rating Scheme credits and categories, summarising where ecosystem services are addressed within the current scheme. The authors conclude the presence of significant opportunities for a new ‘business-as-usual’ for infrastructure through the integration of regenerative performance benchmarking.
Green Space Compactness and Configuration to Reduce Carbon Emissions from Energy Use in Buildings
Authors: Ji Ranran , Wang Kai , Zhou Mengran , Zhang Yun , Bai Yujia , Wu Xian , Yan Han , Zhao Zhuoqun , Ye Hong
Published: March 2023

Building sector consists of a major part of global energy consumption and carbon emission. Reducing energy consumption in buildings can make a substantial contribution towards the strategic goal of carbon neutrality. Building energy consumption carbon emission (BECCE) is highly correlated with microclimate. Green space has long been recognized as the natural way to improve the microclimate and reduce BECCE. However, the effective distance and optimized configuration of green space for the reduction in BECCE are hardly known. To this purpose, we developed a green space compactness (GSC) index as an indicator of microclimate around the People’s Bank, located in 59 cities across China, and used statistical, deep learning, and spatial analysis methods to obtain the most effective distance with respect to the effect of GSC on BECCE. We used hot and cold spot spatial analysis methods to detect the spatial heterogeneity of BECCE and analyzed the corresponding GCS to discover the optimal way for BECCE reduction. The results clearly showed that BECCE was highly correlated with the GSC, and the influence of GSC on BECCE was the highest at the distance of 250 m from the building. The hot and cold spots analysis suggested that BECCE has a significant spatial heterogeneity, which was much higher in the north part of China. Improving the configuration of green space for certain cities could lead to considerable emission reductions. If the BEECE is reduced from 4675 tons to 486 tons, the GSC needs to be increased from 0.39 to 0.56. The study suggests that 250 m is the most effective distance to reduce BECCE, and optimal green space configuration can provide a feasible way to mitigate carbon emissions and valuable information for the development of low-carbon cities.
Coherent-on-Receive Synthesis Using Dominant Scatterer in Millimeter-Wave Distributed Coherent Aperture Radar
Authors: Liang Can , Li Yang , Hu Xueyao , Wang Yanhua , Zhang Liang , Wang Min , Guo Junliang
Published: March 2023

The target signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be notably improved by coherent-on-receive synthesis (CoRS) in distributed coherent aperture radar (DCAR). A core challenge of CoRS is to estimate the coherent parameters (CPs), including time, frequency, and phase, in order to cohere the multi-radar within DCAR. Conventional methods usually rely on the target’s own information to estimate the CPs, which is not available in highly dynamic environments. Additionally, the CPs of different targets, especially the phase, are unequal in high-frequency systems. This means that we cannot directly use the CPs of one target to compensate for others. To address these issues, an adaptive CoRS method using the dominant scatterer is proposed for millimeter-wave (MMW) DCAR in this paper. The basic idea is to correct the CPs of the dominant scatterer to compensate for other targets. The novelty lies in the adaptive phase compensation based on the estimated CPs. This phase compensation depends on a series of discrete phase values, which are derived from the limit of synthesis loss within a given configuration. Hence, this method avoids the requirement of prior information or massive searches for the possible locations of other targets. Moreover, the dominant scatterer in this work is an unknown target with strong scattering points in radar detection scenarios, and we focus on analyzing its selection criteria. To validate the proposed method, a prototype system has been fabricated and evaluated through experiments. It is demonstrated that the multi-target can realize CoRS effectively, thus enhancing the target SNR.
Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activity Co-Driven Vegetation Coverage Increase in the Three-North Shelter Forest Region of China
Authors: Li Menglin , Qin Yanbin , Zhang Tingbin , Zhou Xiaobing , Yi Guihua , Bie Xiaojuan , Li Jingji , Gao Yibo
Published: March 2023

The Three-North Shelter Forest (TNSF) program is a significant ecological safety barrier in northern China, where both climate change and anthropogenic activity contribute to the increase in vegetation coverage observed. However, comprehensive effects of these factors on vegetation have not been accurately quantified yet. This study utilized the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) data, meteorological data, and spatial distribution of ecological engineering to analyze spatiotemporal variation of FVC and climate in the TNSF program region in China during the period 1982–2018. A partial correlation analysis and residual analysis were performed to determine the relative contribution of climate change and anthropogenic activity to the FVC and the overall effect of ecological governance. Results showed that since 1982, the average FVC in the TNSF program region was 0.201–0.253, with an average growth rate of 0.01·(10a)−1. The FVC showed a significant increase in 66.45% of the TNSF region, and will continue to increase, while only 7.02% showed a significant decrease. The coefficient of variation showed a large spatial variation, with 30.86% being in very low stability regions, mainly distributed in Inner Mongolia and the Loess Plateau. A warm and wet climate is more conducive to increasing the FVC than the warm and dry climate, and ecological engineering has the largest impact on areas with an annual accumulated precipitation greater than 300 mm. A quantitative analysis revealed that climate change and anthropogenic activity contributed to the significant increase in the FVC in 15.58% and 46.81% of the TNSF region, respectively. Therefore, ecological governance projects, such as the TNSF program, play a crucial role in enhancing the FVC in this region.
Self-* Capabilities of Cloud-Edge Nodes: A Research Review
Authors: S-Julián Raúl , Lacalle Ignacio , Vaño Rafael , Boronat Fernando , Palau Carlos E.
Published: March 2023

Most recent edge and fog computing architectures aim at pushing cloud-native traits at the edge of the network, reducing latency, power consumption, and network overhead, allowing operations to be performed close to data sources. To manage these architectures in an autonomous way, systems that materialize in specific computing nodes must deploy self-* capabilities minimizing human intervention across the continuum of computing equipment. Nowadays, a systematic classification of such capabilities is missing, as well as an analysis on how those can be implemented. For a system owner in a continuum deployment, there is not a main reference publication to consult to determine what capabilities do exist and which are the sources to rely on. In this article, a literature review is conducted to analyze the self-* capabilities needed to achieve a self-* equipped nature in truly autonomous systems. The article aims to shed light on a potential uniting taxonomy in this heterogeneous field. In addition, the results provided include conclusions on why those aspects are too heterogeneously tackled, depend hugely on specific cases, and shed light on why there is not a clear reference architecture to guide on the matter of which traits to equip the nodes with.
Real-Time Trajectory Prediction Method for Intelligent Connected Vehicles in Urban Intersection Scenarios
Authors: Wang Pangwei , Yu Hongsheng , Liu Cheng , Wang Yunfeng , Ye Rongsheng
Published: March 2023

Intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs) have played an important role in improving the intelligence degree of transportation systems, and improving the trajectory prediction capability of ICVs is beneficial for traffic efficiency and safety. In this paper, a real-time trajectory prediction method based on vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication is proposed for ICVs to improve the accuracy of their trajectory prediction. Firstly, this paper applies a Gaussian mixture probability hypothesis density (GM-PHD) model to construct the multidimension dataset of ICV states. Secondly, this paper adopts vehicular microscopic data with more dimensions, which is output by GM-PHD as the input of LSTM to ensure the consistency of the prediction results. Then, the signal light factor and Q-Learning algorithm were applied to improve the LSTM model, adding features in the spatial dimension to complement the temporal features used in the LSTM. When compared with the previous models, more consideration was given to the dynamic spatial environment. Finally, an intersection at Fushi Road in Shijingshan District, Beijing, was selected as the field test scenario. The final experimental results show that the GM-PHD model achieved an average error of 0.1181 m, which is a 44.05% reduction compared to the LiDAR-based model. Meanwhile, the error of the proposed model can reach 0.501 m. When compared to the social LSTM model, the prediction error was reduced by 29.43% under the average displacement error (ADE) metric. The proposed method can provide data support and an effective theoretical basis for decision systems to improve traffic safety.
Non-Enzymatically Colorimetric Bilirubin Sensing Based on the Catalytic Structure Disruption of Gold Nanocages
Authors: Xiao Wenxiang , Xiong Yinan , Li Yaoxin , Chen Zhencheng , Li Hua
Published: March 2023

As an essential indicator of liver function, bilirubin is of great significance for clinical diagnosis. A non-enzymatic sensor has been established for sensitive bilirubin detection based on the bilirubin oxidation catalyzed by unlabeled gold nanocages (GNCs). GNCs with dual-localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peaks were prepared by a one-pot method. One peak around 500 nm was ascribed to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and the other located in the near-infrared region was the typical peak of GNCs. The catalytic oxidation of bilirubin by GNCs was accompanied by the disruption of cage structure, releasing free AuNPs from the nanocage. This transformation changed the dual peak intensities in opposite trend, and made it possible to realize the colorimetric sensing of bilirubin in a ratiometric mode. The absorbance ratios showed good linearity to bilirubin concentrations in the range of 0.20~3.60 μmol/L with a detection limit of 39.35 nM (3σ, n = 3). The sensor exhibited excellent selectivity for bilirubin over other coexisting substances. Bilirubin in real human serum samples was detected with recoveries ranging from 94.5 to 102.6%. The method for bilirubin assay is simple, sensitive and without complex biolabeling.
CASPER: Covert Channel Using Internal Speakers
Authors: Choi Hyeongjun , Jung Ji Hyuk , Yoon Ji Won
Published: March 2023

In recent years, researchers have studied various methods for transferring data in a network-separated environment, and the most representative method is the use of inaudible frequency signals like ultrasonic waves. This method has the advantage of being able to transfer data without other people noticing, but it has the disadvantage that speakers must exist. In a laboratory or company, external speakers may not be attached to each computer. Therefore, this paper presents a new covert channel attack that transfers data using internal speakers on the computer’s motherboard. The internal speaker can also produce a sound of the desired frequency, and, therefore, data can be transferred using high frequency sounds. We encode data into Morse code or binary code and transfer it. Then we record it using a smartphone. At this time, the location of the smartphone can be any distance within 1.5 m when the length per bit is longer than 50 ms, such as on the computer body or on the desk. Data are obtained by analyzing the recorded file. Our results show that data is transferred from a network-separated computer using an internal speaker with 20 bits/s in maximum.
Separation of Oil from an Oil/Water Mixed Drop under a Lamb Wave Field: A Review
Authors: Liang Wei , Yang Zhaodong
Published: March 2023

Oil separation from oil/water mixed drop under a Lamb wave field is one of the emerging acoustofluidic technologies that integrate acoustics and microfluidics. In recent years, this technology has attracted significant attention due to its effective, fast, contactless, and pollution-free. It has been validated in the separation of oil/water mixture on different non-piezoelectric substrates and shows great potential in incompatible liquids applications. Here, we summarize our recent progress in this exciting field and show great potential in different applications. This review introduces the theories and mechanisms of oil/water mixed drop separation induced by Lamb waves, the applications of this technology in the separation of oil/water mixed drop, and discusses the challenges and prospects of this field.
Including a Technical Factor with Physical and In-Game Movement Factors Improves Model Sensitivity When Evaluating Draft Outcome in Elite-Junior Australian Rules Football
Authors: Jennings Jacob , Wundersitz Daniel , Sullivan Courtney , Cousins Stephen , Kingsley Michael
Published: March 2023

Determining characteristics that define talent is critical for recruitment and player development. When developing predictive models, sensitivity is important, as it describes the ability of models to identify players with draft potential (true positives). In the current literature, modelling is limited to a small number of selected variables, and model sensitivity is often poor or unreported. The aim of this study was to determine how a technical factor combined with physical and in-game movement factors affects position-specific model sensitivity when evaluating draft outcome in an elite-junior National Australia Bank (NAB) League population. Physical, in-game movement, and technical involvement data were collated from draft-eligible (18th year) participants in the under 18 boys NAB League competition (n = 465). Factors identified through parallel analysis were used in binomial regression analyses. Models using factor combinations were developed to predict draft success for all-position, nomadic, fixed-position, and fixed&ruck players. Models that best characterised draft success were all-position (physical and technical: specificity = 97.2%, sensitivity = 36.6%, and accuracy = 86.3%), nomadic (physical and technical: specificity = 95.5%, sensitivity = 40.7%, and accuracy = 85.5%), fixed (physical: specificity = 96.4%, sensitivity = 41.7%, and accuracy = 86.6%), and fixed&ruck (physical and in-game movement: specificity = 96.3%, sensitivity = 41.2%, and accuracy = 86.7%). Including a technical factor improved sensitivity in the all-position and nomadic models. Physical factors and physical and in-game movement yielded the best models for fixed-position and fixed&ruck players, respectively. Models with improved sensitivity should be sought to assist practitioners to more confidently identify the players with draft potential.
Lacrimal Gland Prolapse: Case Report
Authors: Naing Ei Ei , Myint Khin Thandar , Roddi Roberto
Published: March 2023

Lacrimal gland prolapse is an important diagnosis to consider in patients with lateral upper eyelid fullness. Prolapse of the lacrimal gland is the descent of the lacrimal gland into the upper eyelid. It can result in blepharoptosis and a bulging “frog-eyed” appearance. This is a case report of lacrimal gland prolapse in a 19-year-old female patient treated by suture repositioning of the glands in an outpatient surgical setting. We report on non-recognition of the prolapse and in the absence of essential surgical correction, in addition to the aesthetic disorders often reported, worsening of functional symptoms such as epiphora with major discomfort. Prolapse in young patients has not been reported in the international literature consulted, E&OE.
Carbon Dioxide Concentration Levels and Thermal Comfort in Primary School Classrooms: What Pupils and Teachers Do
Authors: Zapata-Lancaster Maria Gabriela , Ionas Miltiadis , Toyinbo Oluyemi , Smith Thomas Aneurin
Published: March 2023

The current climate emergency concerns and the COVID-19 pandemic demand urgent action to maintain healthy indoor environments in energy efficient ways. Promoting good indoor environments, in particular, increasing ventilation levels, has been a prominent strategy to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission indoors. However, this strategy could be detrimental to thermal comfort, particularly during the heating season in buildings located in temperate climate zones. This paper presents research conducted in two primary schools in South Wales (UK) where the temperature, relative humidity and the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration levels were monitored. The study monitored six classrooms and two communal spaces in the two schools during the academic year 2021/2022, the first academic year back to teaching and learning in school buildings after home-schooling and educational disruptions due to COVID-19 lockdowns. The study investigated the actions taken by teachers and pupils to balance the thermal comfort needs while minimising CO2 concentration levels. We conducted user studies to explore the comfort perceptions by pupils and teachers in relation to the thermal conditions and the freshness of air in the monitored classrooms. The paper identifies opportunities where end-users, teachers and pupils engaged with the management of the indoor environmental conditions and adopted actions to balance the requirement of reducing CO2 concentration levels while promoting thermal comfort. This research offers lessons and insights related to end-users’ agency and their understanding of indoor environments and thermal experience in schools.
Exploring the Impact of Sustainability Control Systems on Employees’ Green Creativity: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment and Sustainability Learning Capabilities
Authors: Pandithasekara Dasuni Nirmani , Sumanasiri Erabaddage Ayoma Gayathri , Perényi Áron
Published: March 2023

This paper investigates how sustainability control systems (SCSs) drive employees’ green creativity (EGC) with the purpose of assisting organisations in the Sri Lankan manufacturing sector to improve their environmental sustainability performance. Managers and staff of manufacturing firms often lack awareness of environmental issues, which leads to unsustainable strategies. EGC has been identified as an important resource for devising sustainable strategies. SCSs drive employee behaviour and support EGC by fostering a creative workplace. Utilising Simons’ Levers of Controls (LoC) framework, a mediation model incorporating psychological empowerment (PE) and sustainability learning capabilities (SLCs) is tested to provide insights on how SCSs influence EGS. Survey data collected from 239 organisations in the Sri Lankan manufacturing sector were analysed using the PLS-SEM method. The results confirm the full mediating roles of PE and SLCs on the link between SCSs and EGC. This demonstrates the importance of empowering employees and enhancing their learning capabilities to encourage EGC. This study contributes to Simons’ LoC framework by incorporating sustainability dimensions into management control systems (MCSs), and extends the extant body of knowledge by providing a specific understanding of the mechanisms driving EGC through PE and SLCs.
A Multi-Objective Optimization Model for Multi-Facility Decisions of Infectious Waste Transshipment and Disposal
Authors: Kailomsom Prasit , Khompatraporn Charoenchai
Published: March 2023

Infectious waste disposal is a crucial concern in many areas. Not only is the waste obnoxious, but it can also pose a vital risk to human health. Disposal of infectious waste incurs higher costs than general waste disposal and must abide by stricter regulations. In this paper, the infectious waste disposal is formulated as a multi-objective optimization model. The objectives encompass economic, social, and environmental concerns. To save cost, waste transshipment facilities to function as consolidation points are proposed and integrated in the model. The economic objective includes construction and operational costs of the transshipment and disposal facilities. The social objective considers the communities surrounding the disposal facilities, while carbon dioxide emission is used as the measure in the environmental objective. The model is reformulated based on the lexicographic weighted Tchebycheff method to ensure that the Pareto frontier of the solutions is obtained. Then the model is applied to a health region in Thailand. Daily and every-other-day waste collection intervals are compared to examine additional benefits. Certain sensitivity of the solutions is also analyzed. After comparing several solutions, a compromise among all three objectives is suggested. It is composed of three transshipment and two disposal facilities, each with 1000 kg capacity. Moreover, if the solution is executed with the every-other-day waste collection interval, the overall costs can be saved. A sensitivity analysis of the solution on fuel price found that the solution was not very sensitive against an increase in the fuel price, in that when the fuel price increased by 20% the overall costs only increased by 7%. Lastly, when the daily infectious wastes are doubled, all the objective function values rise, ranging from 56% to 163%. The new solution suggests an increase in the number of the disposal facilities to four, but a decrease of the transshipment ones to only two.
Expanding Fundamental Boundaries between Resilience and Survivability in Systems Engineering: A Literature Review
Authors: Martínez Kenneth , Claudio David
Published: March 2023

The pressures of an everchanging world have impacted the ways in which service-based systems operate, along with their forms and boundaries. Resilience and survivability have been treated interchangeably when readying a system to remain true to its functions despite disturbances. Some situations prove the concepts may not always be the equivalent of the other, not even the consequence of the other. There may come scenarios where system components fail to adhere to certain predefined thresholds and cross a breaking point. It is therefore proposed in this study that systems can be survivable, instead of resilient, when they comply in time with the resurgence property. This property signifies the systematic behavior of overcoming a certain stagnation period and, after a time range, return as a transformed system with new functions and challenges. Through this study, it was detected that the symmetries between resilience and survivability are only superficial if systems suffer breakages after misconceiving the true causes of failure. Still, a lack of consensus among scientists and practitioners remains an issue when applying resilience and survivability in their own problems. Although workful, pushing to achieve a greater consensus would signify optimal performance in multifaceted systems involving technical, social, and economic challenges.
Knowledge: A Factor for Acceptance of Insects as Food
Authors: Zugravu Corina , Tarcea Monica , Nedelescu Mirela , Nuţă Daniela , Guiné Raquel P. F. , Constantin Ciprian
Published: March 2023

The role that insects will play in a healthier and more sustainable diet has been highlighted in the last years, at the European level. In future, due to environmental concerns and population growth, eating insects might be a solution for many problems. However, populations without the tradition of eating insects are still reluctant in accepting such a food as part of their diet. The present observational study highlights some factors that are influencing the acceptance of insects as food in Romania, in 2022. A number of 496 Romanian adults, 433 women and 63 men, with the mean age 39.3 ± 11 years, completed a validated questionnaire analyzing food behaviors, as well as attitudes and knowledge in relation to insects, including sustainability, nutrition and food safety aspects. Only 6.3% of participants had already eaten insects, while 43.8% claimed their openness to do it in future. Insect-based products were accepted more than insects that can be perceived as such. The most frequent words associated with insects were rather deleterious: disgust, odd, nausea, not to eat, or curiosity. Investigating the factors involved in insect acceptability in Romanians’ diets, we found a statistically significant correlation between openness to eat them and the knowledge about insects as being a valuable, sustainable and safe source of nutrients. Targeted education seems to be an important tool in accepting them as part of future diets.
Selection of Technology Acceptance Model for Adoption of Industry 4.0 Technologies in Agri-Fresh Supply Chain
Authors: Jain Mohit , Soni Gunjan , Verma Deepak , Baraiya Rajendra , Ramtiyal Bharti
Published: March 2023

Technology is advancing at a very rapid pace, and it helps the user in predicting things, taking the right decisions, making life less difficult and eventually increasing the profitability of their business. Due to the increasing global population, changing climatic conditions, and other natural factors predominating in nature, agriculture practice is becoming less predictable and as a result, farmers’ confidence is being lost, poverty and food insecurity are rising, and other issues are becoming more prevalent. In addition, it affects the sustainability of the food supply chain. So, there is a critical need for agriculture to adopt Industry 4.0 technologies. Here, we want to select a suitable technology acceptance model which comprehensively and robustly defines all the aspects of technology adoption factors in agriculture. From the different adoption theories, we choose one theory that fits our criteria very accurately; for this, we use a hybrid MCDM approach. We utilised fuzzy AHP and fuzzy VIKOR to make the selection logically and systematically correct. Three experts are employed in the study. Fuzzy AHP helps to find the weightage of criteria used by the fuzzy VIKOR technique in ranking the theories. The results showed that the UTAUT ranking comes number one after applying all the suitable criteria and alternatives, and it is the most accurate theory for analysing the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in agriculture. This article offers readers a methodical approach for choosing a technology adoption paradigm. The hypothesis that best fits a person’s criteria can be determined by comparing them to potential alternatives.
Production and Market Participation of Buckwheat Farmers: Micro-Evidence from Shaanxi Province, China
Authors: Muraoka Rie , Chien Hsiaoping , Zhao Minjuan
Published: March 2023

Buckwheat is an important coarse grain often grown in China’s marginal and dry mountainous areas; however, few empirical studies have quantified the factors that increase land productivity and encourage buckwheat farmers’ market participation. To address this gap in the literature, this study aims to empirically identify the factors associated with the land productivity of buckwheat, those associated with buckwheat farmers’ decisions regarding market participation, and those associated with buckwheat selling prices; unique survey data collected from rural buckwheat farmers in China in 2016 are used for the analysis. Our estimation results showed that fertilizer costs and rental machine costs were negatively associated with buckwheat income, indicating the sub-optimality of buckwheat farming. Farmers are likely to sell their buckwheat at high prices if they conduct the initial processing and sell it to processing firms. Providing technical training on the initial processing and information on market channels for buckwheat farmers could serve as efficacious policy interventions. The household head’s educational attainment was positively associated with buckwheat productivity and market participation, indicating the importance of the effort to narrow the educational gap between urban and rural areas in China.
Green Finance and Industrial Low-Carbon Transition: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China
Authors: Ren Yayun , Yu Jian , Xu Shuhua , Tang Jiaomei , Zhang Chang
Published: March 2023

Under the constraints of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, research on effective policies for China’s industrial low-carbon transition is of both theoretical and practical importance. This study conducts a difference-in-differences strategy to investigate whether the green finance pilot policy (GFPP) promotes industrial low-carbon transition based on a provincial panel dataset. Our results show: (1) The GFPP has decreased the industrial carbon intensity of pilot zones by 4.09% on average, which still holds after several robustness checks. (2) This negative effect of the GFPP varies by geographic location (east, central, and west regions) and population size (high and low population groups). (3) The GFPP mainly promotes the low-carbon transition of industrial enterprises in the pilot zones by promoting energy transition rather than developing short-term emission reduction technologies. Finally, we propose some corresponding policy recommendations.
The Association between Voluntary Carbon Disclosure and Accounting Comparability: Examining the Moderating Effect of Korean Business Groups
Authors: Kim Yong-Shik
Published: March 2023

This study investigates whether voluntary carbon disclosure to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is positively related to accounting comparability, one of the dimensions for evaluating the quality of financial reporting. It especially questions whether Korean business groups moderate the relationship between carbon disclosure and accounting comparability. It finds that accounting comparability is greater when firms voluntarily disclose carbon emissions to the CDP. It also finds a moderating effect of Korean business groups on the relationship between carbon disclosure and accounting comparability. These findings suggest that ethical environmental management in non-business groups encourages managers to provide comparable financial reports, whereas opportunistic environmental management in business groups results in managers producing less comparable financial reports. Therefore, this study is meaningful in finding that the voluntary disclosure of carbon emissions is a factor that increases the quality of financial reporting and in proposing that the environmental commissions provide sufficient guidance to prevent opportunistic disclosure of carbon emissions.
Analysis and Prediction of the Meteorological Characteristics of Dust Concentrations in Open-Pit Mines
Authors: Liu Zhigao , Zhang Ruixin , Ma Jiayi , Zhang Wenyu , Li Lin
Published: March 2023

Based on the dust concentration data and meteorological environment data monitored at the open-pit mine site, the characteristics of dust concentration and the influence of temperature, humidity, wind speed, air pressure and other meteorological conditions on dust concentration were analyzed, and the causes of the change of dust concentration were clarified. Meanwhile, a dust concentration prediction model based on LSTM neural network is established. The results show that the dust concentration of the open-pit mine is high in March, November and the whole winter, and it is low in summer and autumn. The daily variation of humidity and temperature in different seasons showed the trend of “herringbone” and “inverted herringbone”, respectively. In addition, the wind speed was the highest in spring and the air pressure distribution was uniform, which basically maintained at 86–88 kPa. The peak humidity gradually deviates with each month and is obviously affected by seasonality. The higher the humidity, the lower the temperature and the higher the concentration of dust. In different seasons, the wind speed is the highest around 20:00 at night, and the dust is easy to disperse. The R2 values of PM2.5, PM10 and TSP concentrations predicted by LSTM model are 0.88, 0.87 and 0.87, respectively, which were smaller than the MAE, MAPE and RMSE values of other prediction models, and the prediction effect was better with lower error. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for dust distribution law, concentration prediction and dust removal measures of main dust sources in open-pit mines.
Sustainability Analysis of Enterprise Performance Management Driven by Big Data and Internet of Things
Authors: Yang Ying
Published: March 2023

Today’s society has entered the information technology era as early as possible. The Internet of Things (IoT) technology and big data (BD) technology are the products of this era and are also important features of the new era. Today, when various fields enter the era of great integration, the Internet of Things and BD analysis technology are of great significance to the development of traditional enterprises, and also herald the arrival of the era of intelligence. Performance management plays an important role in modern enterprise management, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises. Through the implementation of performance management, it can effectively promote the development of enterprises and enhance their vitality. Based on this, this paper discusses the application of the Internet of Things and its BD analysis technology in the enterprise performance management system (PMS) and the sustainability of this application. At the same time, this paper conducts relevant empirical analysis, and the results show that the standardized path coefficient value (FP) of BD capability to financial performance is 0.421. The p value of the significance test was 0.008, which was less than 0.05, indicating that BD capability has a significant impact on the FP of enterprises. The standardized path coefficient value of the IoT on FP was 0.387, the significance test p value was 0.007, and the p value was less than 0.05, indicating that the IoT has a significant impact on the FP of enterprises.
Prediction of China’s Carbon Peak Attainment Pathway from Both Production-Side and Consumption-Side Perspectives
Authors: Song Tao , Zou Xinling , Wang Nuo , Zhang Danyang , Zhao Yuxiang , Wang Erdan
Published: March 2023

To achieve global sustainable development and actively respond to climate change, China, as the world’s largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, needs to save energy and reduce emissions without delay. By constructing LEAP-China production-side and LEAP-China consumption-side models, we predict the carbon emissions of China’s production side and consumption side in different scenarios from 2020 to 2050, respectively. The results show that under the current policies, neither the production side nor consumption side can achieve targeted peak carbon emissions by 2030, which is contrary to China’s current carbon emission policy. Under the sustainable development scenario, China’s production-side CO2 emissions would peak at 10,462.2 Mt in 2029, and China’s consumption-side CO2 emissions would peak 3 years later compared to the production side at 9904.3 Mt in 2032. Therefore, to achieve the peak for both the production and consumption side, we need to coordinate various policies and actively promote industrial restructuring and energy structure optimization. In terms of trade structure, China’s existing import and export trade structure should be adjusted to reduce the export of industrially manufactured goods and increase the proportion of technology-intensive products in foreign trade to realize the transformation from a high-carbon trade structure to a low-carbon trade structure.
Utilizing Principal Component Analysis and Hierarchical Clustering to Develop Driving Cycles: A Case Study in Zhenjiang
Authors: Wang Tianxiao , Jing Zhecheng , Zhang Shupei , Qiu Chengqun
Published: March 2023

Accurate driving cycles are key for effectively evaluating electric vehicle performance. The K-means algorithm is widely used to construct driving cycles; however, this algorithm is sensitive to outliers, and determining the K value is difficult. In this paper, a novel driving cycle construction method based on principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering is proposed. Real road vehicle data were collected, denoised, and divided into vehicle microtrip data. The eigenvalues of the microtrips were extracted, and their dimensions were reduced through principal component analysis. Hierarchical clustering was then performed to classify the microtrips, and a representative set of microtrips was randomly selected to construct the driving cycle. The constructed driving cycle was verified and compared with a driving cycle constructed using K-means clustering and the New European Driving Cycle. The average relative eigenvalue error, maximum speed acceleration probability distribution difference rate, average cycle error, and simulated relative power consumption error per 100 km between the hierarchical driving cycle and the real road data were superior to those of the K-means driving cycle, which indicated the effectiveness of the proposed method. Though the methodology proposed in this paper has not been verified in other regions, it provided a certain reference value for other research of the developing driving cycle.
The Importance of Gender in Body Mass Index, Age, and Body Self-Perception of University Students in Spain
Authors: Rojo-Ramos Jorge , Polo-Campos Irene , García-Gordillo Miguel Ángel , Adsuar Jose Carmelo , Galán-Arroyo Carmen , Gómez-Paniagua Santiago
Published: March 2023

Body image is a fundamental factor that influences a person’s self-image throughout life and at all stages of life. Self-perception of body image and body mass index may be related, as the way a person views him or herself can influence their eating behavior and level of physical activity, which in turn can affect their weight and BMI. The aim of this study is to find the association between body mass index, age, and body self-perception of university students, analyzing possible differences according to the gender of the students. In total, 312 students answered five sociodemographic questions in addition to the Multidimensional Body Self Relations Questionnaire, which consists of 45 questions grouped into four dimensions. Spearman’s Rho test was used to analyze the association between each of the Multidimensional Body Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) factors and body mass index (BMI). Statistical differences were found in dimension 3 (p < 0.01) of the MBSRQ questionnaire with respect to BMI in both sexes, and in dimension 1 (p < 0.01), a significant difference was found in female students. With the male gender, significant differences were found between age and BMI (0.04). Consequently, the sex to which the student belongs conditions his or her BMI with the self-perceived body image, so lines of action should be developed to improve self-image.
Life Cycle Emissions of Passenger Vehicles in China: A Sensitivity Analysis of Multiple Influencing Factors
Authors: Zhang Haoyi , Zhao Fuquan , Hao Han , Liu Zongwei
Published: March 2023

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles, new energy vehicles are actively promoted by China’s government. Various power system types are being developed and their sales keep increasing. However, there is uncertainty about the greenhouse gas emission of different vehicle types. This paper studies the life cycle carbon emissions of passenger vehicles in China. A calculation model is established with consideration of all types of power systems, model classes, and electric driving ranges. In order to calculate and compare the effect of carbon emission reduction on all types of vehicles, a sensitivity analysis is conducted in two ways to study three of the main influencing factors. The results show the carbon emission-reducing effect of different factors on different stages in the life cycle. It is known that different influencing factors have different effects on these stages. Since there is a variation in different vehicle types, the carbon reduction effect caused by these factors is different for these vehicle types. This paper describes a sensitivity analysis of three main influencing factors and puts forward relevant policy recommendations to reduce the carbon emissions of passenger cars during their life cycle based on these results. It is necessary to take the vehicle life cycle as a whole for carbon emission management. The conclusions of this paper can be used for vehicle manufacturers to decide the focus of technology research, and also have important reference significance for enterprises when making life cycle carbon reduction strategies for their products. It is also of certain value for China to formulate a medium- and long-term carbon emission reduction strategy for the passenger car industry.