bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CSR and Organizational Attractiveness: The Impacts of Crisis and Crisis Response
Authors: Chang Wen-Ching , Weng Liang-Chieh , Wu Song-Bang
Published: February 2023

This study explores whether different sources of CSR information (i.e., the organization itself vs. the third party) and CSR reputation (i.e., leading vs. backward) affect job applicants’ attraction to organizations. This study demonstrates the interaction effects of sources of CSR information and CSR reputation on organizational attractiveness and contributes to the literature by identifying the impact of crisis and crisis management strategies of the organization on its organizational attractiveness. From a Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), we examined the impacts of the crisis on organizations and what the crisis response strategies (i.e., excusing, apology, and scapegoating) organizations applied influence their organizational attractiveness. A fictitious food company was created for the experimental study. In total, 345 undergraduate business students at a university in central Taiwan were randomly assigned to 13 groups in different experimental settings. ANOVA and paired-sample t-tests were used to test the hypothesis. We found that (1) significant impacts made by the interaction effects of CSR reputations and the sources of CSR information of organizational attractiveness; (2) crisis events decreased organizational attraction dramatically regardless of the interaction of the sources of CSR information and CSR reputations; and (3) crisis management strategies effectively reduced the damages of crises on organizational attractiveness.
Evaluation of Schools of University and Analysis of Obstacle Factors under the Background of High-Quality Development
Authors: Chen Huiping
Published: February 2023

Currently, promoting the high-quality development (HQD) of higher education is an urgent need of the country, which is the requirement for achieving stable and sustainable development. As the main bodies of the university, the development levels of the schools directly affect universities’ development. To improve universities’ comprehensive strength, this paper proposes an integrated framework for HQD evaluation and obstacle-factor analysis for schools. To address this problem, combining the management by objectives (MBO) constructs an HQD evaluation model of schools of university covering different aspects. Meanwhile, the obstacle diagnosis model is utilized to analyze the main obstacle factors that restrict the improvement of HQD level of the schools. Moreover, taking into account the vagueness and imprecision in real life, index weights and expert weights are determined through the intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS). Finally, a practical problem was chosen to illustrate the efficiency and applicability of the proposed framework and some suggestions from different perspectives are given according to the analysis of results.
Implementing Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing for Unused Capacity Measurement in Local University
Authors: Mohd Zaini Sri Nur Areena , Abu Mohd Yazid
Published: February 2023

All university departments must maximize their use of time and resources in order to meet their goal with the least amount of waste. The existing system in a local university does not implement the time equation and so the processing time determined is not in accordance with the actual processing time of every activity. Thus, the present implementation in the organization does not illustrate the correlation between the supplied resources and the practical capacity. The purpose of this study was to build a new costing structure using time-driven activity-based costing for academic staff. This work considered annual Key Performance Indicator Analysis data for the year 2020 with 53 sub parameters; this was from an engineering faculty for lecturers in two different grades with 12 and 27 samples, respectively. Eventually, there were 3 and 16 samples in grade DS45 and DS51/52, respectively, that have an insufficient time capacity. The remaining samples in both grades then had an unused time capacity, which ultimately resulted in unused cost capacity, also known as waste cost. This work was able to discover the total amount of used time that results in used, unused, or otherwise insufficient capacity, after analyzing the capacity cost using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing.
Evolution of Iceberg A68 since Its Inception from the Collapse of Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data
Authors: Singh Shivangini , Kumar Shashi , Kumar Navneet
Published: February 2023

This research focuses on the evolution of the largest iceberg A68 and analyzes the trajectory using Sentinel-1 SAR data. The monitoring began when A68 calved Larsen C Ice shelf on 12 July 2017, and ended on 1 February 2021. A total of 47 images were analyzed and studied to ascertain the changes in the area, trajectory and the factors that might have influenced said changes. The big size of the iceberg caught the scientific community’s attention when it started moving towards South Georgia Island, a habitat of penguins and seals. The pattern of decrease and increase in the iceberg’s size was analyzed and compared with the surrounding sea ice extent to account for longitudinal stretching and shrinkage. Iceberg’s trajectory was also studied to take into account the underlying seabed and ice rises, and their implication on A68’s maneuverability, giving rise to unique motions in the coastal regime. Two subsequent calving events in the iceberg were distinctly observed in March 2019 and April 2020. Since its inception up to December 2019, its drift was fairly gradual, with the pick up in pace observed upon its entry into open waters and departure from the peninsular region. The decrease in size was also fairly gradual with only two main calving events, as mentioned above. The cold water and sea ice surrounding the iceberg potentially helped maintain a steady state. Post its sojourn into the Southern Ocean, major calving began in December 2020 and continued through January 2021. This study explores the potential of SAR remote sensing in iceberg monitoring and tracking.
Information Behaviour of Food Consumers: A Systematic Literature Review and a Future Research Agenda
Authors: Felicetti Alberto Michele , Volpentesta Antonio Palmiro , Linzalone Roberto , Ammirato Salvatore
Published: February 2023

Food communication is the main way for businesses to inform customers and guide purchasing behaviour. However, the value consumers perceive from such information remains unclear, and a complete understanding of the food information behaviour is still missing. For this reason, this paper outlines the results of a systematic literature review to identify, evaluate and synthesize the scientific food information behaviour domain according to the perceived value for consumers. The analysis shows that the current scientific literature is essentially centred on studying consumers and their behaviour in the food consumption process. Still, it lacks studies about the impact of the information on the overall perceived value of consumer food experience. The emergence and diffusion of personalized information services make this kind of study particularly suitable. In light of the fast pace of widespread technological evolution in the food sector, this issue represents a topic to be addressed in the following years.
Sustainable High-Speed Milling of Magnesium Alloy AZ91D in Dry and Cryogenic Conditions
Authors: Jouini Nabil , Ruslan Mohd Shahfizal Mohd , Ghani Jaharah A. , Che Haron Che Hassan
Published: February 2023

Magnesium alloy AZ91D is used extensively in the automotive industry because of its high strength-to-weight ratio. Typically, components produced using the alloy are required to have good surface finish and to contribute to high productivity but require long cutting times. Cryogenic cooling is an environmentally friendly technology which has been proven to improve cutting tool life and surface finish. This paper presents an investigation on the effects of dry and cryogenic cutting conditions at a high cutting speed regime for milling of magnesium alloy. This study focused on a high-speed regime due to the chips of magnesium alloy being highly combustible and an effective means of decreasing the temperature in the cutting zone was of great concern. The machining experiment was carried out using uncoated carbide end milling utilizing a full factorial design (L16) with cutting speeds of 900 m/min and 1300 m/min, feed rate of 0.02 mm/tooth and 0.05 mm/tooth, axial depth of cut at 0.2 mm and 0.3 mm, and radial depth of cut at 10 mm and 40 mm. For dry machining, the longest tool life at flank wear (VBmax) of 0.21 mm was at 30 min, which was obtained at cutting speeds of 1300 m/min, feed rate of 0.02 mm/tooth, axial depth of cut at 0.2 mm, and radial depth of cut at 40 mm. Using this cutting condition, a mirror-like surface of 0.106 µm was produced. For machining under cryogenic condition at VBmax of 0.2 mm, the maximum tool life of 1864 min was achieved at a cutting speed of 900 m/min, feed rate of 0.02 mm/tooth, axial depth of cut of 0.3 mm, and radial depth of cut of 40 mm. Under this cutting condition, a lower surface finish of 0.091 µm was obtained. It can be concluded that the application of liquid nitrogen (LN2) is very effective in enhancing the tool life and in obtaining a better-machined surface, especially at a lower cutting speed of 900 m/min. A longer tool life and high-quality machined parts will significantly improve the productivity and cost savings in the related industry.
The Intersection of Fashion, Immersive Technology, and Sustainability: A Literature Review
Authors: Mesjar Lyndsay , Cross Karen , Jiang Yang , Steed Josie
Published: February 2023

Fashion industry emissions, resource use, and waste are attracting increasing consumer and government attention, with broad agreement that a new approach is required along the supply chain. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, a move to digitalisation facilitated an accelerating interest in digital applications, including immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. This systematic literature review explores the intersecting topics of fashion, immersive technologies, and sustainability to determine the trends, examine the solutions offered, and discuss the implications of immersive technologies for sustainability. Four resources were consulted (Scholar, SCOPUS, WOS, and ProQuest), resulting in 74 articles for the review. Grey literature was included due to the currency of the topic and gaps in the available academic literature. The findings highlight immersive technology uses in the fashion industry, which are part of a move towards sustainability. These technologies are used to reduce online returns, educate consumers, reduce waste in design and manufacture, and remove the need for physical items. However, issues include high energy costs, consumer reluctance, and skill shortages. Results suggest future research and industry discussions should focus on empirical studies to measure the sustainability impact of immersive technologies, monitor technology diffusion and uptake, and measure the industry skills gap.
Climate Change, Air Pollution and the Associated Burden of Disease in the Arabian Peninsula and Neighbouring Regions: A Critical Review of the Literature
Authors: Akasha Heba , Ghaffarpasand Omid , Pope Francis D.
Published: February 2023

A narrative review on the interlinking effects of climate change and air pollution, and their impacts on human health in the Arabian Peninsula and its Neighbouring Regions (APNR) is provided. The APNR is experiencing the direct impacts of climate change through increasingly extreme temperatures in the summer season, increasing maximum and minimum temperatures, and increased frequency and severity of dust events. The region is also experiencing significant air pollution, of which particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) are of specific concern. Air pollution in the APNR is mainly caused by unprecedented industrial, population and motorization growth. The discovery of oil in the early 20th century has been the major economic driving force behind these changes. Climate change and air pollution impact human health in the region, primarily respiratory and cardiovascular health. Despite an increase in research capacity, research intensity was found to be inconsistent across the APNR countries, with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Iraq publishing more research articles than the other countries. In this review article, the existing research gaps in the region are investigated and the lack of synthesis between the interacting effects of air pollution and climate change upon human health is highlighted.
Evaluating the Renewal Degree for Expressway Regeneration Projects Based on a Model Integrating the Fuzzy Delphi Method, the Fuzzy AHP Method, and the TOPSIS Method
Authors: Zhu Min , Zhou Wenbo , Hu Min , Du Juan , Yuan Tengfei
Published: February 2023

As the volume and scale of urban expressways continue to increase, renewal remains a concern for urban development. The renewal and decision-making of an urban expressway need to be endowed with new concepts to adapt to the rapid development of cities. Nevertheless, in addition to considering road factors such as facility conditions, driving conditions, and environmental protection, the existing evaluation system lacks comprehensive consideration of factors that improve resilience and adapt to future urban development, and it lacks a quantifiable general update evaluation system. Thus, the establishment of a comprehensive renewal indicator system and a mixed evaluation framework is a challenge. This study proposes an evaluation framework of expressway renewal indicators that integrates the three dimensions of macro, meso, and micro based on the fuzzy Delphi method, the fuzzy AHP method, and the TOPSIS method. A q-rung orthopair fuzzy linguistic set was used to handle expert uncertainty information in the process of conducting fuzzy evaluations. The indicators were refined into general and quantifiable evaluation indicators to improve their versatility. Moreover, the renewal value of expressways was measured and calculated using the TOPSIS method, and four renewal intervals were divided according to the calculation results. As a result, 28 renewal indicators were screened out, and the five factors with the greatest impact on renewal were the demand for transport development, the renewal of facility and service functions, the upgrading of institutional resilience, structural renewal, and economic development. The model was applied to eight expressways in Shanghai to calculate the renewal degree value and divide the renewal status. The model could identify the renewal needs of each road to guide the renewal decision. This study proposes an evaluation model to measure urban expressway renewal studies and provides a reference for urban renewal in the area of sustainable development
The Continuing Case for a Polycentric Approach for Coping with Climate Change
Authors: Lofthouse Jordan K. , Herzberg Roberta Q.
Published: February 2023

Elinor Ostrom argued that effectively coping with manmade climate change requires a polycentric approach. Although we agree with Ostrom’s assessment, her arguments regarding the advantages of polycentricity could be taken further. In this paper, we supplement Ostrom’s work by fleshing out the reasons of how and why a polycentric approach is more conducive to coping with climate change than national governments that attempt to centrally direct climate change policies. We argue that there are at least six advantages that polycentric systems have for coping with climate change: competition among decision makers, cooperation among decision makers, perceptions of legitimacy that lead to coproduction, mutual learning through experimentation, institutional resilience/robustness, and emergent outcomes that are socially desirable but not centrally planned. The combination of these six factors gives polycentric governance systems distinct advantages over more top-down ones, especially in terms of epistemics and incentive compatibility. Scholars and policymakers who are concerned about the implications of climate change should appreciate the many diverse and nuanced advantages of a polycentric approach for coping with climate change.
Optimal Policy for Probabilistic Selling with Three-Way Revenue Sharing Contract under the Perspective of Sustainable Supply Chain
Authors: Yang Guang , Wang Ying , Liu Mulin
Published: February 2023

Probabilistic selling (PS) is widely used in the travel industry and marketing practices; how to design a win-win contract using PS in multiple participants’ supply chain to achieve sustainable development has been a worthy concerned issue in the green supply chain development in China. To end this, we consider a three-players supply chain involving two firms and a common retailer in which the firms sell their transparent products via a dual channel, while the retailer sells probabilistic goods by a direct channel. First, the three players’ demand functions are derived using both a Hotelling model and taking account of consumers’ price reference effects. Second, we construct a probabilistic selling model for both decentralized and centralized supply chain systems. The optimal policies for the decentralized system are determined by employing Stackelberg sequential games and an analytical approach. Third, we propose a new three-way revenue sharing contract to deal with channel conflict. Furthermore, we determine the conditions under which the dual-channel supply chain can be coordinated to achieve a win–win situation for all participants. The results indicate that the retailer adopts probabilistic selling depending upon the relative values of the two manufacturers’ production costs in the three-way revenue sharing contract. More interestingly, PS not only can improve the supply chain’s efficiency, but also can coordinate the dual-channel supply chain to achieve a win-win situation for all participants. Finally, we present a numerical analysis to verify our results and a sensitivity analysis of the parameters involved.
On-Farm Water Use Efficiency: Impact of Sprinkler Cycle and Flow Rate to Cool Holstein Cows during Semi-Arid Summer
Authors: Macavoray Abu , Rashid Muhammad Afzal , Rahman Hifzul , Shahid Muhammad Qamer
Published: February 2023

Sprinkler cooling is a common heat abatement method in dairy cows and uses huge quantities of groundwater. Sprinkler flow rate and timing affect cow cooling and water use efficiency, but little is known about how these strategies may influence dairy cow performance under heat stress conditions in Pakistan. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cooling efficiency of different sprinkler cycles and flow rates in Holstein Friesian cows under semi-arid summer conditions in Pakistan. Thirty (30) lactating cows were subjected to 2 sprinkler flow rates and 3 sprinkler cycle strategies in a crossover design. Flow rates were 1.25 and 2 L/min, and the sprinkler cycles (water on|off) were: 3 min on|3 min off, 3 on|6 off, and 3 on|9 off. Results showed that the 1.25 L/min flow rate had a similar performance to the 2.0 L/min group in terms of milk yield and behavior, despite using 37.2% less water. The respiration rate was lowest in the 3|3 sprinkler cycle (SC) group, followed by the 3|6 and the 3|9 SC groups, respectively. Milk yield in the 3|3 group was 2 kg/d higher than the 3|9 group. In conclusion, these findings suggest that the 3|3 sprinkler cycle and 1.25 L/min flow rate may be a more efficient option in terms of water use while maintaining cow performance in semi-arid heat stress conditions.
Performance Analysis of a 10 MW Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant Using Rankine Cycle in Malaysia
Authors: Thirugnana Sathiabama T. , Jaafar Abu Bakar , Rajoo Srithar , Azmi Ahmad Aiman , Karthikeyan Hariharan Jai , Yasunaga Takeshi , Nakaoka Tsutomu , Kamyab Hesam , Chelliapan Shreeshivadasan , Ikegami Yasuyuki
Published: February 2023

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a solution for environmental and climate change issues in the tropics. The OTEC potential in Malaysia using ocean conditions and bathymetry data has been previously studied and demonstrated. Following this, it is vital to perform a basic performance analysis of a 10 MW Rankine Cycle OTEC plant using the Malaysian ocean conditions. In this paper, the results of heat and mass balance will be reported for a 10 MW Rankine cycle OTEC plant which uses heat exchangers of plate-type and anhydrous ammonia as its working fluid. The value of a minimum objective function (γ) is derived by total heat surface area (AT) divided by the net power (PN). γ decreases when the inlet temperature difference (inlet temperature of warm seawater (TWSWI)—inlet temperature of cold seawater (TCSWI)) increases. PN is clarified to be approximately 70–80% of the PG (gross power) using Malaysian ocean conditions.
Coupling and Coordinated Development of Digital Economy and Rural Revitalisation and Analysis of Influencing Factors
Authors: Wang Yuan , Huang Yifang , Zhang Yihua
Published: February 2023

Under the strategy of digital technology development and rural revitalisation, the digital economy has gradually become a powerful engine for rural revitalisation and development. Based on the coupling coordination mechanism of digital economy and rural revitalisation, this paper constructs the index evaluation system of digital economy and rural revitalisation and empirically studies the development characteristics of digital economy and rural revitalisation by using the coupling coordination degree and grey relation model. The results show that during 2016–2020, the overall development level of digital economy and rural revitalisation in China is high in the East and low in the West. The coupling coordination between digital economy and rural revitalisation has significant regional differences and a downward trend, and the coupling coordination degree is positively correlated. The empirical results of the grey correlation model show that the number of postal employees and per capital grain production are the most important potential factors affecting digital economy and rural revitalisation, respectively. Finally, it is suggested that the government should continue to increase investment in science, technology, and agriculture, accelerate the project of cultivating high-level scientific and technological innovation and rural management talents, and strengthen regional cooperation and collaboration.
Shaping the Inclusivity in the New Society by Enhancing the Digitainability of Sustainable Development Goals with Education
Authors: Dovleac Lavinia , Chițu Ioana Bianca , Nichifor Eliza , Brătucu Gabriel
Published: February 2023

The literature introduced the concepts of sustainability and digitalisation as one, mixed-combined and named as digitainability. By linking digital divide, sustainability, and digitalisation, the authors aimed to: (i) identify variables that might influence the digital divide index; (ii) determine variables to model sustainable development goals; and (iii) create a model to explain digitainability through education. Analysing the sample of 13 EU developed countries, the authors created three econometric models and analysed the manner of how education might shape the inclusivity in a new and ever-growing Society. The results generated an inter-connected model that shows that new Society depends on the users’ medium or high skills because of their strong and positive influence on the digital divide index. The scientific contribution reveals solutions for an inclusive future, not far from the demanding requirements of the present. The theoretical implications shape the necessity to collaborate with policy makers to optimise the educational public system requirements in order to form prepared specialists for high-demanding markets in which they will work. The orientation of managerial implications of top leaders from companies must address an adapted mindset to collaborate with the academic environment to discover and understand the truth about the challenges of the new Era.
Regenerative Design of Archaeological Sites: A Pedagogical Approach to Boost Environmental Sustainability and Social Engagement
Authors: Lucchi Elena
Published: February 2023

Sustainable pedagogical approaches and practices have changed during the years, generating a set of philosophical, theoretical, and scientific concepts. Inside them, regenerative design is a proactive method based on systemic frameworks and developmental processes for maintaining the integrity of natural ecosystems, also enhancing human life, environmental awareness, social equity, and economic sustainability through the support of codesign techniques. This approach is widely used in architectural design, both for existing and heritage buildings, to address negative impacts of global warming, climate change, urban sprawl, touristic pressure, and other contemporary challenging phenomena. Specific workflows for archaeological sites have been never proposed, despite the fact that these sites face problems and risks completely different from other cultural heritage settings (e.g., physical development, pollution, tourism pressure, vandalism, looting, inappropriate excavations or interventions, lack of maintenance, funding, and legislation). This study presents a multicriteria decision analysis workflow for preserving and regenerating archaeological sites in a sustainable way through a deep understanding of current problems, values, features, and risks at urban and building levels. This method is tested with a pedagogical experiment at the UNESCO Site of Casterseprio (Italy), to investigate the interaction between heritage, environmental, social, and economic dynamics as well as to define its feasibility, applicability, limitations, and opportunities for further developments. The didactic process is supported by a participatory program among the key players of the site (owners, heritage and public authorities, and local associations), to create strong public support and a shared vision of the sustainable regeneration of the area. Differences between traditional and regenerative design processes, key design principles, shared criteria, replicability, novelty, and limitations of the pedagogic approach are also identified. Key findings of the present study are: (i) students need clear and shared design workflows for supporting their design projects; (ii) “regenerative design” involves multilevel dynamic training methodologies that motivate and involve the student while also improving their consciousness; (iii) the cooperation and the involvement of the stakeholders is important to favor a human-centered approach based also on social and economic interactions; (iv) digital technologies are fundamental for quantifying the key performance indicators in each design stage; (v) “regenerative design” boosts long-term planning and financial self-sustainability of the intervention; and (vi) multicultural design teams producing more innovative design ideas.
A New Agricultural Drought Disaster Risk Assessment Framework: Coupled a Copula Function to Select Return Periods and the Jensen Model to Calculate Yield Loss
Authors: Lei Hongjun , Yu Jie , Pan Hongwei , Li Jie , Leghari Shah Jahan , Shang Chongju , Xiao Zheyuan , Jin Cuicui , Shi Lili
Published: February 2023

China is one of the regions with the most frequent drought disasters and serious social and economic losses. Agricultural drought is the most serious natural disaster. Due to climate change, the regional agricultural drought risk assessment has always been the focus of the academic circle. This study takes Zunyi City as an example, which is the most typical city of karst landform development. The monthly precipitation data set of ground meteorological observation stations in Zunyi City from 1956 to 2020 was selected, and the drought characteristic variables were extracted by the coupled use of the precipitation anomaly percentage (Pa) index and the theory of runs. A copula function was applied to establish the joint distribution model of characteristic variables, obtaining the drought frequency and drought return periods. Combined with the Jensen model, the agricultural drought loss rate under different drought return periods in the target year (2020) was calculated and evaluated. The results showed that the Gumbel-Hougaard copula function was suitable for the joint distribution of drought joint variables in Zunyi City. From 1956 to 2020, fewer droughts occurred in Zhengan and Wuchuan, and the most droughts took place in Fenggang, Meitan, and Yuqing. The average drought duration in each county was about 1.5 months, and the average drought severity was about 0.35 in spatial distribution. Crop loss rate caused by drought increased and the affected area expanded with the increase of drought return periods (5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 years) in temporal distribution. Meanwhile, the drought disaster was most drastic in the eastern region, followed by the south, north, west, and central area. The results were highly consistent with the historical drought in Zunyi City, which verified the validity of the model. This study could provide scientific knowledge for drought resistance and reasonable mitigation programing for the security of the regional agricultural production and the sustainability of social and economic development.
Slope Scaling Effect and Slope-Conversion-Atlas for Typical Water Erosion Regions in China
Authors: Chen Xue , Chen Guokun , Feng Junxin , Zhao Jingjing , Wang Yiwen
Published: February 2023

Slope has obvious scale-dependent characteristics and it changes with the change in DEM resolution, which brings uncertainty to the evaluation process of regional resource and environment. In this paper, one typical county in each of the six water erosion regions in China was selected as the sample area, respectively. Based on DEM data of ALOS DEM, ASTER GDEM and SRTM DEM with different spatial resolutions, slope characteristics, such as gradient, eigenvalue, frequency and cumulative frequency curves, were calculated by using the third-order inverse distance square weighted difference algorithm, to explore the ability of depicting terrain by these three DEM data. Based on the idea of geo-information map, the “surface-slope conversion atlas” under different resolutions was constructed to achieve the grading correction of slope extraction under low resolution. The results showed that: (1) with the resolution of DEM decreases, the slope information of each area tends to be more generalized and gradually concentrated. The slope frequency curve gradually changed from “tall and thin” to “short and fat”, and the peak of the cumulative frequency curve moved to the low-slope area. Six sample areas showed different degrees of slope reduction. (2) In the process of slope grading correction, except for Maoxian, the proportion of low-resolution results converted to medium and low slope grades (0°–25°) is large. (3) The slope spectrum conversion method has a good correction effect on the errors generated by the slope extraction results of DEM90 and DEM30, and the correction rates reached 80% and 90%, respectively. A slope conversion atlas can effectively improve the expression ability of low-resolution DEM data on topography, which can provide a basis for regional resource and environment evaluation, and territorial space optimization.
Gibberellic Acid Alleviates Cadmium-Induced Seed Germination Inhibition through Modulation of Carbohydrate Metabolism and Antioxidant Capacity in Mung Bean Seedlings
Authors: Kaur Harmanjit , Nazir Faroza , Hussain Sofi Javed , Kaur Rupinder , Rajurkar Ashish B. , Kumari Sarika , Siddiqui Manzer H. , Mahajan Moksh , Khatoon Sayeda , Khan M. Iqbal R.
Published: February 2023

Gibberellins (GA) are the decisive players in seed germination whose functionality could be adversely affected by the presence of cadmium (Cd); however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Eco-toxicological effects of Cd (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 µM) on the early stages of ontogenesis in a mung bean variety (ML-2056) were investigated. Seed germination characteristics along with Cd-tolerance index were recorded at the seventh day of germination. Additionally, endogenous gibberellic acid (GA3) level, amylase activity, oxidative stress, and the antioxidant defense system were also investigated in Cd-stressed germinating seedlings. Results revealed that Cd reduced seed germination and interfered with GA synthesis in a concentration-dependent manner. Further, to validate the role of GA in Cd-tolerance, experiments were executed to explore the effect of seed priming with GA3 and its biosynthesis inhibitor paclobutrazol (PBZ) on ML-2056 under Cd stress. Application of GA3 improved the activities of amylase and carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes, the antioxidant defense system, and sustained lower H2O2 and TBARS contents, whereas PBZ caused a significant reduction in growth and decreased endogenous GA3 content in Cd-stressed ML-2056, suggesting a crucial role of GA synthesis in reversing Cd-induced negative effects. Overall, GA synthesis played a crucial role in mitigating Cd toxicity in mung bean, which might be used as a criterion for developing Cd-stress-tolerant genotypes.
Method of TFN-TOPSIS Based on Possibility Degree Relation Model and Its Application in the Patent Value Estimation of Self-Balancing Vehicles
Authors: Huang Zhili , Yue Hongge , He Qiang
Published: February 2023

With the advancement of technology and the development of intelligence, self-balancing scooters have gradually developed in the field of short-distance travel and have become a fashionable, popular and leisure means of transportation. In addition, both the export of self-balancing scooters and their safety are closely related to their core patents. Therefore, in order to promote the healthy development of the self-balancing automobile industry, this paper carries out the following research: First, we introduce the background of the self-balancing automobile patent and the research status of patent value evaluation at home and abroad. Then, considering the fuzziness of decision makers’ thinking and the uncertainty of patent indicators, this paper extends the traditional TOPSIS method to the field of triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs), and proposes a TFN-TOPSIS multi-criteria decision model based on the possibility degree relationship model. In addition, this study establishes a core patent value system using three aspects of technology, law and economy, and applies the TFN-TOPSIS model to the top 20 balanced car patents with the highest comprehensive evaluation to rank and analyze the measurement results. On this basis, this paper provides reference opinions for relevant industry personnel from the aspects of future product technology updates and patent layouts.
Influence of Eucalyptus Agroforestry on Crop Yields, Soil Properties, and System Economics in Southern Regions of India
Authors: Ramesh Karuppanan Ramasamy , Deshmukh Harshavardhan Krishnarao , Sivakumar Karthikeyan , Guleria Vipan , Umedsinh Rathod Digvijaysinh , Krishnakumar Nathakrishnan , Thangamalar Alagesan , Suganya Kathirvel , Kiruba Mariyappan , Selvan Thiru , Balasubramanian Padmanaban , Ushamalini Chinnaswamy , Thiyagarajan Gurusamy , Vincent Saminathan , Rajeswari Palani , Bavish Shanmugavel , Riaz Arsha , Senthil Kuppusamy
Published: February 2023

Agroforestry benefits farmers, making it a sustainable alternative to monoculture. To create a viable Eucalyptus clone-based agroforestry system, a field experiment was carried out in Tamil Nadu, India. The economics and changes in the soil qualities were evaluated by growing agricultural and horticultural crops, namely pearl millet, sorghum, maize, sesame, small onions, green gram, and red gram, as intercrops under eight-month-old eucalyptus clone trees using a randomised block design in three replications at a spacing of 3 m × 1.5 m. The plots for the intercrops and the eucalyptus clones were kept apart for comparison. Maize showed the greatest drop in plant height during all the phases, including 30 DAS, 60 DAS, and harvest, while small onions showed the least reduction in plant height. Sesame and small onions showed the greatest drop in dry matter production, whereas sorghum showed the least. In terms of the intercrop yield reduction, maize had the biggest reduction and green gram had the lowest. Red gram had the largest crop equivalent yield, whereas maize had the lowest. The volume of the trees was generally increased more favourably by red gram than by green gram. The intercrops had some effects on the nutrients in the soil. Red gram intercropping had the highest levels of EC, soil organic carbon, available soil nitrogen, available soil phosphorus, and available soil potassium, while the sole tree treatment had the lowest levels. Small onions, red gram, and sesame were the crops; tree + small onion, tree + red gram, and tree + sesame were the intercrop combinations with the highest gross income, net income, and B:C in the intercropping treatment alone. Tree + green gram had the highest land equivalent ratio (LER) and the red gram, sesame, and small onion intercrops were shown to be the most profitable. Although the present study supports a complementary relationship, the lack of awareness among farmers of Eucalyptus allelopathy formed the major limitation.
Oil Monitoring and Fault Pre-Warning of Wind Turbine Gearbox Based on Combined Predicting Method
Authors: Zou Xiangfu , Zhang Jie , Chen Jian , Orozovic Ognjen , Xie Xihua , Li Jiejie
Published: February 2023

Oil monitoring for wind turbine gearboxes can reflect wear and lubrication conditions, and better identify pits on the tooth surface, fatigue wear, and other early faults. However, oil monitoring with one or several single predicting models brings inaccuracy due to the intrinsic merits and demerits of the models. In this work, oil monitoring and fault pre-warning of wind turbine gearboxes were studied based on oil inspection data of three wind turbines that have been working continuously for 3.5 years. The Grey Model (GM) and the Double Exponential Smoothing (DES) were combined by a modified inverse-variance weighting method proposed in this work, which used relative errors to calculate weight coefficients, reducing the errors and improving the accuracy as a whole. The predicted data were compared with the measured data to verify the predicting accuracy. Subsequently, a statistical method and linear regression method were adopted to jointly develop a pre-warning threshold for the oil inspection data. Comparing the predicted data with the threshold, the results showed that one of the wind turbines was in a warning state. The prediction was validated by an endoscope inspection of the gearbox, which found that some parts were slightly worn.
Age Simulation Suits in Education and Training of Staff for the Nautical Tourism Sector
Authors: Łapko Aleksandra
Published: February 2023

Education can be the first step towards sustainable tourism. This article discusses the use of age simulation suits to educate university students majoring in nautical tourism. The research goal was to verify whether using such suits in the process can sensitize students to problems that may be faced by the elderly in marinas. The goal of the research has been achieved through a pilot study carried out on a group of students. In the experiment, two Sakamoto suits were used that simulate a number of ailments characteristic of old age. The participants found the classes using the suits to be helpful in both their private lives and future careers, when they will face problems resulting from an aging society. After the experiment, the participants declared a greater understanding of the elderly and were able to identify more problems that senior tourists might encounter while visiting marinas. Therefore, in the future, they may make decisions to implement solutions that accommodate the needs of senior tourists in marinas. This is the first step toward fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals and creating accessible, sustainable tourism.
Coupling a Distributed Time Variant Gain Model into a Storm Water Management Model to Simulate Runoffs in a Sponge City
Authors: Yang Yuanyuan , Zhang Wenhui , Liu Zhe , Liu Dengfeng , Huang Qiang , Xia Jun
Published: February 2023

The storm water management model (SWMM) has been used extensively to plan, implement, control, and evaluate low impact development facilities and other drainage systems to solve storm-related problems in sponge cities. However, the calibration of SWMM involves a variety of sensitive parameters and may bring significant uncertainties. Here we incorporated the distributed time variant gain model (DTVGM), a model with a simple structure and few parameters, into the SWMM (called DTVGM-SWMM) to reduce the complexity but keep the mechanistic representation of the hydrological process. The DTVGM runoff module parameters were calibrated and validated using the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), based on measured data and the results of SWMM. It was then coupled with the SWMM routing module to estimate catchment runoffs and outflows. Finally, the performance was evaluated using NSE (0.57~0.94), relative errors of the flow depth (−7.59~19.79%), and peak flow rate (−33.68~54.37%) under different storm events. These implied that the DTVGM-SWMM simulations were generally consistent with those of the control group, but underperformed in simulating peak flows. Overall, the proposed framework could reasonably estimate the runoff, especially the outflow process in the urban catchment. This study provides a simple and reliable method for urban stormwater simulation.
Green Investment, Technological Progress, and Green Industrial Development: Implications for Sustainable Development
Authors: Chen Mingwen , Chen RongJia , Zheng Shiyong , Li Biqing
Published: February 2023

Environmental reformation of old-fashioned sectors and the establishment of new pro-ecological businesses via green investment are the main driving forces behind the revolution in the Chinese industrial sector. Green investment aids in the growth of environmentally friendly industries. Hence, the primary objective of the analysis is to investigate the impact of green investment and technological progress on green industrial development. The results of the unit root tests encourage us to apply the ARDL model. The short and long-run estimates attached to R&D expenditures are positively significant, confirming that increasing R&D expenditures help improve the industrial structure. Similarly, the short and long-run estimates attached to green finance investment are positively significant, signifying that green investment benefits the industrial structure. Empirical findings show that technology significantly aggravates industrial structure development in only the long run. Thus, for green industrial development in China, there is a need to increase green investment and technological development up to top-level design.
A Simulation of a Sustainable Plus-Energy House in Poland Equipped with a Photovoltaic Powered Seasonal Thermal Storage System
Authors: Kasperski Jacek , Bać Anna , Oladipo Oluwafunmilola
Published: February 2023

This article describes the innovative photovoltaic powered seasonal thermal storage—PVPSTS system. It was used in the design of a plus-energy detached single-family house with a usable area of 98 m2. This area meets the requirements of the latest building regulations in Poland. The building, with the innovative HVAC installation, was subjected to energy analysis, and a numerical model was also developed. The model was tested based on TMY data for the location of Wroclaw, Poland. Analysis of the results allowed the authors to learn the specifics of the operation of the system throughout the year and to also define its efficiency. The required size of the storage stack was determined to be 1.6 × 1.6 × 0.3 m. The photovoltaic installation, which was integrated with the roof, can produce 48 GJ of electricity per year. This is five to six times more than the building’s heating needs, and any excess energy can be exported to the power grid.
Reducing the Erodibility of Sandy Soils Engineered by Cyanobacteria Inoculation: A Laboratory Investigation
Authors: Rabiei Asma , Zomorodian Seyed Mohammad Ali , O’Kelly Brendan C.
Published: February 2023

Windblown and water-induced erosion cause substantial soil losses worldwide, especially for drylands. Any sustainable management program that increases soil organic matter and improves the stability of the crustal layer could considerably enhance soil productivity and the preservation of erosion-prone land. This paper presents a laboratory investigation of cyanobacteria-inoculated medium sand and fine sand soils studied for severe runoff conditions that were simulated using an erosion function apparatus (EFA). Loosely deposited sand specimens prepared by air-pluviation were inoculated with a single native filamentous-cyanobacterium strain (investigating both Nostoc sp. and Calothrix sp.) and then incubated under high exposure to white light for 32- or 48-day periods. Well-developed bio-crusts were produced on the specimens’ top surface that achieved substantial improvements in erosion resistance, as was demonstrated for a wide range of hydraulic shear stress investigated using EFA experiments. Relative improvements in hydraulic erosion resistance were explained in terms of the nature of the cyanobacteria-developed microstructures (cyanobacteria filament infiltration of pore-void spaces and exopolysaccharide excretion), as were observed by scanning electron microscope examinations. The developed microstructure depended on the cyanobacterium strain employed and the nominal pore-void sizes that are related to the sand gradation and density state. The encouraging findings of this experimental investigation suggest a tailored approach (i.e., employing a suitable native cyanobacterium strain chosen for its compatibility with the soil’s physical properties) could lay the basis for developing a novel technology for soil protection.
The Challenge of Chinese Children’s Emotion Regulation: Child Number, Parental Emotion Regulation, and Its Relationship with Reactions to Children’s Negative Emotions
Authors: Hong Xiumin , Wang Mei
Published: February 2023

In the context of China’s three-child policy, more and more families have been changing from a one-child family to a two-child or three-child family. Both changes of family structure and the increase in child number may bring new challenges to children’s social development, emotion regulation, and parent–child relationship. This study aims to deal with the comparison of children’s emotion regulation for families with different child numbers and its relationship with parental emotion regulation and parental reactions to children’s negative emotions. We examined children’s emotion regulation, parental emotion regulation, and parental reactions to children’s negative emotions through a questionnaire survey. A total of 7807 parents from Guangdong Province in China participated in this study. The results show that: (1) A significant difference exists in children’s emotion regulation for families with different child numbers. Both one-child and two-child families present significantly higher children’s emotion regulation than three-child families; (2) There is a significant difference in parental emotion regulation, and supportive and non-supportive reactions in these families. The more children in each family, the worse the parental emotion regulation, the less supportive the reaction, and the more non-supportive the reaction; (3) Parental emotion regulation exerts a significant positive impact on children’s emotion regulation, and both supportive and non-supportive reactions play the partial mediating role. The findings emphasize more potential risks for children’s emotion regulation with the increase in family’s child number and suggest that special attention should be paid to children’s and parental emotion regulation in three-child families.