bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Recent Progress in the Development of Graphene Detector for Terahertz Detection
Authors: Liu Jianlong , Li Xin , Jiang Ruirui , Yang Kaiqiang , Zhao Jing , Khan Sayed Ali , He Jiancheng , Liu Peizhong , Zhu Jinfeng , Zeng Baoqing
Published: July 2021

Terahertz waves are expected to be used in next-generation communications, detection, and other fields due to their unique characteristics. As a basic part of the terahertz application system, the terahertz detector plays a key role in terahertz technology. Due to the two-dimensional structure, graphene has unique characteristics features, such as exceptionally high electron mobility, zero band-gap, and frequency-independent spectral absorption, particularly in the terahertz region, making it a suitable material for terahertz detectors. In this review, the recent progress of graphene terahertz detectors related to photovoltaic effect (PV), photothermoelectric effect (PTE), bolometric effect, and plasma wave resonance are introduced and discussed.
Application of Multispectral Imaging and Portable Spectroscopic Instruments to the Analysis of an Ancient Persian Illuminated Manuscript
Authors: Rossi Cecilia , Zoleo Alfonso , Bertoncello Renzo , Meneghetti Moreno , Deiana Rita
Published: July 2021

Illuminated manuscripts are, in general, the final products of a wise and complex interaction of different competencies. In particular, each manuscript reflects uses and techniques rooted in the historical and geographical traditions of the area of realization. Defining the characteristics and the materials in these valuable artefacts is an essential element to reconstruct their history and allow a more precise collocation and a possible comparison with other works in similar periods and areas. Non-invasive methods, mainly using portable instruments, offer undoubtedly good support in these studies. Recent analyses of an ancient Persian illuminated manuscript, combining multispectral imaging and spectroscopic measurements made with portable instruments (XRF, FORS, micro-Raman, IR-ATR) on selected points, provided new data for an improved understanding of this rare book. This study details the possibilities offered by combining these non-invasive methods for an in-depth understanding of the techniques and practices behind the realization of Middle Eastern illuminated manuscripts and provided new perspectives for multidisciplinary approaches to research in this field.
The Solution for the Thermographic Measurement of the Temperature of a Small Object
Authors: Hulewicz Arkadiusz , Dziarski Krzysztof , Dombek Grzegorz
Published: July 2021

This article describes the measuring system and the influence of selected factors on the accuracy of thermographic temperature measurement using a macrolens. This method enables thermographic measurement of the temperature of a small object with an area of square millimeters as, e.g., electronic elements. Damage to electronic components is often preceded by a rise in temperature, and an effective way to diagnose such components is the use of a thermographic camera. The ability to diagnose a device under full load makes thermography a very practical method that allows us to assess the condition of the device during operation. The accuracy of such a measurement depends on the conditions in which it is carried out. The incorrect selection of at least one parameter compensating the influence of the factor occurring during the measurement may cause the indicated value to differ from the correct value. This paper presents the basic issues linked to thermographic measurements and highlights the sources of errors. A measuring stand which enables the assessment of the influence of selected factors on the accuracy of thermographic measurement of electronic elements with the use of a macrolens is presented.
Cooperative Intersection with Misperception in Partially Connected and Automated Traffic
Authors: Li Chenghao , Hu Zhiqun , Lu Zhaoming , Wen Xiangming
Published: July 2021

The emerging connected and automated vehicle (CAV) has the potential to improve traffic efficiency and safety. With the cooperation between vehicles and intersection, CAVs can adjust speed and form platoons to pass the intersection faster. However, perceptual errors may occur due to external conditions of vehicle sensors. Meanwhile, CAVs and conventional vehicles will coexist in the near future and imprecise perception needs to be tolerated in exchange for mobility. In this paper, we present a simulation model to capture the effect of vehicle perceptual error and time headway to the traffic performance at cooperative intersection, where the intelligent driver model (IDM) is extended by the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process to describe the perceptual error dynamically. Then, we introduce the longitudinal control model to determine vehicle dynamics and role switching to form platoons and reduce frequent deceleration. Furthermore, to realize accurate perception and improve safety, we propose a data fusion scheme in which the Differential Global Positioning system (DGPS) data interpolates sensor data by the Kalman filter. Finally, a comprehensive study is presented on how the perceptual error and time headway affect crash, energy consumption as well as congestion at cooperative intersections in partially connected and automated traffic. The simulation results show the trade-off between the traffic efficiency and safety for which the number of accidents is reduced with larger vehicle intervals, but excessive time headway may result in low traffic efficiency and energy conversion. In addition, compared with an on-board sensor independently perception scheme, our proposed data fusion scheme improves the overall traffic flow, congestion time, and passenger comfort as well as energy efficiency under various CAV penetration rates.
A Corpus-Based Evaluation of Beamforming Techniques and Phase-Based Frequency Masking
Authors: Rascon Caleb
Published: July 2021

Beamforming is a type of audio array processing techniques used for interference reduction, sound source localization, and as pre-processing stage for audio event classification and speaker identification. The auditory scene analysis community can benefit from a systemic evaluation and comparison between different beamforming techniques. In this paper, five popular beamforming techniques are evaluated in two different acoustic environments, while varying the number of microphones, the number of interferences, and the direction-of-arrival error, by using the Acoustic Interactions for Robot Audition (AIRA) corpus and a common software framework. Additionally, a highly efficient phase-based frequency masking beamformer is also evaluated, which is shown to outperform all five techniques. Both the evaluation corpus and the beamforming implementations are freely available and provided for experiment repeatability and transparency. Raw results are also provided as a complement to this work to the reader, to facilitate an informed decision of which technique to use. Finally, the insights and tendencies observed from the evaluation results are presented.
A Small World Graph Approach for an Efficient Indoor Positioning System
Authors: Lima Max , Guimarães Leonardo , Santos Eulanda , Moura Edleno , Costa Rafael , Levorato Marco , Oliveira Horácio
Published: July 2021

The main goal of an Indoor Positioning System (IPS) is to estimate the position of mobile devices in indoor environments. For this purpose, the primary source of information is the signal strength of packets received by a set of routers. The fingerprint technique is one of the most used techniques for IPSs. By using supervised machine learning techniques, it trains a model with the received signal intensity information so it can be used to estimate the positions of the devices later in an online phase. Although the k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN) is one of the most widely used classification methods due to its accuracy, it has no scalability since a sample that needs to be classified must be compared to all other samples in the training database. In this work, we use a novel hierarchical navigable small world graph technique to build a search structure so the location of a sample can be efficiently found, allowing the IPSs to be used in large-scale scenarios or run on devices with limited resources. To carry out our performance evaluation, we proposed a synthetic IPS dataset generator as well as implemented a complete real-world, large-scale IPS testbed. We compared the performance of our graph-based solution with other known kNN variants, such as Kd-Tree and Ball-Tree. Our results clearly show the performance gains of the proposed solution at 98% when compared to the classic kNN and at least 80% when compared to tree-based approaches.
Electric Vehicle Integration into Road Transportation, Intelligent Transportation, and Electric Power Systems: An Abu Dhabi Case Study
Authors: Farid Amro M. , Viswanath Asha , Al-Junaibi Reem , Allan Deema , Van der Wardt Thomas J. T.
Published: July 2021

Recently, electric vehicles (EV) have gained much attention as a potential enabling technology to support CO2 emissions reduction targets. Relative to their internal combustion vehicle counterparts, EVs consume less energy per unit distance, and add the benefit of not emitting any carbon dioxide in operation and instead shift their emissions to the existing local fleet of power generation. However, the true success of EVs depends on their successful integration with the supporting infrastructure systems. Building upon the recently published methodology for the same purpose, this paper presents a “systems-of-systems” case study assessing the impacts of EVs on these three systems in the context of Abu Dhabi. For the physical transportation system, a microscopic discrete-time traffic operations simulator is used to predict the kinematic state of the EV fleet over the duration of one day. For the impact on the intelligent transportation system (ITS), the integration of EVs into Abu Dhabi is studied using a multi-domain matrix (MDM) of the Abu Dhabi Department of Transportation ITS. Finally, for the impact on the electric power system, the EV traffic flow patterns from the CMS are used to calculate the timing and magnitude of charging loads. The paper concludes with the need for an intelligent transportation-energy system (ITES) which would coordinate traffic and energy management functionality.
Smoothing in Ordinal Regression: An Application to Sensory Data
Authors: Ugba Ejike R. , Mörlein Daniel , Gertheiss Jan
Published: July 2021

The so-called proportional odds assumption is popular in cumulative, ordinal regression. In practice, however, such an assumption is sometimes too restrictive. For instance, when modeling the perception of boar taint on an individual level, it turns out that, at least for some subjects, the effects of predictors (androstenone and skatole) vary between response categories. For more flexible modeling, we consider the use of a ‘smooth-effects-on-response penalty’ (SERP) as a connecting link between proportional and fully non-proportional odds models, assuming that parameters of the latter vary smoothly over response categories. The usefulness of SERP is further demonstrated through a simulation study. Besides flexible and accurate modeling, SERP also enables fitting of parameters in cases where the pure, unpenalized non-proportional odds model fails to converge.
Circular Economy and Regenerative Sustainability in Emergency Housing: Eco-Efficient Prototype Design for Subaşi Refugee Camp in Turkey
Authors: Mercader-Moyano Pilar , Porras-Pereira Paula , Levinton Carlos
Published: July 2021

According to the most recent data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2020, 82.4 million people were forcibly displaced. In addition to this situation, in the developed world, building construction consumes 40% of the world’s material resources and primary energy, while the construction industry generates 35% of industrial waste and 40% of total global emissions. Therefore, the objective of the research is to propose an eco-efficient prototype for emergency housing, from the point of view of circular economy and regenerative sustainability, that can respond to situations of natural or humanitarian disasters. To achieve this, it will be necessary to identify the problem that must be answered and develop a theoretical model that will serve as a guide for future interventions of these characteristics. Finally, to verify the applicability of the developed protocol, a field work is executed in an unorganized settlement, Subaşi camp, located in Turkey. This research presents a novel prototype that could be used as an alternative to current emergency housing, not only responding adequately to the minimum standards of habitability, but also doing so in an eco-efficient, environmentally correct way and promoting the Sustainable Development Goals and circular economy established in the 2030 Agenda.
Surface Activity of Humic Acid and Its Sub-Fractions from Forest Soil
Authors: Tian Shijie , Tan Weiqiang , Wang Xinyuan , Li Tingting , Song Fanhao , Huang Nannan , Bai Yingchen
Published: July 2021

Surface activity of humic acid (HA) and its six sub-fractions isolated from forest soil were characterized by surface tension measurements, dynamic light scattering, and laser doppler electrophoresis. The surface tension of HA and its sub-fractions reduced from 72.4 mN·m−1 to 36.8 mN·m−1 in exponential model with the increasing concentration from 0 to 2000 mg·L−1. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) and Z-average particle size ranged from 216–1024 mg·L−1 and 108.2–186.9 nm for HA and its sub-fractions, respectively. The CMC have related with alkyl C, O-alkyl C, aromatic C, and carbonyl C (p < 0.05), respectively, and could be predicted with the multiple linear regression equation of CMC, CMC = 18896 − 6.9 × C-296 × alkyl C-331 × aromatic C-17019 × H/C + 4054 × HB/HI (p < 0.05). The maximum particle size was 5000 nm after filtered by a membrane with pore size of 450 nm, indicating HA and its sub-fractions could progressed self-assembly at pH 6.86. The aggregate sizes of number-base particle size distributions were mainly in six clusters including 2 ± 1 nm, 5 ± 2 nm, 10 ± 3 nm, 21 ± 8 nm, 40 ± 10 nm, and >50 nm analyzed by Gaussian model that maybe due to the inconsistency of the components and structures of the HA sub-fractions, requiring further study. It is significance to explore the surface activity of HA and its sub-fractions, which is helpful to clarify the environmental behavior of HA.
The Venture Firm’s Ambidexterity: Do Transformational Leaders Boost Organizational Learning for Venture Growth?
Authors: Kim Gayoung , Lee Woo Jin
Published: July 2021

Having experienced the turbulent change in corporate value rankings over the past 20 years, companies are paying attention to their reorganization to quickly recognize changes and proactively adapt to these changes for survival. This study examines the relationships and intervening ambidexterity mechanisms between CEOs’ leadership style and employees’ learning agility. Using multilevel regression, we analyze hypotheses on a sample of 102 participating CEOs and 236 employees. Results reveal that the ambidextrous organization, which pursues the current organizational development while constantly adapting to changing environments, plays a role as a partial mediator between transformational leadership and members’ learning agility. These results explain that to increase the organization’s agility, a systematic organizational structure system that stimulates members’ motives and simultaneously pursues utilization and exploration must be established through clear goals and appropriate stimuli even in an uncertain environment. Our finding contributes to an understanding of how the CEO’s leadership style affects employees’ learning agility in ventures and to what extent the contextual ambidextrous structure influences the relationship.
Resilience, Leadership and Female Entrepreneurship within the Context of SMEs: Evidence from Latin America
Authors: Acevedo-Duque Ángel , Gonzalez-Diaz Romel , Vargas Elena Cachicatari , Paz-Marcano Anherys , Muller-Pérez Sheyla , Salazar-Sepúlveda Guido , Caruso Giulia , D’Adamo Idiano
Published: July 2021

The purpose of this article is to analyze resilient female leadership as a sustainable promoter of business excellence in small and medium-sized Wayuu handicraft marketing enterprises. The present study uses a quantitative methodology with a non-experimental cross-sectional field design, with an analysis and interpretation of the data provided by the surveyed subjects. A 33-item questionnaire with multiple response options is applied. The population consists of 110.012 eradicated women. A probabilistic sampling technique is applied with a margin of error of 5% and a confidence level of 95%, for a total of 383 Wayuu women entrepreneurs in the Department of La Guajira, Colombia. Our findings explain that female leadership transcends the boundaries of business management, being present in both small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study confirms the positive relationship between sustainability and resilience in the Wayuu handicrafts market, being women who turn their actions into success factors by working with women who show technical, conceptual, and human skills.
Sustainable Careers: Reliability of Job Satisfaction Predictors for Employees Aged 50+. Evidence from Romanian Development Regions
Authors: Plopeanu Aurelian-Petruș , Homocianu Daniel , Bostan Ionel , Vodă Ana-Iolanda , Florea Nelu
Published: July 2021

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of job satisfaction for employees over the age 50 or more, using the latest SHARE-ERIC dataset (Wave 7) filtered for Romania (over 2000 records). After applying logistic regressions with average marginal effects, we obtained an overall and seven regional models which emphasize that a good atmosphere at the workplace and the deserved recognition received for the work done are the most reliable predictors of career satisfaction, confirmed in this order of importance by many other robustness checks. Particularly, in the case of respondents from the Western part of Romania, we found that meritocracy-based influence, namely deserved recognition, counts almost as much as the workplace atmosphere. For these individuals, previous educational performance and lifetime employment at a single job matter more than the previous dual-core on job satisfaction. Unexpectedly, the adults from central romania present a negative influence of life satisfaction on job satisfaction due to an unbalanced work-family vision of life. The locus of control has different effects on job satisfaction in south and south-western regions, while in the north-east, meaning in life is negatively influencing job satisfaction. Bridge employment exerts a negative influence on career satisfaction in the north-west, and in the South-East, and interpersonal trust has a positive effect.
Inclusive Smart Cities: Beyond Voluntary Corporate Data Sharing
Authors: Mercille Julien
Published: July 2021

Smart cities mobilise technologically driven solutions toward urban governance and service delivery. The profitable opportunities and abundance of data made available by cities attract ICT corporations that possess the resources and knowledge to make cities smart. However, this often leads corporate actors to monopolise the data collected and generated. This poses risks for privacy and the ways in which personal data are used and commercialised. Existing work on business-to-government (B2G) data sharing and data collaboratives has explored the technical and organisational issues involved in corporate data sharing with public authorities. However, many studies remain focused on voluntary corporate data releases. This paper argues that the option of compelling companies to share data should be considered more attentively; it is one channel (among many) that has the potential to make cities more inclusive.
From Sustainable Development Goals to Sustainable Cities: A Social Media Analysis for Policy-Making Decision
Authors: Marzouki Amal , Chouikh Arbi , Mellouli Sehl , Haddad Rim
Published: July 2021

The United Nations (UN) adopted the seventeen “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) in early September 2015. One of these goals is SDG 11, which refers to the sustainable cities and communities. In this context, local governments face the challenge of aligning with this objective. As a result, they are increasing outreach to their organizational boundaries to involve citizens in policy making and strategy development, continually listening to citizens’ voices. One of the methods citizens use to express themselves is social media. This paper will emphasize social media platforms and specially Twitter to explore the public discourse about cities in the context of SDG 11. We applied descriptive quantitative and qualitative analysis to analyze the tweets that include terms and hashtags referring to the SDG 11. The data analysis process is composed of three major procedures: 1-Engagement analysis, 2-Trends based analysis and 3-Data Insights. Our results show that: 1-the COVID’19 pandemic negatively impacted users engagement towards SDG 11, 2-new technologies such AI and IoT are gaining more importance to help cities reach SDG 11, and 3-the SDGs are related and one SDG can impact other SDGs.
Stakeholders and Risks in Liquified Natural Gas Bunkering Projects: The Hidden Link
Authors: Bellos Evangelos , Chatzistelios Georgios , Deligianni Angeliki , Leopoulos Vrassidas
Published: July 2021

The importance of stakeholders’ analysis for the effective management of risks in any business sector has been widely recognized and depicted in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. This kind of analysis is even more necessary in businesses and organizations dealing with significant technological and market changes, such as the provision and usage of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a marine fuel. In the LNG bunkering industry, several methods have been proposed to support risk management. However, they all suffer from an important drawback: they guide risk management mainly to the identification, analysis, and control of potential accidental events within a health and safety or a technical reliability analysis framework, failing to structure the correlation of risks with the actual actors, i.e., the numerous stakeholders whose decisions may influence directly or indirectly the organization’s objectives. This paper presents a method to systematically analyze the role of stakeholders and their ability to pose threats and/or opportunities to an organization. The proposed approach employs the Social Network Analysis (SNA) methodology to model and analyze stakeholder interests, interactions, and relationships that are important to the organization’s objectives. The method is applied in a small-scale LNG bunkering project at a Greek port.
Social Media Use of Small Wineries in Alsace: Resources and Motivations Analysis
Authors: Haller Coralie , Plotkina Daria , Vo-Thanh Tan
Published: July 2021

Social media (SM) plays an increasingly important role in small and medium businesses, including wineries. However, little is known about the managerial adoption and use of SM by wineries. This study aims to understand wineries’ SM usage by analysing their strategic objectives of SM usage and main differences in relation to their SM usage, as well as establishing factors contributing to SM usage. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) framework (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions) is discussed together with additional explanatory factors relevant in the studied context (attitude toward SM, self-efficacy, and anxiety). A quantitative survey of 78 wineries from the Alsace wine region of France was conducted. The results show that SM is currently used by a majority of wineries, but that strategic alignment is missing. There are significant differences in SM usage according to winery size, export orientation, and winemakers’ profiles. The results also confirm that wineries need resources and knowledge to use SM more extensively.
The Challenges of Sustainable Development on Facilities Management Outsourcing Services: An Investigation in Educational Facilities
Authors: Lok Ka Leung , Smith Andrew , Opoku Alex , Chen Charles
Published: July 2021

(1) Background: Generally, firms are reluctant to report outsourcing failures, no matter what industry they operate within. To eliminate poor performance of outsourced service providers, it is necessary to establish a specific outsourcing relationship model for facilities management (FM). The purpose of this paper is to study the concept of outsourcing relationships in relation to FM and to investigate the design of the critical success factors on sustainable outsourcing strategies through a discussion of four dimensions (ownership of FM assets, control of FM assets, competitive position and long-term plan). (2) Methods: Based on two questionnaire surveys, data were collected from 38 clients and 34 service providers. The study evaluated the FM outsourcing strategies from critical success factors in educational facilities in Hong Kong. (3) Results: This study explains the impact of FM outsourcing strategies on Hong Kong’s four commonly outsourced FM contracts including building maintenance, security, cleaning and catering from the clients’ and service providers’ point of view. (4) Conclusions: This is the outsourcing way forward in order to create a better working environment conducive for all the parties that would result in better sustainability of FM’s future and thus impact the economic objectives of sustainable development, in parallel with adding social and environmental value.
Perceived Health, Depression and Psychological Well-Being in Older Adults: Physical Activity and Osteoarticular Disease
Authors: Molinero Olga , Salguero Alfonso , Márquez Sara
Published: July 2021

Osteoarticular diseases are one of the effects of aging, and they are related to physical, psychological, and social functions. Physical activity seems to slow the start and progression of these kinds of illnesses and presents benefits for psychosocial health. The main aim of the study was to investigate the possible effect of physical activity level (Yale Physical Activity Survey) on quality of life (SF-36 Health Questionnaire), subjective psychological well-being (Psychological Well-being Scale), and depression levels (Geriatric Depression Scale), depending on osteoarticular illness. The sample consisted of 263 Spanish adults aged 65 to 98 years who had high or low physical activity (assessed by YPAS Questionnaire) and osteoarticular disease. Results show that physical activity influences the perceived quality of life, depression levels, and subjective well-being in older adults regardless of osteoarticular disease. The present study suggests the need for promoting physical exercise due to its proven positive impact on older adults’ mental health, entailing a significant reduction in the risks of suffering from a variety of frequent diseases and disorders.
Modeling Vessel Behaviours by Clustering AIS Data Using Optimized DBSCAN
Authors: Han Xuyang , Armenakis Costas , Jadidi Mojgan
Published: July 2021

Today, maritime transportation represents a substantial portion of international trade. Sustainable development of marine transportation requires systematic modeling and surveillance for maritime situational awareness. In this paper, we present an enhanced density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) method to model vessel behaviours based on trajectory point data. The proposed methodology enhances the DBSCAN clustering performance by integrating the Mahalanobis distance metric, which considers the correlation between the points representing vessel locations. This research proposes applying the clustering method to historical Automatic Identification System (AIS) data using an algorithm to generate a clustering model of the vessels’ trajectories and a model for detecting vessel trajectory anomalies, such as unexpected stops, deviations from regulated routes, or inconsistent speed. Further, an automatic and data-driven approach is proposed to select the initial parameters for the enhanced DBSCAN approach. Results are presented from two case studies using an openly available Gulf of Mexico AIS dataset as well as a Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes AIS licensed dataset acquired from ORBCOMM (a maritime AIS data provider). These research findings demonstrate the applicability and scalability of the proposed method for modeling more water regions, contributing to situational awareness, vessel collision prevention, safe navigation, route planning, and detection of vessel behaviour anomalies for auto-vessel development towards the sustainability of marine transportation.
Area-Based Policies and Potential Health Benefits: A Quasi-Experimental Cohort Study in Vulnerable Urban Areas of Andalusia (Spain)
Authors: Zapata-Moya Ángel R. , Martín-Díaz María J. , Viciana-Fernández Francisco J.
Published: July 2021

Area-based policies (ABIs) aim to improve the quality of life and health of residents in socio-economically disadvantaged areas of cities. Although health impact evaluations of ABIs have proliferated in the last decade, several weaknesses have been identified in these evaluations. Inspired by the propositions of the fundamental cause theory (FCT), this paper attempts to address some of these weaknesses by investigating the possible impacts of different combinations of ABIs on premature mortality in vulnerable urban areas of Andalusia (Spain). We conducted a quasi-experimental cohort study, based on the longitudinal statistics on survival and longevity of a population aged 40–70 during the period from 2002 to 2016. Hazard ratios for individuals living in targeted areas relative to control areas were estimated using quasi-Poisson regressions, and the impact was evaluated using a difference-in-difference approach. Most of the ABIs studied do not seem to generate a visible impact on premature mortality. However, the combination of ARB and URBAN interventions is associated with a significant decrease in preventable and all-cause mortality in the targeted versus control areas. The flexible resources proposed by FCT can operate at both the contextual and individual levels, since more comprehensive interventions seem to contribute to achieving health impacts on vulnerable populations. Future evaluations should consider the nature of the intervened areas themselves in relation to the dynamics of the city and the degree of comprehensiveness of the policies, to elucidate what may constitute “fundamental interventions” to reduce health disparities between urban places.
Climate Change and Internet of Things Technologies—Sustainable Premises of Extending the Culture of the Amurg Cultivar in Transylvania—A Use Case for Târnave Vineyard
Authors: Chedea Veronica Sanda , Drăgulinescu  Ana-Maria , Tomoiagă  Liliana Lucia , Bălăceanu Cristina , Iliescu  Maria Lucia
Published: July 2021

Known for its dry and semi-dry white wine, the Târnave vineyard located in central Transylvania is challenged by the current climate change, which has resulted in an increase of the period of active vegetation by approximately 15–20 days, the average annual temperature by 1–1.5 °C and also the amount of useful temperatures (useful thermal balance for the grapevine). Furthermore, the frost periods have been reduced. Transylvania is an important Romanian region for grapevine cultivation. In this context, one can use the climatic changes to expand their wine assortment by cultivating an autochthonous grapevine variety called Amurg. Amurg is a red grape cultivar homologated at SCDVV Blaj, which also homologated 7 cultivars and 11 clones. Because viticulture depends on the stability of meteorological and hydrological parameters of the growing area, its foundations are challenged by climate change. Grapevine production is a long time investment, taking at least five years before the freshly planted vines produce the desired quality berries. We propose the implementation of a climate change-based precision viticulture turn-key solution for environmental monitoring in the Târnave vineyard. This solution aims to evaluate the grapevine’s micro-climate to extend the sustainable cultivation of the Amurg red grapes cultivar in Transylvania with the final goal of obtaining Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) rosé and red wines from this region. Worldwide, the changing conditions from the existing climate (a 30-year average), used in the past hundred years to dictate local standards, such as new and erratic trends of temperature and humidity regimes, late spring freezes, early fall frosts, storms, heatwaves, droughts, area wildfires, and insect infestations, would create dynamic problems for all farmers to thrive. These conditions will make it challenging to predict shifts in each of the components of seasonal weather conditions. Our proposed system also aims to give a solution that can be adapted to other vineyards as well.
Sustainable Conservation Tillage Technique for Improving Soil Health by Enhancing Soil Physicochemical Quality Indicators under Wheat Mono-Cropping System Conditions
Authors: Sadiq Mahran , Li Guang , Rahim Nasir , Tahir Majid Mahmood
Published: July 2021

An improved understanding of the effect of conservation tillage on soil physicochemical quality indicators is obligatory to manage and conserve soil in a climate change scenario. Tillage strategies change soil physicochemical characteristics, consequently modifying crop yields. Conservation tillage is generally used to improve the soil physicochemical characteristics globally. However, the impact of conservation tillage on different soil depths under wheat cultivation is not well documented. A 3-year study was conducted using a randomized complete block design (RCDB). The objective of this research was to specifically study soil physicochemical indicators (soil bulk density, porosity, hydraulic conductivity, water content, temperature, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, C:N ratio, pH) and (crop yield) in conventional tillage (CT), straw incorporation into the conventionally tilled soil (CTS), no-tillage (NT), and stubble-retention to the no-tilled soil (NTS) measures under wheat monocropping system across different soil layers. Averaged over 0–40 cm soil layer, the results depicted scarce differences among the tillage practices regarding soil bulk density, porosity, water content and hydraulic conductivity. CT increased soil temperature over conservation tillage systems. Overall, conservation tillage improved soil total nitrogen, available phosphorous, total potassium, C:N ratio and yield than CT, whilst it decreased soil pH. We conclude that NTS and CTS are the best strategies to enhance soil health under wheat mono-cropping system conditions.
Sustainability and Resilience Organizational Capabilities to Enhance Business Continuity Management: A Literature Review
Authors: Corrales-Estrada Ana Maria , Gómez-Santos Loyda Lily , Bernal-Torres Cesar Augusto , Rodriguez-López Jaime Eric
Published: July 2021

Although organizational sustainability and organizational resilience are critical dynamic capabilities for business continuity management, especially in times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, there are few studies that analyze the relationship between these three concepts to understand risks management. For this reason, our study analyzes these relationships to contribute to a better understanding of the subject and to propose future lines of research. We use bibliometric and content analysis, based on the Web Of Science and Scopus databases, during the period between 1998 and 13 May 2021. Main findings indicate that there is a bidirectional relationship between organizational sustainability capabilities and organizational resilience capabilities, but there is not enough evidence of their relationship with business continuity management. Additionally, results allow us to infer that there are four groups of relationships between them: (1) From Risk Management to Business Continuity Management and Organizational Resilience; (2) Resilience and Business Continuity practices; (3) Business Continuity contribution to Innovation and Sustainability; (4) Dynamic Capabilities for Organizational Sustainability and Organizational Resilience to enhance Business Continuity Management. Moreover, different stages were identified to understand the impact of organizational sustainability capabilities and organizational resilience capabilities on business continuity management facing disruptive events.
Re-Recognition of Ride-Sourcing Service: From the Perspective of Operational Efficiency and Social Welfare
Authors: Zhang Zipeng , Zhang Ning
Published: July 2021

With increasing availability of alternative mobility options for city transportation system, it is necessary to better understand how emerging mobility options are impacting the travel demand and consumer-social surplus. However, few study have been conducted to evaluate the social welfare effects of the range of vacant trips in ride-sourcing service modes. This paper identified the vacant trip and loading rate evaluation model under the ride-sourcing service mode to enhance the effective operation of the different mobility services under numerical illustrations. The solution can also offer some beneficial guidance and theoretical basis for ride-sourcing systems in regard to planning and management aspects.
Comparative Performance of Low Global Warming Potential (GWP) Refrigerants as Replacement for R-410A in a Regular 2-Speed Heat Pump for Sustainable Cooling
Authors: Shen Bo , Ally Moonis R.
Published: July 2021

Heat pumps are currently being developed to reduce the energy footprint for residential and commercial building space conditioning and water heating loads in cold climates. To mitigate the nocuous impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment, and to create a carbon-neutral building stock, alternate lower-GWP refrigerants must also replace the predominant use of R-410A, without re-engineering the mechanical hardware. In this paper, we analyze the performance of lower-GWP alternative refrigerants (R-32, R-452B, R-454B, and R-466A) relative to the conventional R-410A and draw conclusions on the relative performances to meet cooling loads. The simulations are accomplished using the heat pump design model, a well-known, public-domain design tool with a free web interface and downloadable desktop version to support public use and the HVAC R&D community. The contributions contain detailed, hardware-based heat exchanger and system analyses to provide a comprehensive assessment. The results of the simulation are scrutinized from the first (capacity and energy efficiency) and second laws (exergy analysis) to identify sources of systemic inefficiency, the root cause of lost work. This rigorous approach provides an exhaustive analysis of alternate lower-GWP refrigerants to replace R-410A using the same hardware. The results have practical value in engineering heat pumps in an economy that is compelled to alter by the consequences and uncertainties of climate change, to reduce its anthropogenic carbon footprint.
Land Use, Environmental, and Food Consumption Patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2000–2015: A Review
Authors: Chiaka Jeffrey Chiwuikem , Zhen Lin
Published: July 2021

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) land use changes are primarily influenced by agriculture and its population. The region faces various challenges ranging from rainfall variabilities to poverty and insecurities, which further hampered food supply and production. The spatial analysis identified six land uses—agriculture, forest, grassland, wetland, urban, and others (i.e., bare land, water, and sparse vegetation), showing relative percentage changes. Additionally, information collected and analyzed shows that the Millennium Development Goals period witnessed increased agricultural land use changes in the environment to improve food supply, and farmers adopted local methods and native experiences to mitigate environmental particularities facing the region. Farmers’ landholdings are fragmented, and food supply per capita is low albeit rich in calories, and nutrition is still unbalanced, while bushmeat consumption is popular and serves as an alternative to animal-sourced protein. Concerted efforts should be made to improve food security and edge closer to the sustainable development goal during this decade.
A Machine Learning-Based Prediction Model of LCCO2 for Building Envelope Renovation in Taiwan
Authors: Tsay Yaw-Shyan , Yeh Chiu-Yu , Chen Yu-Han , Lu Mei-Chen , Lin Yu-Chen
Published: July 2021

In 2015, Taiwan’s government announced the “Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act”, the goal of which was a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, compared with 2005. The residential and commercial sectors produce approximately one third of all carbon emissions in Taiwan, and the number of construction renovation projects is much larger than that of new construction projects. In this paper, we considered the life-cycle CO2 (LCCO2) of a building envelope renovation project in Tainan and focused on local construction methods for typical row houses. The LCCO2 of 744 cases with various climate zones, orientations, and insulation and glazing types was calculated via EnergyPlus, SimaPro, and a local database (LCBA database), and the results were then used to develop a machine learning model. Our findings showed that the machine learning model was capable of predicting annual energy consumption and LCCO2. With regard to annual energy consumption, the RMSE was 227.09 kW·h (per year) and the R2 was 0.992. For LCCO2, the RMSE was 2792.47 kgCO2eq and the R2 was 0.989, which indicates a high-confidence process for decision making in the early stages of building design and renovation.
Antecedents of Emotional Intelligence: Perceived Organizational Support Impact on Ambidextrous Behavior of Standalone Business School Faculty
Authors: Gopinath Uma Maheswari , Nawaz Nishad , Gajenderan Vijayakumar , Balasubramaniyan Hariswaran
Published: July 2021

The present study was designed to examine the significance of emotional intelligence (EI), perceived organizational support (POS), and its impact on organizational ambidexterity of faculty members working with standalone business schools in southern India. The study argues that the moderating effect of emotional intelligence (EI) is significant in the association between perceived organizational support and two antecedents of organizational ambidexterity of faculty members. The research on institutional exploration and exploitation ambidexterity variants highlights vital ways to realize organizational ambidexterity. Very few researchers have investigated organizational ambidexterity in the higher education sector, and no research is available on standalone business school faculty members. The study proposes a novel research framework, and the findings reveal that perceived organizational support is highly influencing two antecedents of organizational ambidexterity. The research also observes a slight moderating effect of emotional intelligence between the association of perceived organizational support and organizational ambidexterity and the positive relationship identified among emotional intelligence, perceived organizational support and organizational ambidexterity.
Research on the Sustainable Operation of Low-Carbon Tourism Supply Chain under Sudden Crisis Prediction
Authors: Zhang Lu , Ma Deqing , Hu Jinsong
Published: July 2021

This paper integrates a low-carbon tourism supply chain consisting of a low-carbon tourist attraction (LTA) providing a low-carbon service and an online travel agency (OTA) responsible for big data marketing. Consumers may also encounter sudden crisis events that occur in the tourist attraction during their visit, and the occurrence of crisis events can damage the low-carbon goodwill of the tourist attraction to the detriment of the sustainable development of the supply chain. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate how tourism firms can develop dynamic strategies in the pre-crisis environment if they envision the occurrence of a crisis event and how crisis events affect interfirm cooperation. This paper uses stochastic jump processes to portray the dynamic evolution of low-carbon goodwill in the context of crisis events and introduces the methods of the differential game and Bellman’s continuous dynamic programming theory to study the sustainable operations of low-carbon tourism supply chains. Our findings provide important managerial insights for enterprises in the tourism supply chain and suggest that they need to not only become aware of the tourist attraction crisis events, but also, more importantly, they need to adjust their appropriate input strategies based on the degree of anticipation of the crisis.
Theoretical Exploration of Supply Chain Viability Utilizing Blockchain Technology
Authors: Yin Weili , Ran Wenxue
Published: July 2021

As a disruptive and innovative technology, blockchain will significantly revolutionize how organizations produce and operate as global rivalry intensifies. The global COVID-19 outbreak, combined with the growing complexity of supply chain networks, has exposed supply chains’ vulnerability to disruption. Therefore, improving the supply chain viability is the primary way to deal with the risk of supply chain disruption. Using the method of literature research, this conceptual paper systematically reviewed and sorted out relevant literature, extracted corresponding capabilities, and put forward relevant research propositions. From the perspective of the resource-based view and resource-dependent theory, this study investigates specific dimensions of the blockchain-enabled supply chain capability: connectivity, network capability, and supply chain reconfiguration and the impact of external resource-dependent capability on the viability of the supply chain. The propositions show that the blockchain-enabled supply chain capability, and external resource-dependent capability will positively impact supply chain viability. It is expected to assist supply chain firms in implementing blockchain technology to increase supply chain viability and improve their capacity to achieve sustainable supply chain development during the crisis.
Bioclimatic and Regenerative Design Guidelines for a Circular University Campus in India
Authors: Bakos Noemi , Schiano-Phan Rosa
Published: July 2021

To transform the negative impacts of buildings on the environment into a positive footprint, a radical shift from the current, linear ‘make-use-dispose’ practice to a closed-loop ‘make-use-return’ system, associated with a circular economy, is necessary. This research aims to demonstrate the possible shift to a circular construction industry by developing the first practical framework with tangible benchmarks for a ‘Circular University Campus’ based on an exemplary case study project, which is a real project development in India. As a first step, a thorough literature review was undertaken to demonstrate the social, environmental and economic benefits of a circular construction industry. As next step, the guideline for a ‘Circular University Campus’ was developed, and its applicability tested on the case study. As final step, the evolved principles were used to establish ‘Project Specific Circular Building Indicators’ for a student residential block and enhance the proposed design through bioclimatic and regenerative design strategies. The building’s performance was evaluated through computational simulations, whole-life carbon analysis and a circular building assessment tool. The results demonstrated the benefits and feasibility of bioclimatic, regenerative building and neighbourhood design and provided practical prototypical case study and guidelines which can be adapted by architects, planners and governmental institutions to other projects, thereby enabling the shift to a restorative, circular construction industry.