bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Degradation of Organics and Change Concentration in Per-Fluorinated Compounds (PFCs) during Ozonation and UV/H2O2 Advanced Treatment of Tertiary-Treated Sewage
Authors: Akter Jesmin , Lee Jai-yeop , Ha Hyun-Ju , Yi In Geol , Hong Da-Hye , Park Chang-Min , Lee Mok-Young , Kim Ilho
Published: May 2022

This study aimed to investigate the effect of H2O2 addition, ozone feed rate, and UV addition on the change in the concentration of organics such as CODMn, CODCr, TOC, and PFCs in tertiary-treated effluent from a sewage treatment plant (STP) during the O3 and UV/H2O2 process. The degradation of organic pollutants from tertiary effluent is a significant challenge because biological treatment cannot degrade these recalcitrant pollutants. Therefore, the O3/UV/H2O2 process was an effective method for treating recalcitrant organics. Several batch tests were conducted to investigate the direct UV photolysis, UV/H2O2, and ozone-based advanced oxidation process to degrade CODMn, CODCr, TOC, and PFCs. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) with UV irradiation showed 95% and 50% removal efficiency percentages under optimal conditions (initial pH = 6.7, H2O2 dosage = 50 mg/L, ozone feed rate = 5.8 mg/L/min. Moreover, UV irradiation, with the addition of H2O2, and a sufficient dose of ozone, demonstrated the efficient removal of organic compounds by the indication of radical oxidation. (·OH) is the dominant mechanism. However, AOPs are not sufficient to fully treat the PFC compound; thus, additional procedures are required to degrade PFCs. In this study, the removal of organic recalcitrant contaminants and the change in added PFC concentration in tertiary-treated sewage were investigated by applying the ozone-based advanced oxidation process.
Mining-Related Metal Pollution and Ecological Risk Factors in South-Eastern Georgia
Authors: Avkopashvili Marika , Avkopashvili Guranda , Avkopashvili Irakli , Asanidze Lasha , Matchavariani Lia , Gongadze Alexander , Gakhokidze Ramaz
Published: May 2022

Gold and copper production is important to the Georgian economy, but at the same time, mineral resources are mined in one of the important agricultural areas of the country. This study evaluated water and soil quality in the region. Soil from 18 villages was analyzed. Some of these villages have not been investigated before and previous information about soil quality was unknown. Ecological risk factors and potential ecological risk were determined for the study area. Atomic absorption spectrometry was used to analyze heavy metals concentration in soil and water samples taken from the study area. Integrated water and soil data allowed us to see how these important natural resources influence each other. After the comparison of the four-year period of the study, we observed an increase of heavy metals increase in the soil in 2017 compared to 2014. Higher lead concentration was discovered within a two kilometer radius of the mining area whereas the highest cadmium concentration was observed in the village Ratevani, 15 km away from the nearest mine, where there was an extremely high ecological risk of Cd concentration. Further investigations are recommended to be done in Ratevani village as the people living in this village are at risk of Cd poisoning.
Build Back Better and Long-Term Housing Recovery: Assessing Community Housing Resilience and the Role of Insurance Post Disaster
Authors: Hofmann Sahar Zavareh
Published: May 2022

The purpose of this research is to better understand community housing resilience and the role of insurance using a Build Back Better Long-term Recovery Housing framework to analyze approaches and effects on long-term housing rebuilding and recovery. A comparative case study approach is taken to assess insurance policies and outcomes following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Canterbury earthquake sequence in Christchurch, New Zealand, both affluent urban communities with strong insurance markets. Framed within the context of “Build Back Better”, the community housing and insurance resilience assessment is based on five key indicators; governance, community resources, risk reduction, housing rebuilding funding (funding and speed of funding), and time compression (built environment and periods of recovery time). Public and private insurance schemes for both case studies are identified and are considered together with analysis of insurance claims and other sources of financial support. The findings and results show that recovery is the result of highly interdependent Build Back Better processes. The data suggests that insurance and governance systems greatly influences the onset and overall speed of recovery (time compression), thereby performing a major role in long-term recovery. This research provides an original contribution to disaster recovery knowledge by analyzing insurance claims from two well-documented natural disasters. Additionally, the paper proposes for the singular definition of community housing resilience.
A Video-Based, Eye-Tracking Study to Investigate the Effect of eHMI Modalities and Locations on Pedestrian–Automated Vehicle Interaction
Authors: Guo Fu , Lyu Wei , Ren Zenggen , Li Mingming , Liu Ziming
Published: May 2022

Numerous studies have emerged on the external human–machine interface (eHMI) to facilitate the communication between automated vehicles (AVs) and other road users. However, it remains to be determined which eHMI modality and location are proper for the pedestrian–AV interaction. Therefore, a video-based, eye-tracking study was performed to investigate how pedestrians responded to AVs with eHMIs in different modalities (flashing text, smiley, light band, sweeping pedestrian icon, arrow, and light bar) and locations (grill, windshield, and roof). Moreover, the effects of pedestrian-related factors (e.g., gender, sensation-seeking level, and traffic accident involvement) were also included and evaluated. The dependent variables included pedestrians’ clarity-rating scores towards these eHMI concepts, road-crossing decision time, and gaze-based metrics (e.g., fixation counts, dwell time, and first fixation duration). The results showed that the text, icon, and arrow-based eHMIs resulted in the shortest decision time, highest clarity scores, and centralized visual attention. The light strip-based eHMIs yielded no significant decrease in decision time yet longer fixation time, indicating difficulties in comprehension of their meaning without learning. The eHMI location had no effect on pedestrians’ decision time but a substantial influence on their visual searching strategy, with a roof eHMI contradicting pedestrians’ inherent scanning pattern. These findings provide implications for the standardized design of future eHMIs.
Export Decision and Credit Constraints under Institution Obstacles
Authors: Phan Trang Hoai , Stachuletz Rainer , Nguyen Hai Thi Hong
Published: May 2022

The growing demand for goods and technology increases capital requirements, especially in exporting enterprises. However, many firms have difficulty accessing external capital due to institutional obstacles. This study analyzes two main issues: the influence of institutional obstacles on credit constraints and the relationship between credit constraints and export decisions, adopting firm-level data from 131 countries. The study’s remarkable contribution is to cluster the data into four country groups based on their national income. The typical specification of each group can lead to more precise results, thereby highlighting the role of institutions. More advanced, this study complements the literature’s gap in the relationship between credit constraints and exports by controlling for institutions as interactive variables in the model. This work upgrades assessments to be more accurate, thereby providing more valuable information to policymakers. In addition, credit constraints are measured by both quantitative and qualitative methods. The essential role of firm size is emphasized in further analysis. This study approaches the Probit method. Furthermore, an instrumental variable is used to solve the endogeneity problem. The results found that a weak institution prevents access to finance, especially in middle-income countries. In addition, firms’ access to capital negatively affects exports in all regions. The finding in the group of rich countries is most pronounced.
Sustainable Groundwater Potential Zoning with Integrating GIS, Remote Sensing, and AHP Model: A Case from North-Central Bangladesh
Authors: Priya Ujjayini , Iqbal Muhammad Anwar , Salam Mohammed Abdus , Nur-E-Alam Md. , Uddin Mohammed Faruque , Islam Abu Reza Md. Towfiqul , Sarkar Showmitra Kumar , Imran Saiful Islam , Rak Aweng Eh
Published: May 2022

Groundwater is one of the most valuable natural resources, and the most dependable source of fresh water. For sustainable groundwater management, the present study aimed to model groundwater potential zones in the north–central region of Bangladesh using GIS, remote sensing, and the analytical hierarchy process. The present study included eight thematic layers: lineament density, geomorphology, soil types, slope, land use/land cover, drainage density, elevation, and rainfall features to delineate a groundwater potential zone of the area. Integration of the eight thematic layers was performed through weighted overlay analysis, which assisted in delineating groundwater potential zones. This simple and systematic method successfully provides a satisfactory result concerning the delineation of groundwater potential zones. The study resulted in a groundwater potential zone map, which identifies about 11.51% of the study area as being under a very high groundwater potential zone, covering an area of 504.09 km2. The AHP analysis shows that the physiographical parameters, such as lineament density, slope, and drainage density, and meteorological factors such as annual rainfall, have greater influence over groundwater potentiality. The result obtained from the weighted overlay analysis was verified with actual well yield and groundwater depth data, which show a significant positive correlation. The outcome of the study will help in taking effective measures to ensure sustainable use and extraction of groundwater in this region.
Energy Consumption of the Urban Transport Fleet in UNESCO World Heritage Sites: A Case Study of Ávila (Spain)
Authors: Santos-Iglesia Carlos , Fernández-Arias Pablo , Antón-Sancho Álvaro , Vergara Diego
Published: May 2022

Emission reduction and energy efficiency are fundamental objectives for the sustainability of the urban transport (UT) sector. One of the actions to achieve these objectives is to replace the vehicles that make up the fleet of UT buses with more efficient ones, equipped with regenerative braking systems that allow the recovery of part of the energy used in travel. However, sometimes the total replacement of the fleet of UT buses is not feasible and only a partial replacement of the fleet is possible. The present study proposes a mathematical model of easy application to compare different UT routes and to locate the greatest improvement niches. The contributions of the proposed model focus on several aspects: (i) optimizing economic resources; (ii) allocating the most efficient equipment where energy consumption can be most optimized; and (iii) simplifying the task of optimizing passenger transport routes. Thanks to the proposed model, the 6 UT lines of the city of Ávila can be classified in order to maximize efficiency in a possible partial renewal of the fleet.
Spatial Differences in Diet Quality and Economic Vulnerability to Food Insecurity in Bangladesh: Results from the 2016 Household Income and Expenditure Survey
Authors: Mitu Mst. Maxim Parvin , Islam Khaleda , Sarwar Sneha , Ali Masum , Amin Md. Ruhul
Published: May 2022

The study explored the spatial differences in diet quality and economic vulnerability to food insecurity with the association of sociodemographic characteristics at the household level in Bangladesh. This study was a secondary data analysis of Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) data of 2016. Both statistical and spatial analyses were applied while assessing diet qualities in terms of the household dietary diversity score (HDDS), percentage of food energy from staples (PFES), and percentage of expenditure on food (PEF) as an indicator of the economic vulnerability to food insecurity (EVFI). The study’s findings revealed that the quality of people’s diets worsened as they moved from urban to rural area, and EVFI increased as they moved from the center to the periphery of the country. Nationally, the average HDDS was about 6.3, and the average PFES per household per day was about 70.4%. The spatial distribution of HDDS and PFES showed that rural regions in terms of settlements and the north, northwest and southeast regions had mostly low diet diversity. Besides, the average PEF per household per day was about 54%, with the highest in Mymensingh (57.4%) and the lowest in Dhaka division (50.2%). The average PEF in the households illustrated was highest in rural (55.2%) and lowest in the city (45.7%). Overall, based on the PEF at the sub-district level, the medium level of vulnerability comprised the highest share (69%) in Bangladesh. Age, gender, literacy, educational qualification and religion of the household’s head along with the number of earners, monthly income, area of settlements and divisions were significantly correlated with HDDS, PFES and EVFI. The study findings suggest that targeted interventions, including access to education, women empowerment and employment generation programs should be implemented in peripheral areas (north, northwest and southeast) to increase diet quality and minimize economic vulnerability to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security in Bangladesh.
Understanding the Connection between Sustainable Human Resource Management and the Hotel Business Outcomes: Evidence from the Green-Certified Hotels of Egypt
Authors: Salama Wagih , Nor El Deen Mohamed , Albakhit Azzam , Zaki Karam
Published: May 2022

Sustainable human resource management (SHRM) practices are extensively believed to cause a strategic advantage for the hotel industry. However, while a growing body of evidence indicates that SHRM practices are related to superior organization-level outcomes, it is rather unclear as to how these practices could affect such outcomes and whether they result in desirable hotel outcomes. This paper aimed to examine the moderation effect of hotels’ environmental strategy (ES) on the relationship between SHRM practices and hotel business outcomes: operational performance (OP), competitive advantage (C), and corporate performance (CP). Following a positivism philosophy, a proposed hypothesised model was validated through a survey strategy. Data were obtained from 247 green-certified hotel managers based in Egypt’s top-two major cities involving green-certified hotels. Structural equation modelling was used to test the model relationships. The findings lent credence to the significant connectedness between SHRM practices and hotel business outcomes. The moderation effect of ES was positively confirmed by 83.4% of the SHRM practices, demonstrating that ES is a crucial driver of hotel business outcomes through the optimal usage of SHRM. Negatively, it was revealed that only sustainable promotion practice (16.6%) does not moderate its impact on the hotel business outcomes. This research is the first empirical study to examine the moderation effect of ES on the nexus between the SHRM and hotel business outcomes in the green-certified hotels of Egypt.
Assessing Soil Erosion by Monitoring Hilly Lakes Silting
Authors: Giambastiani Yamuna , Giusti Riccardo , Gardin Lorenzo , Cecchi Stefano , Iannuccilli Maurizio , Romanelli Stefano , Bottai Lorenzo , Ortolani Alberto , Gozzini Bernardo
Published: May 2022

Soil erosion continues to be a threat to soil quality, impacting crop production and ecosystem services delivery. The quantitative assessment of soil erosion, both by water and by wind, is mostly carried out by modeling the phenomenon via remote sensing approaches. Several empirical and process-based physical models are used for erosion estimation worldwide, including USLE (or RUSLE), MMF, WEPP, PESERA, SWAT, etc. Furthermore, the amount of sediment produced by erosion phenomena is obtained by direct measurements carried out in experimental sites. Data collection for this purpose is very complex and expensive; in fact, we have few cases of measures distributed at the basin scale to monitor this phenomenon. In this work, we propose a methodology based on an expeditious way to monitor the volume of hilly lakes with GPS, sonar sensor and aquatic drone. The volume is obtained by means of an automatic GIS procedure based on the measurements of lake depth and surface area. Hilly lakes can be considered as sediment containers. Time-lapse measurements make it possible to estimate the silting rate of the lake. The volume of 12 hilly lakes in Tuscany was measured in 2010 and 2018, and the results in terms of silting rate were compared with the estimates of soil loss obtained by RUSLE and MMF. The analyses show that all the lakes measured are subject to silting phenomena. The sediment estimated by the measurements corresponds well to the amount of soil loss estimated with the models used. The relationships found are significant and promising for a distributed application of the methodology, which allows rapid estimation of erosion phenomena. Substantial differences in the proposed comparison (mainly found in two cases) can be justified by particular conditions found on site, which are difficult to predict from the models. The proposed approach allows for a monitoring of basin-scale erosion, which can be extended to larger domains which have hilly lakes, such as, for example, the Tuscany region, where there are more than 10,000 lakes.
Mapping Sustainability across the World: Signs, Challenges and Opportunities for Democratic Countries
Authors: Ștefanachi Bogdan , Grecu Silviu-Petru , Chiriac Horia Costin
Published: May 2022

This article aims to create the nexus between sustainable development and the quality of the political regime. The study aims to respond to the following research questions: “how could influence the quality of the democracy the dynamics of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 17)?” and “what are the premises for sustainable development in the new political context, characterized by democratic recession?” The purpose of the study is to underline the fact that democratic regimes are inclined to create both participative and deliberative frames for achieving the SDGs in accordance with UN 2030 Agenda. The research methodology used in this study is based on descriptive and inferential statistics. The research data are collected from secondary sources in the years between 2015 and 2021, from 193 countries covering all the geographical areas. The empirical results suggest two models of development: the Asian model of sustainable development characterized by economic growth and the Western democratic model based on democratic institutions, fair justice and mechanisms for preserving peace. We noticed that the key-variables for explaining the dynamics of sustainability in correlation with democratic index are represented by the functioning of the governments and the political participation. Through civic engagement and political accountability, democracy could be seen as a pre-requisite for achieving an optimal level of the SDGs. All these empirical results could prove valuable for the scholars interested in the relation between democracy and sustainability and for the political decision makers involved in shaping strategies for social, economic and environmental development.
Research of Surrounding Rock Control of Gob-Side Entry Retaining Based on Deviatoric Stress Distribution Characteristics
Authors: Wang Zhiqiang , Zhang Jiao , Li Jingkai , Wang Peng , Wu Chao , Shi Lei
Published: May 2022

In view of the difficulty of the surrounding rock control of retaining a roadway along a goaf, this paper takes the 5504 working face of the Hongshuliang Coal Mine as the engineering context. The uniaxial compressive strength and tensile strength of concrete filling material in the retained roadway are determined by laboratory tests. Through theoretical analysis, field investigation, numerical simulation and field measurement, the distribution characteristics of deviatoric stress and damage zone of the roadway surrounding rock in the mining process of the 5504 working face are studied here. Based on the failure of rock mass element caused by deviatoric stress tensors, the study shows that the thickness of the concrete wall is 2.2 m and the compressive strength of the concrete wall can reach 10.87~11.64 MPa in 3 days to 4 days, which can meet the support strength of the retained roadway. From the position of 90 m in front of the working face to the position of 100 m behind the working face, the distribution form of the roadway surrounding rock deviatoric stress is: symmetrical butterfly shape → single butterfly shape → narrow oblique strip → oblique 8 shape → wide oblique strip shape. When the distance between the retained roadway and the working face is 49 m, the retained roadway tends to be stable. Based on the distribution characteristics of the deviatoric stress outline line and the damage zone outline line of the retained roadway surrounding rock, the retained roadway surrounding rock is divided into three regions, and the combined support technology of “bolt + anchor cable + single pillar + reinforcement combined with steel plate to strengthen concrete wall” is proposed. Through field engineering practice, the maximum displacement of roof, floor, solid coal side and concrete wall side in the retained roadway is 136.6 mm, 78.8 mm, 62.3 mm and 43.3 m, respectively, and the surrounding rock control effect of the retained roadway is good.
The Link between the Compliance with Environmental Legislation on Separate Collection and the Municipal Solid Waste Costs
Authors: Barchiesi Maria Assunta , Costa Roberta , Di Pillo Francesca
Published: May 2022

Promoting Agenda 2030 through Circular Economy transition requires improving waste system management and increasing separate collection. In Italy, municipal solid waste management is entrusted to the municipalities, most of which have not yet reached the minimum threshold of 65% for the separate collection imposed by the Environmental Code in 2012. This research aims to investigate the effect of compliance with environmental legislation by Italian municipalities on the total cost of municipal solid waste management, filling a shortage of literature studies on this issue. It also investigates the other significant factors affecting municipal solid waste costs, analysing a large dataset of 1914 municipalities. The study uses regression analysis on aggregate and regional samples and population-based subsamples to verify the existence of economies of scale or density. The results show that environmental compliance determines cost reduction in the northern regions, thanks to more efficient separate collection management and recycling activities in the downstream phases of the process. Instead, environmental compliance produces a cost increase in central regions due to the lack of waste recycling and composting infrastructure. Finally, in the conclusions, policy implications are drawn for the Italian case.
A Chaotic Search-Based Hybrid Optimization Technique for Automatic Load Frequency Control of a Renewable Energy Integrated Power System
Authors: Sundararaju Nandakumar , Vinayagam Arangarajan , Veerasamy Veerapandiyan , Subramaniam Gunasekaran
Published: May 2022

In this work, a chaotic search-based hybrid Sperm Swarm Optimized-Gravitational Search Algorithm (CSSO-GSA) is proposed for automatic load frequency control (ALFC) of a hybrid power system (HPS). The HPS model is developed using multiple power sources (thermal, bio-fuel, and renewable energy (RE)) that generate power to balance the system’s demand. To regulate the frequency of the system, the control parameters of the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for ALFC are obtained by minimizing the integral time absolute error of HPS. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is verified with various combinations of power sources (all sources, thermal with bio-fuel, and thermal with RE) connected into the system. Further, the robustness of the proposed technique is investigated by performing a sensitivity analysis considering load variation and weather intermittency of RE sources in real-time. However, the type of RE source does not have any severe impact on the controller but the uncertainties present in RE power generation required a robust controller. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed technique is validated with comparative and stability analysis. The results show that the proposed CSSO-GSA strategy outperforms the SSO, GSA, and hybrid SSO-GSA methods in terms of steady-state and transient performance indices. According to the results of frequency control optimization, the main performance indices such as settling time (ST) and integral time absolute error (ITAE) are significantly improved by 60.204% and 40.055% in area 1 and 57.856% and 39.820% in area 2, respectively, with the proposed CSSO-GSA control strategy compared to other existing control methods.
Robust Control for Optimized Islanded and Grid-Connected Operation of Solar/Wind/Battery Hybrid Energy
Authors: Maaruf Muhammad , Khan Khalid , Khalid Muhammad
Published: May 2022

Wind and solar energy systems are among the most promising renewable energy technologies for electric power generations. Hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) enable the incorporation of more than one renewable technology, allowing increased reliability and efficiency. Nevertheless, the introduction of variable generation sources in concurrence with the existing system load demand necessitates maintaining the power balance between the components of the HRES. Additionally, the efficiency of the hybrid power supply system is drastically affected by the number of converters interfacing its components. Therefore, to improve the performance of the HRES, this paper proposes a robust sliding mode control strategy for both standalone and grid-connected operation. The control strategy achieves maximum power point tracking for both the renewable energy sources and stabilizes the DC-bus and load voltages irrespective of the disturbances, change in load demand, variations of irradiance level, temperature, and wind speed ensuring an efficient energy management. Furthermore, the solar PV system is directly linked to the DC-bus obviating the need for redundant interfacing boost converters with decreased costs and reduced system losses. Lyapunov candidate function is used to prove the asymptotic stability and the convergence of the entire system. The robustness of the proposed control strategy is tested and validated under various conditions of HRES, demonstrating its efficacy and performance under various conditions of the HRES.
Biomethanation of Rice Straw: A Sustainable Perspective for the Valorisation of a Field Residue in the Energy Sector
Authors: Grisolia Giulia , Fino Debora , Lucia Umberto
Published: May 2022

Rice straw represents a field waste. Indeed, only 20% of the rice straw produced is used in the pulp and paper industry. The larger amount of this field residue is burned or left in the field, which has very important environmental consequences. Recently, analogous to a barrel of oil, a metric approach to rice straw, the rice straw barrel, was introduced in order to assign economic value to this waste. In this paper, potential annual biomethane production from anaerobic digestion is evaluated, resulting in a range of biomethane created for each rice straw barrel depending on volatile solid (VS) content as a percentage of total solid (TS) content and on biomethane yield: 23.36 m3 (VS=73.8%TS, 92 L kgVS−1), 26.61 m3 (VS=84.08%TS, 186 L kgVS−1), 29.27 m3 (VS=95.26%TS, 280 L kgVS−1). The new concept of the rice straw barrel is improved based on a new indicator for sustainability, the Thermodynamic Human Development Index (THDI), which was introduced within the last three years. The improvement in sustainability by using rice straw barrels for different countries is analysed based on the THDI.
Analysis of OFDI Industry Linkage Network Based on Grey Incidence: Taking the Jiangsu Manufacturing Industry as an Example
Authors: Zhang Xiaoling , Tang Decai , Li Yi , Boamah Valentina , Liu Yisi
Published: May 2022

Based on the outward direct investment data of each manufacturing industry segment in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2020, this paper establishes a correlation network by constructing a grey incidence model with the average value of absolute grey incidence as the threshold. We further analyze the relationship between each manufacturing industry segment in Jiangsu Province in the process of outward direct investment from two perspectives, namely, point and surface. The study shows that from the perspective of each node, the correlation coefficient between equipment manufacturing and other industries is significantly higher, i.e., the influence of equipment manufacturing on other industries is significantly greater. Chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing, general equipment manufacturing, special equipment manufacturing, and transportation equipment manufacturing are the important nodes in the network. From the perspective of the network as a whole, the Jiangsu manufacturing OFDI affiliation network is not concentrated. Still, it has small-world characteristics, which are conducive to disseminating information. In contrast, the close nature of the industry has more commonalities, leading to it being more easily divided into the same module in the network block model analysis.
Sustainable Cements Containing Sugarcane Bagasse Ash and Limestone: Effects on Compressive Strength and Acid Attack of Mortar
Authors: de Siqueira Andréia Arenari , Cordeiro Guilherme Chagas
Published: May 2022

Sustainable cements are an important alternative to reduce the environmental impact of the cement industry by lowering the clinker-to-cement ratio with supplementary cementitious materials. In this respect, the present study aimed to evaluate the influence of partial clinker replacement by sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) and limestone filler (LF) on the mechanical and durability performance of mortars. Four blended Portland cements were produced with binary and ternary mixes of clinker, SCBA, and LF. An ordinary cement was also produced for comparison purposes. All five cements were characterized and applied in mortars in order to assess compressive strength and water absorption. Next, 28-day specimens were immersed in a sulfuric acid solution for 56 days to investigate deterioration using mass loss, length variation, water absorption, and compressive strength tests. In general, the combination of SCBA and LF produced more sustainable cements with suitable properties, as SCBA improved the mechanical behavior, while LF improved the durability performance of mortars. In this context, ternary mixes with 14% SCBA and 14% LF are indicated for mechanical uses, while 7% SCBA and 14% LF are recommended for durability purposes, as both maintained the respective properties of the reference cement.
The Importance of Sustainability Aspects When Purchasing Online: Comparing Generation X and Generation Z
Authors: Brand Benedikt M. , Rausch Theresa Maria , Brandel Jannika
Published: May 2022

As research on sustainability orientation across generations is still sparse, we contribute to literature by enriching this research field, focusing on Generation Z (‘Zers’) and X (‘Xers’). Moreover, no other study has analyzed cross-generational differences in the sustainability context by making use of choice experiments, which overcome issues related to (Likert) scale item investigations, and allow respondents to evaluate the trade-off between different purchase factors simultaneously. We thus applied one of the most recent advancements in choice experiments, named Adaptive Choice-Based Conjoint analysis, which appears to be more realistic than previous alternatives. The results indicate Zers consume more sustainably (inter alia higher importance of social labels; higher purchase likelihood) when shopping online; however, differences within each generation were uncovered, especially among Xers (e.g., gender differences regarding importance of price).
The Nutrient Content, Growth, Yield, and Yield Attribute Traits of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotypes as Influenced by Organic Fertilizer in Malaysia
Authors: Anisuzzaman Mohammad , Rafii Mohd Y. , Ramlee Shairul Izan , Jaafar Noraini Md , Ikbal Mohammad Ferdous , Haque Md Azadul
Published: May 2022

One of the most important challenges to continuously maximizing crop production on limited areas of agricultural land is maintaining or enhancing soil fertility. Organic fertilizer application is needed to replace nutrients recovered by crops from the fields in order to restore the crop production potential of the soil. The utilization of chicken manure as an organic fertilizer is essential in improving soil productivity and cop production. In Malaysia, demand for rice as a food source is rising in tandem with population growth, while paddy rice production capacity is becoming increasingly constrained. Field experiments were carried out in Sungai besar, Kuala Selangor, Malaysia during the two planting seasons in 2020 to evaluate the effects of different levels of organic fertilizer on the growth and yield of rice genotypes. A split plot layout in a randomized complete block design with three replicates was used. The twelve rice genotypes were in the main plots. The sub-plots were treatments. The experiment comprised 4 treatments, viz., T1 = 100% NPK (N150P60K60), T2 = Chicken manure @ 5 t ha−1, T3 = Chicken manure @ 7 t ha−1, and T4 = Chicken manure @ 10 t ha−1. The study indicated that different levels of chicken manure and NPK fertilizer showed significant effects on growth, yield, and yield contributing characters of all the rice genotypes. Results showed that application of chicken manure 10 t ha-1 was the best in producing growth and yield contributing characters, grain and straw yields, and also nutrient (N, P, and K) contents in grain and straw. The maximum number of panicles (422.56 panicles m−1), the maximum number of filled grains (224.49 grains panicle−1), and the maximum grain yield (8.02 t ha−1) and straw yield (9.88 t ha−1) were recorded from T4 treatment at the rice genotype BRRI dhan75. Although the highest biological yield was recorded from T4 treatment, a statistically similar result was found for T3 treatment. The highest harvest index was also recorded for T4 treatment. Therefore, rice genotype BRRI dhan75 can be recommended under chicken manure @ 10 t ha−1 for rice production in Malaysia.
Does Health Insurance Reduce the Alcohol Consumption? Evidence from China Health and Nutrition Survey
Authors: Yu Chenhao , Liang Huigang , Zhang Zhiruo
Published: May 2022

Whether health insurance reduces alcohol consumption has been debated. To identify it, the authors used three-wave balance panel data from China Health and Nutrition Survey and applied a two-way fixed-effect model. The authors found that (1) health insurance reduces alcohol consumption, (2) the effect would be deducted when they have been diagnosed with diabetes, (3) the heterogeneity existed between old and young individuals as well as rural and urban areas, those old individuals would behave more cautious, and urban individuals would consume more alcohol. This study identified the effects of health insurance and the moderating effect of diabetes, which were helpful for policymakers to optimize health insurance policy to ensure the sustainability of health insurance and suggested that primary medical staff should assist patients to establish healthy living habits and reduce their risky behaviors.
An Intelligent Congestion Control Strategy in Heterogeneous V2X Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Wang Hui , Li Haoyu , Zhao Yuan
Published: May 2022

High mobility and the complexity of mobile behavior are the main characteristics of nodes in Vehicle to Everything (V2X). Furthermore, these characteristics entail that resource deployment cannot effectively meet the demands of users for differentiated service quality. Due to this significance, the main objective of this study is to propose an intelligent congestion control strategy based on deep reinforcement learning (ICCDRL) in heterogeneous V2X, which can meet the diverse service needs of vehicles to some extent, so as to solve the problem of network congestion effectively. The proposal is implemented through three aspects: Firstly, the paper establishes a congestion control model based on DRL. Secondly, a large amount of QoS data is used as the training set to optimize the model. Finally, the congestion sensitivity factor is used to select the size of the congestion window for the next moment, resulting in an intelligent congestion control strategy based on QoS on-demand drive. For verification, a series of simulation experiments are designed on the ns-3 simulation platform. The results show that the proposed ICCDRL outperforms the traditional algorithm in terms of throughput, convergence, friendliness and fairness, and can effectively guarantee real-time, reliable information interaction in V2X.
Constraining Non-Dissipative Transport Coefficients in Global Equilibrium
Authors: Yang Shi-Zheng , Gao Jian-Hua , Liang Zuo-Tang
Published: May 2022

The fluid in global equilibrium must fulfill some constraints. These constraints can be derived from quantum statistical theory or kinetic theory. In this work, we show how these constraints can be applied to determine the non-dissipative transport coefficients for chiral systems along with the energy-momentum conservation, chiral anomaly for charge current and trace anomaly in the energy-momentum tensor.
Bayesian Inferential Approaches and Bootstrap for the Reliability and Hazard Rate Functions under Progressive First-Failure Censoring for Coronavirus Data from Asymmetric Model
Authors: EL-Sagheer Rashad M. , Almuqrin Muqrin A. , El-Morshedy Mahmoud , Eliwa Mohamed S. , Eissa Fathy H. , Abdo Doaa A.
Published: May 2022

This paper deals with the estimation of the parameters for asymmetric distribution and some lifetime indices such as reliability and hazard rate functions based on progressive first-failure censoring. Maximum likelihood, bootstrap and Bayesian approaches of the distribution parameters and reliability characteristics are investigated. Furthermore, the approximate confidence intervals and highest posterior density credible intervals of the parameters are constructed based on the asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood estimators and Markov chain Monte Carlo technique, respectively. In addition, the delta method is implemented to obtain the variances of the reliability and hazard functions. Moreover, we apply two methods of bootstrap to construct the confidence intervals. The Bayes inference based on the squared error and LINEX loss functions is obtained. Extensive simulation studies are conducted to evaluate the behavior of the proposed methods. Finally, a real data set of the COVID-19 mortality rate is analyzed to illustrate the estimation methods developed here.
The Effects of Elemental Abundances on Fitting Supernova Remnant Models to Data
Authors: Leahy Denis A.
Published: May 2022

Models for supernova remnant (SNR) evolution can be used to determine the energy of the explosion, the age of the SNR, and the density of the surrounding medium by matching observations. Observed SNR properties derived from the X-ray spectrum include the electron temperature (kTe) and emission measure (EM) of the shocked gas. SNR models are based on hydrodynamic solutions for density, pressure, and velocity. The relations between these and kTe or EM depend on the three inputs of composition, ionization state, and electron-ion temperature ratio (Te/TI). The standard definitions and the XSPEC definitions for kTe and EM have important differences that are not well-known. The same definition used by observers of SNRs must be used in models for correct interpretation. Here, the effects of the three inputs on standard and on XSPEC versions of kTe and EM are investigated, with examples. The ratio of standard EM to the XSPEC value ranges widely, between ∼10−3 to ∼1, with smallest ratios for gas with low hydrogen abundance. The standard kTe differs from the XSPEC value by less than a few percent. For the illustrative example SNR J0049-7314, the ejecta component is shown to be consistent with core-collapse composition and a stellar wind environment.
Depo Medroxyprogesterone (DMPA) Promotes Papillomavirus Infections but Does Not Accelerate Disease Progression in the Anogenital Tract of a Mouse Model
Authors: Hu Jiafen , Brendle Sarah A. , Li Jingwei J. , Walter Vonn , Cladel Nancy M. , Cooper Timothy , Shearer Debra A. , Balogh Karla K. , Christensen Neil D.
Published: May 2022

Contraceptives such as Depo-medroxyprogesterone (DMPA) are used by an estimated 34 million women worldwide. DMPA has been associated with increased risk of several viral infections including Herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In the current study, we used the mouse papillomavirus (MmuPV1) anogenital infection model to test two hypotheses: (1) contraceptives such as DMPA increase the susceptibility of the anogenital tract to viral infection and (2) long-term contraceptive administration induces more advanced disease at the anogenital tract. DMPA treatments of both athymic nude mice and heterozygous NU/J (Foxn1nu/+) but ovariectomized mice led to a significantly increased viral load at the anogenital tract, suggesting that endogenous sex hormones were involved in increased viral susceptibility by DMPA treatment. Consistent with previous reports, DMPA treatment suppressed host anti-viral activities at the lower genital tract. To test the impact of long-term contraceptive treatment on the MmuPV1-infected lower genital tract, we included two other treatments in addition to DMPA: 17β-estradiol and a non-hormone based contraceptive Cilostazol (CLZ, Pletal). Viral infections were monitored monthly up to nine months post infection by qPCR. The infected vaginal and anal tissues were harvested and further examined by histological, virological, and immunological analyses. Surprisingly, we did not detect a significantly higher grade of histology in animals in the long-term DMPA and 17β-estradiol treated groups when compared to the control groups in the athymic mice we tested. Therefore, although DMPA promotes initial papillomavirus infections in the lower genital tract, the chronic administration of DMPA does not promote cancer development in the infected tissues in our mouse model.
Novel Polymorphisms and Genetic Characteristics of the Shadow of Prion Protein Gene (SPRN) in Cats, Hosts of Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy
Authors: Kim Yong-Chan , Kim Hyeon-Ho , Kim Kiwon , Kim An-Dang , Jeong Byung-Hoon
Published: May 2022

Prion diseases are transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) caused by pathogenic prion protein (PrPSc) originating from normal prion protein (PrPC) and have been reported in several types of livestock and pets. Recent studies have reported that the shadow of prion protein (Sho) encoded by the shadow of prion protein gene (SPRN) interacts with prion protein (PrP) and accelerates prion diseases. In addition, genetic polymorphisms in the SPRN gene are related to susceptibility to prion diseases. However, genetic polymorphisms in the feline SPRN gene and structural characteristics of the Sho have not been investigated in cats, a major host of feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE). We performed amplicon sequencing to identify feline SPRN polymorphisms in the 623 bp encompassing the open reading frame (ORF) and a small part of the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of the SPRN gene. We analyzed the impact of feline SPRN polymorphisms on the secondary structure of SPRN mRNA using RNAsnp. In addition, to find feline-specific amino acids, we carried out multiple sequence alignments using ClustalW. Furthermore, we analyzed the N-terminal signal peptide and glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchor using SignalP and PredGPI, respectively. We identified three novel SNPs in the feline SPRN gene and did not find strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) among the three SNPs. We found four major haplotypes of the SPRN polymorphisms. Strong LD was not observed between PRNP and SPRN polymorphisms. In addition, we found alterations in the secondary structure and minimum free energy of the mRNA according to the haplotypes in the SPRN polymorphisms. Furthermore, we found four feline-specific amino acids in the feline Sho using multiple sequence alignments among several species. Lastly, the N-terminal signal sequence and cutting site of the Sho protein of cats showed similarity with those of other species. However, the feline Sho protein exhibited the shortest signal sequence and a unique amino acid in the omega-site of the GPI anchor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on genetic polymorphisms of the feline SPRN gene.
SARS-CoV-2 Causes Lung Inflammation through Metabolic Reprogramming and RAGE
Authors: Allen Charles N. S. , Santerre Maryline , Arjona Sterling P. , Ghaleb Lea J. , Herzi Muna , Llewellyn Megan D. , Shcherbik Natalia , Sawaya Bassel E.
Published: May 2022

Clinical studies indicate that patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 develop hyperinflammation, which correlates with increased mortality. The SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19-dependent inflammation is thought to occur via increased cytokine production and hyperactivity of RAGE in several cell types, a phenomenon observed for other disorders and diseases. Metabolic reprogramming has been shown to contribute to inflammation and is considered a hallmark of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and viral infections. Malfunctioning glycolysis, which normally aims to convert glucose into pyruvate, leads to the accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Being aberrantly generated, AGEs then bind to their receptor, RAGE, and activate several pro-inflammatory genes, such as IL-1b and IL-6, thus, increasing hypoxia and inducing senescence. Using the lung epithelial cell (BEAS-2B) line, we demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 proteins reprogram the cellular metabolism and increase pyruvate kinase muscle isoform 2 (PKM2). This deregulation promotes the accumulation of AGEs and senescence induction. We showed the ability of the PKM2 stabilizer, Tepp-46, to reverse the observed glycolysis changes/alterations and restore this essential metabolic process.