bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Contact Conditions at Wire–Die Interface on Temperature Distribution during Wire Drawing
Authors: Hwang Joong-Ki , Chang Young-Chul
Published: February 2023

The effects of contact conditions at the wire–die interface on the temperature distribution of the specimen and die are investigated to understand the wire drawing process. Finite element analysis and experiments are performed to analyze the temperature distribution of a drawn wire and die based on different contact conditions using a low-carbon steel wire. The maximum temperature (Tmax) of the die decreases as the contact heat transfer coefficient at the wire–die interface increases, whereas that of the wire increases with the contact heat transfer coefficient. The Tmax of the die and wire decreases with the thermal conductivity of the die. As the thermal conductivity of the die increases, the heat generated by friction is rapidly absorbed into the die, and the Tmax of the die decreases, thus resulting in a decrease in the surface temperature of the wire. The Tmax of both the die and wire linearly increases with the friction factor. In particular, the Tmax of the die more sensitively changes with the friction factor compared with that of the wire. The Tmax of the die linearly increases with the drawing velocity, whereas that of the wire parabolically increases with the drawing velocity. The influence of bearing length on the temperature increase in both the wire and die is insignificant.
Risk Factor Disclosures in the US Airline Industry Following the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Penela Daniela , Palma Miguel
Published: February 2023

This study examines how airlines in the United States report risk at a difficult and uncertain time as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fundamental differences between the years 2019 and 2020 are identified using Leximancer, which is used to locate the key ideas and themes addressed in the risk reporting sections. Following the pandemic, the themes that addressed generic and recurring hazards were afforded less weight than themes that highlighted risks particular to day-to-day business and the stock market. The findings also point to the need for corporations to disclose future-oriented risks more fully in post-COVID-19 reporting, with an emphasis on unpredictability, stock volatility, and operational disruption. This study adds to the body of knowledge on risk profiling, particularly as it relates to the airline business, and it offers stakeholders and investors a glimpse into the general concerns of airlines. The inherent information imbalance between management and investors is lessened and transparency is increased because of this improved understanding of the market.
Satellite Network Transmission of Cooperative Relay Superimposed Signal Reconstructed in Spatial Dimension
Authors: Wang Yong , Wang Xiyuan
Published: February 2023

In order to save frequency resources, a new remote sensing satellite service can gradually adopt relay cooperation transmission to realize the same frequency and common channel transmission of multiple data. To solve the problem of mutual interference between messages, this study proposes a universal model of relay cooperative channel transmission, and the separation mechanism of heterogeneous signals for simultaneous unicast and multicast transmission is also studied. In this study, a signal space is used to reconstruct the degrees of freedom, and an orthogonalized spatial alignment direction is designed to obtain the equivalent parallel transmission channel. We also propose a constellation point remapping scheme under the optimal constraint of spatial separation of transmission signals. Furthermore, we merge constellation points to solve the problem of fuzzy mapping of physical layer network coding. The simulation results show that the co-channel transmission with interference suppression can be realized when the equivalent degrees of freedom of the signal intersection subspace is not less than dpK(K−1)+dcK. The Euclidean distance between constellation points is increased by constructing orthogonal signal spatial alignment directions, which brings an additional BER performance gain of 2 dB. If the signal alignment direction and channel quality are jointly designed, the transmission quality can be further improved.
Patterns of Typical Chinese Urban Agglomerations Based on Complex Spatial Network Analysis
Authors: Li Sijia , Guo Huadong , Sun Zhongchang , Liu Zongqiang , Jiang Huiping , Zhang Hongsheng
Published: February 2023

The two prerequisites for monitoring SDG11.A “support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning” are the classification of the urban–rural continuum and the extraction of spatial links. However, the complexity and diversity of urban patch distribution make it difficult to achieve a global rapid assessment. Based on the self-developed high-resolution global impervious surface area 2021 (Hi-GISA 2021) product, this study combined the complex network with remote sensing technology to propose a new method to delineate and evaluate the pattern and inner spatial links of the urban–rural continuum for five typical urban agglomerations in China, including the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration (BTHUA), the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA), the Greater Bay Area (GBAUA), the Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration (CYUA), and the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River urban agglomeration (MRYRUA). The research results are in good agreement with Chinese government documents. First, the five urban agglomerations are all small-world networks with a low degree of overall polycentricity, and the urbanization degrees of GBAUA and YRDUA are higher than BTHUA, CYUA, and MRYRUA. Second, the imbalanced development of YRDUA is higher than the other regions, and the siphon effects of BTHUA and MRYRUA are more significant than YRDUA, CYUA, and GBAUA. Third, some multi-centers show significant siphon effects. The urbanization degree is highly correlated with the urbanization potential but not positively correlated with the degree of balanced development. The results can provide data, methods, and technical support for monitoring and evaluating SDG11.A.
Preparation of Fe3O4-Reduced Graphene-Activated Carbon from Wastepaper in the Dispersive Solid-Phase Extraction and UHPLC-PDA Determination of Antibiotics in Human Plasma
Authors: Bruni Pantaleone , Avino Pasquale , Ferrone Vincenzo , Pilato Serena , Barbacane Nadia , Canale Valentino , Carlucci Giuseppe , Ferrari Stefania
Published: February 2023

In this work, a sorbent was prepared from wastepaper samples enriched with iron oxide particles and graphene oxide and used in the solid phase extraction of antibiotics. The precursor underwent a carbothermal reduction to promote the formation of paramagnetic phases useful for the recovery of the sorbent during the analysis, and to disperse and fix graphene and the iron oxide in a durable way throughout the cellulose structure. Characterizations were carried out to evaluate the composition (Raman, XRD and EDX) and the morphological structure (SEM) of the material. A UHPLC-PDA method was developed for the simultaneous determination of antibiotics from different drug families (carbapenems, fluoroquinolones, β-lactams) using a 120 SB-C 18 poroshell column (50 × 2.1 mm I.D., 2.7 um particle size) and a mobile phase consisting of 10 mM acetate buffer at pH 5 (Line A) and acetonitrile (Line B) both containing 0.1% of triethylamine. A gradient elution was used for the separation of the analytes, while for the quantitative analysis each analyte was determined at its maximum wavelength. Several experiments were carried out to evaluate the influence of different parameters involving the dispersive magnetic solid phase extraction of these analytes. Samples were extracted using 25 mg of sorbent at pH 5 and desorbed in 5 min using methanol. We report herein on some of the outstanding advantages of using carbon-based sorbent, such as lower toxicity, scalability, improved absorption capacity, target selectivity and stability in acidic medium. Moreover, from the results obtained it is evident that, despite the use of some recycled materials, the performances obtained were comparable or even superior to the methods reported in the literature.
Investigation of Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids as Additives for the Separation of Urinary Biogenic Amines via Capillary Electrophoresis
Authors: Kaczmarczyk Natalia , Treder Natalia , Kowalski Piotr , Plenis Alina , Roszkowska Anna , Bączek Tomasz , Olędzka Ilona
Published: February 2023

Ionic liquids (ILs), such as imidazoles, can be used to prevent the sorption of analytes onto the walls of the capillary. Prior works have confirmed that coating the capillary wall with a cationic layer can increase its surface stability, thereby improving the repeatability of the separation process. In this study, micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) is employed to evaluate how two ILs with different anions—namely, 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride [HMIM+Cl−] and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [HMIM+BF4−]—affect the separation efficiency for biogenic amines (BAs) such as metanephrine (M), normetanephrine (NM), vanilmandelic acid (VMA), and homovanillic acid (HVA) in urine samples. To this end, solid-phase extraction (SPE) is employed using different sample pH values, with the results demonstrating that HVA and VMA is easily extracted at a sample pH of 5.5, while a sample pH of 9.0 facilitated the extraction of M and NM. In the applied SPE protocol, selected analytes were isolated from urine samples using hydrophilic–lipophilic-balanced (HLB) columns and eluted with methanol (MeOH). The validation data confirmed the method’s linearity (R2 > 0.996) for all analytes within the range of 0.25–10 µg/mL. The applicability of the optimized SPE-MEKC-UV method was confirmed by employing it to quantify clinically relevant BAs in real urine samples from pediatric neuroblastoma (NBL) patients.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Air Quality Improvements in Polish Cities Aspiring to Be Sustainably Smart
Authors: Jonek-Kowalska Izabela
Published: February 2023

Environmental and climate protection is one of the areas of development of modern smart cities intensively exposed in the literature. Nevertheless, it often remains only a scientific postulate or a strategic record of city authorities. With these circumstances in mind, this article addresses conceptual assumptions with actual achievements in improving air quality in 16 Polish cities aspiring to be smart. In this way, an answer is sought to the following research problem: To what extent do Polish cities aspiring to be smart and operating in a developing economy realize the climate quality improvement goals exposed today by the smart city concept and the environmental requirements of the European Union? The research was conducted in a long-term perspective covering the period from 2010 (entry into force of EU air quality standards) to 2022. In addition, with reference to contemporary urban environmental studies, special attention was paid to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air quality in the surveyed cities. In the course of the study, data on PM10 concentrations were used and statistically analyzed using measures of variability and cluster analysis as an unsupervised classification method. The results allow the formulation of the following key conclusions: (1) PM10 levels were systematically reduced in all 16 cities studied, which allows a positive assessment of the municipal authorities’ efforts to improve urban air quality; (2) the leaders in the effectiveness of PM10 reduction are Warsaw and Wrocław; and (3) after the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the cities studied managed to maintain or improve urban air quality. The originality of the considerations and analysis undertaken is due to the following considerations: (1) to fill the research gap in terms of the long-term assessment of the effectiveness of air quality improvement in cities aspiring to be smart and located in developing or emerging economies; (2) to make a cognitive contribution to the environmental research stream on smart city development (gaining knowledge on the effectiveness of cities’ actions to improve air quality); and (3) to conduct an analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air quality in Polish cities located in various provinces.
Characterization of Phosphate Compounds along a Catena from Arable and Wetland Soil to Sediments in a Baltic Sea lagoon
Authors: Prüter Julia , Schumann Rhena , Klysubun Wantana , Leinweber Peter
Published: February 2023

Phosphorus (P) is an indispensable nutrient for arable crops, but at the same time, contributes to excessive eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems. Knowledge about P is essential to assess the possible risks of P being transported towards vulnerable aquatic ecosystems. Our objective was to characterize P along a catena from arable and wetland soils towards aquatic sediments of a shallow lagoon of the Baltic Sea. The characterization of P in soil and sediment samples included a modified sequential P fractionation and P K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. The concentrations of total P ranged between 390 and 430 mg kg−1 in the arable soils, between 728 and 2258 mg kg−1 in wetland soils and between 132 and 602 mg kg−1 in lagoon sediments. Generally, two sinks for P were revealed along the catena. The wetland soil trapped moderately stable P, Al-P and molybdate-unreactive P (MUP), which are most likely organically bound phosphates. Sediments at the deepest position of the catena acted as a sink for, MUP compounds among the lagoon sediments. Thus, wetlands formed by reed belts can help to prevent the direct transfer of P from arable soils to adjacent waters and deeper basins and help to avoid excessive eutrophication in shallow aquatic ecosystems.
Reliability and Validity of a Flume-Based Maximal Oxygen Uptake Swimming Test
Authors: Nagle Elizabeth F. , Nagai Takashi , Beethe Anne , Lovalekar Mita , Tuite Meghan S. , Beckner Meaghan E. , Zera Jacquelyn N. , Sanders Mary E. , Connaboy Chris , Abt John P. , Beals Kim , Lephart Scott M. , Robertson Robert J. , Nindl Bradley C.
Published: February 2023

A mode-specific swimming protocol to assess maximal aerobic uptake (VO2maxsw) is vital to accurately evaluate swimming performance. A need exists for reliable and valid swimming protocols that assess VO2maxsw in a flume environment. The purpose was to assess: (a) reliability and (b) “performance” validity of a VO2maxsw flume protocol using the 457-m freestyle pool performance swim (PS) test as the criterion. Nineteen males (n = 9) and females (n = 10) (age, 28.5 ± 8.3 years.; height, 174.7 ± 8.2 cm; mass, 72.9 ± 12.5 kg; %body fat, 21.4 ± 5.9) performed two flume VO2maxsw tests (VO2maxswA and VO2maxswB) and one PS test [457 m (469.4 ± 94.7 s)]. For test–retest reliability (Trials A vs. B), moderately strong relationships were established for VO2maxsw (mL·kg−1·min−1)(r= 0.628, p = 0.002), O2pulse (mL O2·beat−1)(r = 0.502, p = 0.014), VEmax (L·min−1) (r = 0.671, p = 0.001), final test time (sec) (0.608, p = 0.004), and immediate post-test blood lactate (IPE (BLa)) (0.716, p = 0.001). For performance validity, moderately strong relationships (p < 0.05) were found between VO2maxswA (r =−0.648, p = 0.005), O2pulse (r= −0.623, p = 0.008), VEmax (r = −0.509 p = 0.037), and 457-m swim times. The swimming flume protocol examined is a reliable and valid assessment of VO2maxsw., and offers an alternative for military, open water, or those seeking complementary forms of training to improve swimming performance.
A Class of Enhanced Nonparametric Control Schemes Based on Order Statistics and Runs
Authors: Panayiotou Nikolaos I. , Triantafyllou Ioannis S.
Published: February 2023

In this article, we establish a new class of nonparametric Shewhart-type control charts based on order statistics with signaling runs-type rules. The proposed charts offer to the practitioner the opportunity to reach, as close as possible, a pre-specified level of performance by determining appropriately their design parameters. Special monitoring schemes, already established in the literature, are ascertained to be members of the proposed class. In addition, several new nonparametric control charts that belong to the family are introduced and studied in some detail. Exact formulae for the variance of the run length distribution and the average run length (ARL) for the proposed monitoring schemes are also derived. A numerical investigation is carried out and demonstrates that the proposed schemes acquire competitive performance in detecting the shift of the underlying distribution. Although the large number of design parameters is quite hard to handle, the numerical results presented throughout the lines of the present manuscript provide practical guidance for the implementation of the proposed charts.
Mental Health and Quality of Professional Life of Healthcare Workers: One Year after the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Rania Nadia , Coppola Ilaria , Brucci Marta
Published: February 2023

Background: COVID-19 has radically changed our lives, bringing with it numerous consequences. While this is already true for the general population, it is even more so for a specific job category: healthcare workers. Objective: This study aims to analyze the mental health and quality of professional life of healthcare workers one year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This study is based on an exploratory and quantitative method. The researchers submitted a questionnaire consisting of scales validated in the literature through the Lime-Survey platform. The dimensions explored included mental health, burnout, compassion fatigue, satisfaction of basic work-related needs, and perceived support from friends and family. The results show how well-being continues to decline due to increased stress, which, in turn, leads to situations of psychological distress and discomfort that are summarized in the appearance of disorders such as, for example, burnout. In this situation of distress, some protective aspects emerge such as, for example, social support, especially in the dimension of friendship. Conclusions: In general, taking care of this category turns out to be essential to be prepared for possible future illnesses and to support people who suffer.
The State of Research in Green Marketing: A Bibliometric Review from 2005 to 2022
Authors: Bhardwaj Seema , Nair Kiran , Tariq Muhammad Usman , Ahmad Asad , Chitnis Asmita
Published: February 2023

Green products are composed of renewable resources and aim to minimize waste by maximizing resource efficiency. Some examples of green products are recycled paper, herbal products, and energy-saving bulbs, which are easily recycled and benefit the environment by reducing waste during manufacturing. Consumers and organizations are becoming more environmentally conscious. Consumer adoption of green products, environmental activism, and stringent regulations can significantly reduce environmental degradation. The main focus of this paper is to consolidate findings on green marketing through a bibliometric study of articles published from 2011 to 23 May 2022 and present the results in a meaningful manner. In this study, we used VOSviewer software to map crucial current trends. It was observed that the key words sustainable, ethical, green, ecological, and eco-friendly marketing have received considerable attention in green marketing during the last decade.
The Elimination of Pharmaceutical Agents with Microbiological Treatment from Municipal Sewage
Authors: Tóth Gábor , Veres Zoltán , Lakatos Gyula , Balázsy Sándor
Published: February 2023

Pharmaceutical agents accumulate in wastewater after consumption, but the conventional sewage treatment process is unable to remove them completely. The occurrence of certain compounds in the environment brings forth serious problems even at low concentrations. In this study, the microbiological elimination ability of four non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)—ibuprofen, naproxen, ketoprofen and diclofenac—were investigated under laboratory, pilot and plant conditions. Mixed cultures from environmental matrices presumably have the ability to reduce the concentration of target agents effectively. According to our analytical measurements, certain mixed cultures gained from natural habitats were even capable of reducing the amount of diclofenac efficiently, after being enriched to a 109 colony-forming unit—CFU/mL scale, and inoculated in adequate quantity. Target NSAIDs were detected at µg/L levels in both influents and effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The results showed that inoculated conventional activated sludge sewage treatment technologies have high efficiency for removing ibuprofen, ketoprofen and naproxen. The diclofenac-specific bacteria mix exhibited mild but positive removal efficiency compared to the control plant. This removal ability is also influenced by the hydraulic retention time (HRT).
Groundwater Risk Assessment Based on DRASTIC and Special Vulnerability of Solidified/Stabilized Heavy-Metal-Contaminated Sites
Authors: Wei Zhiyong , Chi Zifang
Published: February 2023

Solidification/stabilization technology is commonly used in the remediation of heavy-metal-contaminated sites, which reduces the leaching capacity of heavy metals, but the total amount of heavy metals in the soil is not reduced, there is still a risk of heavy metal re-release and contamination of groundwater, and the risk of groundwater contamination of solidified/stabilized heavy-metal-contaminated sites needs to be assessed. Through the analysis of the system structure of solidified/stabilized heavy-metal-contaminated sites, combined with the integration method of pollution sources—the vadose zone-aquifer, based on the DRASTIC model and the special vulnerability of the solidification/stabilization site, a groundwater pollution risk assessment index system including 4 influencing factors such as site hazard, pollutant hazard, aquifer vulnerability, and natural conditions and a total of 18 evaluation indexes was constructed. Each evaluation index was graded and assigned a scoring value combined with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to calculate index weights. The comprehensive weights of site hazard, contaminant stability, aquifer vulnerability, and natural conditions were 0.1894, 0.3508, 0.3508, and 0.1090, respectively. The isometric method was used to classify the pollution risk into five risk levels (very low risk [0, 2), low risk [2, 4), medium risk [4, 6), high risk [6, 8), and very high risk [8, 10]), and a groundwater comprehensive index pollution risk assessment model was established. The model was applied to the actual site. The results showed that under the scenario of direct landfill of remediated soil, the comprehensive indexes of groundwater pollution risk for As and Cd were 4.55 and 4.58, respectively, both of which were medium risk. When the surrounding protective measures were supplemented, the comprehensive indexes of groundwater pollution risk for As and Cd were 3.98 and 4.02, respectively. Cd remained as medium risk and As as low risk. In both scenarios, the combined groundwater contamination risk index of Cd was greater than that of As because the contaminant stability of As was higher than that of Cd. The average percentage of aquifer vulnerability score reached 45.50%, which was higher than the weight of site inherent vulnerability of 35.08%, indicating that the original site hydrogeological conditions are fragile, groundwater is vulnerable to contamination, and the in situ landfill solidification/stabilization of soil is at risk. In order to further reduce the risk, the topographic slope was increased, thereby increasing the surface drainage capacity, which reduced the combined groundwater contamination risk index for As and Cd to 3.94 and 3.90, both of which were low risk. This study provides a new method for assessing the risk of groundwater contamination at solidified/stabilized heavy-metal-contaminated sites. It also has reference significance for selecting solidification/stabilization remediation parameters
A Critical Analysis of the Energy Requirements of a Commercial Building Based on Various Types of Glass Insulations
Authors: Ahmed Israr , Umer Jamal , Altamimi Abdullah , Rana Ahmad Raza Khan , Khan Zafar A. , Imran Muhammad , Awais Muhammad , Alyami Saeed
Published: February 2023

Heat loss through the building envelope comprises air leaks through the cracks and largely through the windows, which is the weakest link of the thermal envelope. Therefore, it is necessary to devise a systematic approach to analyze the rightful selection of glass for buildings. The investigation is to analyze the energy-saving potential of different glasses and their comparisons to the initial capital cost to find the payback time in terms of energy saving by using two different types of equipment. The quantitative simulation study was completed on the Hourly Analysis Program (HAP) to analyze the annual energy consumption of the HVAC system for seven glasses and two types of chilled water equipment. The results show that the performance glasses with a tint had better efficiency in terms of energy saving, with a payback time of 3–7 months. A comparison of all glasses illustrated that float glass contributes the most to the total cooling load among all glasses, which were 5.04%, 5.7%, 7.6%, and 8.9% for the N, S, E, and W orientations, respectively. Moreover, the lowest contribution of glass to the total cooling load was given by tinted double-glazed glass, which was 2%, 2.3%, 3.0%, and 3.01% for N, S, E, and W orientations, respectively.
Can Setting Up a Carbon Trading Mechanism Improve Urban Eco-Efficiency? Evidence from China
Authors: Ge Wenjun , Yang Derong , Chen Weineng , Li Sheng
Published: February 2023

The Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot Policy (CETP) has attracted more scholarly attention. However, most existing studies are only singularly focused on carbon emission reduction or economic development. More research is needed to determine whether it can promote green and sustainable urban development. Therefore, this paper takes the data from 284 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2016 as the research sample, uses ecological efficiency as the indicator to measure the sustainable green development of cities, and uses the difference method (DID) and the propensity score matching difference method (PSM-DID) to study whether CETP can achieve the sustainable green development of pilot cities. The results show that CETP can improve pilot cities’ ecological efficiency and realize cities’ green and sustainable development by optimizing the industrial structure and promoting technological innovation. In addition, the impact of CETP on different cities is also significantly different. Compared with small and medium-sized cities and non-provincial capital cities, CETP has a greater impact on large cities and provincial capital cities. Compared with central and western cities, CETP has a greater impact on eastern cities. CETP can improve the ecological efficiency of non-resource cities, but it cannot change the ecological efficiency of resource cities. Our models survive numerous robustness checks.
The Impact of Property Rights Structure on High-Quality Development of Enterprises Based on Integrated Machine Learning—A Case Study of State-Owned Enterprises in China
Authors: Bai Yanfei , Zhai Dongxue , Zhao Xuefeng , Wu Delin
Published: February 2023

High-quality development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is of great significance to the transformation of the dynamic energy of the Chinese economy in the new development stage and the improvement of quality and efficiency. To this end, we selected 32 evaluation indicators based on three perspectives: social responsibility, effectiveness and efficiency, and independent innovation. Then, we applied the fixed-base efficacy coefficient method and the longitudinal and horizontal pull-out gearing method to obtain the indexes for measuring the level of high-quality development of SOEs by linear weighting. On this basis, a model constructed by an integrated machine learning algorithm was used to explore the impact of changes in the ownership structure of SOEs on the level of high-quality development of enterprises. The study shows that (1) the overall development quality of SOEs has been on an upward trend since 2008, among which the quality of competitive SOEs has been on an upward trend, while the performance of public welfare SOEs is slightly less; (2) the property rights reform of SOEs introduces the shareholding ratio of the largest non-state shareholder and the level of high-quality development as a sine function, keeping the nature of state property rights unchanged, while maintaining the ratio in the range of 25.2–50%; (3) the relationship between the ratio of the share capital of the employee stock ownership plan to the total share capital and the level of high-quality development of SOEs is increasing, then decreasing, and then stabilizing, the ratio is maintained at about 5%, and the marginal effect of the employees’ motivation on the improvement of the quality of enterprise development is stronger; (4) the implementation of an employee stock ownership plan by SOEs more than twice a year can play a positive role in improving the quality of enterprise development. This can provide theoretical guidance for measuring the level of high-quality development of SOEs, reforming the ownership structure of SOEs, and promoting the process of high-quality macroeconomic development.
A Software Framework for Predicting the Maize Yield Using Modified Multi-Layer Perceptron
Authors: Ahmed Shakeel
Published: February 2023

Predicting crop yields is one of agriculture’s most challenging issues. It is crucial in making national, provincial, and regional choices and estimates the government to meet the food demands of its citizens. Crop production is anticipated based on various factors such as soil conditions and meteorological, environmental, and crop variables. This study intends to develop an effective model that can accurately anticipate agricultural production in advance, assisting farmers in better planning. In the current study, the Crop Yield Prediction Dataset is normalized initially, and then feature engineering is performed to determine the significance of the feature in assessing the crop yield. Crop yield forecasting is performed using the Multi-Layer Perceptron model and the Spider Monkey Optimization method. The Multi-Layer Perceptron technique is efficient in dealing with the non-linear relations among the features in the data, and the Spider Monkey Optimization technique would assist in optimizing the corresponding feature weights. The current study uses data from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Data Bank to forecast maize yield in the Saudi Arabia region based on factors such as average temperature, average rainfall, and Hg/Ha production in past years. The suggested MLP-SMO model’s prediction effectiveness is being evaluated using several evaluation metrics such as Root-Mean-Square Error, R-Squared, Mean Absolute Error, and Mean Bias Error, where the model has outperformed in the prediction process with a Root-Mean-Square Error value of 0.11, which is lowest among all the techniques that are considered in the statical analysis in the current study.
The Prominent Roles of Undergraduate Mentors in an Online Near-Peer Mentoring Model
Authors: Al-Thani Noora Jabor , Santhosh Malavika E. , Bhadra Jolly , Ahmad Zubair
Published: February 2023

This study exemplifies a STEM-based online near-peer mentoring approach, incorporating 56 students (high and middle school mentees) and 16 secondary undergraduates (UG) mentors. The various constructive roles of UG mentors in motivating student mentees have been investigated by examining the mentoring relationship shared among them. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the student’s daily feedback, mentors’ feedback, and UG mentors-mentees transcripts has illustrated that consistent asynchronous appreciation, encouragement, and support (academic technical) was responsible for the success of the model. The finding also demonstrated a decline in the amount of motivation requirement of the mentees in the successive weeks of the courses, indicating the attainment of self-sufficiency. Furthermore, comparative analysis revealed a greater amount of motivation requirement and enhanced bonding between the middle school mentees and UG mentors, compared with high school mentees and UG mentors. Therefore, unlike many studies depicting the model’s success, our article is an aid in understanding the underlying process, contributing to the success. Thus, this educational approach is an aid in motivating and augmenting students’ engagement during online STEM education, which is crucial for cultivating and retaining STEM interests among the young generation of the nation.
Assessing the Sustainability of Urban Community Renewal Projects in Southern China Based on a Hybrid MADM Approach
Authors: Chen Junpai , Chen Yue , Zhu Yitong , Xiao Mingyan , Yang Hongfei , Huang Huaming , Li Linli
Published: February 2023

Urban renewal is extensively practiced around the world and has attracted substantial attention among scholars and the public. To ensure that urban renewal is directed toward sustainable development goals, sustainability assessments for urban renewal projects have become critical topics. Simultaneously, the ex ante evaluation research of urban renewal projects has not received enough academic attention, and most results have not fully considered the localization of criteria and the internal correlation between criteria/dimensions. Therefore, this paper proposes an ex ante decision model for the sustainability assessment of urban renewal projects based on a hybrid multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) approach, which includes 3 dimensions and 16 criteria. It uses a case in Guangzhou to assess the sustainable potential of the project and explore relevant improvement strategies. Empirical results from the Decision Testing and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) indicate that the economic (D1) and environment (D2) dimensions both impact the social and cultural (D3) dimensions, with the environment (D2) dimension being impacted by the economic (D1) dimension. The criteria occupying the “cause” position include reducing construction costs and materials expenses (C5), increasing greening configuration and open space (C6), reducing resource consumption and waste (C8), improving existing land-use efficiency (C2), promoting the biodiversity of space (C9), and strengthening the safety of pedestrians and residents (C15), where increasing greening configurations and open space (C6) and reducing resource consumption and waste (C5) are considered the key criteria based on the results of DEMATEL and the DEMATEL-Analytic Network Process (DANP). The modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method revealed that the economic (D1) dimension has poor performance, and its improvement needs to be prioritized. Further improvement strategies are proposed based on the influence network relationship graph (INRM). In conclusion, our results show that urban community renewal projects in Guangzhou are steadily progressing toward a sustainable vision.
Current Implementation and Development Countermeasures of Green Energy in China’s Highway Transportation
Authors: Yuan Minmin , Mai Junfeng , Liu Xiaofei , Shen Hongfei , Wang Jie
Published: February 2023

The transportation industry is one of the largest consumers of fossil fuels and sources of carbon dioxide emission, with highway transportation accounting for more than 70% of the total. In order to promote efficient, clean, diversified, and intelligent use of energy, this study proposes an innovative application technology model for integrating highway transportation and energy to improve the utilization of clean energy and reduce the proportion of fossil energy and carbon emissions in highway transportation. This study addresses the current problems of green energy development in China’s highways, and combines green low-carbon development policies in international transportation with inspirations based on experience. Based on the principles of safety, efficiency, environmental friendliness, wisdom, and economy, this study systematically analyzes the current situation of green energy application in China’s highway transportation. It proposes one core objective, two major roles, and five major security systems of development measures for green energy application China’s highway transportation with the aim of promoting the transformation and upgrade of China’s highway transportation industry. This study can also help to achieve green and low-carbon development of highway transportation and provides a decision-making reference for the ecological civilization construction goals of the industry.
Multiport DC-DC Converter with Differential Power Processing for Fast EV Charging Stations
Authors: Elkeiy Mohamed A. , Abdelaziz Yousef N. , Hamad Mostafa S. , Abdel-Khalik Ayman S. , Abdelrahem Mohamed
Published: February 2023

With the growing interest in owning electric vehicles due to increased environmental awareness and uncertain energy security together with the development of Li-ion batteries, quietness, and trouble-free operation, it is urgent to develop charging stations that are fast enough to supply the vehicles with energy conveniently, as in case of conventional petrol stations. The main reason that hinders the spread of fast charging stations is the installation cost, comprising the infrastructure and converter costs. In this article, a multiport DC-DC converter with differential power processing stages is proposed for Electric Vehicle (EV) fast charging stations, which results in a considerable reduction in the cost of using converters while achieving high efficiency. The proposed topology consists of two paths for the power flow (outer and inner loops) for EV battery charging with main and auxiliary DC-DC converters in the outer loop; all the ports are connected in series with the main supply, where the bulk power is being transferred. The main DC-DC converter injects a series voltage to control the power in the outer loop. The auxiliary DC-DC converters are rated at a fractional power that controls the partial power supplied to each port through the inner loops. Thanks to the fractional power processed by the auxiliary converter with the remaining power fed to the battery through the main converter, the proposed architecture enables simultaneous charging of multiple electric vehicles with better efficiency, lower cost, and the capability of providing a fault tolerance feature. A PWM control scheme for the converters to achieve bi-directional power flow in the partially rated DC-DC converters is discussed for the proposed system. Moreover, a practical down-scaled hardware prototype is designed to validate the functionality, control scheme, and effectiveness of the proposed topology in different case studies being investigated. The efficiency of the proposed converter is compared to the conventional configuration.
Analyzing Green Behavior and the Rational Use of Water in Portuguese Higher Education Campi
Authors: Barreiros Ana M. , Durão Anabela , Galvão Ana , Matos Cristina , Mateus Dina , Araújo Ivo , Neves Luís , Matos Mário , Mourato Sandra
Published: February 2023

In the forthcoming years Portugal expects to be an increasingly hot and dry country dealing with the risk of water scarcity. According to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere data, annual precipitation values have decreased 20 mm/decade. On the other hand, it is also verified that the periods of rain occur in a shorter interval, although more intensively. Water scarcity is one of the major challenges reflected in the UN 6th Sustainable Development Goal. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), as places of responsibility in preparing future leaders, must have strong sustainability policies, namely through the implementation of water efficiency measures on their campi. The main aim of this work was to evaluate water consumption and the good practices that the different HEIs have implemented on their campi to improve and promote green and sustainable behaviors, and to calculate water efficiency indicators associated with each HEI. The data were collected through a survey completed by eight HEIs distributed throughout the country. The results show that some institutions have already been implementing measures for water efficiency and have developed some activities with the academic and surrounding community. The range of values calculated for the indicators is large and there is not a strong correlation between them. Per capita consumption values vary between 1.8 and 23.5 L/(person·day), the differences being explained mostly by campus characteristics, namely: green areas; water sources for irrigation; age of buildings; and the existence of facilities on campus such as residences and sports facilities. Nevertheless, the consumption per capita values are generally lower than those found in the literature for equivalent institutions. Given the growing concern with water scarcity, sharing this kind of information among institutions may contribute to improving water efficiency.
Evaluating the Health of Urban Human Settlements
Authors: Zhang Chunmei , Wang Lingen
Published: February 2023

The design and dynamics of a human settlement affect the health of its residents; for example, high-quality human settlements can improve the health of their residents. Accordingly, it is important to evaluate and improve the quality of human settlements, especially from a health perspective. Taking on this task, this study applied an entropy method and spatial autocorrelation analysis to evaluate the human settlement quality of 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province. The results provided the following three main insights. (1) The settlements were of ordinary quality and effective measures should be taken to improve their quality. (2) Regarding spatial characteristics, from 2009 to 2019, these settlements showed clear regional differentiation, with a low spatial distribution in the east, high spatial distribution in the west, high spatial distribution in the middle, and slightly lower spatial distribution at both ends. These characteristics reflect imbalances in the quality of the regional human settlements. (3) Regarding subsystem evolution characteristics, the quality of the settlements showed clear systematic differentiation during the evaluation period. In response to these findings, this paper proposes effective measures to improve the quality of urban human settlements and provides theoretical support for the healthy development of such settlements, including the revitalization and development of old industrial bases.
Check Your Likes but Move Your Body! How the Use of Social Media Is Influencing Pre-Teens Body and the Role of Active Lifestyles
Authors: Digennaro Simone , Iannaccone Alice
Published: February 2023

The use of social media has been increasing among pre-teens, affecting body satisfaction and leading to the development of a dualism between real and virtual identities. It is also associated with low physical activity levels. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the influence of dualism and physical activity levels on body satisfaction in male and female pre-teens. A sample of 2378 Italian pre-teens (Mage = 12.02 years, SD = 0.82) was recruited. Two anonymous and self-administered questionnaires were used to investigate social media use, the representation of the bodies through the social media, body image, and physical activity levels. Descriptive statistics were computed for all variables; Pearson’s Chi square and Cramer’s V were calculated to assess gender differences. Linear mixed models were used to explore the association between body satisfaction (dependent variable) and physical activity levels and the dualism (independent variables). It emerged that physical activity positively influences body satisfaction for both males and females; dualism negatively influences body satisfaction only for females. Therefore, it can be assumed that the engagement of pre-teens in offline activities counteracts the undesirable consequences of the beauty ideal models proposed by image-centred social media platforms.
Study on the Spatial Pattern and Influencing Factors of China’s New Energy Vehicle Industry—Based on Data of Relevant Listed Companies from 2008–2021
Authors: Chen Daoyuan , Wang Guoen , Yuan Ziwei , Zhang Ershen
Published: February 2023

As a pillar industry carrying China’s ambition in manufacturing upgrades and energy transformation, the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry has received much attention from the government and investment institutions. The spatial pattern of the industry, which is undergoing dramatic changes, urgently needs to be studied retrospectively. This paper explores the spatial distribution pattern of related industries and their influencing factors using data related to NEV industry listed companies from 2008 to 2021. Spatial statistical analysis and stepwise regression analysis were conducted in this study. At the national level, the study found that an “8” industrial axis was formed, with the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei city cluster as the core. At the provincial level, it was found that the traditional auto industry-dominant regions do not have a competitive advantage in the NEV field. After stepwise regression of the potential factors, five key factors determining the number of listed NEV enterprises in each province were identified, namely, policy strength, patents, per capita wage, tertiary industry share, and road density. The research results improve the understanding of NEV industry development rules in related disciplines and provide a reference for the spatial arrangement of the NEV industry to be coordinated and optimized at the regional level.
Transmission Mechanism of Post-COVID-19 Emergency Supply Chain Based on Complex Network: An Improved SIR Model
Authors: Chen Jianhua , Yin Ting
Published: February 2023

Since the COVID-19 epidemic swept the world, the emergency supply chain (ESC) has faced serious uncertainty risks. To maintain the stability of the emergency supply, risk prevention and contingency measures must be prepared. In this paper, the authors first obtain the initial risk value of 0.4 using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation approach and then build an improved SIR model based on a complex network to investigate the risk propagation law of the ESC. The simulation results show that (1) the high number of nodes becomes the initial risk source, the risk propagates faster and the peak value arrives two days earlier on average; (2) the initial infection rate gradually increases from 0.2 to 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8, and the risk spread speed also accelerates; (3) the recovery rate of network nodes increases gradually from 0.1 to 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4, and the influence range of risk propagation decreases inversely; (4) appropriately increasing the deletion rate of network nodes is conducive to improving the stability of the ESC network. Given the above ESC risk propagation law, this paper proposes relevant risk prevention measures and suggests that a risk early warning system of node enterprises should be established in combination with the target immunization strategy. For ESC risk management, the result has significant theoretical and practical implications.