bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Who Uses Virtual Wardrobes? Investigating the Role of Consumer Traits in the Intention to Adopt Virtual Wardrobes
Authors: Bang Haeun , Su Jin
Published: January 2022

Over-consumption by consumers is a significant challenge to sustainability. Technology, such as that of virtual wardrobes, can suggest options that may reduce excessive consumption. A virtual wardrobe is a service that allows users to create and manage their wardrobes digitally. It also helps users to realize what they have in their wardrobes and can recommend appropriate styles of clothing for the users based on an analysis of the wardrobe. From the perspective of consumer characteristics, this research investigates what motivates consumers to adopt and use virtual wardrobes and proposes marketing strategies for addressing these behaviors. Fishbein’s attitude theory was used as a theoretical framework. By surveying 265 U.S. college students and using structural equation modeling analysis, the study shows that consumers’ socially responsible consumption behavior and personal innovativeness in information technology positively affect their attitude toward virtual wardrobes, which, in turn, increases their intention to use virtual wardrobes. However, their personal shopping value and fashion involvement have no significant impacts on consumers’ attitudes toward virtual wardrobes. The findings indicate that marketers of virtual wardrobes should highlight social responsibility and technological innovation in product and service promotions. By gaining insight into their wardrobes, consumers can be more strategic about clothing consumption, use, and disposal.
Optimal Land Use Regulation for Human–Coyote Conflicts in the Denver Metropolitan Area
Authors: Yoshida Jun , Kono Tatsuhito
Published: January 2022

While human–wildlife conflicts are an emerging problem in urban areas, wildlife conservation is needed to sustain human life. Because the degree of conflict depends on land cover types and housing density classes, land-use policies intended to influence both resident and wildlife behavior are needed. This paper numerically simulates the optimal urban boundary regulation to reduce human–coyote conflicts and conserve the ecosystem. Given the parameters of the Denver Metropolitan Area, the optimal location of the urban boundary is estimated as 1 km farther away from the market city boundary. As a result of the optimization more coyotes emerge in urban areas, while fewer herbivores and plants emerge in natural habitats. Because of a “cascade effect”, that is, secondary-and-later effects on the number of certain species through a food chain, the optimal result sees the number of plants increase with a smaller natural habitat than the market size. This indicates that because both direct and cascade effects are affected by the degree of land-use policies, it is necessary to consider the cascade effect when designing these policies.
Coverage of Disabled People in Environmental-Education-Focused Academic Literature
Authors: Salvatore Chiara , Wolbring Gregor
Published: January 2022

Environmental education (EE) is a lifelong process to acquire knowledge and skills that can influence pro-environmental behavior, environmental activism, and disaster-risk management. Disabled people are impacted by environmental issues, environmental activism, and how EE is taught. Disabled people can be learners within EE but can contribute to EE in many other roles. Given the importance of EE and its potential impact on disabled people—and given that equity, diversity, and inclusion is an ever-increasing policy framework in relation to environment-focused disciplines and programs in academia and other workplaces, which also covers disabled people—we performed a scoping review of academic literature using Scopus and EBSCO-HOST (70 databases) as sources, to investigate how and to what extent disabled people are engaged with EE academic literature. Of the initial 73 sources found, only 27 contained relevant content whereby the content engaged mostly with disabled people as EE learners but rarely with other possible roles. They rarely discussed the EE impact on disabled people, did not engage with EE teaching about disabled people being impacted by environmental issues and discourses, and did not connect EE to environment-related action by disabled people. Results suggest the need for a more differentiated engagement with disabled people in the EE literature.
Superheated Steam Torrefaction of Biomass Residues with Valorisation of Platform Chemicals—Part 1: Ecological Assessment
Authors: Roy Baharam , Kleine-Möllhoff Peter , Dalibard Antoine
Published: January 2022

Within the last decade, research on torrefaction has gained increasing attention due to its ability to improve the physical properties and chemical composition of biomass residues for further energetic utilisation. While most of the research works focused on improving the energy density of the solid fraction to offer an ecological alternative to coal for energy applications, little attention was paid to the valorisation of the condensable gases as platform chemicals and its ecological relevance when compared to conventional production processes. Therefore, the present study focuses on the ecological evaluation of an innovative biorefinery concept that includes superheated steam drying and the torrefaction of biomass residues at ambient pressure, the recovery of volatiles and the valorisation/separation of several valuable platform chemicals. For a reference case and an alternative system design scenario, the ecological footprint was assessed, considering the use of different biomass residues. The results show that the newly developed process can compete with established bio-based and conventional production processes for furfural, 5-HMF and acetic acid in terms of the assessed environmental performance indicators. The requirements for further research on the synthesis of other promising platform chemicals and the necessary economic evaluation of the process were elaborated.
Open Innovation Readiness Assessment within Students in Poland: Investigating State-of-the-Art and Challenges
Authors: Rosienkiewicz Maria , Helman Joanna , Cholewa Mariusz , Molasy Mateusz
Published: January 2022

In light of Poland’s innovation performance level being below 70% of the EU average, open innovation can be a key path for innovation capacity increase. This paper explores the readiness of students in Poland for open innovation (OI). The study is based on a survey of a sample of 500 students using the Computer-Assisted Web Interview research technique. The main aim of this paper is to investigate Polish students’ attitude to open innovation—in particular in terms of social product development, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and the sharing economy—to assess the state-of-the-art and identify challenges. Students are selected as the target group because they are open-minded, eager to use new solutions, and will soon enter the business sector to either become the staff of companies or set up their own startups or SMEs. However, the study shows that Polish students, if they use the OI-based platforms at all, use them passively. The key barriers identified within this study are a lack of knowledge about the open innovation paradigm, its elements and opportunities, and an issue of trust. Therefore, a change of mindset, the adjustment of universities’ curricula, and the development of open innovation culture are critical.
New Training Program for the New Requirements of Combat of Tactical Athletes
Authors: Clemente-Suárez Vicente Javier
Published: January 2022

Actual theaters of operations are complex contexts where soldiers must face different situations, such as symmetrical, asymmetrical, or close quarter combat. The requirements of the actual battlefield are different to the traditional conditioning military training. This new changing scenario produces an activation of the innate fight or flight defense mechanisms with large activations of the anaerobic metabolic pathways and the sympathetic autonomic nervous system. In these scenarios, the anaerobic, aerobic, and strength demands are so specific and the time to improve all training demands in the units is limited. We propose a new training periodization for the military population based on the latest research into the psychophysiological response of soldiers in actual theaters of operations (actual military missions) and actual civilian models of training and periodization to develop a specific, easy, and reliable periodization model for actual tactical athletes. This training intervention was developed in order to improve operational training according to the demands of actual theaters of operations, based on recent research in military and civilian populations. We tried to conduct a proposal that is easy to apply, with minimal use of material different to what could be found in a military base and that could be implemented in a short period of time.
Influence of Temperature and Lignin Concentration on Formation of Colloidal Lignin Particles in Solvent-Shifting Precipitation
Authors: Adamcyk Johannes , Serna-Loaiza Sebastian , Beisl Stefan , Miltner Martin , Friedl Anton
Published: January 2022

Colloidal lignin particles offer a promising route towards material applications of lignin. While many parameters influencing the formation of these particles in solvent-shifting precipitation have been studied, only a small amount of research on the influence of temperature has been conducted so far, despite it being a major influence parameter in the precipitation of colloidal lignin particles. Temperature influences various other relevant properties, such as viscosity, density, and lignin solubility. This makes investigation of both temperature and lignin concentration in combination interesting. The present work investigates the precipitation at different temperatures and initial lignin concentrations, revealing that an increased mixing temperature results in smaller particle sizes, while the yield is slightly lowered. This effect was strongest at the highest lignin concentration, lowering the hydrodynamic diameter of the particles from 205 to 168 nm. Decreasing the lignin concentration resulted in significantly smaller particles (from 205 to 121 nm at 20 °C mixing temperature) but almost no change in particle yield (between 81.2 and 84.6% at 20 °C mixing temperature). This opens up possibilities for the process control and optimization of lignin precipitation.
Key Drivers of Public Debt Levels: Empirical Evidence from Africa
Authors: Appiah-Kubi Seth Nana Kwame , Malec Karel , Phiri Joseph , Krivko Mikhail , Maitah Kamil , Maitah Mansoor , Smutka Luboš
Published: January 2022

The rising public debt level in Africa and the sustainability of that debt remains an important research agenda. As such, understanding the factors that impact the rising public debt level in Africa remains an important research agenda. Our paper investigates the key determining drivers that have a direct and indirect impact on the rising level of public debt in Africa from a panel of 47 African nations for the period 2000–2018. Using the generalized method of moments (GMM) and fixed effects two-stage least squares (IV-FE) methodological approach the study confirms that a rise in the corruption level leads to an increase in the public debt in Africa. Our findings additionally indicate that government investment enhances the positive and significant association with public debt levels in the sampled countries. Our result revealed that government consumption and tax revenue have a significant negative relationship with the levels of public debt in Africa. Lastly, our results showed that military expenditure has a positive but insignificant relationship with public debt levels in Africa. In terms of policy recommendation, the study suggests African countries should intensify the fight against corruption and strengthen political and governance institutions that will help reduce public debt levels and promote economic growth and development.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Authors: Fallah Shayan Niloufar , Mohabbati-Kalejahi Nasrin , Alavi Sepideh , Zahed Mohammad Ali
Published: January 2022

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been an articulated practice for over 7 decades. Still, most corporations lack an integrated framework to develop a strategic, balanced, and effective approach to achieving excellence in CSR. Considering the world’s critical situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, such a framework is even more crucial now. We suggest subsuming CRS categories under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be used and that they subsume CSR categories since SDGs are a comprehensive agenda designed for the whole planet. This study presents a new CSR drivers model and a novel comprehensive CSR model. Then, it highlights the advantages of integrating CSR and SDGs in a new framework. The proposed framework benefits from both CSR and SDGs, addresses current and future needs, and offers a better roadmap with more measurable outcomes.
The Influence of Participant Subject Factors on Collaboration Effects in the Protection of China’s ICH: The Mediating Role of Relationship Quality
Authors: Xia Hongmei , Li Yanling , Chen Fang , Xu Bo
Published: January 2022

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a keystone of sustainable development which, in recent years, has received growing attention from scholars and governments. Previous studies on ICH collaborative protection have focused on ICH connotations and practice, but relatively few studies have focused on the interrelationships among the influencing factors of the collaboration effect. This study introduces a new variable, relationship quality, in an effort to describe the collaborative relationship among participants. The collaborative relationship consists of three dimensions: trust, communication, and fairness. Regarding relationship quality as an intermediary variable, we construct a research framework embracing participant subject factors (collaboration attitude and collaboration ability) and collaboration effects in a case study on collaborative protection of ICH in Regong Thangka, China. A structural equation model, for which data were collected via a questionnaire, is used to assess the strength of the relationships among variables. A total of 416 questionnaires were distributed, and 365 valid completed questionnaires were returned. The findings indicate that relationship quality has a significant influence on collaboration effects in the collaborative protection of ICH. Within the study’s context, collaboration attitude has a significantly positive impact on relationship quality, and it indirectly influences collaboration effects via relationship quality. Collaboration ability has a significantly positive impact on relationship quality and collaboration effects, and it could also impact collaboration effects indirectly via relationship quality. This paper is the first to introduce the concept of relationship quality into the ICH collaborative protection research field, and its findings may have valuable theoretical and practical implications.
Fire Safety of External Thermal Insulation Systems (ETICS) in the Aspect of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources
Authors: Niziurska Małgorzata , Wieczorek Michał , Borkowicz Klaudiusz
Published: January 2022

External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems (ETICS) are the most common technical solution to improve the thermal efficiency of existing buildings. In the light of the applicable regulations, ETICS are kits that apply only one type of thermal insulation material. All typically used ETICS introduced into the market classify as non-combustible. Despite that, the emerging recommendations in some countries point to the need for the introduction of barriers of non-combustible material such as mineral wool (MW) around the openings and horizontal isolation barriers around the building between different floors to prevent fast fire spread. That raises an important question: Do MW partitions significantly improve the fire safety of the building and balance other aspects such as the sustainability and durability of such combined insulation materials with different properties? Here, we assessed the impact of MW partitions in EPS-based ETICS on the spread of the fire according to the requirements of BS 8414-1: 2020. Four different variants were investigated. The study showed slight differences in average temperatures and the size of the polystyrene melting area for various insulation variants with the introduced horizontal MW partitions. The introduction of MW partitions shows no significant benefits or improvement of fire safety of the investigated ETICS.
The Fiscal and Monetary Policies and Environment in GCC Countries: Analysis of Territory and Consumption-Based CO2 Emissions
Authors: Mahmood Haider , Adow Anass Hamadelneel , Abbas Muzafar , Iqbal Asim , Murshed Muntasir , Furqan Maham
Published: January 2022

Expansionary monetary and fiscal policies are necessary for economic and environmental development. The present research studies the impact of monetary policy and fiscal policy on Territory-Based CO2 (TBC) and Consumption-Based CO2 (CBC) emissions in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies from 1990–2019. The cointegration is corroborated through various tests, and long-term relationships are found in both TBC and CBC models. Government expenditures have long-term positive effects on both TBC and CBC emissions and short-term positive effects on TBC emissions in the region. Money supply negatively affects the TBC and CBC emissions in the long run and positively affects TBC and CBC emissions in the short run. Hence, monetary policy needs a long time to have positive ecological effects in the GCC region. Moreover, fiscal policy in both the long and short run and monetary policy in the short run have scale effects in GCC economies. Therefore, we recommend reducing fiscal measures and encouraging monetary policy in the long run to have positive environmental outcomes in the region.
The Impact of Green Innovation on a Firm’s Value from the Perspective of Enterprise Life Cycles
Authors: Dai Deming , Xue Yujia
Published: January 2022

Many studies focus on the impact of green innovation on enterprises, but few studies pay attention to the difference made by the impact of green innovation at the different stages of a firm’s life cycle. This study used Chinese A-share listed companies as a sample to conduct research and found that green innovation has a positive effect on a firm’s value. However, compared with firms at a mature stage of their life cycle, the impact of green innovation on firm value is more significant in firms at the stages of growth and decline. Further research shows that green innovation can increase the value of firms at the growth stage by improving their sustainable development capability and reducing debt financing costs. However, for firms at the decline stage of their life cycle, green innovation can only increase firm value by reducing debt financing costs. In addition, the nature of property rights and the level of corporate governance will have a moderating effect on the relationship between green innovation and firm value. This research will not only enrich the previous literature but also guide the allocation of resources for firms at different stages of their life cycle to carry out green innovation.
The Value of Art in Persuasive Marketing Communication and Its Sustainable Effect on the Country of Origin
Authors: Madan Angela , Rosca Laura Daniela , Dumitru Ionel , Canda Andrei
Published: January 2022

The value of art in persuasion integrates the country’s culture and art according to marketing communication. Our research examined the impact of artistic communication values on customers’ behavior as a sustainable effect on the country of origin by applying two hypotheses. These hypotheses were tested on 689 respondents, mainly from Romania. This marketing communication analysis indicated that persuasion had more value for customers when ethical rhetorical arguments, dialects, poetry, essays, poems, and fairy tales were linked to a country’s culture, such as tradition, national values, and heritage, or were combined with art, such as paintings, sculptures, and music. The results demonstrated that artistic communication influenced consumer behavior positively, having a sustainable effect on the country of origin.
Solid Waste Analysis Using Open-Access Socio-Economic Data
Authors: Dunkel Jürgen , Dominguez David , Borzdynski Óscar G. , Sánchez Ángel
Published: January 2022

Nowadays, problems related with solid waste management become a challenge for most countries due to the rising generation of waste, related environmental issues, and associated costs of produced wastes. Effective waste management systems at different geographic levels require accurate forecasting of future waste generation. In this work, we investigate how open-access data, such as provided from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), can be used for the analysis of waste data. The main idea of this study is finding the links between socio-economic and demographic variables that determine the amounts of types of solid wastes produced by countries. This would make it possible to accurately predict at the country level the waste production and determine the requirements for the development of effective waste management strategies. In particular, we use several machine learning data regression (Support Vector, Gradient Boosting, and Random Forest) and clustering models (k-means) to respectively predict waste production for OECD countries along years and also to perform clustering among these countries according to similar characteristics. The main contributions of our work are: (1) waste analysis at the OECD country-level to compare and cluster countries according to similar waste features predicted; (2) the detection of most relevant features for prediction models; and (3) the comparison between several regression models with respect to accuracy in predictions. Coefficient of determination (R2), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), respectively, are used as indices of the efficiency of the developed models. Our experiments have shown that some data pre-processings on the OECD data are an essential stage required in the analysis; that Random Forest Regressor (RFR) produced the best prediction results over the dataset; and that these results are highly influenced by the quality of available socio-economic data. In particular, the RFR model exhibited the highest accuracy in predictions for most waste types. For example, for “municipal” waste, it produced, respectively, R2 = 1 and MAPE=4.31 global error values for the test set; and for “household” waste, it, respectively, produced R2 = 1 and MAPE=3.03. Our results indicate that the considered models (and specially RFR) all are effective in predicting the amount of produced wastes derived from input data for the considered countries.
Chemical Recycling of Plastic Marine Litter: First Analytical Characterization of The Pyrolysis Oil and of Its Fractions and Comparison with a Commercial Marine Gasoil
Authors: Faussone Gian Claudio , Cecchi Teresa
Published: January 2022

A detailed molecular fingerprint of raw pyrolysis oil from plastic wastes is a new research area. The present study focuses for the first time on the chemical recycling of plastic marine litter; we aim to chemically characterize the obtained raw pyrolysis oil and its distillates (virgin naphtha and marine gasoil) via GC-MS and FT-IR. For all samples, more than 30% of the detected compounds were identified. 2,4-dimethyl-1-heptene, a marker of PP pyrolysis, is the most represented peak in the chemical signature of all the marine litter pyrolysis samples, and it differentiates commercial and pyrolysis marine gasoil. The presence of naphthalenes is stronger in commercial gasoil, compared to its pyrolysis analog, while the opposite holds for olefins. The overlap between the two molecular fingerprints is impressive, even if saturated hydrocarbons are more common in commercial gasoil, and unsaturated compounds are more common in the gasoil derived from pyrolysis. A technical comparison between the commercial marine gasoil and the one obtained from the marine litter pyrolysis is also attempted. Gasoil derived from marine litter fully complies with the ISO8217 standards for distillate marine fuel. On the other hand, the virgin naphtha is particularly rich in BTX, ethylbenzene, styrene, and alpha olefins, which are all important recoverable platform chemicals for industrial upcycling.
The Impact of Agile Management and Technology in Teaching and Practicing Physical Education and Sports
Authors: Cojocaru Adin-Marian , Cojocaru Marilena , Jianu Anca , Bucea-Manea-Țoniş Rocsana , Păun Dan Gheorghe , Ivan Paula
Published: January 2022

The context of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused educational institutions and sports clubs to change their management strategy. Due to the modernization of computer technology, physical education and sports (PES) teachers decided to include this technology in their teaching activity to help students and athletes to acquire PES-specific transversal skills and digital skills, and also to increase the attractiveness of the lessons. The present research aims at assessing the challenges and opportunities of technology and adopting an Agile Management style to improve the teaching, learning, and practice of PES. Therefore, a survey was conducted on PES teachers and trainers, as they have a clear perspective on the field and their views are therefore very important and relevant to our study, even if they do not have solutions for all the challenges facing them. They were asked to share their professional opinions regarding the implementation of digital methods and applications on the sportive results of performance sportsmen, athletes, and students. The survey, conducted on 144 respondents, contained mostly multiple-choice questions rated on a Likert scale and open-ended questions allowing respondents to offer solutions and express their opinion freely. This article demonstrates the positive influence of Agile Management in the choice and implementation of technology dedicated to PES.
Evolution of Urban Construction Land Structure Based on Information Entropy and Shift-Share Model: An Empirical Study on Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration in China
Authors: Dong Likuan , Li Xin
Published: January 2022

Urban agglomerations are important carriers of the current world economic development and economic center of gravity shift, while urban construction land structure reflects and influences the functions and development directions of urban agglomerations and cities within them. It is significant to study the characteristics of urban construction land structure in urban agglomerations. Based on information entropy model and shift-share model, this study discusses and analyzes the evolution characteristics and spatial allocation differences of urban construction land structure in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, and simulates the spatial allocation differences with the help of GIS technology. The empirical research results show that from, 2006 to 2017, the overall structure of urban construction land in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration changes alternately between “orderly” and “disorderly”, and finally the overall development was slightly disordered. Furthermore, there are significant differences in the competitiveness of different types of land in different cities. Among them, green land, public facilities land, and road traffic land show obvious replenishment effect, which are mainly distributed in Handan-Zhangjiakou northwestern Hebei, Tianjin-Cangzhou in the eastern coast, Baoding-Xingtai in central and southern Hebei, while industrial land and storage land, which are mainly distributed in Beijing-Tangshan-Langfang around the capital and Shijiazhuang-Handan-Hengshui in central and southern Hebei, show obvious crowding-out effect. In addition, the temporal changes and spatial allocation differences of urban construction land structure are influenced by many factors, such as economic development, industrial structure, population size, etc. Therefore, it is suggested that the coordinated development of urban agglomerations should adhere to the principle of “differentiated development before coordinated development, local coordinated development before overall coordinated development”.
Adaptive Frequency Control Strategy for PMSG-Based Wind Power Plant Considering Releasable Reserve Power
Authors: Dai Jianfeng , Ding Cangbi , Zhou Xia , Tang Yi
Published: January 2022

Wind power plants (WPPs) are required to provide primary frequency regulation services when a high proportion of wind power is connected to the grid. The reserve power of wind turbine generators (WTGs), including rotor kinetic energy and deloading power, is determined by its current rotor speed and active power, thus, different frequency regulation levels of WTGs will be formed because of the variable wind speed and the wake effect in a WPP. This article proposes an adaptive frequency control strategy considering releasable reserve power that can enhance the frequency regulation capacity in the permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG)-based WPP. The inertial control gains of frequency controller for PMSGs are adjusted adaptively, resting with the releasable kinetic energy, which is a function of current rotor speed. Moreover, primary frequency control gains are adjusted adaptively, resting with the releasable deloading power, which is a function of the current active power, thus, a PMSG operating at a higher rotor speed and active power can release more rotor kinetic energy and deloading power to provide greater frequency regulation capability. The proposed adaptive frequency control strategy is tested using a PSCAD/EMTDC simulator. The simulation analysis indicates that the reserve power of PMSGs in WPP can be utilized effectively while ensuring their stable operation. Meanwhile, the frequency regulation capability would be further enhanced.
Novel Shielding Mortars for Radiation Source Transportation and Storage
Authors: Sayyed M. , Elsafi Mohamed , Almuqrin Aljawhara , Cornish Katrina , Elkhatib Ahmed
Published: January 2022

New types of mortar, M1 (60% sand, 25% cement, 10% ball clay, and 15% WO3), M2 (50% sand, 25% cement, 10% ball clay, and 25% WO3), M3 (60% sand, 25% cement, 10% Barite, and 15% WO3), and M4 (50% sand, 25% cement, 10% Barite, and 25% WO3), were prepared and the impact of WO3 and barite on their radiation shielding performance and mechanical properties was evaluated. The radiation attenuation factors were evaluated using five radioactive point sources, and a sodium iodide (NaI) scintillation detector (3″ × 3″) was used to detect the attenuation of gamma ray photons emitted from radioactive sources. The density values of the mortar samples lie within the range of 2.358 and 2.602 g/cm3. The compressive strength and the tensile strength of the prepared mortars increased with the increasing percentage of WO3. The M4 mortar had the highest linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) value. The LAC results demonstrated that adding barite and a high percentage of WO3 into the mortars notably enhanced the radiation shielding performance of the prepared mortar. The relationship between the half value layer (HVL) and the energy is direct, and so was used to calculate the thickness of mortar needed to absorb or scatter half the number of low-energy photons falling on the samples. At 0.06 MeV, the HVL values of the samples were 0.412, 0.280, 0.242, and 0.184 cm for samples M1–M4, respectively. The highest HVL values, obtained at 1.408 MeV, were 5.516, 5.202, 5.358, and 5.041 cm. Thus, a thinner layer of the M4 sample provided comparable attenuation of photons and radiation protection to the thicker M1–M3 samples. The new material is promising as an effective shield of radiation-emitting sources during transportation and long-term storage.
A Lifecycle Assessment of a Low-Energy Mass-Timber Building and Mainstream Concrete Alternative in Central Chile
Authors: Felmer Gabriel , Morales-Vera Rodrigo , Astroza Rodrigo , González Ignacio , Puettmann Maureen , Wishnie Mark
Published: January 2022

While high-rise mass-timber construction is booming worldwide as a more sustainable alternative to mainstream cement and steel, in South America, there are still many gaps to overcome regarding sourcing, design, and environmental performance. The aim of this study was to assess the carbon emission footprint of using mass-timber products to build a mid-rise low-energy residential building in central Chile (CCL). The design presented at a solar decathlon contest in Santiago was assessed through lifecycle analysis (LCA) and compared to an equivalent mainstream concrete building. Greenhouse gas emissions, expressed as global warming potential (GWP), from cradle-to-usage over a 50-year life span, were lower for the timber design, with 131 kg CO2 eq/m2 of floor area (compared to 353 kg CO2 eq/m2) and a biogenic carbon storage of 447 tons of CO2 eq/m2 based on sustainable forestry practices. From cradle-to-construction, the embodied emissions of the mass-timber building were 42% lower (101 kg CO2 eq/m2) than those of the equivalent concrete building (167 kg CO2 eq/m2). The embodied energy of the mass-timber building was 37% higher than that of its equivalent concrete building and its envelope design helped reduce space-conditioning emissions by as much as 83%, from 187 kg CO2 eq/m2 as estimated for the equivalent concrete building to 31 kg CO2 eq/m2 50-yr. Overall, provided that further efforts are made to address residual energy end-uses and end-of-life waste management options, the use of mass-timber products offers a promising potential in CCL for delivering zero carbon residential multistory buildings.
Biodiversity Conservation and the Role of Policy Resources: The Case of Saint Helena
Authors: Ferraro Gianluca , Failler Pierre
Published: January 2022

Biological diversity is declining globally. The current national environmental policies that many countries around the globe have adopted and are implementing have not halted biodiversity loss as expected. This is also happening in several European peripheral areas that constitute important “biodiversity hotspots” for the numerous species, habitats and ecosystems they host. Among these biodiversity hotspots, the Overseas Territories (OTs) of the United Kingdom (UK) represent important areas for academic investigation, particularly at this moment. The recent exit of the UK from the European Union will imply a net drop in financial contributions made available for the UK’s OTs. This adds to the limitations and constraints imposed upon those territories by their geographical isolation and small scale, as shown by the case of Saint Helena. The article provides insights on the role of policy resources in the analysis of public policies. It, then, focuses on biodiversity policy in St Helena under various angles: relations with the UK, organisational arrangements within the island, the legislative framework and its execution for the protection of biodiversity. Finally, the article discusses the major challenges faced in the development and implementation of Saint Helena’s biodiversity policy with an emphasis on the role of tangible and intangible resources. It concludes with a set of recommendations tailored around the specific case of Saint Helena but also applicable to other OTs.
Spatiotemporal Analysis of Road Crashes with Animals in Poland
Authors: Krukowicz Tomasz , Firląg Krzysztof , Chrobot Paweł
Published: January 2022

This article describes the issue of the influences of the time factor and wildlife populations on road animal–vehicle crashes. The article presents problems associated with animal–vehicle crashes in Poland. They are the subject of many court disputes. For the purposes of the study, data on animal–vehicle road crashes were obtained from the SEWiK database, as well as data on the numbers of animals in hunting districts from 2016–2020. The relationship between the number of road crashes and time was analysed, and the relationships between the numbers of road crashes and the animal populations, as well as the locations, types, and categories of the hunting districts, were analysed as well. The factors related to changes in the wildlife populations, road crashes in previous years, and the lengths of the road networks were also analysed. The research shows no relationship between the abundance of a particular species and the number of road crashes. Instead, there is a correlation between the number of crashes in previous years and the road network length.
A Standard-Based Concept of the Integration of the Corporate Recovery Management Systems: Coping with Adversity and Uncertainty during a Pandemic
Authors: Ewertowski Tomasz
Published: January 2022

The aim of this study is to develop a conceptual model for the better coordination of recovery management systems to improve organizational performance in light of the new challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The author provides a revision of “the corporate recovery prism” model by presenting an extended standard-based concept of the integration of the corporate recovery management systems. It offers, among others, two new dimensions which result in a “pentagonal pyramid”. They emphasize the type of events in the individual elements of the concept and highlight the basis of the concept on standardization. The concept has been designed in order to develop the planning, preparation, and response to incidents from an event up to a crisis and, ultimately, to improve the company’s ability to thrive and prosper in an uncertain environment. For the initial validation of the concept, empirical research was conducted in Polish enterprises. The methodology of the survey is based on a questionnaire of the best practices in addressing the COVID-19 crisis in organizations. It is used for checking the relationships between organizational performance and a triad of the concept elements, such as organizational resilience (OR), crisis management (CM), and business continuity management (BCM). Using the survey results, a strong correlation was found between the triad and the performance. Therefore, the main finding of the survey shows that elements of the concept build better performance and sustainability in enterprises during a pandemic.
Linking Distributed Optimization Models for Food, Water, and Energy Security Nexus Management
Authors: Ermoliev Yuri , Zagorodny Anatolij G. , Bogdanov Vjacheslav L. , Ermolieva Tatiana , Havlik Petr , Rovenskaya Elena , Komendantova Nadejda , Obersteiner Michael
Published: January 2022

Traditional integrated modeling (IM) is based on developing and aggregating all relevant (sub)models and data into a single integrated linear programming (LP) model. Unfortunately, this approach is not applicable for IM under asymmetric information (ASI), i.e., when “private” information regarding sectoral/regional models is not available, or it cannot be shared by modeling teams (sectoral agencies). The lack of common information about LP submodels makes LP methods inapplicable for integrated LP modeling. The aim of this paper is to develop a new approach to link and optimize distributed sectoral/regional optimization models, providing a means of decentralized cross-sectoral coordination in the situation of ASI. Thus, the linkage methodology enables the investigation of policies in interdependent systems in a “decentralized” fashion. For linkage, the sectoral/regional models do not need recoding or reprogramming. They also do not require additional data harmonization tasks. Instead, they solve their LP submodels independently and in parallel by a specific iterative subgradient algorithm for nonsmooth optimization. The submodels continue to be the same separate LP models. A social planner (regulatory agency) only needs to adjust the joint resource constraints to simple subgradient changes calculated by the algorithm. The approach enables more stable and resilient systems’ performance and resource allocation as compared to the independent policies designed by separate models without accounting for interdependencies. The paper illustrates the application of the methodology to link detailed energy and agricultural production planning models under joint constraints on water and land use.
Realization of a Sustainable High-Performance Organization through Procedural Justice: The Dual Mediating Role of Organizational Trust and Organizational Commitment
Authors: Ha Jun-Chul , Lee Jun-Woo
Published: January 2022

To achieve sustainable growth and ensure competitive advantage in response to rapidly changing industries, companies have recently focused on creating new values based on innovative organizational composition and various personnel management systems. Social exchange theory suggests that stronger social exchange relationships increase trust between people and their level of commitment. From this perspective, organizational justice has its own significance. This study empirically analyzed the dual mediation effect of organizational trust (OT) and organizational commitment (OC) to examine an influential relationship between procedural justice (PJ) and work engagement in an organization. The following analytic results were obtained. First, PJ had positive effects on OT, OC, and work engagement. Second, OT had significantly positive effects on OC, whereas it did not have significant effects on work engagement. Third, OC had significantly positive effects on work engagement. Fourth, OC had significant mediation effects with regard to the influence of PJ on work engagement. In addition, organization trust and OC had significant dual mediation effects. The results verified the importance of PJ in an organization. Furthermore, these results provided theoretical and practical implications that PJ can increase OT, OC, and ultimately organizational performance.
Vegetal Fiber Additives in Mortars: Experimental Characterization of Thermal and Acoustic Properties
Authors: Quintaliani Chiara , Merli Francesca , Fiorini Costanza Vittoria , Corradi Marco , Speranzini Emanuela , Buratti Cinzia
Published: January 2022

This paper investigates the influence of adding vegetal fibers on thermal and acoustic performance based on natural hydraulic lime. Mortar samples with 10% weight of vegetal fibers were fabricated adding water to obtain easily workable mortars with good consistency; their performance was compared to mortar samples without vegetal fibers. The fibers were of different types (rice husk, spelt bran, and Khorasan (turanicum) wheat chaff) and size (as-found and ground form). Thermal performance was measured with the Small Hot Box experimental apparatus. Thermal conductivity was reduced in the 1–11% range (with Khorasan wheat chaff and rice husk); no significant reduction was found with spelled bran in the mixture. When ground, fibers were characterized by both good thermal and acoustic absorption performance; a reduction of 6–22% in thermal conductivity λ was achieved with spelled bran (λ = 0.64 W/mK) and rice husks (λ = 0.53 W/mK), whereas the Khorasan wheat chaff had the highest sound absorption average index (0.38). However, the addition of fibers reduced sound insulation properties due to their low weight densities. This reduction was limited for rice husks (transmission loss value was only 2 dB lower than the reference).
Influence of Urea on Organic Bulk Fertilizer of Spent Coffee Grounds and Green Algae Chlorella sp. Biomass
Authors: Ragauskaitė Dovilė , Šlinkšienė Rasa
Published: January 2022

To maintain high production and growing rates of plants, synthetically obtained fertilizers are commonly used. Excessive amounts of fertilizers damage the natural ecosystem and cause various environmental problems. In relation to the environment and its sustainability, another great environmental, economic, and social issue is food loss and waste. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of spent coffee grounds (SCG) on soil properties, rye growth, and their possibilities to be used as the biodegradable and organic material in the production of organic bulk fertilizer. This study demonstrated that spent coffee grounds contain primary nutrients; moreover, SCG could increase the content of soil organic matter. The addition of 4 wt% to 8 wt% SCG increased the number of spore-forming bacteria from <103 colony forming units/g soil (CFU/g soil) to 3 × 104 CFU/g soil, along with nitrogen assimilating bacteria (plain soil resulted in 5.0 × 105 CFU/g, and addition of SCG increased the value to 5.0 × 107 CFU/g). Since spent coffee grounds have a relatively high porosity and absorbance (25.3 ± 3.4 wt% in a water vapor environment and 4.0 ± 0.6 wt% in the environment of saturated sodium nitrate solution), they could be used to reduce the amount of water required for irrigation. To fully exploit their nutritional value for plants, spent coffee grounds were mixed with green algae biomass along with urea, and, during the research, higher value products (organic bulk fertilizer) were obtained.
Backward vs. Forward Gait Symmetry Analysis Based on Plantar Pressure Mapping
Authors: Daniluk Anna , Hadamus Anna , Ludwicki Michał , Zagrodny Bartłomiej
Published: January 2022

Symmetry is one of the factors analysed in normal and pathological gaits. Backward gait is an area of interest to scientists, in terms of its physiology and therapeutic possibilities. This study aimed to analyse the symmetry of the pressure parameters of backward gait in comparison to forward gait using different symmetry indices. Eighty-one healthy people aged between 19 and 84 years took part in the study. Foot pressure distribution was analysed during forward and backward gaits at self-selected speeds. Mean and maximum pressure values were calculated after dividing the foot into four or ten areas. Delta, Ratio Index, Robinson Index, Gait Asymmetry, and Symmetry Angle were calculated for each area, separately for both forward and backward gaits. Higher ratios of asymmetry were found during backward than during forward gait. Larger ratios of asymmetry were found within toes II–V, forefoot, metatarsals I, II, and III, medial and lateral heel areas. No significant correlation between symmetry indices and age or BMI was found. Results suggested that the lower symmetry of backward gait is caused by a higher number of corrective movements that allow for the maintenance of body balance and global symmetry of gait. This can be realised by increased cortical control of the backward gait, which was a new movement task for all participants.
A Quadruple Integral Containing the Gegenbauer Polynomial Cn(λ)(x): Derivation and Evaluation
Authors: Reynolds Robert , Stauffer Allan
Published: January 2022

A four-dimensional integral containing g(x,y,z,t)Cn(λ)(x) is derived. Cn(λ)(x) is the Gegenbauer polynomial, g(x,y,z,t) is a product of the generalized logarithm quotient functions and the integral is taken over the region 0≤x≤1,0≤y≤1,0≤z≤1,0≤t≤1. The integral is difficult to compute in general. Special cases are given and invariant index forms are derived. The zero distribution of almost all Hurwitz–Lerch zeta functions is asymmetrical. All the results in this work are new.
A Qualitative Study on Second-Order Nonlinear Fractional Differential Evolution Equations with Generalized ABC Operator
Authors: Almalahi Mohammed , Ibrahim Amani , Almutairi Alanoud , Bazighifan Omar , Aljaaidi Tariq , Awrejcewicz Jan
Published: January 2022

This research paper is dedicated to an investigation of an evolution problem under a new operator (g-Atangana–Baleanu–Caputo type fractional derivative)(for short, g-ABC). For the proposed problem, we construct sufficient conditions for some properties of the solution like existence, uniqueness and stability analysis. Existence and uniqueness results are proved based on some fixed point theorems such that Banach and Krasnoselskii. Furthermore, through mathematical analysis techniques, we analyze different types of stability results. The symmetric properties aid in identifying the best strategy for getting the correct solution of fractional differential equations. An illustrative example is discussed for the control problem.