Search

[Display omitted] • GQD-DDT and GQD-MPA was synthesized using novel hydrothermal protocol. • GQD-DDT and GQD-MPA was used for the identification of cations using colorimetric and spectrophotometric assay. • GQD-DDT and GQD-MPA have well activity for ion sensing in aqueous solution. This study describes the synthesis of various types of thiolated-graphene quantum dots (GQDs) for the simultaneous multi-sensing of heavy metal ions using one-droplet microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (OD- µ PADs). For the first time, functionalized GQDs were synthesized and stabilized on the surface of hydrophobic fiber-glass with simple manufacturing and assembly strategy towards colorimetric chemosensing of ions including iron, copper, cobalt, mercury, chrome, manganese, and nickel. For this purpose, GQDs are functionalized by various organic species including cysteamine, decanethiol, and mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) towards specific electrostatic interaction with metal ions of Fe (II), Cu (II), Co(II), Hg (II), Mn (II), and Ni (II). Therefore, an innovative GQDs-based miniaturized chemo-system was proposed for the environmental analysis. Additionally, the results were confirmed using fluorescence spectrometry as an optical detection method. Finally, this simple and efficient colorimetric platform was used for facile metal ions detection in human urine models, and environmental fluids, which can provide a commercial device for sensing contaminants by non-professional users in biomedical/environmental mixture. As an economical technique, this platform presents a "mix-and-sense" system without dye (as a side substance) or chemical treatments. The low instrumental requirements, the color uniformity, and the disposability of OD- μ PADs approve the commercial application of the engineered ion-chemosensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ports are essential and strategic nodes of international trade and economic activities. The integration of port resources helps enhance the optimal division of port functions to further promote economic development. This paper explores the evolutionary trends of port integration policy from 2011 to 2021 in China through a text-mining approach. We first used the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic analysis method to analyze the port integration policies and summarize the evolutionary trends of port policies. In addition, an association analysis was conducted to explore port integration policies' impacts by examining their relationships among the environmental protection, digitalization level, and port development scale. Our findings suggested that China's port integration policy has evolved from specific and simple to abstract and complicated at the managerial level. Port development has enriched from infrastructure construction to the ideology of economic development. Our findings show that China's port integration is gradually improving the port operation. The findings of the study contribute to the extant literature by analyzing the port integration policy evolution in China and can be referred to by other countries. • Text mining method was used to explore the port integration policy evolution. • Port integration policy evolved from specific and simple to abstract and complicated. • Port development enriched from basic infrastructure to the governance model. • The evolution of port integration policy was related to reducing carbon emissions in the port sector. • The evolution of port integration policy made the ports intelligent in association with digital technology such as big data and AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A distribution dynamics approach is employed to examine the converge of TFEE across Chinese PAA level cities. • The findings show a clear convergence in TFEE. • Convergence comes more from efficiency drops in high TFEE cities than from efficiency gains in low TFEE cities. • The environmental protection polices in key cities improved energy efficiency. • Large-sized cities show better performance in energy efficiency than small- and medium-sized cities. Improving energy efficiency is considered the most direct route to reducing carbon emissions on a massive scale. To examine the long-run trend of China's energy efficiency, this paper employs a distribution dynamics approach to analyze the convergence of total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) across 286 Chinese cities between 2002 and 2014. The result suggests the existence of convergence, which comes more from the efficiency declines in the high TFEE cities rather than the efficiency gains in the low TFEE cities. Despite the fact that a few cities have performed well in energy efficiency, the majority of cities have converged to a low-efficiency point. Further analyses show that the inefficiency was attributed to inefficient energy use in small- and medium-sized cities. Our analysis provides strong scientific support for China's ongoing energy conservation and environmental protection policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of significant environmental changes, the urgency of adopting green innovation has become increasingly apparent as a central mechanism for adjusting industrial structures in China. This transition serves not only as a crucial way to address pressing environmental challenges, but also as a fundamental strategy to improve the ecological efficiency of urban areas. Existing research mainly keeps a close eye on the unidirectional relationship between variables such as technological innovation and environmental protection. There is less relevant literature that has researched the cointegration relationship among green innovation, industrial structure, and eco-efficiency of cities. The essential role of green innovation and industrial structure in reaching a higher eco-efficiency of city are discussed in this research and the relationship among these three variables are analyzed by the evidence from cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The fact that the variables are cointegrated in the long run is evidenced by the results for the full sample. The sub-sample results report that in the eastern region, green innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and industrial structure rationalization could improve urban eco-efficiency. However, in Midwest regions where economic development is relatively backward, green innovation's effect on urban eco-efficiency is not in a significant positive way. The results obtained in this paper have implications for different cities in China to formulate corresponding policies on green innovation, industrial structure, and urban eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realizing environmental protection and employment stability when facing strict environmental regulations is an essential issue of concern for many developing countries, including China. Based on a dataset of Chinese listed companies and a dataset of Chinese individual labor-force surveys, this paper uses an estimation technique pairing propensity score matching with a difference-in-differences estimator to examine the impact of the new Environmental Protection Law (EPL) on the supply and demand of labor at the micro level and the reallocation effect of interindustry labor at the macro level. The results show that the new EPL generated employment losses at the micro level. The policy reduces firms' labor demand by lowering firms' output and total investment expenditures and, in the process, does not stimulate firms' innovative behavior. Moreover, implementing the new EPL reduces the wage income of workers, which in turn reduces the labor supply. Conversely, at the macro level, the new EPL promotes the transfer of labor from polluting to cleaner industries, realizes the reallocation of labor between industries, and thus promotes the transformation and upgrading of regional industrial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A review with over 300 references on the utilization of challenging ashes. • Metal and phosphorus recovery from different ashes was addressed. • The key beneficial properties of biomass and MSW ashes were identified. In line with the objectives of the circular economy, the conversion of waste streams to useful and valuable side streams is a central goal. Ash represents one of the main industrial side-products, and using ashes in other than the present landfilling applications is, therefore, a high priority. This paper reviews the properties and utilization of ashes of different biomass power plants and waste incinerations, with a focus on the past decade. Possibilities for ash utilization are of uttermost importance in terms of circular economy and disposal of landfills. However, considering its applicability, ash originating from the heat treatment of chemically complex fuels, such as biomass and waste poses several challenges such as high heavy metal content and the presence of toxic and/or corrosive species. Furthermore, the physical properties of the ash might limit its usability. Nevertheless, numerous studies addressing the utilization possibilities of challenging ash in various applications have been carried out over the past decade. This review, with over 300 references, surveys the field of research, focusing on the utilization of biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW) ashes. Also, metal and phosphorus recovery from different ashes is addressed. It can be concluded that the key beneficial properties of the ash types addressed in this review are based on their i) alkaline nature suitable for neutralization reactions, ii) high adsorption capabilities to be used in CO 2 capture and waste treatment, and iii) large surface area and appropriate chemical composition for the catalyst industry. Especially, ashes rich in Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 have proven to be promising alternative catalysts in various industrial processes and as precursors for synthetic zeolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, as ecological challenges continue to rise, the importance of environmental monitoring and conservation cannot be overstated. These efforts play a vital role in countering the adverse impacts of human activities on our planet. The development of predictive models that can accurately predict the results of different conservation measures is essential for the success of these conservation efforts. This paper's objective is to create a Machine Learning (ML) model that predicts how environmental changes can unfold. This prediction helps in proactive monitoring and conservation planning, considering factors like deforestation, air pollution, sea level rise, temperature shifts, and forest preservation. The model relies on machine learning techniques, including AdaBoost, ETS, Prophet, SARIMA, LightGBM, and TL-BLSTM models, to analyze data, uncover trends, and inform decision-making. By offering a thorough assessment of the effects of conservation approaches, this model aids in shaping well-informed decisions regarding the distribution of resources. As a result, this process strengthens initiatives designed to protect biodiversity and the Earth's natural resources. Predicting changes in environmental variables is the main goal of this research, which will improve effective environmental management. In order to draw conclusions that are meaningful, this study compares several models for each of the four crucial factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shortage of fossil energy and the aggravation of environmental pollution have led to stricter requirements for energy conservation and environmental protection of automobiles. The development of new energy vehicles still needs time and space. The internal combustion engine is still the power source that automobiles will need to rely on in the future. Lean combustion is one of the key research directions for efficient and clean combustion technology for gasoline engines. In this paper, the effects of high-energy ignition coupling hydrogen blending on the combustion stability of lean-burn gasoline engines were studied by means of multi-point high-energy ignition and gasoline/hydrogen double direct injection. Through the combination of gasoline and hydrogen injection timing, a suitable stratified mixture can be formed in the cylinder. Combined with high-energy ignition, the fire core can be formed smoothly, and the flame spreads rapidly. The introduction of hydrogen increases the concentration of H in the reaction system, enhances the activity of the reaction system, and accelerates the oxidation process of fuel molecules. Compared with a pure gasoline engine, hydrogen blending can expand the lean burn limit by 66.2% and increase ITE (Indicated Thermal Efficiency) by 6.5%. NO x emission increases first and then decreases with the increase in excess air ratio, but when λ > 1.6, NO x emission is much lower than that of the equivalence ratio condition. HC (Hydrocarbons), CO, and CO 2 emissions are also lower than the equivalent ratio conditions. • Multi-point high-energy ignition with three spark plugs. • Gasoline and hydrogen double direct injection to achieve lean combustion. • Effects on combustion and emission of lean burn gasoline engine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research applies design thinking to craft a prototype for a digital participation strategy that boosts the ability of Colombian communities to protect natural ecosystems. It delves into modern digital involvement trends related to environmental sustainability and examines the roles of AI and blockchain in ensuring transparency and accountability. The paper also touches on community-driven methods for sustainable management, highlighting approaches like adaptive and landscape-based co-management that incorporate citizen science and collaborative engagement. The research is rooted in participatory methods, co-creating the empathy map and prototype with the community of Villavicencio, Colombia, and the research team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to explore how environmental protection expenditures (EPE) affect innovation and investigate the potential causal relationship between the two variables. The novelty and main contribution of our paper to the literature stems from the fact that we look at total environmental protection expenditures from both the public and private sectors, and distinguishing between corporations and households in the private sectors. We also consider both inputs and outputs of innovation and address potential endogeneity issues in this relationship, which are both lacking in the current literature. Using a panel of EU countries over the period 2006–2020, this study generally finds a positive impact of EPE on innovation after controlling for the effects of trade, credit, education and inflation on innovation, and using the System GMM estimator to treat endogeneity. Moreover, EPE from the government sector drives the bulk of this positive impact. The core results are robust to alternative measures of innovation, alternative estimation techniques that address endogeneity (i.e., the Lewbel 2SLS, Mundlak, and Hausman-Taylor estimators) and the moderation effects of Climate Change Performance (CCPI). This study also provides a useful guide to policy makers engaged in environmental planning. • We evaluate the impact of environmental protection expenditures (EPE) on innovation in mainly EU countries. • We use longitudinal dataset for the group of EU countries over the period 2006–2020. • We find a positive impact of EPE on innovation. • The results are robust for observable heterogeneity, alternative measures of innovation and estimation techniques. • This study provides a useful guide to policy makers engaged in environmental planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies examines how a firm's position in the global value chain affects its pollutant emissions. This paper integrates China's firm-level trade data into China's multi-regional input-output tables to provide an index to measure a firm's position in global value chains. Based on a firm-level pollution dataset (2000–2014) in China, this paper conducts an empirical analysis and find that the most-downstream firms on the global value chain have lower pollutant emission intensity. Our results also suggest that the production factor structure effect, the knowledge absorption effect and the abatement investment effect together contribute to the emission intensity gap between the most-upstream firms and the most-downstream firms. These novel results are significant in guiding firms towards reducing their emissions and promoting a green global value chain, with the ultimate goal of achieving multinational environmental protection. [Display omitted] • The most-downstream firms have lower pollutant emission intensity. • A supply chain disruption shock is used as an instrumental variable. • Factor structure, knowledge absorption and abatement investment are channels. • Effects on firms with diverse ownership and trade patterns are heterogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing global energy demand and limited production of conventional crude oil, the extraction of unconventional heavy and extra-heavy oil is receiving unprecedented attention. China is the fourth largest producer of heavy oil. High viscosity and complex formation environments increase the difficulty of exploiting heavy oil. To alleviate the economic cost and environmental pollution pressure brought by heavy oil production, China has achieved significant advancement in the innovation of heavy oil recovery, including accelerating the transformation of thermal technology to non-thermal technology and the use of new energy technology to achieve the goal of low-carbon economy and green environmental protection. Based on the background of heavy oil in China, this paper recharacterizes the high-viscosity mechanism of heavy oil. From different aspects, including basic principles, main characteristics, applicability, limitations, and challenges, this paper comprehensively reviews existing heavy oil recovery technologies, including thermal recovery, in-situ upgrading, cold recovery, and new energy technologies. Currently, in China, the main target of heavy oil recovery is achieving the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" goals, which can be described as low energy consumption, low emission, and low pollution. To facilitate the low-carbon transition in the extraction of heavy/extra-heavy oil and attain environmental sustainability goals, it is essential to increase the proportion of non-thermal factors in thermal recovery technologies, develop efficient in-situ catalysts, adopt clean cold extraction techniques, and advance the development of new energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Combined with the daily operation mode of WPC, the operation mechanism of wind-pumped storage-thermal integrated energy system with integrated consideration of PSPS and WPC is proposed. The operational decision-making of pumped storage units is designed from the viewpoint of giving full play to the regulation performance of pumped storage and enhancing wind power accommodation. • The wind-pumped storage-thermal generation is arranged according to the principle of energy-saving power generation scheduling, considering the scheduling sequence. The complementary characteristics of wind-pumped storage-thermal are fully utilized to coordinate the safety, economy and environmental protection of the system in the implementation of the multi-objective optimization. • In terms of model solving, this paper adopts inter-temporal coupling unit combination optimization to reduce the computational complexity. In adherence to the overall energy-saving principle, the sorting index is considered and the priority ranking method is used in the start-stop optimization process of thermal power units. Then, the load allocation is optimized by the improved NSGA-II algorithm. With the rapid access of wind power clusters (WPC), it is difficult for the traditional active scheduling mode to take into account the security, economy and environmental protection of the power system. Pumped storage power station (PSPS), with its flexible regulation characteristics, can reduce the volatility of wind power and enhance the capacity of wind power accommodation to a certain extent. Therefore, this paper proposes an environmental and economic scheduling strategy for the wind-pumped storage-thermal integrated energy system, and rationally arranges the sequence of the units based on the principle of energy saving and emission reduction. The scheduling strategy involves optimizing operational decision-making for pumped storage units to enhance their regulation performance. Firstly, a pre-scheduling of the wind-pumped storage bundling system is carried out, aiming at achieving the highest wind power accommodation rate, the smallest output fluctuation and the lowest pumped storage scheduling cost. Next, the joint scheduling of the wind-pumped storage-thermal system is carried out, and the priority ranking method is used to arrange the generation schedule of the thermal units according to the optimal wind-pumped storage joint output. Finally, the proposed environmental-economic scheduling model is solved by the improved NSGA-II algorithm to verify the effectiveness of the scheduling strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Integrated dataset of major ions and trace elements for Nepal Himalayan rivers basin. • Rock weathering is the primary factor controlling ion concentrations. • Anthropogenic impacts become significant in densely populated lowland basins. • Water in most rivers is safe for drinking, except for densely polluted urban Bagmati. • A uniform and comparable Himalayan Water Quality Index is proposed. Rivers originating from the Himalayas play a crucial role as primary water sources for a significant proportion of the population in Asia downstream. This paper presents a comprehensive synthesis of hydrogeochemical data, incorporating major ions and trace elements from 153 papers spanning 2000 to 2023, with a detailed analysis of 20 papers specific to Nepal Himalayan rivers. To bridge the research gap due to sparse data, we aimed to enhance inclusivity by amalgamating both seasonal and one-time datasets, computing mean values for singular instances, and employing grand means for multiple seasonal data points. Our findings highlight varied research attention across different river basins, with the eastern Koshi Basin receiving extensive attention, while the middle Gandaki and Bagmati Basins garner moderate attention, and data scarcity observed in the western Karnali Basin. Predominant ionic composition, notably Ca2+ and HCO 3 –, reflect lithological influences, primarily driven by rock weathering. Although anthropogenic impacts remain minimal in most basins, certain lowland areas with higher population densities exhibit increasing significance. Trace element contamination, notably Cd, Cu, Sr, and Zn, poses ongoing threats, both from natural and anthropogenic sources. Water quality assessments conducted for agricultural and drinking suitability indicated good status, except in the densely polluted urban Bagmati stem. Health and ecological risks are low, as determined by pollution indices such as Pi, NPI, HI, and CI. The Bagmati River's middle segment, with high population density and moderate agricultural activity, shows pronounced anthropogenic footprints, while downstream areas exhibited greater impacts. Additionally, this article proposes the potential use of a Water Quality Index tool to comprehensively assess water quality across all parameters in Himalayan water bodies, providing a roadmap for future environmental conservation in the Himalayas. This pioneering review represents a significant effort to understand Himalayan rivers geochemistry on a large geographical scale and emphasizes the need for integrated observation and consideration of river water quality across the entire Himalayan region, from high mountains to lowlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection and sustainable development are now profoundly ingrained in the public consciousness in the modern era of the global green revolution. First, this paper uses an evolutionary game model to theoretically analyse the impact of environmental regulation and green finance on enterprises by dissecting the game behaviour between local governments, banks and enterprises. Then, we incorporate entrepreneurial spirit into the model to determine whether entrepreneurial spirit accelerates the achievement of green sustainability objectives. Environmental regulation and green finance are found to contribute substantially to the innovation of green technologies by local enterprises, while entrepreneurial spirit accelerates this process. Finally, we empirically test the findings based on a prefecture-level panel dataset from 2007 to 2020. We find that green finance has a positive impact in Central and Western cities of China, while Eastern cities are in greater need for government environmental regulation controls. For entrepreneurial spirit, the incentive effect of entrepreneurial spirit on the level of green technology innovation is more significant in Central and Western regions of China. This paper enriches the field of research on entrepreneurial spirit and regional green sustainable development by providing empirical evidence for the evaluation of environmental regulatory and green financing policy impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the growing emphasis on green packing, e-commerce businesses actively pursue sustainable solutions that balance cost reduction with environmental conservation. Traditional research on three-dimensional bin packing has concentrated on maximizing spatial utilization under fixed box dimensions. However, in the practical context of e-commerce, packing boxes exhibit a wide range of sizes within a single warehouse. Customizing packing to prevent material and space wastage has become crucial for sustainable development. This paper innovates traditional three-dimensional packing research by introducing open dimensions instead of fixed ones. It addresses challenges in e-commerce packing, such as multiple orders and diverse bin shapes, to formulate a mixed-integer programming model. Focused on the carbon emission lifecycle's usage phase for packing boxes, the model aims to minimize associated costs while ensuring that items' weight, the center of gravity, sufficient support, and non-overlapping placement are maintained during the packing process. It also incorporates one-dimensional and two-dimensional fixed bin sizes. To solve this model, the paper proposes an improved hybrid genetic algorithm for stack sequence optimization. This algorithm systematically optimizes the dimensions for each box type. Building upon this, the study introduces an algorithm capable of estimating packing material consumption and the percentage reduction in carbon emissions during the packing process, given the known variability in packing box utilization. These two algorithms are integrated into an open-dimension packing box warehouse management ecological closed loop system designed for the B2B e-commerce context. In experiments with the proposed model and algorithms, the results demonstrate an average packing rate improvement of 10%–12% compared to alternative methods. Additionally, packing material consumption and carbon emissions are reduced by approximately 16.56%–19.85%, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed approach. • Open dimension model boosts green e-commerce packing efficiency. • Stacking algorithm lifts space use up to 12%. • Material and emissions cut 16%–20% on space gains. • Eco warehouse system enables box reuse and material recycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A multi-objective model is proposed, which contains both the cost and carbon emission objectives. The sizing of the grid-connected converter is included. The carbon emission of the power from the grid is considered. The model can comprehensively describe the requirements of LVDC systems in the economy and environmental protection. • This paper considers the effect of EVs on the sizing of LVDC systems. Both the charging and discharging of EVs are fully used to reach better sizing and operation for the system. • A minimum fuzzy carbon emission method (MFCEM) is given to transform the multi-objective into a single objective. Compared with the linear weighting method, MFCEM is a useful method for finding a point on the Pareto front that balances cost and carbon emissions. Grid-connected low-voltage direct current (LVDC) systems offer a promising solution for achieving low-carbon buildings. However, a new challenge arises in sizing grid-connected LVDC systems, which is to fully utilize distributed renewable energy, energy storage, and load demand response to minimize both the economy and carbon emissions. To address this gap, this paper studies the sizing of grid-connected LVDC systems, considering the grid-connected converter, photovoltaic (PV), battery, and demand response of electric vehicles (EVs). Firstly, two objective functions are proposed, including the economy and carbon emissions. Secondly, constraints for sizing and operation are presented, with particular consideration given to the discharging of EVs and the corresponding cost of cycle-life loss. Finally, a minimum fuzzy carbon emission method (MFCEM) is proposed to solve the model, which can adaptively and objectively transform the multi-objective into a single objective. According to the case study, the proposed model comprehensively considers the cost and carbon emissions of grid-connected LVDC systems, and its feasibility and validity are verified. Compared with the linear weighting method, MFCEM is a useful method for finding a point on the Pareto front that balances cost and carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-carbon transformation is the key to China's high-quality economic development. This paper uses the panel data of 278 Chinese cities to measure low-carbon total factor productivity (LCTFP) and examines the impact of environmental protection tax (EPT) reform on LCTFP. EPT significantly promotes LCTFP. The promotion effect is more significant in the lower administrative level and resource-based cities in central and western regions. EPT promotes LCTFP through three channels including green technology innovation (GTI) effect, industrial structure upgrading effect and forcing effect. EPT has a negative spatial spillover effect on LCTFP in neighboring areas. This paper provides important empirical evidence for further advancing the EPT in China. • EPT significantly promotes LCTFP. • The promotion effect is more significant in low administrative level and resource-based cities in central-western region. • EPT promotes LCTFP through green technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading and forcing effect. • EPT has a negative spatial spillover effect on LCTFP in neighboring areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) is produced through the single electron reduction of oxygen in organisms, playing a crucial role in cell signaling and maintaining internal stability. Exploring a simple yet effective method for real-time and quantitative detection of H 2 O 2 in living cells and actual samples holds immense significance. The use of nanocatalysts as sensing materials in the electrochemical detection method has garnered significant attention due to its operational simplicity, high sensitivity, cost-effectiveness, and easy miniaturization. This paper focuses on summarizing contemporary techniques for H 2 O 2 detection, particularly emphasizing electrochemical methods, and highlights significant advancements in electrochemical detection of H 2 O 2 nanomaterials, providing insights into future developments. • Introducing the current methodologies for H 2 O 2 detecting. • Providing a comprehensive overview of non-enzyme nanocatalysts designed for electrochemical H 2 O 2 detection. • Exploring the prospects in the realm of electrochemical detection using non-enzyme catalysts. With the progression of society, an increasing emphasis on physical well-being and environmental safety has driven extensive research into technologies closely aligned with human health and environmental protection. Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2), a representative reactive oxygen species (ROS), serves as one of the products resulting from the single electron reduction of oxygen in organisms, playing a crucial role in cell signaling and maintaining internal stability. Relevant alterations of H 2 O 2 concentrations have been implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases, including diabetes and cancer. Moreover, the utilization of H 2 O 2 is widely prevalent in various industries including chemical, pharmaceutical, and food sectors. However, the repetitive or uncontrolled utilization of H 2 O 2 engenders deleterious implications for human well-being and environmental integrity. Therefore, there is immense significance in exploring a simple yet effective method for real-time and quantitative detection of H 2 O 2 in living cells and actual samples. The use of nanocatalysts as sensing materials in the electrochemical detection method has garnered significant attention from researchers due to their operational simplicity, high sensitivity, cost-effectiveness, and facile miniaturization. However, there remains a dearth of comprehensive reviews on the electrochemical detection of H 2 O 2 utilizing nanomaterials. In this paper, we focus on summarizing contemporary techniques for H 2 O 2 detection with a specific emphasis on electrochemical detection methods, and highlighting the significant advancements in the field of electrochemical detection of H 2 O 2 nanomaterials while also providing insights into future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues are closely related to the economic development of human society, and reducing environmental pollution during production is of great significance for environmental protection. This paper utilizes data from Chinese industrial enterprises (2001–2010), and establishes a fixed effects model to examine whether minimum wage standards are important in reducing non-clean energy consumption by enterprises. The results indicate that an increase in the monthly minimum wage leads to a significant reduction in coal consumption by firms, while the change in the hourly minimum wage do not exert a statistically significant influence on coal consumption by firms. The above empirical results remain robust after conducting a series of endogeneity tests. The mechanism test shows that innovation and exports serve as mediating variables between the minimum wage and coal consumption. Specifically, raising the minimum wage can incentivize enterprises to innovate in production and expand their exports, resulting in a decrease in the consumption of non-clean energy. Finally, through the heterogeneity test, we observe that increases in the minimum wage have varying effects on coal consumption among firms with different numbers of employees and different ages. Based on the research findings of this paper, we propose that the government should comprehensively consider and improve relevant systems, formulate scientifically-based minimum wage standards, take into account both workers' rights and interests as well as enterprises' profits, actively promote energy transformation in enterprises, and ultimately achieve long-term development of the social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data of 11 provinces in the western region of China, the paper empirically analyzes the influence of public environmental participation on the effectiveness of pollution governance. Based on documents from provincial governments in Western China, the paper uses Nvivo software to extract keywords about local governments' attention to the environment and examines its mediating effect between public environmental participation and pollution governance. Furthermore, a classifiable analysis of government environmental attention is carried out, and the effect of local governments' attention to the environment on pollution governance is studied. The results show that public environmental participation promotes pollution governance by increasing the governments' attention to the environment. Additionally, local governments' environmental attention also has a promotive effect on pollution governance, and the increase in environmental decision-makers' attention to environmental pollution and energy consumption is conducive to the improvement of environmental quality, but the effect of environmental protection and collaborative attention on environmental quality improvement still needs to be explored further. • Local governments' attention to the environment is estimated. • Public environmental participation promotes pollution governance. • Local Governments' Environmental Attention plays mediating role. • Local Governments' Environmental Attention has a promotive effect on environmental quality. • The effect of collaborative attention on environmental quality improvement still needs to be explored further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited cycling life and outdated recycling modes will inevitably cause an explosive surge in spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The recycling and reutilization of these spent LIBs play a vital role in environmental conservation and resource circulation. In recent years, deep eutectic solvents (DESs), recognized as green solvents, have attracted the public's attention for their outstanding environmental friendliness, recyclability, tunability, and ability to dissolve metal oxides, which has resulted in significant practical value in the realm of recycling spent LIBs, offering enormous economic feasibility for the large-scale recovery and utilization of spent LIBs. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of recycling technologies within the recent DESs system, focusing on the separation of cathode active materials (CAMs) and current collectors, as well as the extraction of metals from CAMs. Firstly, this review systematically expounds on the distinctions in the separation principles of DESs when separating CAMs and current collectors. Secondly, the leaching system is preliminarily categorized, considering the composition of DESs. It methodically delineates and compares the advantages, challenges, and leaching mechanisms of different DES leaching systems from perspectives on viscosity, acidity, reducibility, and coordination ability. On this basis, a preliminary proposal for an efficient, low-cost, green, and sustainable spent LIBs recycling process under the DESs system is introduced, offering a reference for improving spent LIBs recycling technology under the DESs system. Finally, the current challenges of DESs in recycling spent LIBs are discussed, and relevant suggestions for the future direction in this field are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recycling waste is one of the main methods of sustainable design concept, which can reduce resource consumption and thus create eco-friendly products. Traditional green design has focused on the recycling of waste and the extension of the life cycle of product materials. Some scholars also consider emotional Customer Requirements (CRs) in eco-friendly products, but prioritize appearance over environmental function innovation. The rapid development of internet technology has enabled the proliferation of online product reviews, which can be analyzed to inform eco-innovative product design that meets CRs. Based on the CRs extracted from online reviews, this paper proposes an eco-innovative product design method that aims to recycle waste and meet emotional CRs. Firstly, online reviews are extracted using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and CRs for environmental protection functions, appearance, human-computer interaction, and service experience are summarized by integrating sustainable design concepts and emotional design theories. Secondly, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) is utilized to suggest targeted solutions for core CRs, innovating product function modules and usage. Thirdly, the combination of Kansei Engineering (KE) and the Interactive Genetic Algorithm (IGA) is utilized for appearance design. Lastly, the research process is explained using the proposed method, with the example of a coffee maker's design, and its effectiveness and practicality are verified. The proposed method aims to recycle waste, optimize resource utilization, achieve environmental protection goals, and provide innovative approaches for advancing the circular economy. Additionally, this method prioritizes environmental sustainability and considers emotional CRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freshwater resources are becoming increasingly scarce. In the context of environmental protection, desalination using solar energy has been one of the most reliable ways to solve the freshwater shortage problem. Solar desalination systems mainly include solar stills and solar interface evaporators, which are driven by solar energy. However, the efficiency of desalination systems is limited by the intermittent and unstable nature of solar radiation. The introduction of phase change materials (PCMs) with latent heat storage capability to overcome the defect has been widely studied. This paper focuses on typical research progress in PCMs integrated solar desalination systems. It analyzes the performance evaluation systems and influence of various factors on the performance of PCMs integrated solar desalination systems. These include the choice of PCMs, the design of the structures and the integration of different systems. Lastly, the challenges faced by integrating PCMs in solar desalination systems are presented, providing references for subsequent researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of green energy technologies to supply berthed ships in ports with the necessary power instead of using their diesel generators is considered an initiative towards sustainability and climate change mitigation. Therefore, the current paper investigates the implementation of solar panels, offshore wind turbines, and hydrogen fuel cell systems as green technologies to supply the berthed ships with power in three Egyptian ports. The power requirements are determined by analyzing the annual ship traffic data and estimating the energy demand for each ship type. As a relevant result, the annual energy demand for ships berthed in Alexandria, Damietta, and Safaga ports is about 44.2 × 103 MWh, 22 × 103 MWh, and 5.6 × 103 MWh, respectively. The analysis results reveal a potential annual carbon dioxide reduction of 31.7 k-tons, 15.7 k-tons, and 4.2 k-tons in Alexandria, Damietta, and Safaga ports, respectively. From an economic perspective, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of solar panels is estimated to be 80.7–90.1 $/MWh, while hydrogen fuel cells have a cost of 166.8–172 $/MWh. On the other hand, LCOE in the case of wind turbines is estimated to be 140.8 $/MWh for Alexandria ports, 178.3 $/MWh for Damietta port, and 103.9 $/MWh for Safaga port. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Review of green finance (GF) and green innovation (GI) as catalysts for circularity. • Conceptual framework to explore the potential circularity and environmental benefits. • Future research directions to understand the pathway for GF and GI in carbon neutrality field. • Effective involvement of different stakeholders in the implementation of GF and GI. There is growing attention from governments and regulators towards crucial matters such as climate change and global warming, resulting in a pressing need to investigate the factors that make it possible for businesses to engage in green finance (GF). The externality of environmental pollution prioritizes the need of green innovation (GI) in public management. GF distributes financial resources to the research and development (R&D) of clean energy and environmentally friendly goods and processes; it is complementary to the GI process for environmental protection. GF policies help to alleviate the impacts of financial constraints and GI impaired industries involving new products, processes, services and the global market. To better understand how GF and GI have functioned as a catalyst for circular economy practices, this paper seeks to present a historical and contemporary overview of these concepts. The research is thoroughly dissected by a systematic literature evaluation of articles from 2016 to 2023 that appear in peer-reviewed journals and are indexed in the SCOPUS database. To attain supply chain circularity, this article encompasses four major research themes concerning the adoption of GF and green technologies. The research also includes a network analysis of shortlisted articles to examine the overall citation trends. It is shown that several institutional theories are associated with the investigated area. As a final step, a framework is provided to illustrate how GF and GIs might be used to achieve supply chain circularity. The research findings provide a novel concept related to GF within the context of GI which are significant for environmentalists, policymakers, green investors, and researchers. Through its findings, the study provides a conceptual framework that promotes sustainable strategies to effectively balance financial considerations and environmental innovation. It helps to leverage the potential of green research and practice to create value for businesses and to benefit society at large. The analysis provides an unexplored and significant contribution to current literature in terms of delivering evidence of the past and present approaches to GF and GI in a circular economy. The results of this study will attract the attention of policymakers and stakeholders to develop and combine the two concepts in research and practice to attain environmental balance in the circular economy and to promote long term sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central environmental protection inspection is an institutional innovation in China that aims to supervise enterprises by monitoring government environmental enforcement. This paper examines the effectiveness of central environmental protection inspection in improving enterprise environmental performance by using a quasi-natural experiment of the first round of central environmental protection inspection. The study reveals that the central environmental protection inspection improves enterprise environmental performance by strengthening local government environmental enforcement and environmental attention. This is evidenced by the increase in enterprise environmental capital expenditure and the decrease in pollution discharge fees. The impact of central environmental protection inspection on enterprise environmental performance is strengthened by local governments' environmental regulation and environmental fiscal expenditure, as well as by public participation. Under the pressure of central environmental protection inspection, heavily polluting enterprises engage in production process improvement and R&D investment, which can improve their economic performance. This can ultimately lead to a competitive advantage for enterprises, promoting a win-win situation for both environmental and economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of sustainability and environmental conservation is on the rise, garnering increasing attention from customers, businesses, industries, and regulatory authorities. To foster sustainable manufacturing practices, this research paper presents a comprehensive framework that integrates synergistic elements such as rework strategies, green technology, and carbon control policies. Imperfect quality items are being considered in the model which are proposed to be dealt with a dual approach: either salvaging or reworking them. The study also investigates the impact of carbon control policies on the manufacturing industry, focusing on sustainability and the equilibrium between environmental protection and economic growth. These policies aim to regulate carbon emissions by imposing penalties or incentives, thus encouraging companies to adopt practices that reduce their carbon footprint. Furthermore, investing in green technology offers environmental benefits, cost savings, a competitive advantage, and regulatory compliance. It helps in carbon reduction through which organizations can assess their cleaner practices and environmental efforts. The objective of the developed model is to maximize the expected profit by optimizing selling price, green investment, and production quantity. Analysis of the numerical results of the proposed study is being provided to demonstrate its validity and reliability. Results demonstrated that the utilization of the rework process yields superior outcomes compared to the scenario without rework. A closer evaluation reveals that the limited carbon policy with the rework process leads to significantly diminished levels of carbon emissions and augmented profitability in contrast to alternative policies. Importantly, this approach exhibits a remarkable 2.13% higher economic efficiency and an impressive 37.10% greater adherence to environmentally sustainable practices, thus highly favoring the adoption of such strategies. Consequently, the manufacturing industry can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while promoting economic growth and profitability through the implementation of carbon control policies and investment in green technology, particularly in conjunction with rework processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Asian air pollutants exert substantial effect on the climate and environment change over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). This paper investigates the trans-boundary transport of PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and O 3 from South Asia to the TP via WRF-Chem sensitive analysis. It is found that PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and O 3 over South Asia are mainly sourced from anthropogenic sources. South Asian emissions contribute up to 54% of PM 10 (PM 2.5) in the TP in the pre-monsoon season. For O 3 , the highest contribution of 18.13% is in the monsoon season, while the lowest contribution of 8.67% is in the winter season. To evaluate the respective contributions of anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions in South Asia to PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and O 3 in the TP, anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions in South Asia are considered separately. The results show that the largest percentage contribution of PM 10 (PM 2.5) from South Asian anthropogenic emissions to PM 10 (PM 2.5) in the TP with value of 35.86% (37.77%) occurs in winter, while the lowest percentage contribution of 16.52% (16.77%) appears in the monsoon season. For O 3 , the largest contribution of 17.74% from South Asian anthropogenic emissions appears in the monsoon season, whereas the lowest contribution of 8.59% occurs in winter. Compared to the anthropogenic emissions, the biomass burning emissions in South Asia have a relative less contribution to PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and O 3 in the TP. The largest contribution of PM 10 (PM 2.5) from South Asian biomass burning emissions to PM 10 (PM 2.5) in the TP is 20.04% (18.37%) in the pre-monsoon season. Conversely, the lowest contribution of 0.58% (0.53) appears in the monsoon season. O 3 from South Asian biomass burning emissions contributes <1% to O 3 in the TP in each season, implying that the biomass burning emissions in South Asia have little effect on O 3 in the TP. This study is of great significance to the ecological environment protection for the TP. • Contributions of South Asian emissions to PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and O 3 in the TP are quantified. • Anthropogenic emissions in South Asia have a larger contribution to PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and O 3 in the TP. • O 3 from South Asian biomass burning emissions contributes <1% to O 3 in the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, the Chinese government set ultra-low emission standards for thermal power to alleviate the pressure of increasing total pollutants from energy demand. This paper analyzes the policy effect of ultra-low emission in different regions based on panel data of 1202 thermal power enterprises, and the results of hierarchical linear model show that the total amount of air pollutants emitted by thermal power enterprises showed a decreasing trend during 2017–2021, realizing the dual control of concentration and total amount. Due to the differences in primary energy structure, industrial structure and economic development level of different regions, the total emission reduction of thermal power pollutants is affected differently. First, the proportion of the region's secondary industry in the region's GDP is negatively correlated with the decrease of the total pollutant emission of local thermal power enterprises. Second, the higher the per capita GDP of the region, the more significant the decrease in the total amount of pollutants, economic development is conducive to pollutant emission reduction. Third, the higher the proportion of thermal power in local energy, the more obvious the reduction of total pollutant emissions of thermal power enterprises, indicating that the implementation of ultra-low emission policies in these regions is more thorough. In addition, the environmental protection tax plays a positive role in the total emission reduction, and the higher the sulfur dioxide tax rate, the more significant the reduction of total pollutants of thermal power enterprises. To further reduce the total amount of pollutants in thermal power, more coordinated efforts of environmental and economic policies are needed. [Display omitted] • The ultra-low emission policy can achieve dual control of pollutants. • The total pollutant emission reduction has obvious regional differences. • Environmental protection tax can reduce the total amount of pollutants. • The coordinated emission reduction of different pollutants is not obvious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-utilization of waste tires (WT) and agricultural and forestry residues (AFR) provides an effective means to produce energy while simultaneously providing solution for waste treatment and environment protection. In this paper, co-pyrolysis of WT and AFR (cotton stalk, CS, peanut shell, PS, and poplar branch, PB) was performed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), and pyrolyzer coupled with gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (Py-GC/MS). The synergistic effects of mass loss rate and hydrocarbon content were quantified from the results of co-pyrolysis of WT with CS, PS, or PB with the weighted average of individual pyrolysis of the feedstocks. The results showed that the mass loss rate of WT with CS, PS, or PB in co-pyrolysis increased by 3.06 %, 3.84 %, and 0.61 %, respectively, compared to the weighted average of individual pyrolysis, while the hydrocarbon content increased by 19.20 %, 18.26 % and 2.97 %, respectively. The addition of AFR to WT made the pyrolysis easier. In co-pyrolysis, the amount of O-compounds decreased while that of hydrocarbons (aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic hydrocarbons) increased. Co-pyrolysis of AFR and WT had an effect on reducing aromatic and nitrogen content. These results provide insights into the synergistic effects, from the products distribution and offer potential waste treatment method for these wastes via thermochemical conversion. [Display omitted] • Co-pyrolysis process enhanced thermal degradation of waste tires and biomass. • Functional groups of waste tires and biomass were analyzed using FTIR. • Synergistic effects of mass loss and hydrocarbon were quantified in co-pyrolysis. • Aliphatic hydrocarbon was the main product using Py-GC/MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synchronous removal of soot particles and NO x using high-performance catalysts is a research hotspot in the catalytic purification of diesel engine exhaust. In this paper, glucose is used as a complexing agent to successfully prepare a series of praseodymium and/or potassium doped La–Ni-based perovskite catalysts. The La 0.9 Pr 0.05 K 0. 05 NiO 3 catalyst exhibits the best catalytic performance when NO 2 is present in the environment, with values of T 10 , T 50 , and T 90 at 287, 331, and 361 °C, respectively. The CO 2 selectivity reaches over 98% and has good thermal stability. Through characterization experiments, it was found that the co-doping of Pr and K can lead to the formation of oxygen vacancies by changing the valence state of Ni atoms, thereby increasing the adsorption and activation centers of reactive oxygen species, and enhancing the oxygen storage capacity of the catalyst through the redox cycle between Pr3+ and Pr4+. • A novel porous soot catalytic material was prepared using bimetallic doped perovskite. • Bimetal doping increases the active oxygen and oxygen vacancy contents of perovskite. • Conduct comprehensive tests on the characterization and properties of materials. • The prepared materials exhibit excellent catalytic and thermal stability performance. • The required materials for preparation are cheap and green. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of global warming and energy scarcity, regional integrated energy system (RIES) can effectively improve energy utilization efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. However, this leads to the increased complexity of the market transactions. To this end, based on the mixed game strategy, a multi-agent low-carbon optimal dispatch model of RIES is proposed in this paper. Firstly, to fully consider the low-carbon objective of the system, a reward and punishment ladder carbon trading mechanism and a ladder integrated demand response (IDR) model are developed. Then, the decision models of the energy management operator (EMO), multiple energy hub agents (EHAs) and the user load aggregator (ULA) are constructed respectively with the goal of economy, and carbon emission flows are introduced as constraints. The interactive trading process of various stakeholders is simulated by a mixed game with master-slave game nested bidding strategy. Finally, the economics and carbon emissions of the system in different scenarios are analyzed by examples, and the effectiveness of the proposed model is verified. Numerical simulation results show that the proposed method not only has good economic and low-carbon environmental protection benefits, but also ensures the interests of various stakeholders. • A multi-agent energy trading mechanism is proposed to realize low-carbon operation. • A ladder integrated demand respond model considering carbon compensation is developed. • A multi-agent optimization strategy based on mixed game is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting water quality data is an important measure for ecological environment protection in watersheds. Aiming at the problem that existing prediction algorithms rarely analyze the characteristics of future changes in water quality indicators, this paper proposes an out-of-sample prediction model for water quality parameters based on the dual-attention mechanism. The model adopts the Encoder-Decoder architecture to realize the prediction of data series, and combines the dual attention of dimension and time step to improve the prediction performance of out-of-sample data. The model is used to predict the water quality parameters of a multi-parameter river, analyze the trend of the out-of-sample data, and compare the prediction results with the traditional LSTM network and Encoder-Decoder LSTM network, the prediction accuracies of the water quality indicators are improved, and the prediction accuracy of the out-of-sample data of the water quality indicators reaches 80%. This will be of great significance to the comprehensive management of river waters and the high-quality development of ecological environment. • The model achieved out-of-sample prediction of water quality parameters and analyzed the future trend of the data. • Seq2Seq codec structure has been adopted to improve out-of-sample prediction performance. • A dual-attention mechanism has been created to assign weights in both time step and dimension simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the activities of signal molecule AI-2 in the sole fermentation of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and co-fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and L. plantarum were investigated. Co-fermentation of S. cerevisiae and L. plantarum was found to reduce L. plantarum to secrete AI-2. Three AI-2 quorum sensing inhibitors (DMHF (2,5-Dimethyl-4-hydroxy-3-(2H)-furanone), D-Rib (d -Ribose), and D-Gal (d -Galactosamine)) were added to the co-fermentation system to further interrupt the growth of L. plantarum. It was found that 0.2 g/L DMHF or 18.0 g/L D-Gal could mainly decrease the activity of AI-2 by 38 % and 36 %, respectively, and significantly inhibit the biofilm formation of L. plantarum. Moreover, the ethanol concentrations of the co-fermentation trials added with 0.2 g/L DMHF or 18.0 g/L D-Gal were 14 % and 103 % higher than that of the control, respectively, within 30 h of fermentation. This study provides basic data for the novel prevention of L. plantarum contamination in bioethanol production via quorum sensing control, which is meaningful for the environmental protection and the sustainable development of bioethanol industry. [Display omitted] • Co-fermentation of S. cerevisiae and L. plantarum reduced LAB to secrete AI-2. • Addition of DMHF and D-Gal reduced AI-2 activity and inhibited LAB biofilm formation. • Addition of DMHF and D-Gal significantly promoted ethanol production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ledong Sea Area is located on the southwest side of Hainan Island. In recent years, with the development of industrialization and urbanization, the problem of heavy metals in marine sediments has gradually become a global problem, and research on this topic is of great significance for nearshore environmental protection and coastal management. This paper analysed the heavy metal content of 97 surface sediments in the Ledong Sea, indicating unpolluted to moderately polluted and low to moderate risk. Cu, Zn, Hg, Pb, Cr, and Cd are highly correlated, with similar origins, and originate from rivers carrying industrial wastewater, domestic sewage, and weathered material from the parent rocks, which are subsequently redistributed under the action of ocean dynamics. The distribution of Hg is mainly influenced by feed and biological metabolites during the farming process. As originates from rivers carrying large amounts of agricultural pesticide and fertilizer residues. • The ocean hydrodynamics can redistribute heavy metal elements imported from rivers. • Coastal aquaculture is one of the main causes of heavy metal enrichment. • The study of heavy metal transport process is very important for pollution control measures. • The concentrations of heavy metals in the Ledong Sea area had little risk to Marine organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review would like to point out the state-of-art of the European legislation for the odour pollution determination and management. Odour is generated by a mixture of more or less volatile and persistent compounds that surround us in daily life. European directives impose the use of corresponding technical standards for the application of the limits imposed. The different approaches (chemicals and/or olfactometries) and integrated evaluation methods for measuring and characterizing odour, even if in a very different way in the European territories, will be reviewed and commented. Specifically, the authors will describe and comment the main procedures for odour concentration determination (e.g., multigas sensors, electronic sensors for odour monitoring). It is important to note that the definition of odour does not take into account if an odour is "good" or "bad", but only if it exists. The limit value must guarantee a total equivalent level of environmental protection and does not involve a greater polluting load in the environment. Further, a deep revision of the Italian situation in terms of legislation and studies, will complete the paper. [Display omitted] • State-of-art of the European legislation on odour pollution management. • Electronic-nose, multigas sensors and electronic sensors for odour determination. • Olfactometric/chemical approaches with meteo/orographic data allow to model air quality. • Reference rules issued by EU level for the olfactometric and chemical measurements. • Different procedures adopted and followed by the various countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water scarcity is a critical issue worldwide and has become a major constraint on socio-economic development. Seawater desalination is an appealing adaptation option in regions with access to the coast; however, it has sustainability challenges that require careful consideration. Two critical challenges are: how to manage the spectrum of potential adverse social and environmental impacts; and how to provide fair and sustainable water access benefits to the region as a whole. This paper presents a participatory modelling framework designed to support the participatory planning of sustainable integration of desalinated seawater into a regional water supply network in water-scarce regions. The framework is based on a modelling tool that facilitates collaborative understanding of the regional context and optimises and maps candidate water supply networks and the associated trade-offs between economic, environmental and social performance criteria. The framework aims to facilitate dialogue between all interested parties and contributes to a more informed, fair, consented, long-term and sustainable integration of desalinated seawater into regional water supply schemes. An application to the Atacama region in Chile illustrates the capabilities of the framework to communicate options under varying conditions of environmental protection. The case study also illustrates the role of stakeholders in the process of tool refinement as part of early-stage participatory planning. • Water supply planning framework to support participatory planning. • Supports fair and sustainable integration of desalination in regional water supply. • It encompasses both spatial layout and network optimisation planning. • It incorporates environmental, social and economic aspects in planning stages. • The Atacama region (Chile) application illustrates trade-offs of shared solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the sustainability of large-scale infrastructure construction is the foundation and trend of urban sustainable development and environmental protection. This paper proposes a perception and evaluation method based on Dynamic Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (D-FCM) to address the dynamics, uncertainties, and implementation difficulties of sustainability evaluation in large-scale infrastructure construction. Using Hebbian rules to learn the experience and knowledge of experts, a dynamic evolution correlation matrix about evaluation indicators is obtained, and a D-FCM dynamic system model is established to obtain the sustainability evaluation results of large-scale infrastructure construction. The comprehensive sustainable evaluation value (K) of the selected subway project case is 0.934, which belongs to the V level in the sustainable level classification standard and has a good trend in sustainable development. Social public participation (S1), light pollution prevention (H1), wastewater discharge compliance rate (H2), soil pollution prevention (H3), and soil and water conservation and utilization (Z2) are the most significant and sensitive indicators for the sustainable development of large-scale infrastructure construction. Based on the interaction of influencing factors in the D-FCM model, an economically efficient control measures and decision-making plan can be proposed to improve the sustainability of large-scale infrastructure construction projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• For fishing net detection, range gated laser imaging technology is used to obtain high quality underwater fishing net images with less water backscattering and background noise. • For fishing net recognition, a deep-learning based dual-phase training strategy is proposed to avoid overfitting. • The highest overall accuracy of the proposed method reaches 95.49% in fishing net classification task. In this paper, a mask-guided deep learning fishing net detection and recognition method based on underwater range gated laser imaging is proposed. Range gated laser imaging technology is used to obtain high quality underwater fishing net images with less water backscattering effect and background noise. A dual-phase training strategy including mask-guided feature extraction phase and classification finetune phase is proposed to avoid overfitting of training the neural network. The mask-guided feature extraction phase takes advantages of image segmentation training from synthetic dataset to get a better feature extraction performance. The highest overall accuracy of the proposed method reaches 95.49% in fishing net classification task under finetuned weight configuration. The proposed method can effectively help unmanned underwater vehicles and robots from entangling by fishing nets as well as retrieving derelict fishing nets for marine environment protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remanufacturing attains much attention from both industrial and academic sectors due to its beneficial roles in energy conservation and environment protection, where disassembly is a crucial part. To reach the comprehensive sustainability and global optimization of disassembling multiple end-of-life products, this paper suggests a multi-objective multi-product disassembly line balancing problem with considering disassembly profit, energy consumption and noise pollution simultaneously. According to the natures of the problem under consideration, a multi-objective integer programming model is constructed. Its goals are to reach maximum disassembly profit and realize minimum energy consumption while observing noise pollution requirements and resource constraints. Accordingly, a multi-objective group teaching optimization algorithm is specially devised. In it, rank and crowding distance methods are employed to partition the population into two groups. Moreover, precedence preserving crossover and mutation methods are severally used on the two groups to realize the teacher phase. Furthermore, to achieve the student phase, an adaptive local search method is applied to refine solutions in an external archive, and thus its exploitation ability is enhanced. By executing contrast experiments between the devised approach and its powerful competitors on a set of real-world test instances, the experimental results validate that it has highly-adaptive and well-superior performance in tackling the problem of concern. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochemical sensors have become indispensable tools for real-time, on-site monitoring and analysis in diverse domains such as healthcare, environmental protection, and food safety. The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has opened new frontiers for enhancing the capabilities of these sensors across a spectrum of detection modalities. This paper delves into the recent integration of AI algorithms into biochemical sensors, examining this advancement from a functional standpoint and focusing on the empowerments it brings to electrochemical, electrochemiluminescence, colorimetric, and Raman sensors. AI techniques aim to enhance the capabilities of biochemical sensors beyond traditional techniques and have enabled improved selectivity, drift correction, efficiency, resolution, assisted diagnosis, and biomarker screening from complex multidimensional data. In the end, we provide a personal perspective on future development and address the remaining challenges in the commercialization of AI-based biochemical sensors. • We introduce the common types and functions of AI algorithms used in biochemical sensors. • AI algorithms enhance biochemical sensors' performance, achieving highly sensitive, precise, and high-throughput analysis. • AI-assisted sensors unlock tremendous benefits across healthcare, environmental protection, and food safety. • A personal perspective on the challenges and future opportunities is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasping how individual choices and exogenous factors shape agents' environmental preferences is essential to comprehending societal trends in pro-environmental behaviour. To this end, this paper proposes the concept of "individual environmental capital". It investigates how an individual's past pro-environmental decisions relate to their future ones, particularly in terms of willingness to pay for improvements in air quality. A randomised information treatment choice experiment was conducted in Poland to gauge individual environmental capital, accounting for physical assets and expressed policy preferences. The investigation found that willingness to pay varied depending on levels of prior investment in environmental assets and declared support for environmental regulations. Results demonstrate that highlighting one's past pro-climate endeavours may fail to differentiate the valuation of environmental protection among those who have already invested in environmental capital. However, it does seem to relate to a higher valuation for those yet to transition their energy systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural heritage settlements have encountered many challenges and risks due to the rapid evolution of the cultural tourism economy, such as changing demographics, overcrowding, evolving consumer demands, and biodiversity loss. Conservation of environmental and sociocultural assets of these rural settlements and strengthening community resilience have been considered indispensable in global sustainable development. In this regard, a growing body of research has investigated the implications to wider issues of environmental sustainability through lessons learned from these rural, vernacular settlements. However, discussions on transformation driven by tourism and socio-cultural resilience in rural contexts have attracted limited attention. Contributing to this gap in the literature, based on a longitudinal survey study (spanning from 2000 to 2022) conducted in Behramkale (rural, vernacular village in Türkiye), this paper investigates rural community resilience strategies adopted by residents to cope with transformation led by cultural tourism and strict heritage conservation restrictions. The study results showed that the new development area (new settlement) of the village served as an infrastructure of the old settlement, by means of a home for the local residents, and an economic asset for the village. The establishment of the new settlement, to some extent, prevented the displacement of local residents and provided the continuation of the traditional rural economy in the village. • There is a lack of literature on resilience about heritage conservation and tourism. • Tourism development has severe impacts on rural heritage settlements and community. • A framework is proposed for tourism and rural heritage community resilience. • The framework is applied on a rural vernacular village, Behramkale in Türkiye. • Resilience is to absorb tourism-driven changes without altering heritage identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accelerating development of China's marine economy has caused serious environmental damage. A monetary compensation system could be developed and implemented to enable marine development that is ecologically, economically and socially sustainable. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to clarify the contradictions and conflicts among various stakeholders in the implementation and formulation of a monetary compensation system for marine environment damage in the future. By constructing an evolutionary game model of "central government（CG）- local governments (LGs) - marine enterprises (MEs)", this paper analyzes the key factors that affect the LGs supervision and the strategic choice of MEs under the implementation of monetary compensation standards by the CG. With the help of numerical simulations, the influence of the main parameters on the stability of the system was characterized using MATLAB software, and the mechanism of the monetary compensation system for marine environmental damage was analyzed. The main research results show that: (1) the marine environmental damage compensation system can effectively promote the use of MEs to actively pay monetary compensation to compensate for damage to the ocean in their own production activities, but there is a possibility of failure for LGs in the incentive effect of supervision strategies. (2) Levying fines to MEs can effectively promote the behavior of MEs to actively pay monetary compensation to compensate for the damage to the ocean caused by their own production activities. (3) The supervision cost of LGs will affect the implementation effect of the marine environmental damage compensation system, reduce the supervision cost of LGs, help to realize the formation of an ideal strategy for the marine environmental damage compensation system, and have a good incentive effect on marine environmental damage management. (4) Improving the fines of the LGs for non-supervision can effectively supervise the behavior of the LGs, strengthen their supervision, and ensure smooth implementation of the monetary compensation system for marine environmental damage. Through the analysis of the three-party evolutionary game, we can deeply understand the interests and behavioral motives of all parties and provide a scientific basis for the formulation and implementation of a monetary compensation system for marine environmental damage. At the same time, it helps promote cooperation and coordination among all parties and achieves a positive interaction between economic development and ecological environment protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the imminent water crisis era and stringent water environment management, enterprises play a vital role in environmental governance. However, there is seldom analysis on how the water environment regulation influences an enterprise's innovation due to data deficiency. Using our database from 2000 to 2022, we combine geographic information from water quality monitoring stations with the data on listed companies in China to pinpoint what distance firms are exposed to the monitoring stations. Results from a spatial regression discontinuity design along the geographic distances demonstrate that water environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on the quantity and quality of enterprise innovation. This paper found that it is primarily driven by the decreased usage of intermediate goods, rising industry profits from the exit of low-productivity firms, and enhanced enterprise research and development (R&D) investment. Furthermore, the positive impact is more pronounced for privately-owned firms, firms closer to suppliers, polluting firms, and politically unaffiliated firms. Our study offers scientifically valuable insights for emerging market countries in formulating effective water environmental regulation policies to incentivize firms to innovate in environmental protection. Additionally, it provides novel ideas on synergizing water environmental regulation and firm innovation to foster a mutually beneficial relationship between environmental protection and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a crucial method for assessing the efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs). In practice, it is common to encounter situations where the performance of a DMU at a certain stage is evaluated, especially in policy effect evaluation. The key to stage performance evaluation is to eliminate the influence of pre-stage inputs (outputs) on stage performance. This paper proposes stage ratio DEA models that consider two types of inputs and outputs: accurate ratio data and interval ratio data. The first form considers the evaluation of stage efficiency when accurate ratios of inputs and outputs are used at the beginning and end of the stage. The second form assesses stage efficiency using interval ratio data for interval inputs and outputs. To verify the validity of the proposed models, the numerical example validates the first form of stage ratio DEA models. And the second form is applied to evaluate the sustainable efficiency of 14 energy saving and environmental protection clean enterprises (ESEPCEs). The empirical results demonstrate that the proposed models provide a more accurate assessment of stage efficiency compared to the traditional DEA-CCR model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uranium is a naturally existing radioactive element present in the Earth's crust. It exhibits lithophilic characteristics, indicating its tendency to be located near the surface of the Earth and tightly bound to oxygen. It is ecotoxic, hence the need for its removal from the aqueous environment. This paper focuses on the variety of water treatment processes for the removal of uranium from water and this includes physical (membrane separation, adsorption and electrocoagulation), chemical (ion exchange, photocatalysis and persulfate reduction), and biological (bio-reduction and biosorption) approaches. It was observed that membrane filtration and ion exchange are the most popular and promising processes for this application. Membrane processes have high throughput but with the challenge of high power requirements and fouling. Besides high pH sensitivity, ion exchange does not have any major challenges related to its application. Several other unique observations were derived from this review. Chitosan/ Chlorella pyrenoidosa composite adsorbent bearing phosphate ligand, hydroxyapatite aerogel and MXene/graphene oxide composite has shown super-adsorbent performance (>1000 mg/g uptake capacity) for uranium. Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes, reverse osmosis (RO) membranes and electrocoagulation have been observed not to go below 97% uranium removal/conversion efficiency for most cases reported in the literature. Heat persulfate reduction has been explored quite recently and shown to achieve as high as 86% uranium reduction efficiency. We anticipate that future studies would explore hybrid processes (which are any combinations of multiple conventional techniques) to solve various aspects of the process design and performance challenges. [Display omitted] • U(VI) removal from water via various techniques was reviewed and compared. • Membrane filtration and ion exchange are the most promising processes for this application. • Membrane processes have high throughput but high power requirements and fouling. • Ion exchange lacks any major challenges besides pH sensitivity. • Hybrid processes could overcome process design and performance challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific literature and regulation acknowledge the positive social and economic impacts of local food productions, especially for Geographical Indication products, but their relationship with environmental sustainability remains still to be better investigated. The current European reform of the Geographical Indications system is adopting environment protection as one of the main objectives, in conformity with the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies. In this framework, the present paper is aimed to show how Geographical Indications food products are related to environmental sustainability by the means of a systematic literature review. Firstly, the relevant publications are analyzed and classified referring to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. Results show a contradictory picture regarding the positive and negative implications of Geographical Indications production for the different components of environmental protection (e.g., SDG 9 or SDG 12). Secondly, the literature analysis identifies four features (namely products specification, producers' environmental consciousness, role of institutions and link with the territory) of Geographical Indications that may mitigate environmental pressures, when present. Finally, after the analysis of the current and emerging European Geographical Indications regulation, policy suggestions are advanced. In particular, to enhance the environmental sustainability of Geographical Indication products, explicit environmental objectives should be introduced in Geographical Indication specification, while consciousness of producers, multidimensional cooperation and link with the territory should be strengthened. [Display omitted] • Environmental impacts of GIs are investigated since controversial in the literature. • The SDGs-based classification of the contributions shows a focus on SDGs 2 and 12. • Four drivers to make GIs effective for environmental sustainability are identified. • New explicit criteria in GI specification should be defined accordingly. • GI mark could incorporate environmental features due to the new EU regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The ecological security pattern (ESP) of the basin is constructed by MSPA-MCR models. • The ESP is constructed and improved combined with the ecological protection red line. • The ESP of one axis, two belts and five zones in Dawen River Basin is constructed. • The study provides specific reference for the sustainable development of the basin. Building an ecological security pattern (ESP) can safeguard and improve the structure, functions and services of regional ecosystems. Furthermore, it is also one of the significant spatial methods to mitigate the conflict between ecological conservation and economic growth. Most previous researches on the construction of ESP have directly utilized extensive regions of forestland, grassland, water area or nature reserves as ecological sources (ESs) without weighing the habitat quality (HQ) and ecological protection red line (EPRL). The ES of the Dawen River basin (DRB) was identified through morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and landscape connectivity index. By employing the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR), the potential ecological corridor (EC) was identified, and its importance was evaluated by gravity model. Simultaneously, the spatial properties of HQ and ecological resistance (ER) were analyzed. Finally, this paper proposed an optimization strategy for ESP in accordance with the EPRL. The results indicate that: (1) The DRB contained 15 important ESs, mainly concentrated in water and mountain forest areas. (2) 105 ECs were extracted by MCR and gravity model, including 35 level 1 corridors and 70 level 2 corridors, which were primarily concentrated in the eastern region of the basin. (3) Based on the spatial characteristics of HQ and ER, as well as the EPRL in the research, the ESP of "one axis, two belts and five zones" in the DRB was constructed and control strategies were proposed. This research offers some reference for ecological environment protection and restoration and regional sustainable development in the Yellow River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]