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This study investigates how exposure to a field of study influences students’ major choices. If students have incomplete information, exposure potentially helps them to learn about the scope of a field as well as how well the field matches their interest and abilities. We exploit a natural experiment where university students have to write a research paper in business, economics, or law during their first year before they choose a major. Due to oversubscription of business papers, the field of the paper is assigned quasi-randomly. We find that writing in economics raises the probability of majoring in economics by 2.7 percentage points. We show further that this effect varies across subfields: the effect is driven by assignment to topics less typical of the public's perception of the field of economics, suggesting students learn through exposure that the field is broader than they thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space solar power is an old idea. From its initial suggestion in the 1940s to the first practical concept by Dr. Peter Glaser in 1968, it has been analyzed, studied, and refined many times. Multiple government institutions, including NASA, JAXA, ESA, and CAST have invested significant funds into developing direct space solar power research. In parallel to these direct studies, considerable investment has also flowed into enabling technologies that serve as the cornerstone of current space solar power development concepts, including space solar panels, space hardware manufacturing, low-cost launch, wireless power transfer, robotic assembly, and swarm monitoring/control. In the last few years, space solar power concepts and studies have received increased funding, including non-governmental funding showing a strong positive growth trend. Multiple reports in 2021 and 2022, including from this author, have found that while space solar power has been technically feasible for decades, falling launch and hardware costs have only recently made it economically viable as well. Despite these findings, translation from economic feasibility to economic reality will require additional high-value investment. Sourcing these new funds requires investment context. This technical paper will present a state of the industry report on space solar power, including the total and source distribution of historical investments. It further contextualizes the investments in space solar power with the scale of investment in key technologies and their current technology readiness levels. The methodologies developed for this report and the data sourced are intended to serve as a catalyst, alongside industry feedback, to create a template for ongoing reporting of this growing market sub-sector and ultimately drive the full deployment of this technology. • NASA found in 1979 that Space Solar Power was technically and economically viable. • A half-century later solar power cost has fallen 99.8 %, launch has fallen 97.6 %. • A given solar panel will produce 6–20 times as much energy in space. • Direct investment into space solar power has reached $879 million. • Critical indirect investment, including into solar PV, is in hundreds of billions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Forest resource Metabolism Network model isdeveloped for ecological and economic analysis. • Exploitation index is developed to reveal the weaker sectors in the ecological relations. • A case study of Guangdong province, China isconducted to illustrate the potential benefits. • Scientific Basis are provided to allocate forestresources and stabilize industrial structure. Abstract Integrating forest resources into the socio-economic system correctly and reasonably is of vital importance to tackle the increasingly scarce forest resources. In this paper, forest resource input-output model and forest resource metabolism network model are established to provide new insights into the relationships among the systems, industries and sectors related to forest resources. A promising indicator named exploitation index is developed to reveal the weaker sectors in the ecological relations, which will further help to provide better corrective actions and integrated strategic measures. Guangdong is taken as an example to verify the availability of the model and solve the problem. The results show that the primary manufacturing consumes more direct timber, while advanced manufacturing and the service sector utilize timber indirectly. In addition, Guangdong forest metabolism system shows a negative correlation and the whole network does not achieve the mutualism state, leading to competition relationships between pairwise sectors that should not appear, such as Forestry sector and Papermaking and Paper Products sector. These results provide the corresponding reference for helping the decision makers to allocate forest resources and coordinate ecological and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas in the US and around the globe are facing increasingly complex resilience challenges. Among the components of the "urban system," transportation networks are among the most critical facilitators that support the lives, interactions, and dynamics of urban dwellers. They are essential to the well-being of the society not only under business-as-usual conditions, but also during times of disaster for the entire response and recovery timeline. This paper introduces CRAFT (Comprehensive Resilience Assessment Framework for Transportation Systems in Urban Areas), which is designed to achieve holistic analyses of transportation disruptions by addressing the many shortcomings and research gaps in this domain. The framework couples a novel structure-specific modeling methodology with a high-fidelity metropolis-scale travel demand model based on real socioeconomic data, and produces results, which, in turn, serve as input for a state-of-the-art socioeconomic impact analysis methodology that is based on computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis. By the virtues of its data-intensive, model-based, and cross-disciplinary nature, CRAFT aims to capture and incorporate many details that are usually neglected in traditional approaches, and generates resilience insights at 3 levels: (1) system component level (e.g., damages to bridges, tunnels and information on component recovery), (2) system level (e.g., road network disruptions, reconfiguration of traffic and network level functionality) and (3) regional economic level (e.g., impacts on regional GDP, employment, economic resilience). The objective of this paper is to introduce CRAFT and to demonstrate the workings of its first coupling between the hazard and transportation modules through a case study on the Greater Los Angeles Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pipeline hydro-transport, an economically viable means of delivering large volumes of biomass, can replace conventional modes of transport – road, rail, and river - to improve the economy of pulp and paper mills, as well as bio-based energy facilities. This paper is a review of experimental and theoretical studies conducted by various sectors on the transport of wood and non-wood biomass-water mixtures (slurries) in pipes. The aims were to collect technical challenges, governing mechanical equations, and associated economic issues, as well as to identify the gaps in knowledge in the area. There have been several experiments conducted on pipeline hydro-transport of wood chips over a wide range of pipeline materials, lengths, and diameters. However, pipeline transport of non-wood agricultural residue slurries, as well as the performance of the centrifugal slurry pump handling such mixtures, has recently been investigated in a single lab-scale pipeline facility. Several researchers have proposed empirical correlations to estimate friction loss in wood chip slurries flowing in pipes and also recommended technically and economically optimum pumping velocities. Those correlations, however, are reported to come with noticeable deviations from one another and from experimental measurements. One empirical correlation has been also proposed to predict, with an uncertainty of less than 10%, the longitudinal pressure gradients in pipeline hydro-transport of agricultural residue biomass. All the experimental measurements and empirical correlations based some studies on the economic feasibility of pipelining wood chip-water mixtures. These studies proved the concept of economy of scale to be highly applicable to biomass pipeline systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a tractable approximation for stochastic model predictive control (SMPC). Under the proposed approach, we solve multiple deterministic MPC (DMPC) problems over individual scenarios of the uncertain variables to obtain a set of control policies and select from this candidate set a control input that yields the best approximation of the SMPC solution (i.e., yields the smallest statistical measure of the objective function (e.g., expected value) and of the constraints). This approach is a scenario decomposition scheme that overcomes tractability issues of SMPC (which solves problems that incorporate multiple scenarios all-at-once). Moreover, the approach enables flexible handling of complex statistical measures (e.g., medians, quantiles, and chance constraints) and enables prioritization of objectives and constraints (this is difficult to do with off-the-shelf optimization solvers). An application to a nonlinear mechanical pulping process demonstrates that the approach provides high quality solutions. We hypothesize that this is because the optimal SMPC policy lives in a space that is spanned by the control policies for the individual scenarios. Moreover, we note that a traditional DMPC policy corresponds to the policy of an individual scenario (the mean scenario is typically chosen). Consequently, the proposed approach can do no worse than DMPC and can be interpreted as an approach that seeks to find a DMPC policy that best approximates the SMPC policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many rural locations are far from the utility grid, and supplying electricity from clean and renewable resources is essential. In the stand-alone system, the cost of electricity is expensive due to the cost of the battery system. All daily energy flows to the inverter through the battery in the traditional system, making the battery system expensive. In the present paper, a new configuration for power assessment is proposed that allows the energy to flow to the inverter directly without passing through the battery resulting in lower storing capacity and cost. The novelty is using the new configuration and designing the PV system customized to the load demand. The design and economic analysis of the proposed system are performed for three different load patterns in Siwa Oasis – Egypt. Results show the proposed power assessment method has a considerable impact on the minimization of the overall cost since the energy storing capacity is reduced, and a reduction in PV generation is obtained depending on the type of load pattern. The highest saving is obtained for the daily load pattern, which saves 81.4%, but the nightly load pattern saves nothing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purposes of the paper is a study of the situation that emerged in the peripheral regions as a result of the state policy of the Soviet period, using the example of the demographic trends in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug as one of the most distal Russian territories with respect to the center of Russia. The paper describes the migration flows in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug as a whole, while the fifth section traces the processes of weakening and full closing of each separate settlement. Although the sharp decline in population in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug was often mentioned in various materials, few specific research has been conducted with the main aim of studying this problem. As is well known, most of the USSR population lived in the European part of the country. At the same time, managing new territories was conducted in a planned manner toward Siberian regions, despite being situated far from large European markets. Presumably, these were attempts to obtain an effective return through the policy with ignoring economic principles. The resulting negative "return" of such state policy of regional management is shown by the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Due to the gradual transformation and upgrading of traditional medical industry, online health has become a hot spot recently. Various empirical researches have explored the critical factors that affect users' adoption behavior of online health, but their conclusions cannot be completely unified. Therefore, this paper aims at providing an integrated analysis, so as to explore the strength of the proposed online health adoption model's path relationship and the moderating effect of economic development level by dividing the sample into two subgroups, developed countries or areas and developing countries or areas.Design/methodology/approach: This paper conducted a meta-analysis by synthesizing the effect sizes extracted from a total of 43 articles including 46 empirical studies, which were searched from a variety of journals, conferences, book chapters and theses.Findings: Results show that all combined effect sizes of the proposed conceptual model are statistically significant and indicate that the users' adoption behavior of online health is mainly affected by perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and subjective norm, rather than perceived behavioral control, innovativeness and trust. Furthermore, the moderator analysis confirms that the economic development level does have a moderating effect on the two relationships, perceived ease of use - perceived usefulness and innovativeness - behavioral intention. Specially, results manifest that the impact of perceived ease of use toward perceived usefulness receives more attention in developed countries or areas, while the impact of innovativeness toward behavioral intention is more noteworthy in developing counties or areas.Originality/value: This paper was conducted with the view of obtaining a unified conclusion about the research field of online health adoption. Its content is original. Whether in the academia or industry, the findings of this research will have implications for the future development of online health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • In process engineering, flexibility can be defined as the ability of a process to accommodate a set of uncertain parameters. • From a design point of view we can definitely conclude that the most suitable flexibility index for the particular analyzed system is a function of the expected deviation nature. • From an economic perspective, the introduction of the Capital costs vs. Flexibility relationship and its relative plots let the decision maker, i.e. the engineering, take a more informed decision whatever the adopted flexibility index. Abstract The worldwide shared definition of "optimal design" refers to the cheapest and simplest design able to perform the required job; most of the time this definition is strictly related to given operating conditions, i.e. the input variables are seldom subjected to considerable variations. However, in process engineering, plenty of cases don't fit this definition due to the uncertain nature of the feedstock needed to be processed. Therefore, if a system is likely to undergo several and substantial perturbations, an a priori flexibility assessment can be crucial for the good performance of the operation. In chemical engineering the leading separation process is distillation. Hence the first purpose of this paper is to define a procedure and compare the different flexibility indexes found in literature in order to perform a simple distillation column flexibility assessment. The second goal of this paper is to couple the flexibility and economic aspects related to the distillation column investment costs and again to compare the different indexes economic behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Economics, demographics, land use change, and transport interact in complex and dynamic ways. To inform urban policy decision-making it is important to develop tools that incorporate the interactions of these systems in meaningful ways. Historically, models of these systems have been developed in isolation, and many agencies have already invested large amounts of time and money into developing these independent models. It is thus often desirable to couple existing models, rather than to develop a completely new integrated model. Coupling together independently developed models introduces many challenges including dealing with different spatial and temporal scales, base datasets and levels of aggregation, as well as bringing up deeper questions around the underlying paradigms, assumptions and limitations of the models. This paper describes the key challenges encountered when coupling an existing integrated model of land use change, economic activity, and population (the 'Integrated Scenario Explorer' model) with an existing transport model (the 'Wellington Transport Strategy Model') for the Wellington region in New Zealand. The case study results show that the coupling produces substantial differences in the urban land use change looking forward to 2041, specifically it affects the location of the urban intensification. The paper summarises the important considerations for modellers when coupling independently developed models, highlights the importance of understanding the underlying theories of the component models, and emphasises the need to develop pragmatic solutions that are guided by the intended use of the resulting integrated model. Highlights • Two existing models, one of transport and one of land use change, economics, and population, are coupled together • Key challenges encountered by modellers when coupling independently developed models are summarised • The implementation of the loose coupling for the Wellington region in New Zealand demonstrates pragmatic solutions • Loose coupling with a transport model significantly affects the location of urban expansion, even with long timesteps [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper constitutes the first attempt to draw lessons from the recent uptake of health economic evaluation of innovative drugs in the French regulatory framework.Study Design: Taking the example of new direct-acting antivirals against hepatitis C virus, the paper asks whether and how the cost-effectiveness (CE) opinions issued by the French National Health Authority improve the information available to support the pricing decisions.Methods: The analysis compares the assessment of these drugs based on three different sources: CE opinions, clinical opinions, and the published cost-utility analyses (CUA) available in the literature and identified through a systematic review.Results: The results show that CE opinions bring to the fore three issues prone to impact the incremental cost utility ratio and those were not available to the decision maker through clinical opinions or published CUA: the stage of treatment initiation, the modeling of the disease progression, and the uncertainty around the efficacy rates.Conclusions: France has introduced the criterion of the cost per QALY gained in the pricing and regulation of innovative pharmaceuticals since 2013. Our analysis shows that the use of CUA does enhance the information available to the decision makers on the value of the treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Critics have long questioned the feasibility (and desirability) of exponential growth on a finite planet. More recently, mainstream economists have begun to suggest some 'secular' limits to growth. Declining growth rates have in their turn been identified as instrumental in increased inequality and the rise of political populism. This paper explores these emerging arguments paying a particular attention to the dynamics of secular stagnation. It examines the underlying phenomenon of declining labour productivity growth and unpacks the close relationships between productivity growth, the wage rate and social inequality. It also points to the historical congruence (and potential causal links) between declining productivity growth and resource bottlenecks. Contrary to some mainstream views, this paper finds no inevitability in the rising inequality that has haunted advanced economies in recent decades, suggesting instead that it lies in the pursuit of growth at all costs, even in the face of challenging fundamentals. This strategy has hindered technological innovation, reinforced inequality and exacerbated financial instability. At the very least, this paper argues, it is now time for policy to consider seriously the possibility that low growth rates might be 'the new normal' and to address carefully the 'post-growth challenge' this poses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile application (app) websites such as Google Play and AppStore allow users to review their downloaded apps. Such reviews can be useful for app users, as they may help users make an informed decision; such reviews can also be potentially useful for app developers, if they contain valuable information concerning user needs and requirements. However, in order to unleash the value of app reviews for mobile app development, intelligent mining tools that can help discern relevant reviews from irrelevant ones must be provided. This paper surveys the state of the art in the development of such tools and techniques behind them. To gain insight into the maturity of the current support mining tools, the paper will also find out what app development information these tools have discovered and what challenges they are facing. The results of this survey can inform the development of more effective and intelligent app review mining techniques and tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper analyses the barriers to the adoption of the triple-bottom line of sustainability of the construction sector within the developing country of Malaysia. Barriers pertaining to sustainable construction (SC) were identified through a thorough review of the literature on the process of SC, which were then contextually customized via a pilot study and presented in the form of a hypothesized model. Primary data was collected via administration of questionnaire surveys to 122 construction stakeholders in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to statistically validate the final model of the barriers to SC. This paper fills the gap in the knowledge by focusing on the quantified contribution of the most significant barriers to the adoption of SC principles throughout the process of SC in the context of Malaysia. Findings of this paper uncover the most significant factors constraining the SC in Malaysia related to government, cost, knowledge and information, workforce, and client and market. The findings revealed that clear and effective legislative process is crucial for the enforcement of the integration of SC materials and practices as well as economics incentives which will ultimately lead to effective implementation of SC initiatives; hence, sustainable economic growth and efficient resource (energy, water and material) utilization. It is hoped that the findings provide guidelines for the government authorities so that they invest their efforts and allocate resources in more efficient way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Input capacity constraints means a firm cannot make its output decision based on the first - order optimal condition of profit maximization because it does not have enough inputs. Input capacity constraints have a significant effect on production quality and firm competition, especially on food safety management. This paper tries to provide a new perspective for quality operation in supply chain management. It also designs a new mechanism for quality regulation. After distinguishing between quantity-sensitive input capacity constraints and quality-sensitive input capacity constraints, this paper demonstrates a theoretical analysis about the impact of input capacity constraints on food quality and quality regulation by game theory. The results show that both kinds of capacity input constraints lead to a lower level of output, quality and consumer surplus, but a higher level of prices. In this study, we design a quality regulation to stimulate the growth of high quality food products. More importantly, this paper proves that reward is more effective in food quality guarantee programs than punishment or fine based programs. The conclusions are helpful for addressing food safety problems for both the supervisors and firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Physical, Regulatory and Brand value risks due to climate change challenges are foreseen by businesses globally. This paper is oriented towards these challenges and prepared a comprehensive Greenhouse gases (GHG) footprint plan and identification of mitigation opportunities for ONGC, a fortune 500 and national oil company of India. Internationally recognized standards and guidelines like Greenhouse Gas Protocol, ISO-14064, and American Petroleum Institute compendium have been referred for quantifying carbon emissions in nearly real 400 + operation control facilities. The GHG inventory is based on Operational Control approach to identify the boundary for which emissions are to be quantified and two significant scopes of emissions viz Direct Emissions and Indirect Emissions are identified and quantified. The quantification concluded that GHG emission footprint for the year 2016–17 is in the range of 9 million tons of CO 2 equivalent. GHG emissions mainly account due to stationary combustion, fugitive emissions and wastewater treatment, which share the around 56% of total emissions. Another 24–26% of emissions are contributed due to flaring, processes by glycol dehydrator, acid gas removal units, and by electricity purchased from the grid. As a result, it has been found that ONGC emits 187 kg CO 2 e emissions per tonne throughput and also compared with its global peer organizations. At the organization level, "Key Industrial Sites" have been identified as contributing higher GHG emissions and accordingly key "hot-spots," a list of 15 GHG mitigation opportunities have been proposed in the paper. Two GHG mitigation initiatives based on solar energy and bioenergy application undertaken at ONGC has also been briefed on case studies. Highlights • Comprehensive carbon footprint plan and identification of mitigation opportunities for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), a fortune 500 and national oil company of India. • Guidelines like Greenhouse Gas Protocol, ISO-4064 and American Petroleum Institute compendium are referred for quantifying carbon emissions from direct and indirect sources. • Green policy, incentives and mandatory compliance. • CO2e emissions per tonne throughput and also compared with its peer global organisations. • Key hot-spots, with a list of 15 GHG mitigation opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of non-imaging collectors has a wide scope in process heat applications based on its performance and economics. An experimental investigation of trapezoidal/concave cavity surface receiver (TSR) for non-imaging solar concentrating collector is carried out in this paper. The implementation of surface/coil receiver instead of tubular receiver for non-imaging collector is presented in this paper. A TSR with helical coil is developed for non – imaging concentrating collector, Elliptical Hyperbolic Collector (EHC). Experiments are carried to estimate the thermal performance of the system under various operating conditions such as two operating modes: series and parallel modes of operation of the collector, two circulation modes: passive and active modes. The stagnation temperature of the trapezoidal/concave cavity surface receiver is measured to be 118 °C on a clear sunny day in October and 102 °C on a cloudy day in February. The daily performance tests are performed under different operating conditions. Based on the experimental study, for the flow rate of 0.03 kg/min and 0.5 kg/min, the fluid outlet temperature is estimated to be 87 °C at 768 W/m 2 and 49 °C at 908 W/m 2 respectively. The corresponding instantaneous efficiency was calculated to be 9% and 40% respectively. The numerical model is developed to predict the temperature of the fluid along the receiver. The pressure drop across a receiver is estimated to be 9.3 kPa for a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min. Exergy analysis of the system is carried out and it ranges between 10 and 20%. The costs involved in fabricating the EHC system are compared to that of a non-imaging concentrating collector (CPC) of same aperture area. An economic analysis of the system is also carried out to study the feasibility of the system based on the life cycle savings method by estimating the annual solar savings from the EHC system. The present system can be a suitable option for low and medium temperature process heat applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is abundant solar potential in the Middle East North Africa region. Yet access to sustainable energy is still a fundamental challenge in many countries of this region. In this paper we seek to understand the success and failure of the development and the diffusion of solar energy technologies by analysing using a Strategic Niche Management framework to compare the niche development of solar thermal energy and solar photovoltaics in Lebanon. This paper has two main questions: (1) How have the solar thermal niche and the solar photovoltaic niche developed in Lebanon, and how do they compare? (2) In which ways does the Strategic Niche Management framework help us to understand the development of solar energy niches in a developing country context? To answer these questions, a cross case analysis of solar thermal and solar photovoltaic systems was conducted. Due to the absence of research using Strategic Niche Management in Middle Eastern developing countries, this study uses an illustrative case from a country in this region to contribute new insights. Moreover, unlike the Strategic Niche Management research that only focuses on single case studies, this paper presents the results of a comparative study of two niches. The main Strategic Niche Management propositions were grouped and compared per item (i.e. on voicing and shaping expectations, social networks, and learning). The results show that the solar thermal niche affected the solar photovoltaic niche to a large extent. This was especially in relation to the learning and coordination processes. This has gradually contributed to establishing a clear vision. However, both niches lacked a niche manager who was able to coordinate, manage and maintain the dynamics of the niche processes. It also lacked horizontal collaboration between key actors involved (i.e. ministries). International donors were found to play a crucial role in initiating and shaping the market with certain constraints of prioritization in the region. The paper ends with conclusions and ideas for future research on solar energy niche development in the context of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model could capture the full range of interaction and feedback effects among different agents in the economic system. This study analyzes the economic impacts of differentiated carbon reduction targets by using a two-region CGE model in Tianjin Municipal City of China (hereafter “Tianjin”). Firstly, based on a business-as-usual (BaU) scenario and seven proposed carbon reduction scenarios, this paper quantifies the macroeconomic impacts of different carbon reduction targets in both regions, especially the carbon reduction costs and industrial output. Furthermore, several typical industries in Tianjin are chosen to explore how their competitiveness is affected under different carbon allocation scenarios. The results show that compared with the BaU scenario, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Tianjin would achieve the highest growth rate if the carbon intensity reduction target is set at 65% in Tianjin whereas 55% in the rest of China (ROC). Meanwhile, residents’ welfare loss in Tianjin will be the largest if carbon intensity reduction target in 2030 is set to be 65% in Tianjin and 75% in ROC. Also, the local pillar industries (including electronic sector and the metal smelting sector) would benefit from the carbon reduction policy, while the paper sector would be negatively influenced. Policy recommendations are raised, in which several factors should be fully considered, including development stages, resource endowments, technical levels and local environmental carrying capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reform of energy prices in China has stepped into a crucial stage. It has become a controversial issue after the reform of increasing block tariffs (IBTs) for household electricity, followed by a time-of-use (TOU) pricing policy. Using ELES model, this paper estimates the price elasticity of residential electricity demand; based on perceived price and price elasticity, a power structure model demand response for nonlinear electricity price is proposed; taking Anhui province as a case, this paper analyzes the attainment situation of such policy objectives as electricity saving, consumer welfare, equity improvement and peak shaving, with the introduction of TOU pricing into IBTs for household electricity. The results show that IBTs helps reduce electricity consumption by 0.74%–0.93%, with minor energy effect；IBTs may lead to a maximum 1.57CNY increase of electricity expense per household per month, which is acceptable for residents. It also may reduce cross-subsidy to some extent. After introducing TOU pricing, the efficiency of peak shaving is only 2.25%–2.78%, and the load decrement at peak periods is far lower than the increase at valley periods; while the effect of electricity conservation and cross-subsidy reduction have been alleviated. In other words, peak-valley price is not only difficult to achieve its own objective effectively, but also prohibits the effect of IBTs. Based on the above conclusions, some policy recommendations are provided to improve the price reform of residential electricity, natural gas and other public resources in various regions of China and foreign regions with similar electricity market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a non-interactive approach to solve multi-objective thermal power load dispatch (MTPLD), where either decision maker is not involved or preference information is available in prior. To reduce the computational complexities due to generation of Pareto-front and selection of satisficing solution, this paper adopts no-preference approach. A satisficing function to resolve the conflict of non-commensurable objectives is proposed, which reformulates the MTPLD problem as scalar thermal power load dispatch (MTPLD) problem. Owing to ambiguous or vague in objectives, the proposed method exploits fuzzy theory. MTPLD problems’ satisfying solution is obtained by implementing hybrid chaotic differential evolution algorithm and Powell’s pattern search algorithm (CDEPS). The chaotic differential evolution algorithm is responsible for the diversification of feasible solutions and provides global solution. Whereas Powell’s pattern search, method improves the exploitation by performing local search. The paper investigates the performance of two CDEPS variants based on Gauss map and Tent map, respectively. The performance of the proposed solution procedure is analyzed using generalized benchmark test functions and complex MTPLD problems. The exhaustive analysis using non-parametric significance test and descriptive statistics shows that the Tent map based CDEPS solution procedure has better ability to generate quality generation schedule and faster convergence rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides further arguments why Jacobson and Delucchi’s (JD) critiques of my paper are misplaced. It also provides additional references to work that reached different conclusions than Jacobson et al. Work by JD and others is useful in identifying the plethora of assumptions required to conclude that intermittent renewables can now be economically substituted for all current uses of fossil fuels throughout the entire economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding which drivers and barriers exist in the development of a circular economy (CE) is a relevant and timely endeavour. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate by analysing evidence regarding the different factors helping and hampering the development of a CE. Specifically, this paper focuses on the eco-innovation (EI) pathway towards a CE, and tries to coordinate available but fragmented findings regarding how “transformative innovation” can foster this transition while removing obstacles to sustainability. Drawing upon a new corpus of both academic and non-academic literature, this work offers a framework for analysis, as well as an evidence-based survey of the challenges, for a green structural change of the economy. We argue that the combination of the innovation systems' view with the more recent “transformation turn” in innovation studies may provide an appropriate perspective for understanding the transition to a CE. Ultimately, the paper aims to capitalise on these insights to contribute to the design of policy guidelines and organisational strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint research between economists and hydrologists increasingly contributes to optimising the economic value gained from water, while safeguarding its social and environmental values. The application of hydro-economic analysis to mining regions, however, is limited. This paper examines why this is the case and how to confront it. The paper focuses on identifying and describing features of large-scale mines and mine regions that are challenging to analyse such as: magnitude of capital involved, time-scale and remoteness of projects, inherent environmental risks, and strong negative perceptions about mining's impacts on water. These characteristics may limit the applicability of established hydro-economic concepts and methods, thus risk-based metrics are discussed as complementary tools. We also contend that further research and development in water-related ecosystem services should be a priority, in order to better quantify trade-offs between the economic benefits of water use by mining and competing users, including environmental flows. Case studies of mining regions in Chile, Madagascar and Sweden are summarised to illustrate some of the issues raised. While data limitations are an obstacle, new and extended case studies are required to explore how the challenges may be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically explores the linkage between the economic opportunities and climate adaptation and other antecedents in cities. Our dependent variable includes the economic opportunities identified by the cities; our independent variables are the adaptation plans, adaptation actions, climate change risks, incentive types, and incentivized stakeholders. To explore the effects of climate change risks, adaptation plans, adaptation actions, incentive types, and incentivized stakeholders, we used polychoric factor analysis and logistic regression analysis. The results show that a city's climate change adaptation plan and GDP have significant positive relationships with the economic opportunities present in the cities. Meanwhile, climate change risks also have a positive relationship with economic opportunities. Furthermore, economic opportunities present in cities have a negative relationship with three variables: one group of climate actions and two groups of stakeholders. This paper also further discusses the possible effects of incentives in the case of climate change in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is under the pressure of international climate change negotiation, domestic energy security and haze reduction. Replying to these pressures positively, China announced to reduce 40%–45% CO 2 per unit Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020, 60%–65% CO 2 per unit GDP in 2030 based on 2005 level, and to carry out ambitious reduction measures. To achieve this target, low-carbon governance is necessary. The central government expects to build low-carbon society and develop low-carbon economy through pilots. This paper analyzes the framework of low-carbon governance in China. The government plays a guidance role in the governance process which involves enterprises, NGOs and citizens. Different types of measures, policy tools and actions have been implemented as response to the pressure. The governance can be achieved through the integration of technical, spatial and social pathways. The paper analyzes the framework by using Suzhou Industry Park (SIP) as case study which is a very important part of low carbon management of cities. Although the total CO 2 amount in the Park has increased, its CO 2 intensity per unit GDP has been reduced in recent years after the efforts made by its Park Council and enterprisers. The policy implementation indicates that the guidance role of local governments and the process are still based on a top-down management at park level, although the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) hopes to carry out pilot program and summarize experiences from a bottom-up mechanism. Target Responsibility System (TRS) is still the key working mechanism and makes contribution to the reduction of CO 2 per unit GDP. The low-carbon governance experiences of SIP can be learned by other cities, while local government displays positive attitudes towards low-carbon practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) has dual aims to reduce emission production and stimulate adoption of long-term abatement technology. Whilst it has generally achieved its first aim, its issues are hindering the accomplishment of the second. Several solutions have been proposed to improve ETS’s efficacy, yet none of them have considered the advancement of Industry 4.0. This paper proposes a novel ETS model customised for Industry 4.0 integration. It incorporates blockchain technology to address ETS’s management and fraud issues whilst it utilizes a reputation system in a new approach to improve ETS efficacy. Specific design of how the blockchain technology and reputation system are used to achieve these objectives is showed within this paper. The case study demonstrates the inner working of reputation-based trading system—in which reputation signifies participants performance and commitment toward emission reduction effort. Multi-criteria analysis is used to evaluate the proposed scheme against conventional ETS model. The result shows that the proposed model is a feasible scheme and that the benefits of its implementation will outweigh its drawback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The propulsion of economic growth is a multifaceted construct, influenced by technology, capital, and resource management, with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) being a significant contributors to innovation and employment. This study examines the growth of Scottish SMEs across four sectors over a 14-year period (2008–2021) by employing a novel statistical approach to understand their development trajectories within the framework of open innovation. The paper engaged in a longitudinal analysis to assess trends and inform policy for sustainable growth by the utilization of open-access data. Theoretical metrics such as the Average Growth Rate, Compound Average Growth Rate (CAGR), and Year-Over-Year (YoY) Growth were applied to evaluate sectoral performance. The findings revealed varied growth patterns; the information technology sector exhibited a robust increase, while the telecommunications sector showed significant percentage growth. Conversely, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector experienced a decline that suggests a potential market gap. An affirmative trajectory in CAGR was observed in most sectors except ICT, which corroborates a shift in technological evolution and market needs. The study illuminates the dynamic economic landscape of Scottish SMEs, with telecoms emerging as the most prosperous sector in terms of growth rates, thus indicates a shifting economic focus. The study's limitations are briefly discussed, in addition to the need for updated databases and further research employing predictive modeling with machine learning to enhance forecasting capabilities and foster open innovation for sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents a systematic economic and environmental assessment of biodiesel plant waste heat recovery retrofit. Two otherwise identical biodiesel plants except that one has waste heat recovery unit, namely recuperative heat exchanger, the other one does not have are compared in this paper; the economic and environmental consequences of integrating waste heat recovery unit to the biodiesel plant is evaluated through analyzing the simulation results of Aspen Plus and Aspen Economic Analyzer. The results show that waste heat recovery retrofit can significantly reduce the CO 2 emission of biodiesel plant, whereas the economic penalties have to be pondered carefully before the implementation of waste heat recovery retrofit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the differences between the design of a reinforced concrete structure considering two objectives to minimize; economic cost and CO 2 emissions. Both objectives depend on the amount of two high carbon intensive materials: cement in the concrete and steel; therefore, these objectives are related. As the balance between steel and cement per m 3 of concrete depends on several factors such as the type of structure, this study focuses on buttressed earth-retaining walls. Another factor that determines the balance between steel and concrete is the height of the wall. Thus, the methodology considers a parametric study for optimal designs of buttressed earth-retaining walls, where one of the parameters is the wall height. One of the objectives is to show the variation in cost when CO 2 is minimized, respectful of minimizing the economic cost. The findings show that wall elements under bending-compressive strains (i.e. the stem of the buttressed retaining wall) perform differently depending on the target function. On one hand, the study reveals an upward trend of steel per unit volume of concrete in emission-optimized earth-retaining buttressed walls, compared to the cost-optimized. On the other hand, it is checked that unlike the cost-optimized walls, emission-optimized walls opt for a higher concrete class than the minimum class available. These findings indicate that emission-optimized walls penalize not only concrete volume, but also the cement content, to the extent that a higher concrete class outperforms in reduced emissions. Additionally, the paper outlines how and to what extent the design of this typology varies for the two analyzed objectives in terms of geometry and amount of materials. Some relevant differences influencing the geometry of design strategies are found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities play a leading role in economic development, security, sustainability, and climate change. The fact that the built environment energy consumption contributes to a huge amount of CO2 emissions has a significant impact on the public agenda. Consequently, the emergence of the low carbon city concept has enhanced the necessity for a both quantitative and qualitative evaluation of related energy strategies and policies. Support decision maker's tools can play an essential role for sustainable and effective land use governance, in particular, geo-referencing territorial data. This paper proposes a mixed approach method, integrating GIS Urban Energy Mapping, Stakeholders Analysis, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis whit the aim at defining urban energy saving scenarios in two sides which includes (a) the development of an energy consumption model of the building stock that is able to explore a number of possible futures scenarios based on GIS and give a representative picture of the actual energy consumption state and performance of urban systems (b) and the pre-selection of evaluation criteria based on environmental, economic, and social sustainability pillars. The expected result is the development of spatial decision support tool able to support urban planners, policy makers and built environment stakeholders in their efforts to plan, design and manage low carbon cities in their future strategic decisions by visualizing scenarios analysis. This paper is part of an ongoing Smart City research, a national cluster project, called Zero Energy Buildings in Smart Urban Districts (EEB). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we estimate the availability of shrub biomass along two different geographical transects in the Iberian Peninsula, i) North transect: NE-NW and ii) an Atlantic-Mediterranean transect: NW-S. To determine the available shrub area, the legal, technical, economic and environmental restrictions pertinent to the study areas were identified and their relative thresholds were established. Additionally, the amount of available shrub biomass (tonnes dry matter per hectare) along both geographical transects was calculated using equations specifically created for Spanish shrub formations. The NE-NW transect gave shrub biomass accumulations ranging from 11 to 16 t ha −1 , while the NW-S transect displayed much lower values, from 3 to 16 t ha −1 . Furthermore, the stored energy potential (gigajoules per hectare) for each shrub formation was calculated at each location. This paper provides realistic information, by shrub formation, on shrub biomass availability in the Mediterranean basin, highlighting the suitability of scrublands as potential sources of biomass, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of harvesting such biomass using machinery specifically designed for shrubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yachts, watches, sport cars, hunting rifles, all those goods represent most of the time a hedonist purchase done by Men. Nevertheless, things have changed. Women have an important impact on the final purchase decision. Researchers demonstrated the influence of husband and wife considering the determinants of role structure such as empathy or involvement (Burns and Granbois, 1977). Hofstede showed the importance of gender differences organized through a role-separation in everyday life. However, by exploring the role of consumer, gender codes are decreasingly important. Nowadays, a product that was masculine, might be highly purchased by women, who have growing influence on the purchasing decision of their partner. Who the final decision belongs to? The findings of the paper show the strong gender influence on luxury products. Generally, this paper will deal a lot with gender stereotypes as they can be found in the customers base of luxury brands. While the luxury market targets men or women through their products and services, our research shows the influence of client’s environment on the shopping experience and behavior. This article will focus on the power of women within the decision-making process depending on the culture. Generally, when men have the power on the product in itself, women have the ability to influence the decision on particular aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a scientific review of the results from research project A 2 L-Mobilius, which is an ongoing research project partly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Today the process of urbanization has reached an unprecedented level. Most of the rapid urbanization phenomena happen in developing countries, triggering a series of social, economic, and environmental challenges as well as opportunities. In particular, nearly two thirds of Greater Cairo Region's population are living in informal urban settlements, and the number is expected to continuously increase, which causes a series of issues such as overpopulation, land shortage, high unemployment rate, lack of adequate infrastructures, and environmental challenges. As a result, in the foreseeable future, the situation will be more problematic if no innovative measures are taken. Based on A 2 L-Mobilius, the goal of this paper is to present an integrated solution to improve the living condition of local residents and to catalyze the vitality of local community. With regard to the research methods, a small housing unit in Cairo's informal area is chosen as the object of the case study. Accordingly, field trip study by Egyptian partners is conducted in order to better understand the housing's condition as well as its surroundings. Based on the case study findings as well as the Open Building concept, the results consist of an Affordable and Adaptable Building System (A 2 BS) and a cluster of Decentralized Processing Units (DPUs), which generate key elements to improve energy efficiency, mobility, and life-work patterns. Furthermore, specifications and technological details of the proposed system will be presented in this paper. In conclusion, this case study provides a valuable model for further research on regenerating informal urban settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction cost and delivery time have been used as mutually inclusive measurement for project success in construction industry. In relation to this, several researchers showed a correlation between cost deviation and deviation on delivery time. However, very limited research discussed about the relationship between total construction time and cost deviation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze two specific types of construction projects (roads and buildings) and test if there is a correlation between cost performance and the length of construction time. In other words, respond to the proposition that longer projects have large cost deviation. Further, the research discusses managerial implications by referring what it really matters in cost performance in either of longer or shorter projects. To do this, the research considers various size public road construction projects and building constructions with different project completion time. It uses quantitative research method. The result showed that longer project do not necessarily have higher cost deviation. Unlike the building construction, road construction showed negative correlation between cost and construction time. However, few longer projects showed relatively large cost deviation as compared to smaller projects. This paper also wants to do practical discussions by comparing the attributes of shorter versus the longer projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The requirements to apply Building Information Modelling (BIM) in public investments worldwide are currently very high. Significant interest (sometimes formulated also as a requirement) in BIM technology can be observed also among private investors. Design technology that applies BIM is supported by many private investors due to its numerous advantages. A growing group of construction designers (steel, concrete and reinforced concrete among others) and installation designers, producers of prefabricated elements (steel and reinforcements), engineers, architects, construction companies, developers, contract managers and investors in Poland and worldwide notices opportunities offered by using BIM technology in preparation and construction phase, as well as building management. At the same time experts in construction industry draw attention to the low level of competitiveness of Polish construction companies in global and European market caused, among others, by insufficient application of modern technology and innovation, as well as lack of public investor's initiative in promoting the application of BIM. It is difficult to assess the level of BIM implementation in Polish companies (due to lack of wider research results). The goal of this paper is to present the results of initial research regarding the level of knowledge of BIM and the scope of its implementation in Polish construction companies. The goal of the research was also to establish the level of interest and ability to implement BIM by public investors, architecture and construction companies. The paper also presents the scope of actions undertaken by the state, in the context of public investments using BIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the size of road projects has increased significantly. These projects face several challenges due to the size and the complexity of the projects. The purpose of this paper is to identify the project delivery method of a large road project in Norway and to explore the nature of the challenges the project faces. In addition, the paper will assess how implementing early contractor involvement (ECI) affects these challenges in the case project. In addition to a literature study, a case study on a public road project was carried out. The case study was conducted by a document study and semi-structure in-depth interviews with ten key personnel. The key personnel include representatives from the client side as well as representatives from the design team and the main contractor. Even though the project is large and complex, the client has used design-bid-build (DBB) as project delivery method. By using this project delivery method, the client faced several challenges during the early stages of the project execution. Some of the client's challenges were shortcomings in the design, as well as lack of control of the subcontractors. By involving the contractor's knowledge in the early phase, some of the challenges could have been reduced. Since the project will not be fully implemented until the spring of 2019, the paper addresses challenges in the early execution phase of the project. ECI should be considered in such large and complex road projects to reduce challenges that could appear in the execution phase. Since several large and complex road projects are coming, the experience from this case study could help them to decide the project delivery method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes exchange market algorithm (EMA) to solve economic emission dispatch and reliability (EEDR) problem in thermal power plants. The aim of EMA, inspired by the method of selling and purchasing of shares by elite stockholders, is to solve the optimization problems. The EMA is a new, robust and efficient algorithm to exploit the global optimum point in optimization problems. Existence of two seeking operators in EMA provides a high ability in exploiting global optimum point. In economic emission dispatch and reliability, it is tried to utilize generating units in a way that we have high reliability in supplying the system load demand as well as the minimum fuel costs. In this paper, the EMA is successfully implemented on two systems with 6 and 26 generating units considering economic and emission dispatch and system reliability. The obtained results are compared with other advanced techniques. The results well demonstrate the practical advantage of the exchange market algorithm over the other approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hub carriers tend to charge higher fares to their passengers at their hubs. The additional charge is called the hub premium. Different studies have discussed the possible causes of the hub premium. Using the fare data at Hong Kong International Airport, this paper aims at empirically examining the factors affecting the hub premium for both economy and business class markets. The random effect models are employed in the analysis. Consistent with the theoretical results in the literature, airport market concentration, market power, flight frequency and distance are identified as significant factors that affect the hub premium in Hong Kong. In addition, this paper further investigates the impact of strategic alliance and the acquisition of Dragonair by Cathay Pacific on the hub premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary aim of the paper is to evaluate the influence of road transportation on the basic regional indicators. Using official statistics, the authoritative theoretical and methodological proven methods we discovered that high traffic volume and traffic congestion together lead to extra spending of car-owners. In the paper we are working out the formula to evaluate these ‘losses’ and apply it to the transport system of Saint Petersburg. We determine the interrelatedness of socio-economic indexes and transport system indicators. The study proves the relevance of transport strategy development in Saint Petersburg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road urban transport and traffic engineering in general are long-term discussed topics. Traffic problems are solved from many aspects, such as transport infrastructure, transport organization, high share of car traffic, a negative impact on air quality, emissions etc. Finally, the problem of traffic congestion on urban roads is also highly topical. With increasing economic development of individual states the numbers of cars are increasing as well − the traffic volumes are increasing at the expense of road capacity. The paper deals with the formation of congestion particularly on urban roads, where the driver reaction time influences the size of congestion as well. In the first part of the paper the issues of traffic flow and congestion formation are theoretically discussed. The second part of the paper outlines in practice an influence of human factor (the driver's Perception − Response Time) on the congestion formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a fuzzy-preconditioned ANN (Artificial Neural Network) model for electricity price forecasting. The deregulated electric power systems have been widely spread to trade electric power through electric power markets. The market players are interested in gaining the inside track to maximize the profits and minimize risks in advance. One of the most important tasks is how to forecast a complicated time series of electricity price that affects transmission network congestion. In practice, it is hard to forecast electricity price with the spikes due to the high nonlinearity. In this paper, GRBFN (General Radial Basis Function Network) of ANN is proposed for electricity price forecasting. It is an extension of RBFN of ANN in a way that the optimal parameters of the Gaussian functions are determined by the learning process in RBFN. To improve the model accuracy of GRBFN, FCE (fuzzy c-Elliptotypes) is introduced into GRBFN as a fuzzy precondition technique. FCE is an extension of FCM (fuzzy c-means) and plays a key role to classify input data into fuzzy clusters. The use of FCE contributes to the improvement of model accuracy for spikes of electricity price that bring about much higher price. This paper makes use of DA clustering to evaluate a better initial solution of the parameters of the Gaussian functions. Also, EPSO of evolutionary computation is used to evaluate better weights between neurons. The proposed method is successfully applied to real data of electricity price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HVAC systems in buildings are composed of many subcomponents which consume energy in huge amounts. In recent years, energy consumption becomes very important aspect due to the lack of energy resources and environmental reasons. In terms of energy consumption, the components of HVAC systems account for large portion of total energy used in buildings. Therefore optimization of energy consumption in HVAC applications is an essential requirement in terms of thermodynamic and economic point of views. Besides, the efforts for decreasing energy consumption turn into economic recovery. It also provides benefits for human health and cleaner environment. In this paper, as originality, thermodynamic and economic analyses of an existing social and cultural building which has a heating and cooling area of 8852 m 2 are presented by comparing of a conventional HVAC and a VRF system. A novel contribution is given to the open literature by comparing two systems with actual data measured from the existing system. The other originality is to apply and test a VRF system to a complex-structured building. This study is a rare one which contains insulation, heating and cooling accounts of a building together. In this paper, VRF system is modelled to the existing building for the comparison of the conventional HVAC system. Both systems have been compared in terms of heating and cooling capacity, initial, operation and maintenance costs. It is found that the VRF system is more economic and efficient such that the VRF system is found to have 44% cost profit when compared with the conventional HVAC system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, building energy models use parametric analyses to optimize design strategies considering multiple variables. Integrated dynamic models combining design tool and visual programming language (VPL) and simulation tools to calculate building performance with BIM tool for the whole-building energy simulation have been adopted in the recent studies. Through these tools, it is possible to identify parametric systems, which become a “genome”, where a rapid comparison of different alternatives is possible through fitness criteria defined by design goals. The aim of the paper is to use this concept and the suitable parametric tools such as Grasshopper for Rhinoceros to handle variable hypotheses on users’ occupancy that influence building energy performance. The paper focuses on occupancy variability applying the methodology to a university building located in northern Italy in the University of Brescia Campus to evaluate how generative modelling can represent an adequate approach to energy simulation of occupant behaviour. Sensors are now monitoring the real occupancy trend of the case study building and different scenarios defined in the parametric model could be compared to the real weekly. Using parametric tool and GA (Genetic Algorithms) can be analysed hundreds of occupancy patterns in order to better understand the influence of the occupancy on the building energy use and at the same time evaluate different strategies to save energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provision of adequate and affordable housing is a major challenge in both emerging and industrialised countries. With increasing urgency for addressing climate change and other environmental issues these habitats will need to be environmentally sustainable too. Conventional construction, especially in dense urban centres and in rural or remote areas, is putting great pressures on cost and resource efficiency and is compelling the industry and governments globally to question the approach of business-as-usual. Prefabrication or off-site construction can offer great opportunities for both environmental and economic performance and hence is emerging as an attractive alternative to on-site construction. Although in the established markets the share of prefabrication in overall construction output remains strong, in many countries including Australia it still remains in its infancy. In order to enhance the profile of prefab housing and effectively develop high performance sustainable and affordable housing it is vital that first the needs and perceptions of the industry on these issues are adequately studied. This paper relates to the first of a two part research project aimed at exploring the makeup of the prefab housing industry and identifying various challenges and opportunities. The study was conducted as an international industry survey in which barriers, opportunities, performance and perceptions of sustainability and affordability were explored. The paper presents the results of this survey. Based on a cross-sectional analysis the responses are compared and categorised. Among other things the findings highlight the gaps in our understanding of the relationship between sustainability and affordability. This research contributes to the discourse on the need to better understand the role of design and design decision making for developing high performance prefab housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An idea that which zones are the main disturbed areas in mining cities and what are the exact impacts in space concerns re-use and optimal allocation of land. Current research mostly concludes that mining activities impact land use greatly, but there is no definite spatial range of disturbance. To find out the exact range, this paper sets up 12 gradients composed of mineral locations and 11 surrounding gradients with an interval of 3 km. And the “D-C-S” (Disturbance-Continuity- Sustainability) framework was then established to evaluate land use characteristics, including 9 indices in the three layers of disturbance, continuity and sustainability. Here, this paper adopted two approaches − transverse land use profiles and anomalous economic points − to test out the understanding of land use characteristics in mining cities. Our findings show that the areas surrounding mineral locations possibly play a more important role in land use structure and functions, designated to 0–9 km, especially 3–6 km away from mineral locations, where land needs more concerns about optimal allocation for future policy-making to improve the pattern, function and continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, over half of the world's population is living in urban areas. Urbanization has not led only to economic and social transformation, but also to high resource consumption and considerable environmental damage. This study aims to promote a holistic methodological approach in the urban context in order to foster policy modeling, efficient governance and sustainability. The paper has a twofold purpose: (i) to provide an approach for tractably characterizing the environmental performance of the building sector, and (ii) to promote sustainable practices towards greener buildings in urban areas. Towards this aim a composite indicator is analytically defined. The index combines the main environmental pressures that can be attributed to the building sector and is mathematically formulated to be finally implemented generically. Apart from energy, water consumption and waste generation, the presented scheme establishes links with LCA in order to include estimations of carbon footprint (CO 2 -eq). The formulated index is combined with the structure dialogue approach that has been developed within Urban Empathy, aMED Programme funded capitalization project focused on the efficiency of sustainable urban policies in the Mediterranean Basin. The structured dialogue process identifies key barriers to the implementation of the selected available practices into sustainable urban policies for the building sector. The paper highlights insights for common priorities, real pilot project results and their relation to implemented policies in order to foster strategic governance and policy modeling for specific areas under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy Audit and Planning for both existing and new-to-build buildings has been of increasing interest during the last years due to growing environmental concerns. Especially historic buildings, such Craiglockhart Primary School, which are of great importance because of their special architectural characteristics, are energy-demanding structures of incomplete and outdated technology. Improving the energy efficiency of such buildings would mean environmental and financial benefits as well as retaining of the historical heritage of Edinburgh. Additionally, integration of renewable sources in such buildings would result in a further gain from renewable heat incentives and in greener building as well. Firstly, this paper summarizes a study of possible actions for improving the energy efficiency of such buildings. Secondly, assuming that the proposed measures have been applied, possibility of renewables’ integration is assessed. Heat pumps and biomass integration is investigated and a hybrid system is finally proposed. This paper evaluates level of improvement and cost for all scenarios explored after considering possible constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the important policy and welfare implications of China's energy issues, to date there has been little investigation from a micro-level perspective of the misallocation of resources in manufacturing enterprises. To fill this gap, this paper deals with resource misallocations in China with special reference to energy and labor inputs. Using a large, novel dataset of manufacturing enterprises from Zhejiang province, we employ a simultaneous system of equations for (gross) industrial output value, wage bill, energy expenditure and carbon emissions. The explanatory variables include labor, educational attainment of employees, capital value, materials, and a list of energy-related variables. Our results show that, for the same energy content, non-coal energy inputs are more productive than coal and coal-related fuels. Non-coal energy is more environmentally friendly but more expensive than coal-related fuels. Using the model estimates, we conduct Wald tests on whether the marginal productivity of labor and energy significantly differ from their respective factor costs. The main findings are that there is substantial resource misallocation in manufacturing enterprises, with labor being underpaid and energy overpaid, on average, in comparison to their marginal productivity. For energy misallocation, however, the pattern varies considerably among the various subsectors. Specifically, energy is over-used in sectors such as Textile , Paper , Chemical , Plastics , Non-metallic , Ferrous metals and Non-ferrous metal . By contrast, energy is under-used in sectors such as Beverages , Textile-wearing apparel , Leather , Metal , Transport equipment , Electrical machinery and Communication equipment . These findings can assist decision-makers in targeting the sectors where there is the most misallocation, identifying which input factors are inappropriately used, improving economic efficiency and lowering overall production costs by reducing allocative inefficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]