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Carbon footprints (CFs) are the measure of extent of green house gases (GHGs) emitted from any organization or activity. Reporting of extent of CFs in terms of CO 2 e from educational campus may be considered as a first step towards sustainable educational practices. The present study employs a bottom up approach where CFs due to consumption of resources from each academic department is evaluated separately and net is obtained by adding contributions from individual departments. This method has the advantage of avoiding the potential overlaps in the calculation. Hence this approach to calculate carbon footprints can lead to their precise CF evaluation. In order to justify above hypothesis, CF evaluation was carried out at Shikshana Prasarak Mandali's Sir Parashurambhau College, Pune for three consecutive years starting from 2015 to 2016. The average carbon footprints over the study period were 3630.57 ± 296.79 tones CO 2 e per year with per capita emission of 0.81 ± 0.06 tones CO 2 e. The emission density determined from the average value was found to be 0.0361 ± 0.0029 tCO 2 e m−2 of the campus. It was observed that emission sources classified as scope-1, scope-2 and scope-3 contribute 28%, 48% and 25% respectively to total emission. Out of all the emission sources identified, apart from human contribution through respiration, electricity (35%), biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, stationary paper, 7%, use of chemicals in the laboratories (5%), paper for official purpose (12%), LPG (3%) and transport (27%) were main contributors. As this is a multi faculty college, science faculty contributes almost 62%, commerce 9% and arts 11% of the total emission. • Present paper highlights carbon footprints from an Indian HEI using bottom up approach. • A questionnaire based survey was used to arrive at departmental and net footprints. • Carbon footprints of HEI in India are much less as compared to developed countries. • The carbon footprints of Indian HEIs are expected to grow at 5–6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed countries have paved the way for the implementation of intelligent transport systems to improve the safety, efficiency, and environmental impact of transport. With developing countries entering the fray, the question is: Is ITS as implemented in developed countries relevant to developing countries? This research question is discussed in this paper for the case of sub-Saharan countries that are among the poorest countries worldwide. To this end, the paper outlines the main differences in transportation scenarios between developed and sub-Saharan countries, and then considering the main constraints of sub-Saharan countries, a guide towards an affordable intelligent transportation system in these countries is discussed. Finally, the paper proposes two main novel ideas for the deployment of intelligent transport systems on dirt roads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social implications of servitization and unveils the connections between servitization and social innovation. To substantiate these claims, the research elucidates three core concepts of social innovation, namely processes, instruments, and outcomes. The processual view of social innovation examines how societal changes unfold; the instrumental view focuses on tools and mechanisms driving these changes; and last the outcomes view analyses the resultant benefits. The paper reviews systematically the literature on the social impacts of servitization and, based on the mentioned views uses the literature findings to inductively develop three propositions and demonstrate that servitization can represent a form of social innovation, thus capable of profoundly reshaping industrial societies and contributing to progress and people's well-being. In sum, the paper shows the social implications and benefits related to servitization of manufacturing firms and suggests the research priorities in this domain for servitization scholars. • The paper systematically reviews the literature to identify the social implications of servitization. • The paper uses three views to unveil the connections between servitization and social innovation. • The paper theorizes that servitization is a form of social innovation that contributes to progress and people's well-being. • The paper suggests research priorities in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and building of Mega Housing Development Projects (MHDP) has become one of the targets of developed countries, due to their positive impact on continuous population growth, rapid urbanisation, economic situation and working force engagement. Developing countries are moving towards the establishment of MHDP, where Egypt 2030 plan aims at constructing MHDP with specific vision. Although MHDP are expected to offer HR opportunities, they will generate challenges. The purpose of this paper is to design a responsive framework to HR factors arising from the internal and external MHDP environments. The paper undergoes a review for HR challenges and opportunities in design and building of MHDP, which was followed by a qualitative analysis of case studies from countries near to Egypt. Finally, a survey questionnaire was implemented, targeting stakeholders involved in MHDP. Most external challenges facing developing countries included security for HR working in design and building, shortage in access to technology in supply from a country to organization, Governance instability systems and lack of coordination. The most challenging factors facing the developing countries include providing services for organizations during construction of new MHDP, planning more flexible funding strategies for more flexible economic construction environment, avoiding continuous change of governmental systems and biased decision making, improving educational knowledge for constructions' obstacles to improve innovation, and Engaging more employees into the construction of MHDP activities. The paper developed a responsive framework and a risk register which better suits MHDP in Egypt. Strategies for HR internal opportunities at the design stage included "exploit", "share", and "enhance". "Exploit" strategy aims to ensure that the opportunity is recognized and make the opportunity definitely happen. Regarding HR Challenges, responsive strategies include "Avoid", "Transfer", "Mitigate", or "Accept". The paper improves management practice of challenges and opportunities for HR in MHDP in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypersonic vehicles have been paid more and more attention by various countries, and many developed countries have set off a competition of hypersonic technology. Under this background, this paper creatively applies the reconstruction method based on three vanishing points to the reconstruction of complex aircraft for the first time. The shape of aircraft is restored by photos from different angles, which provides a good help for preliminarily understanding and mastering the information of international mainstream advanced aircraft. In this paper, the feasibility of the whole method is verified by the classical X-37B model, and its three-dimensional structure model can be obtained relatively accurately. In terms of aerodynamic performance evaluation, the panel method is adopted to evaluate the aerodynamic performance on the basis of verifying the reliability of the engineering method. And the results show that the lift-to-drag ratio reaches the maximum of 1.22 at the angle of attack of 25°. This is quite similar to the CFD calculation of class X-37B model in other literatures. The accuracy of the model makes up for the error of the engineering estimation method to a certain extent. In view of the inaccuracy of the wing reconstruction, the genetic algorithm is used to optimize its aerodynamic performances. The lift-to-drag ratio of the wing is increased by 26.3% at 25°, which leads to an increase of 4.35% in the optimal angle of attack lift-to-drag ratio of the whole model. At last, the modularization programming approach is adopted in the optimization process, ensuring the generality of this method, and the whole method will have a broad application prospect. • A reusable vehicle was reconstructed by the developed reverse engineering approach. • The aerodynamic performance of the reusable vehicle was optimized. • When the angle of attack is 25°, the lift-to-drag ratio reaches the maximum value of 1.22. • The overall lift-to-drag ratio of the model is with an increase of 4.35%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Identification of important indicators for process safety. • A comparative study of process safety indicators in developing and developed countries. • Measuring the relative importance of the indicators using the Fuzzy Best Worst Method. Introduction: The importance of safety in high-risk industries such as oil and gas facilities has been reported previously. Process safety performance indicators can provide insight into improving the safety of process industries. This paper aims to rank the process safety indicators (metrics) by Fuzzy Best-Worst Method (FBWM) using the data gathered through a survey. Method: The study uses a structured approach considering the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), and the IOGP (International Association of Oil and Gas Producers) recommendations and guidelines to generate an aggregate set of indicators. It calculates the level of importance of each indicator based on the opinions of experts from Iran and some Western countries. Results: The findings of the study demonstrate that some lagging indicators such as the number of times processes do not proceed as planned due to insufficient staff competence and the number of unexpected disruptions of the process due to failure in instrumentation and alarms are important in process industries in both Iran and Western countries. Western experts identified process safety incident severity rate as an important lagging indicator, whereas Iranian experts considered this as relatively unimportant. In addition, leading indicators such as sufficient process safety training and competency, the desired function of instrumentation and alarms, and proper management of fatigue risk play an important role in enhancing the safety performance of process industries. Experts in Iran viewed permit to work as an important leading indicator, while experts in the West focused on fatigue risk management. Practical Applications: The methodology used in the current study gives a good view to managers and safety professionals in regard to the most important indicators of process safety and allows them to focus more on important process safety indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic increase in textile waste and the ineffective disposal of textiles as emerging global issues are driving researchers to study new ways of thinking and designing textile waste policies with the aim of conserving resources and reducing the environmental impact of textile waste. However, there is limited research that systematically and comprehensively examines the development processes of policies that govern textile waste management. It is important to identify the underlying issues and improve textile waste management systems. This paper fills this gap by presenting a comprehensive study of the development and characteristics of policies related to textile waste in China. All the major textile waste policies issued between 1991 and 2017 at the central-government level have been examined to ensure accuracy and reliability. To achieve the descriptive objective of the study, content analysis was employed, and the following conclusions were derived: (1) The number of policies has gradually increased since more stringent textile waste management was introduced in 2001, and although the Chinese government has continuously reinforced its supervision from 2010 onwards, stringency remains low; (2) most policies regulate the recycling level of the waste hierarchy, as in open-loop recycling, and only a couple of polices regulate higher levels; and (3) the highly imbalanced structure of policy instrument types has been changing, and the variety of policy instruments has peaked in recent years. This paper contributes a general and important reference relating to textile waste policies for governments and businesses in other industrialized nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A systematic review is done on the effects of safety climate on safety performance. • Safety climate is predominantly used as a predictor. • Safety-related behavior is the most common definition of safety performance. • Methods used to link safety climate and safety performance is methodologically biased. • Literature on safety climate is dominated by studies in developed countries. Introduction: Since its inception more than four decades ago, research on safety climate has been conducted in many industries. Subsequently, a plethora of systematic literature reviews on safety climate in various work environments has focused on research trends and measurement scales. Yet, despite these reviews, the overall picture of how safety climate influences performance is still not well understood. The current study reviews existing literature on safety climate, specifically how it affects safety performance. Method: Literature searches were conducted using EBSCOhost and Web of Science databases in March 2021. We included English-language, peer-reviewed studies that reported the results of research done on safety climate and safety performance. We extracted data (contextual, theoretical, methodological and definition of safety performance) from these studies and were deductively analyzed and categorized into common themes. Results: One hundred and sixty-two safety climate studies were identified. We found that studies on safety climate–performance were conducted in 16 types of industries while 23 different theories explained the safety climate–performance relationship. The quantity and quality of variables and methods used varied considerably across the surveys. Safety climate is predominantly used as a predictor while safety-related behavior is the most common definition of safety performance among the articles we reviewed. Few papers from the current review were methodologically strong, suggesting that current evidence on the link between safety climate and safety performance still suffers from common method bias. Conclusions: Although literature has provided evidence for the positive effect on safety performance via a strong safety climate, strong and convincing methods are still lacking and the causality of an improved safety climate still needs to be demonstrated. Practical applications: The findings of the current review offer a better understanding of how employers can improve safety climate in the workplace in various settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's globalized economy and highly interconnected media landscape, the impact of country-of-origin (COO) effects on crisis spillovers has attracted growing interest. However, the majority of the relevant studies are limited to case studies. A clear understanding of the relationship between COO effects and crisis spillovers has yet to be established. To address this gap, a meta-analysis of 24 causal pairs from 9 papers (n = 5746, combined n = 10942) was performed. The results indicate that COO effects can somewhat limit crisis spillovers. Specifically, the COO effect has a medium degree of mitigating effect on morality (r = 0.403) and competence crises (r = 0.240). When the COO is a developed country (r = 0.345), the COO effect can effectively mitigate crisis spillovers to a medium extent, while when the COO is a developing country (r = 0.180), the COO effect is small. Using organizational impressions (r = 0.357) rather than purchase intentions (r = 0.157) as a measurement instrument makes it easier to observe the dampening effect of COO on crisis spillovers. These findings enrich the theoretical framework of public relations and crisis management and provide strategies for business organizations to cope with spillovers. • Morality and competence crises moderately modulate the relationship between country-of-origin effects and crisis spillovers. • Developed countries' country-of-origin effects more significantly dampen crisis spillovers than in developing countries. • Differences in crisis measurement tools affect the results of crisis assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of resource requirements in developed countries after the 2008 crisis seemed to indicate that there is a process of dematerialization. This paper analyses dematerialization in a group of developed countries and the effects of the economic cycle on resource use. The aim is to determine whether dematerialization can be linked to the effects of the economic crisis or, on the contrary, is independent of the economic context. To do this, a descriptive part is proposed in which the existence of dematerialization over the last 50 years is analysed. Subsequently, a model is estimated in which the effect of recessionary, low-growth and normal growth periods on the consumption of material resources is contrasted. The raw material input is used as an indicator of the use of material resources, which makes it possible to link each country to all the resources it requires for the normal functioning of its economy, regardless of where they are consumed. Among the main results, it can be noted that reductions in resource consumption occur in periods of recession and low growth, while for growth above 2% there is no dematerialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buyers in developed countries often spend millions of dollars per year to ensure social compliance of their suppliers, yet the social performance of suppliers in developing countries remains poor. This paper discusses supplier social compliance in terms of adoption of public (e.g., SA 8000) and private (e.g., Walmart's supplier code of conduct) social standards and elaborates on the dynamics of standards adoption decision-making. Building upon ideas of asset specificity, social exchange, and organizational citizenship behavior, this paper develops propositions to provide an overarching framework explaining the adoption of public and private social standards. The paper shows that buyers and suppliers have different perspectives towards the adoption of public and private standards. Accordingly, the extent of supplier social compliance also varies based on the type of standard adoption. Further, adopting multiple social standards, i.e., both private and public, may not bring a corresponding increase in supplier social performance. Finally, from a buyer perspective, the selection of a particular social standard may require managing trade-offs. The findings can help managers in making better social compliance decisions. • Suppliers will prefer public standards due to their lower asset specificity. • Public standards decrease the transaction cost of the buyer. • Private standards allow buyers to customize social compliance requirements. • Public standards can trigger citizenship behavior in supplier employees. • Buyers trade-off cost with flexibility when choosing social standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Evidence suggests that manufacturing companies have tried to address the current environmental challenges derived from their operations by implementing various operational environmental sustainability approaches, including green manufacturing (GM), cleaner production (CP), green lean (GL), green supply chain management (GSCM), reverse logistics (RLs) and circular economy (CE). However, although their adoption is well documented in developed nations and few other countries, very little has been done to understand such phenomenon in a rapid developing country such as Thailand. This paper aims at filling this gap by providing light into some fundamental issues regarding the implementation of these approaches in the manufacturing sector of Thailand. A survey-based exploratory research was carried out based on 287 Thai manufacturing companies. The data was analysed using a combination of descriptive and inferential statics. The study revealed that a large amount of investment capacity, and proper training & knowledge are needed to fully implement the studied operational approaches. This resulted in some of the weakest elements of Thai manufacturing firms and hence the main barriers to their implementation. The study also showed that Thai manufacturing firms consider the impact on the environment and benefits from adopting these operational approaches as company's policy and own initiative, environmental awareness, and cost saving from conservation of energy as the main reasons for adopting the studied operational approaches. Finally, the findings also indicate that Thai manufacturing firms tend to implement them because of internal factors and that they lack of motivation from external factors and involvement from other stakeholders. The paper extends the current limited knowledge on the deployment of operational environmental sustainability approaches in Asia, and its results can be beneficial for organisations that aim at effectively adopting them to improve their operation's sustainability. Highlights • Evidence of the implementation of sustainability approaches in Thailand is limited. • Paper provides light into fundamental issues regarding their adoption. • 287 Thai manufacturing companies participated in this survey-based exploratory study. • Study reveals degree of implementation, main drivers and barriers of the studied approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between managerial qualities and risk management is unclear, particularly for small and medium-sized organizations (SMEs) in developing market economies such as South Africa, because much research has focused on big enterprises in industrialized nations. To address this knowledge gap, this paper investigates the relationship between SME owner-manager characteristics and risk management, using upper echelons theory in a novel approach to provide a better understanding of how owner-manager characteristics may be linked to risk management strategies. This was achieved by the distribution of questionnaires to 320 purposely selected SMEs in Cape Town as well as personal interviews with two risk experts. The results show that risk avoidance is SMEs' most prevalent risk management strategy. The findings also show that SME owner-manager characteristics and risk management strategies are firmly and significantly linked, revealing the key determinants of effective risk management in SMEs. This paper is unique because it focuses on the often-overlooked topic of applying echelons theory to SMEs. Aside from bridging this knowledge gap, it has significant implications, such as informing SME owner-managers and policymakers on key variables that influence SME risk management strategies and making recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global concern shifts from developed countries—many of which have made significant strides towards carbon neutrality—to developing nations, an urgent need arises: how can the latter effectively borrow and adapt strategies that have proven successful in the former? This review thoroughly explores the successes and challenges encountered by developed countries in terms of emission accounting, mitigation strategies, and transitioning to renewable energy sources. We then explore how these strategies can be feasibly integrated into the economic, social, and political contexts of developing countries. Furthermore, this paper highlights the importance of customizing these strategies to the unique challenges and opportunities of developing nations, rather than simply replicating efforts. Through a comparative analysis, we present a roadmap to carbon neutrality that acknowledges the distinct contexts of these developing countries while drawing inspiration from global successes. This approach underscores the necessity of a collaborative, global effort in addressing climate change, recognizing the interconnectedness of all nations in this endeavor. It also sets the stage for future research and policy development that are both locally informed and globally conscious. [Display omitted] • Comprehensive analysis of emission accounting successes in developed countries. • Exploration of the unique challenges and opportunities in developing nations. • Emphasis on tailoring, not duplicating, carbon neutrality strategies. • Proposing a cohesive, global approach grounded in local context and solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance, clean technology innovation (CTI), and environmental tax are all eco-friendly measures for diminishing environmental degradation. Few studies have examined how these variables work together to realize the object of green growth (GG). Therefore, this research aims to examine the role of the above factors in achieving GG by using 28 developed countries from 1995 to 2019. These countries have passed over a time of fast progress at the expense of heavy pollution and hence have moved their emphasis to GG. This paper starts with the construction of the GG index based on entropy-weighted TOPSIS, followed by pooled OLS, fixed effect, random effect, the two-step least-square estimator (2SLS), and the System GMM models for hypothesis testing. From the findings, it is obsense of that: (1) Green finance positively affects GG; the higher the levels of GG, the greater the enhancement of green finance on GG. (2) CTI favorably mediates the impact of green finance on GG, and the mediating effect accounts for 14.06% of the overall effect. (3) Environmental tax has a significant threshold effect on the link between green finance and CTI; when high levels of environmental taxes are maintained, the influence of green finance on enterprises' CTI is greatly strengthened, with an increase of 53%. GG will be further promoted by the advancement of enterprises' CTI. Finally, emerging counties would benefit from this study in designing frameworks of green finance, environmental tax, and CTI policies to achieve GG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continued relevance of the systems approach to the study of innovation, especially in developed countries, has been the subject of recent discourses. This paper argues that with respect to developing countries, discussions on innovation systems are yet to be exhausted. Against this background, the paper takes an objective look at the innovation systems approach and suggests an agenda for studying innovation systems in developing countries. The position of the paper is that modifications to the innovation systems approach present viable opportunities for understanding the innovation process in the developing world. Some concrete modifications, and their implications for future research, are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest for food waste (FW) in the scientific community has been growing consistently in the most recent years. This is reflected by the number of publications (journal articles and proceedings papers) which can be accessed in the Web of Science (WoS) database. However, lacking of systematic, chronological and synthesizing studies indicating how this field has evolved over time. The main objective of this paper is to consolidate the state of the art of research on FW, based on a bibliometrics study of articles published over the past 18 years. The results are discussed under the following perspectives: chronological distribution, countries, institutions, source titles, subject categories, and author keywords. It is found that the FW research has increased rapidly over past 18 years, most notably in the last 8 years. In total, 2340 research articles were published in 801 journals and in 161 WoS subject categories. The top 7 productive countries were analyzed herein. The predominance of Chinese institutions in terms of article count and a predominance of industrialized countries' institutions in terms of citation score were compared. Finally, based on keywords analysis, it comes to the conclusion that the clean energy, treatment and valorization, and management innovation have attracted extensive attention during the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In common with other developed nations, the UK population is ageing. This has impacts on all areas of economic and social activity, including transport and air travel. This paper aims to provide an initial assessment of the ground access journeys to UK airports made by ageing (65+ years) air travellers, a topic hitherto unexplored by the academic research community. Using data from two online surveys (each with 600 respondents) undertaken in 2020 of 1200 different ageing UK residents, this exploratory research reveals that the ease of undertaking the journey and comfort are key factors in determining ground access choice whilst environmental issues play a minimal role. Whilst this paper offers new insights into the ground access journeys of ageing air passengers, it also makes recommendations for future research that needs to be undertaken to further academic understandings of the needs and attitudes of this important, and growing, passenger segment. • The ground access journey is viewed more favourably than other air journey stages. • Ease of undertaking the journey and comfort are key factors in ground access choice. • Environmental issues play a minimal role in determining ground access choice. • COVID-19 may encourage ageing passengers to use more cars and taxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal areas of developed countries have been altered by human activities, especially since the mid-20th century. This has notably affected the flow of ecosystem services that these environments provide. In this context, this paper’s research has focused on the historical evolution of socio-ecological dynamics and ecosystem services in a Mediterranean coastal landscape, characterized by the intense development of recent decades and the high biodiversity value. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered and analyzed through different methods (document and spatial analysis, statistical treatment). Results show the long history of many ecosystem services (increase/decrease in food provisioning, stabilization/decline of regulating services and no use/intense use of cultural services) and their decline in recent decades due to industrial and residential development (which expanded from 1.7 to 47.5%). To overcome this situation, this paper discusses the current state of ecosystem services and conservation tasks carried out and how the results of the research can be included in the different elements of the governance of shoreline areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving climate justice is an important goal and basic principle of global climate governance. This paper evaluates the progress of achieving global climate justice by quantitatively depicting the evolution characteristics, group differences and driving factors of global embodied carbon emissions. The results indicate that the phenomenon of embodied carbon inequality is more obvious. Furthermore, a data-driven clustering algorithm is adopted to divide the world's major economies into four convergence clubs based on the embodied carbon emissions levels. We find that the embodied carbon emissions gap between different clubs has widened since 2008, which may be related to the re-industrialization of developed countries. The results of SDA analysis indicate that the embodied carbon emissions of developed countries, such as the United States, are more driven by per capita end-use. On the contrary, unclean consumption and investment structure is the main driving force for the increase of embodied carbon emissions in developing countries such as China. Therefore, efforts should be made in developing countries on the clean adjustment of consumption and investment structure to promote the convergence of embodied carbon emissions with developed countries. • Phenomenon of global embodied carbon inequality is more obvious. • Driving factors of global embodied carbon inequality is examined. • Embodied carbon emissions gap between different clubs has widened since 2008. • Clean adjustment of consumption and investment structure should be emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While in the developed countries electrification is paving the way for progress and prosperity, nowadays electricity is still not accessible for about 18% of the world’s population. Lack of power grids is the main reason that prevents millions in remote areas in developing countries from using electricity for the daily basic needs. PV systems provide an effective solution for these regions, but affordability remains an issue. This barrier can be widely overcome on the short term by limiting PV power supply to very high added value applications and by properly exploiting innovations, especially in energy efficiency and cost reductions. Additional to that, the long-term perspectives of off-grid PV are very favourable based on its ongoing technological improvements and cost reductions. This paper studies four off-grid PV cases of which each could cover a combination of basic energy needs regarding light, cooking, food conservation and electronic appliances. Case I considers a system that supplies power for LED lamps and electronic devices. Accordingly, Case II adds a fridge and Case III an electric rice cooker to Case I, while Case IV adds both. The paper elaborates on available technologies and future developments regarding all components in order to assess the long term evolution and potential of these applications, most specifically how their affordability would evolve over time. The modelling and optimization of the four cases are performed using the software iHOGA, which is an efficient tool to provide the lowest cost solution for off-grid PV systems. The use of iHOGA for the four cases and the installation years 2020, 2030 and 2040, taking thereby into account different developing regions, provide an evolutionary techno-economic assessment of these applications and a clear picture about the developments to be expected from off-grid PV in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A few years after TRIZ appearance in highly industrialized countries, many experts in Case Based Reasoning pointed out potential similarities between both approaches. Later on, research activities have been conducted and publications appeared on this subject. This paper presents the results of an in depth study of the roots of both approaches, from the point of view of their philosophy and the scope of their relevant action. After several tests and investigations, we arrived to the point that each approach weakens the other if any of the two let the other govern its conduction. The paper discusses this claim and provides some potential directions for new research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual development and competition among enterprises, the products of motion control system are diversified and the performance difference is bigger. The technology of motion control system is monopolized by a few foreign professional manufacturers. The development of motion controller in China is relatively late, and the number with independent research and development ability is still in the minority. Compared with foreign countries, some developed countries still restrict the export of high-end products to China. This paper will use Loongson 3A3000 processor to realize open motion controller. Loongson series processor is a general domestic processor developed by Institute of computing technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It uses MIPS instruction system. At present, Loongson is gradually catching up with and surpassing the world advanced level. The communication module of motion controller uses EtherCAT real-time Ethernet, which has the characteristics of high efficiency, flexible topology and short refresh cycle. At present, there are few cases of open motion controller based on domestic CPU Loongson, which provides a typical case for independent innovation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained an increasing attention all over the world, but studies are mainly about developed countries. Developing countries have promoted CSR but concepts and approaches can be different from those in developed countries due to geographic, political, and economic contexts. In a unique developing country of China, the government has initially encouraged state-owned companies (SOCs) to implement CSR practices. However, no clear and commonly accepted CSR definition or concept exists. This paper develops items on CSR practices mainly based on the internationally accepted ISO26000 framework while integrating characteristics of Chinese SOCs. Statistical results of 146 usable questionnaires show that Chinese SOCs implement four types of CSR practices under the ISO26000 framework, they are those related to employee rights, consumer issues, fair operation and labor practices. Charity is a specific CSR dimension in China, but it is only implemented at the low level. Chinese SOCs have the high internal CSR values which promote most CSRs except those related to charity and employee rights. External institutional drivers for CSR practices are relatively low. Normative drivers motivate most CSR practices while competitive drivers only motivate consumer issues-related CSR practices. This paper contributes to extend previous studies mainly for developed countries to develop a CSR concept for Chinese SOCs by using both the international ISO26000 framework and considering the specific context. Statistic results identify how to motivate CSR practices among Chinese SOCs effectively, which can provide implications for not only the Chinese government, but also multi-national companies that do or plan to do business in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Capnography is universally accepted as an essential patient safety monitor in high-income countries (HICs) yet is often unavailable in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Increasing capnography availability has been proposed as one of many potential approaches to improving perioperative outcomes in LMICs. This scoping review summarises the existing literature on the effect of capnography on patient outcomes to help prioritise interventions and guide expansion of capnography in LMICs.Methods: We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE databases for articles published between 1980 and March 2019. Studies that assessed the impact of capnography on morbidity, mortality, or the use of airway interventions both inside and outside the operating room were included.Results: The search resulted in 7445 unique papers, and 31 were included for analysis. Retrospective and non-randomised data suggest capnography use may improve outcomes in the operating room, ICU, and emergency department, and during resuscitation. Prospective data on capnography use for procedural sedation suggest earlier detection of hypoventilation and a reduction in haemoglobin desaturation events. No randomised studies exist that assess the impact of capnography on patient outcomes.Conclusion: Despite widespread endorsement of capnography as a mandatory perioperative monitor, rigorous data demonstrating its impact on patient outcomes are limited, especially in LMICs. The association between capnography use and a reduction in serious airway complications suggests that closing the capnography gap in LMICs may represent a significant opportunity to improve patient safety. Additional data are needed to quantify the global capnography gap and better understand the barriers to capnography scale-up in LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a study to reveal hidden knowledge in the online patient medication reviews for phentermine HCL is presented. Phentermine HCL is used most frequently in the treatment of obesity. Obesity is a complex health disorder that affects huge amount of people. In recent years, the number of overweight people in industrialized countries has increased significantly and people who are obese are at a much higher risk for serious medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and diabetes. Considering the importance of the medication of obesity, knowledge discovery from online patient reviews is performed. Some information technologies and data mining techniques are used to discover some hidden knowledge between patient information and side effects in these reviews. Our results can give new ideas to medical researchers and pharmaceutical industry for drug safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NAPs reflect a global agenda instead of local specificities and characteristics. • To succeed, National Adaptation Plans/Strategies (NAPs/NASs) need broad support. • Mitigation measures need to be complemented by evaluation mechanisms. • Limited participation of non-governmental stakeholders in the development of NAPs constrains the effectiveness of responses. • The mechanisms of engagement are identical among countries despite their different socio-cultural characteristics. Climate policies are essential to mitigate climate change and to develop successful adaptation processes. However, there is a paucity of international studies that analyse the status of climate change policies. This paper reports on research undertaken in a sample of 13 highly diverse countries, in regards to their geography, socioeconomic development, vulnerability elements, adaptation, and climate-risks. The results draw attention to the global spread and standardisation of climate change policies, namely through the adoption of comprehensive National Adaptation Plans/Strategies (NAPs/NASs) that include mitigation measures and evaluation mechanisms. Although NAPs tend to take into account different non-governmental stakeholders, they are still mainly state-centred (i.e. their steering and implementation are the responsibility of each country´s Ministry of the Environment) in most of the 13 countries in which this study was carried out. The results show that NAPs' objectives mainly reflect more a global agenda and pay less attention to national/regional vulnerabilities and contexts. In fact, despite different socioeconomic levels of development, diverse climate-risks, and dissimilar vulnerability and readiness status among countries, the examined NAPs tend to focus on the same critical sectors and objectives. Notwithstanding their similarities, our results highlight two different logics of adaptation reflected on the NAPs: one focused on economic risks and opportunities, characteristic of developed countries; and others focused on natural resources and conservation, characteristic of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous driving is the future of the automotive industry across the globe. Many challenges must be resolved in designing and developing successful Autonomous Driving Systems (ADS), especially in developing countries with poor road infrastructure. Detecting obstacles in lanes is essential for robust ADS to decide whether to change lanes, slow down, or even stop. Developing countries like India present challenges, including poor or no lane line demarcation, poor traffic management, and diverse driving behaviors. That brings many challenges to developing robust lane-keeping or lane-changing decision systems in an ADS. Publicly available driving datasets have an inherent bias towards the road infrastructure of developed countries and hence cannot cater to the needs of the Indian requirements. That makes the existing obstacle-lane segment detection models unsuitable for road infrastructures in developing countries. Due to these factors, the rate of advancement of ADS and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in developing countries is meager compared to other developed countries. This makes it even more critical for future research to focus on these developing countries. This paper proposes a deep-learning-based novel decision-making network named LaneScanNET to assist the ADS in lane-changing or lane-keeping decision-making. The proposed system assists ADS in detecting obstacles, localization of the Ego Vehicle (EGV) on roads, and estimating lane status in its Field of View (FOV). The proposed LaneScanNET uses a parallel pipeline with an Obstacle Detection Network (ODN) and a Lane Detection Network (LDN) to simultaneously process the incoming image frames for detecting obstacles and segmenting lane lines, respectively. Further, the Obstacle-Lane Fusion Network (OLFN) fuses these results to predict the status of the obstacle lane in the FOV of autonomous vehicles. Vellore Institute of Technology's (VIT's) real-time driving dataset on indigenous roads has been collected to train the proposed LaneScanNET with 2464 obstacle-lane images obtained by driving over 60 km. The dataset generated for obstacle detection and its corresponding lane detection has also been made publicly available to promote research work for these developing countries. The proposed system outperforms all existing networks on Indian roads with an accuracy of 75.28% in obstacle detection and 91.36% in lane detection. Additionally, the proposed system can analyze the lane status with an accuracy of 92.54%. The proposed network performs exceptionally well in unforeseen circumstances like shadows, fog, dust, and occlusions making LaneScanNET a robust network that can be an add-on for ADS to make lane-keeping or lane-changing decisions. The LaneScanNET can be integrated into real-time vehicles to assist drivers or ADS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) that emphasizes sustainable and affordable energy presents a practical pathway to achieve sustainable growth. Moreover, this goal aligns with SDG 13, which focuses on climate action. Nonetheless, it is important to consider factors such as political and financial risk, as they can influence climate action efforts and the renewable energy sources adoption. Hence, this study broadens the conversation surrounding CO 2 emission reduction and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It accomplishes this by investigating the interplay between renewable energy, political risk, financial risk, and CO 2 emissions in Finland spanning from 1990/Q1 to 2021/Q4. Notably, this research distinguishes itself through its exploration of these complex connections, employing a wavelet-based quantile methodology. Unlike traditional quantile regression, which can only reveal connections between variables within each quantile, the wavelet-based quantile approach enables the simultaneous capture of correlations across quantiles and periods. The results show that in the long-term and across all quantiles (0.01–0.99), energy efficiency, specifically gas and oil efficiency, lessens CO 2. In addition, low financial and political risks improve ecological quality by lessening CO 2 across all periods and quantiles (0.01–0.99). The paper outcomes serve as a basis for formulating a policy framework aimed at achieving SDG 7 and SDG 13 in Finland. • We explore the impact of energy efficiency and country risk on CO 2 emissions. • The role of renewable energy and economic growth are also analyzed. • The Time series data of the Finland is used from 1990/Q1 to 2020/Q4. • Various wavelet-based quantile correlation is applied. • Renewable energy, oil and gas efficiency decrease CO 2 emissions in each quantile and across periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrialization has been the primary cause of the economic boom in almost all countries. However, this happened at the cost of the environment, as industrialization also caused carbon emissions to increase exponentially. According to the established literature, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is related to carbon emissions (CO 2) which could be optimally employed to precisely estimate a country's GDP. However, the scarcity of data is a significant bottleneck that could be handled using transfer learning (TL) which uses previously learned information to resolve new tasks, more specifically, related tasks. Notably, TL is highly vulnerable to performance degradation due to the deficiency of suitable information and hesitancy in decision-making. Therefore, this paper proposes 'Intuitionistic Fuzzy Transfer Learning (IFTL)', which is trained to use CO 2 emission data of developed nations and is tested for its prediction of GDP in a developing nation. IFTL exploits the concepts of intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) and a newly introduced function called the modified Hausdorff distance function. The proposed IFTL is investigated to demonstrate its actual capabilities for TL in modeling hesitancy. To further emphasize the role of hesitancy modelled with IFSs, we propose an ordinary fuzzy set (FS) based transfer learning. The prediction accuracy of the IFTL is further compared with widely used machine learning approaches, extreme learning machines, support vector regression, and generalized regression neural networks. It is observed that IFTL capably ensured significant improvements in the prediction accuracy over other existing approaches whenever training and testing data have huge data distribution differences. Moreover, the proposed IFTL is deterministic in nature and presents a novel way for mathematically computing the intuitionistic hesitation degree. • Intuitionistic fuzzy transfer learning (IFTL) is proposed to enhance TL. • Modified Hausdorff distance function is introduced to compute similarity. • A 'fuzzy transfer learning (FTL)' is also proposed and compared with IFTL. • Developing country's GDP is predicted using only CO2 emission data. • IFTL ensured significant improvements over other machine learning approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development requires more investment in sustainable companies and less in unsustainable firms. However, the factors driving sustainable investing are not well understood. To address this gap, this paper uses institutional theory to examine three determinants of sustainable investing: (1) investor commitment to sustainable investing initiatives; (2) normative pressure; and (3) home-country influences. The findings indicate that sustainable investing initiatives do not guarantee more sustainable asset allocation among members. Normative pressure correlates with reduced investment in unsustainable companies. Investors from home-countries with legal systems prioritizing diverse stakeholders, and with governments committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), tend to invest less in unsustainable companies. Conversely, investors from countries with limited SDG progress show higher investment in unsustainable firms, while those from more developed nations invest more in sustainable companies. These results highlight the need for a critical examination of institutional efficacy in promoting sustainable investing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper presents an exhaustive comparison of principal traffic noise models adopted in recent years in developed nations. The comparison is drawn on the basis of technical attributes including source modelling and sound propagation algorithms. Although the characterization of source in terms of rolling and propulsion noise in conjunction with advanced numerical methods for sound propagation has significantly reduced the uncertainty in traffic noise predictions, the approach followed is quite complex and requires specialized mathematical skills for predictions which is sometimes quite cumbersome for town planners. Also, it is sometimes difficult to follow the best approach when a variety of solutions have been proposed. This paper critically reviews all these aspects pertaining to the recent models developed and adapted in some countries and also discusses the strategies followed and implications of these models. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of Pb exposure on full-scale IQ score in pediatric subjects. Following PRISMA guidelines, the data from January 2010 to April 2020 were systematically searched and collected on electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Embase). The eligibility criteria included cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies that were published in English, from 2010 to 2020, that analyzed the blood Pb levels of pediatric subjects (0–19 years) and possible changes in the full-scale IQ score. In this study, 2174 scientific papers were collected from three electronic databases. From those, 726 were duplicates and 1421 were excluded because they did not meet the eligibility criteria, resulting in a total of 27 papers, from which, seven were used to perform the meta-analysis. The 27 scientific papers systematically selected for this study were separated by the country where the study was realized in developed and underdeveloped/developing countries. In the underdeveloped/developing countries the blood Pb levels are higher and showed a greater variation (1.30–11.66 μgPb/dL of blood) than in countries with higher development index (0.57–4.80 μgPb/dL of blood). The full-scale IQ score are inversely proportional to the blood Pb values, and it is possible to see that in the underdeveloped/developing countries the full-scale IQ score showed lower values and greater variation (59.2–111) compared to the individuals from developed countries (91.9–114.5). In conclusion, it was observed that blood Pb levels alter the full-scale IQ score. Thus, policies for the prevention of environmental contamination and the reduction of Pb exposure must be taken, mainly, in underdeveloped/developing countries. [Display omitted] • Individuals with high blood Pb levels have low full-scale IQ score. • Blood Pb levels lower than 5 μg Pb/dL cause full-scale IQ score alterations. • Pb exposure sources differ according to the countries index of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Provides a multi-dimensional and multi-domain measurement of industrial modernity. • Combines text mining of newspapers with data from various databases. • Finds evidence of major continuities in 3 countries (AU, GER, RUS) between 1900 and 2020. • Detects rupture in environmental discourse and institutions but less so in practices. • Changes in optimism about technological innovation are less visible in comparison. The world is confronted by a socio-ecological emergency, requiring rapid and deep decarbonization of a broad range of socio-technical systems. A recent Deep Transitions framework argues that this fundamentally unsustainable trajectory has been generated by the co-evolutionary dynamics of multiple systems during the last 250 years. Altering this direction requires transformation in industrial modernity – a set of most fundamental ideas, institutions, and practices characterizing every industrial society to date. Although the proponents of the framework suggest that this shift has been unfolding since the 1960s, no attempts have been made to operationalize the concept of industrial modernity and to assess this claim. This paper develops a comprehensive multi-dimensional and multi-domain approach for the measurement of industrial modernity. As such it seeks to provide empirical evidence of long-term continuities and emerging ruptures in the dominant ideas, institutions, and practices of industrial societies along the domains of environment and technology. Using a methodologically novel approach where the text mining of newspapers is combined with data from various databases the paper provides results from three countries – Australia, Germany, Soviet Union/Russia – between 1900 and 2020. Despite considerable country-level differences the results show shifts in public environmental discourse from the 1960s, followed by institutional changes from the 1980s but with only a modest change in practices. We also observe some change in the direction of innovative activities and their regulation coupled with a resurgent optimism in technology-environment discourse. The findings tentatively suggest that industrial modernity might be in the process of hollowing out along ideational and institutional dimensions in the environmental domain but less so in the domain of technology and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and related chemicals (collectively “PFOS equivalents”) have been released to the environment through widespread consumer use and disposal of PFOS-containing products like carpet, leather, textiles, paper, food containers, household cleansers, etc. Accordingly, in addition to PFOS-related industries, domestic activities may also considerably contribute to the PFOS emissions in the eastern coastal region of China, which has been characterized by high industrial input. In the present study, domestic emissions of PFOS equivalents derived from municipal wastewater treatment plants were estimated at the county level, using a regression model of domestic emission density with population density and per capita disposable income as independent variables. The total emission load of PFOS equivalents from domestic sources in the eastern coastal region of China was 381kg in 2010, and large cities were prominent as the emission centers. The domestic emission density averaged 0.37g/km2·a for the entire study area. Generally, the Beijing–Tianjin area, Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta, as the most populous and economically developed areas in China, showed significantly higher emission density. Geographical variations within individual provinces were noteworthy. The average per capita discharge load of PFOS equivalents arising from domestic activities was 1.91μg/day per capita in the eastern coastal region of China, which is consistent with previous estimates in Korea, but lower than those calculated for developed countries. In comparison, the spatial distributions of provincial PFOS emissions from domestic and industrial sources were similar to each other; however, the latter was much larger for all the provinces. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper investigates ecological threshold and ecological economic threshold by developing an ecological economic model—an extension of a population–resource dynamics model developed by Brander and Taylor (1998). The model reflects three critical issues regarding an ecological economic system: system boundary, non-convexity, and adaptation. The paper elucidates six main findings: ecological economic threshold may come before ecological threshold; the ecological economic threshold may exhibit a highly context-dependent and dynamic nature, which suggests the precautionary principle; markets do not respond sufficiently to maintain resiliency under an external shock as prices do not reflect thresholds; the system can be restored by intervention, even after crossing the ecological economic threshold; various transitional paths are possible in restoring the system; and adaptation affects resilience to a somewhat significant effect which suggests the importance of better information and education. Because of the complexity of the model, I adopt a system dynamics approach for the development and analysis of the model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The dictator game is a tool for analyzing generosity in a simple experimental environment. The susceptibility of the results to relatively small changes in the experimental design has cast doubt on the interpretation of the game within the framework of the traditional economic theory of preferences. Another concern attached to the game is that patterns similar to those found in experiments are difficult to find outside experiments. Consequently, the recent discussion has ranged over using the dictator game as a tool for investigating social norms rather than as a setting to test the theory of preferences. Any progress in this discussion presupposes more empirical work using various data and taking various theoretical perspectives. This paper contributes to such research by comparing giving in the dictator game with supporting income redistribution in the field. In particular, the paper provides a simple data-analysis of three developed countries (Spain, Sweden and the USA) to find a data pattern similar to data patterns in dictator game experiments. A symmetrical resemblance is found in the case of Sweden, an asymmetrical one in the case of the USA, and a non-resemblance in the case of Spain. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyses the international grain trade flow by using the gravity equation of trade. On the basis of microeconomic theory and the new trade theory, the gravity equation of trade is used to examine grain exports and imports between pairs of countries. One of the main purposes of this paper is to examine how the grain trade is affected by economic factors, population, and country development. By using data of 41 major trading countries over 14 years (1996-2009), the gravity equation of two different specifications are deployed for the investigation. The analysis differentiates between developed and developing countries and identifies the differences between different pairing. Importer''s GDP lead to grain trade growing much faster than exporter''s GDP. Developing countries tend to import less grain but developed countries import more, if the population is higher. The paper provides a new insight about the grain trade flow between developed and developing countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Stock prices are more and more driven by the investors’ sentiment which, in turn, is sensitive to various non-financial events like macro-economic releases and social or environmental changes all over the world. In a globalized world, even the emerging and frontier economies such as Romania are following the main trend of the developed markets. The main concern of the last few years in the capital markets across the globe was the European Debt Crisis and for the purpose of this paper, we considered the most important news related to this subject as non-financial reporting. Therefore, major news and reports regarding this issue are seen by investors as the most important factors that are moving the markets. This paper analyses the impact of the relevant EU Debt Crisis news on the main European stock indexes using the price volatility. The results of the study showed, among others, that most of the stock markets reacted to news before it was actually released and from this point of view, the markets are tending towards the semi-strong form of efficiency that Eugene Fama was proposing in the efficient market hypothesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In Romania 70% of the national production is generated by the economy private sector, which is still relatively at a low value compared to the share registered in the developed countries. The economic crisis has affected the entrepreneurship sector quite to a large extent. The main consequences of that circumstance are: the ratio of new businesses founding decrease, the ratio of business liquidation growth. This process was relatively asynchronous with that of the developed European Union countries, but common in the former planned economy countries and the dominance of state property. Based on some comparable data sets, this paper includes an econometric modeling for the new enterprises founding impact on the dynamic of national production, as measured by GDP. The paper''s findings may provide a ground for governmental strategies regarding the private sector development and the private economic initiative. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: During the entire period of the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, different types of countries showed different characteristics on their economic development process. Comparing the economic development process between different types of countries contributes a lot to get an in-depth understanding of the different impacts of the crisis on national economy. In this paper, the method of Functional Analysis of Variance (FANOVA) is applied to make a comparative study on the economic development process of different types of countries, including the differences on the economic growth rate, the time of the economy recession, the extent of the recession and the recovery situation of the economy. Moreover, the paper performs a dynamic test on the significance of the difference on the economic growth rate during the whole stage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The values, concepts and approaches of health impact assessment (HIA) were outlined in the Gothenburg consensus paper and some industrialized countries have implemented HIA for many years. HIA has played an important role in environmental protection in China, however, the emergence, progress and challenges of HIA in China have not been well described. In this paper, the evolution of HIA in China was analyzed and the challenges of HIA were presented based on the author''s experiences. HIA contributed to decision-making for large capital construction projects, such as the Three Gorges Dam project, in its emergence stage. Increasing attention has been given to HIA in recent years due to supportive policies underpinning development of the draft HIA guidelines in 2008. However enormous challenges lie ahead in ensuring the institutionalization of HIA into project, program and policy decision-making process due to limited scope, immature tools and insufficient professionals in HIA practice. HIA should broaden its horizons by encompassing physical, chemical, biological and socio-economic aspects and constant attempts should be made to integrate HIA into the decision-making process, not only for projects and programs but also for policies as well. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Access to modern energy services in households is central to achieving decent living standards and well-being. Almost 3 billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia still lack access to modern energy services and endure energy consumption rates equivalent to a fraction of that in developed countries. While critical for the successful achievement of several internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), closing this energy divide may pose an additional pressure on the already daunting challenge of securing climate stabilization. The ways in which this divide is closed will significantly affect the development of buildings-related emissions. This paper revisits previous work on the potential conflict between efforts towards closing the energy divide and enabling the achievement of higher levels of human well-being, and those associated with climate stabilization. It estimates the additional energy needed to achieve the former in terms of final energy consumption levels in key regions, and the associated emission pathways under different climate action scenarios. It then analyses the impact that such pathways could have on estimated carbon budgets associated with fulfilling the Paris Agreement, and provides some suggestions on how this impact could be minimized in the buildings sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent analyses maintain that recycling in developed countries, being mostly the result of costly policies, may be already above its socially optimal level. These analyses in fact underestimate such level if increasing recycling not only reduces residual waste, but also total waste. We find that this is the case: a 10% increase in recycling rate is associated with a 1.5–2% decrease of total urban waste. This effect is largely attributable to curbside collection programs, whose adoption increases recycling rates by 8–14% and reduces waste generation by about 4%. This paper contributes to the literature on the relations between waste and recycling by providing estimates of the source reduction effect of recycling policies and pointing out the important role played in it by curbside collection programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urban expansion and economic development has led to severe demands of energy and water resources, which poses serious challenges to sustainability and environment. Previous studies have taken more consideration of one resource flow ignoring the interconnectedness between energy and water. In this paper, an urban energy-water nexus framework is constructed considering both domestic and international trade, based on the environmentally extended multi-scale input-output (EE-MSIO) model. This method allows us to trace energy and water flows in a multi-scale economic system from production and consumption perspectives. In basis of that, the nexus strengthen indicator is constructed to evaluate the energy-water nexus of the trading regions with Shanghai city in the domestic and international trade to present the integrated environmental pressure externalized in Shanghai's rapid economic development. Findings indicate that Shanghai is a net importer of energy and water flow. This result is compatible with the fact that Shanghai is a consumer city. Additionally, the seven domestic regions in China are net exporters toward Shanghai, supporting around 55.10% of energy and 70.56% of water import flows driven by city's final demand. Shanghai largely imports flows of energy and water from Mainland China and developing regions across the globe, whereas export little to developed nations. Nexus results indicate that from consumption perspective, Hebei and Shandong are of the highest nexus strength embodied in domestic trade with Shanghai, with nearly equal contribution for both energy and water. While USA is the largest energy-water nexus node embodied in international trade with Shanghai, around 60% energy and 40% water contributed to the nexus. During these tradeoffs, Shanghai is the major beneficiary, being able to externalize environmental pressures by consumption of domestic and international exported goods and services. The study outcomes suggest that a higher coordination, together with a rearrangement of the regional trade structure, should be the key leverages for an effective management of resources and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The literature investigating the relationship between natural hazards and individuals' subjective well-being has so far focused on industrialized countries. Using the life-satisfaction approach, this paper is the first to study the link between natural hazards, in particular heavy storms and droughts, and subjective well-being for a small-scale island society in the Pacific Ocean. Results indicate that the experience of drought markedly diminished life satisfaction, whereas the experience of storms had only somewhat negative impact. The primary driver of the negative well-being impact appeared to be damage experience for both storms and droughts. Since regular cash-income did not exist for the majority of the population, the marginal effect could not be calculated in monetary terms. To account for differences in wealth across respondents, we developed a wealth index in the form of a simple 'asset score'. Comparing the marginal effect of the hazard variables with our measure of wealth, the positive marginal effect of doubling the number of household assets was significantly smaller than the negative impact of drought experience on subjective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The economic viability of new energy technologies is held as a central tenet to their future deployment; conventional wisdom posits economically rational decision-makers will readily invest in proven low-risk and affordable technologies. But what happens when this is not true. This paper examines the non-financial barriers facing economically viable Combined Heat and Power (CHP) projects. CHP is a mature and lower carbon technology that efficiently uses waste heat from thermal electricity generation; CHP can also provide flexibility services to help integrate variable renewable resources. CHP is low risk and many industrialized countries, particularly those in colder climates in Northern Europe and Russia, generate as much as 50% of their electricity and heat needs from CHP, but United States deployment remains low and investment hurdle rates high. While lower U.S. energy costs make some projects un-economic, many economically-viable CHP projects are stalled or killed by non-financial barriers. To better understand why financially viable CHP projects are not getting built, developers, owners and operators, regulators, and other stakeholders of this technology were interviewed and three major barriers emerged a) the business model of the electrical utility b) negative subjective impressions and c) challenges in allocating the risks and benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a study to reveal hidden knowledge in the online patient medication reviews for phentermine HCL is presented. Phentermine HCL is used most frequently in the treatment of obesity. Obesity is a complex health disorder that affects huge amount of people. In recent years, the number of overweight people in industrialized countries has increased significantly and people who are obese are at a much higher risk for serious medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and diabetes. Considering the importance of the medication of obesity, knowledge discovery from online patient reviews is performed. Some information technologies and data mining techniques are used to discover some hidden knowledge between patient information and side effects in these reviews. Our results can give new ideas to medical researchers and pharmaceutical industry for drug safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are the most energy consuming building services representing approximately half of the final energy use in the building sector and between one tenth and one fifth of the energy consumption in developed countries. Despite their significant energy use, there is a lack of a consistent and homogeneous framework to efficiently guide research and energy policies, mainly due to the complexity and variety of HVAC systems but also to insufficient rigour in their energy analysis. This paper reviews energy related aspects of HVAC systems with the aim of establishing a common ground for the analysis of their energy efficiency. The paper focuses on the map of energy flow to deliver thermal comfort: the HVAC energy chain. Our approach deals first with thermal comfort as the final service delivered to building occupants. Secondly, conditioned spaces are examined as the systems where useful heat (or coolth) is degraded to provide comfort. This is followed by the analysis of HVAC systems as complex energy conversion devices where energy carriers are transformed into useful heat and coolth, and finally, the impact of HVAC energy consumption on energy resources is discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Iron deficiency disproportionately affects infants, children, and women of reproductive age. It is more prevalent in developing countries but continues to be a problem in developed countries. Included among the consequences of iron deficiency are changes in cognitive performance, emotions, and behavior. Although the behavioral and developmental sequela of iron deficiency in young children have received much interest, data on the consequences of iron deficiency in women of reproductive age are just beginning to emerge. Interest in this area increased as a result of the findings that brain iron is much more fluid than previously thought and iron-deficient animals experience non-development-dependent brain alterations. These findings, coupled with the symptoms often reported by iron-deficient women lethargy, inability to concentrate, difficulty with memory, etc.), have led researchers to begin to explore the relation between iron and neuropsychological outcomes in this population. This paper reviews findings from studies that have examined the brain functional consequences of iron deficiency in women of reproductive age. Additional consideration is given to the fact that detriments to cognition and behavior in a woman of reproductive age may have negative implications beyond the woman s health; specifically, they may negatively influence her children. Therefore, the roles that cognitive and behavioral changes in these women have, on their children's development is also reviewed. The paper concludes with a discussion on ways to use technological advances especially in neuroimaging techniques) to help us elucidate the role of iron in the brains of women of reproductive age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]