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To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) and improve energy management efficiency, it is essential to develop models and methods to forecast and enhance the process accurately. These tools are crucial in shaping the national policymakers’ strategies and planning decisions. This study utilizes data envelopment analysis (DEA) and bootstrap computational methods to evaluate Brazil’s energy efficiency from 2004 to 2023. Additionally, it compares seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecasting models to predict the variables’ trends for 2030. One significant contribution of this study is the development of a methodology to assess Brazil’s energy efficiency, considering environmental and economic factors to formulate results. These results can help create policies to make SDG7 a reality and advance Brazil’s energy strategies. According to the study results, the annual energy consumption rate is projected to increase by an average of 2.1% by 2030, which is accompanied by a trend of GDP growth. By utilizing existing technologies in the country, it is possible to reduce electricity consumption costs by an average of 30.58% while still maintaining the same GDP value. This demonstrates that sustainable development and adopting alternatives to minimize the increase in energy consumption can substantially impact Brazil’s energy sector, improving process efficiency and the profitability of the Brazilian industry.

Volatility reflects the degree of variation in a time series, and a measurement of the stock performance in the energy sector can help one understand the pattern of fluctuations within this industry, as well as the factors that influence it. One of these factors could be the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to extreme volatility within the stock market in several economic sectors. It is essential to understand this regime of volatility so that robust financial strategies can be adopted to handle it. This study used stock data from the Yahoo! Finance API and data from the energy-price database from the US Energy Information Administration to conduct a comparative analysis of the volatility in the energy sector in Brazil and in the United States, as well as of the energy prices in California. The volatility in these time series were modeled using GARCH. The stock volatility regimes, both before and after COVID-19, were identified with a Markov switching model; the spillover index between the energy markets in the USA and in Brazil was evaluated with the Diebold–Yilmaz index; and the causality between the energy stock price and the energy prices was measured with the Granger causality test. The findings of this study show that (i) the volatility regime introduced by COVID-19 is still prevalent in Brazil and in the USA, (ii) the changes in the energy market in the US affect the Brazilian market significantly more than the reverse, and (iii) there is a causality relationship between the energy stock markets and the energy prices in California. These results may assist in the achievement of effective regulation and economic planning, while also supporting better market interventions. Also, acknowledging the persistent COVID-19-induced volatility can help with developing strategies for future crisis resilience.

The use of biofuels represents a promising means of achieving a sustainable future and offers considerable economic and environmental benefits. Since they are derived from organic sources, such as vegetable oils and animal fats, biofuels can mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, support local agriculture, create employment opportunities, and enhance energy security by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. However, introducing these alternative fuels to the aviation sector remains a significant challenge. Thus, it is vital to investigate the potential of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and discover how to overcome the technological obstacles to its integration into mainstream aviation to attain broader decarbonization objectives. This article seeks to contribute to a discussion about SAF by examining how it has evolved and its connections to related patents. This article is a comprehensive study of biofuel innovation, highlighting the complex relationships between academia, industry, and other stakeholders. It is hoped that the findings from this study will provide a clearer understanding of the catalysts involved in SAF innovation and provide valuable insights for policymakers, academics, and professionals in the field who are committed to shaping the trajectory of sustainable energy technologies in the future.

Energy demand forecasting is crucial for effective resource management within the energy sector and is aligned with the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7). This study undertakes a comparative analysis of different forecasting models to predict future energy demand trends in Brazil, improve forecasting methodologies, and achieve sustainable development goals. The evaluation encompasses the following models: Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA), Exogenous SARIMA (SARIMAX), Facebook Prophet (FB Prophet), Holt–Winters, Trigonometric Seasonality Box–Cox transformation, ARMA errors, Trend, and Seasonal components (TBATS), and draws attention to their respective strengths and limitations. Its findings reveal unique capabilities among the models, with SARIMA excelling in tracing seasonal patterns, FB Prophet demonstrating its potential applicability across various sectors, Holt–Winters adept at managing seasonal fluctuations, and TBATS offering flexibility albeit requiring significant data inputs. Additionally, the investigation explores the effect of external factors on energy consumption, by establishing connections through the Granger causality test and conducting correlation analyses. The accuracy of these models is assessed with and without exogenous variables, categorized as economical, industrial, and climatic. Ultimately, this investigation seeks to add to the body of knowledge on energy demand prediction, as well as to allow informed decision-making in sustainable energy planning and policymaking and, thus, make rapid progress toward SDG7 and its associated targets. This paper concludes that, although FB Prophet achieves the best accuracy, SARIMA is the most fit model, considering the residual autocorrelation, and it predicts that Brazil will demand approximately 70,000 GWh in 2033.

The Internet of Things, Smart Devices, Information Systems, and Cloud Services have led to a digital transformation of companies. Such revolution has been accompanied by a huge amount of data available for companies, posing the growing challenge of data breaches. However, data breaches are not just a concern and complication for security experts; they also affect clients, stakeholders, organizations, and businesses, as stated by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Thus, this study provides insights into data breaches faced by companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. The study found that hacking/IT incidents are the forms of attack with greater impact in data breaches, followed by unauthorized internal disclosures. The frequency of data breaches, the magnitude of exposed records, and financial losses due to breached records are increasing rapidly. Data from the companies listed on the stock exchange is regarded as being highly valuable. This has become a significant lure for the misappropriation and pilferage of data. Addressing this anomaly, the paper employs statistical visualizations of the data to shed light on these incidents and assess their consequences on the affected companies and individuals whose data was compromised. This work aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of data breaches and empower organizations to safeguard against them proactively by conducting this multifaceted analysis, and also provides a brief qualitative risk assessment regarding the attack vectors.

The academic community has witnessed a notable increase in paper publications, whereby the rapid pace at which modern society seeks information underscores the critical need for literature mapping. This study introduces an innovative automatic model for categorizing articles by subject matter using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms for classification and category labeling, alongside a proposed ranking method called SSS (Scientific Significance Score) and using Z-score to select the finest papers. This paper’s use case concerns industry productivity. The key findings include the following: (1) The Decision Tree model demonstrated superior performance with an accuracy rate of 75% in classifying articles within the productivity and industry theme. (2) Through a ranking methodology based on citation count and publication date, it identified the finest papers. (3) Recent publications with higher citation counts achieved better scores. (4) The model’s sensitivity to outliers underscores the importance of addressing database imbalances, necessitating caution during training by excluding biased categories. These findings not only advance the utilization of ML models for paper classification but also lay a foundation for further research into productivity within the industry, exploring themes such as artificial intelligence, efficiency, industry 4.0, innovation, and sustainability.

With the economic growth of the Brazilian agroindustry, it is necessary to evaluate the efficiency of this activity in relation to environmental demands for the country’s economic, social, and sustainable development. Within this perspective, the present research aims to examine the eco-efficiency of agricultural production in Brazilian regions, covering 5563 municipalities in the north, northeast, center-west, southeast, and south regions, using data from 2016–2017. In this sense, this study uses the DEA methods (classical and stochastic) and the computational bootstrap method to remove outliers and measure eco-efficiency. The findings lead to two fundamental conclusions: first, by emulating the benchmarks, it is feasible to increase annual revenue and preserved areas to an aggregated regional level by 20.84% while maintaining the same inputs. Given that no municipality has reached an eco-efficiency value equal to 1, there is room for optimization and improvement of production and greater sustainable development of the municipalities. Secondly, climatic factors notably influence eco-efficiency scores, suggesting that increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation can positively impact eco-efficiency in the region. These conclusions, dependent on regional characteristics, offer valuable information for policymakers to design strategies that balance economic growth and environmental preservation. Furthermore, adaptive policies and measures can be implemented to increase the resilience of local producers and reduce vulnerability to changing climate conditions.