Rubber is one of the rare materials that can be used in many sectors and for multiple purposes. It can be used in a wide range of frameworks, from very simple coating materials to very complex spacecraft parts. Apart from natural rubber, compounds are also used for different purposes in rubber production. For a product with such a wide range of uses, the sustainability of its compounds is particularly important. The objective of this study is to investigate environmentally friendly and sustainable alternatives for rubber and some compounds, such as fillers and softeners. By doing this research with an academic method, the most suitable option is determined by taking the weights of the factors affecting this decision into consideration. As a result, the most suitable rubber, filler, and softener options are presented. Full article

LCAs of electric cars and electrolytic hydrogen production are governed by the consumption of electricity. Therefore, LCA benchmarking is prone to choices on electricity data. There are four issues: (1) leading Life Cycle Impact (LCI) databases suffer from inconvenient uncertainties and inaccuracies, (2) electricity mix in countries is rapidly changing, year after year, (3) the electricity mix is strongly fluctuating on an hourly and daily basis, which requires time-based allocation approaches, and (4) how to deal with nuclear power in benchmarking. This analysis shows that: (a) the differences of the GHG emissions of the country production mix in leading databases are rather high (30%), (b) in LCA, a distinction must be made between bundled and unbundled registered electricity certificates (RECs) and guarantees of origin (GOs); the residual mix should not be applied in LCA because of its huge inaccuracy, (c) time-based allocation rules for renewables are required to cope with periods of overproduction, (d) benchmarking of electricity is highly affected by the choice of midpoints and/or endpoint systems, and (e) there is an urgent need for a new LCI database, based on measured emission data, continuously kept up-to-date, transparent, and open access. Full article

Acacia mangium is a widely grown tree species across the forests in Brunei Darussalam, posing a threat to the existence of some native species in Brunei Darussalam. These species produce large quantities of lignocellulosic biomass from the tree parts comprising the phyllodes, trunk, bark, twigs, pods, and branches. This study examined the thermochemical characteristics and pyrolytic conversion behavior of these tree parts to assess the possibility of valorization to yield bioenergy. Proximate, ultimate, heating value, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses were performed to assess the thermochemical characterization, while thermogravimetric analysis was conducted to examine the pyrolytic degradation behavior. Proximate analysis revealed a moisture content, volatile, fixed carbon, and ash contents of 7.88–11.65 wt.%, 69.82–74.85 wt.%, 14.47–18.31 wt.%, and 1.41–2.69 wt.%, respectively. The heating values of the samples were reported in a range of 19.51–21.58 MJ/kg on a dry moisture basis, with a carbon content in the range of 45.50–50.65 wt.%. The FTIR analysis confirmed the heterogeneous nature of the biomass samples with the presence of multiple functional groups. The pyrolytic thermal degradation of the samples occurred in three major stages from the removal of moisture and light extractives, hemicellulose and cellulose decomposition, and lignin decomposition. The bio-oil yield potential from the biomass samples was reported in the range of 40 to 58 wt.%, highlighting the potential of Acacia mangium biomass for the pyrolysis process. Full article

Road transportation has always been inherent in developing societies, impacting between 10–20% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is responsible for personal mobility (access to services, goods, and leisure), and that is why world economies rely upon the efficient and safe functioning of transportation facilities. Road maintenance is vital since the need for maintenance increases as road infrastructure ages and is based on sustainability, meaning that spending money now saves much more in the future. Furthermore, road maintenance plays a significant role in road safety. However, pavement management is a challenging task because available budgets are limited. Road agencies need to set programming plans for the short term and the long term to select and schedule maintenance and rehabilitation operations. Pavement performance prediction models (PPPMs) are a crucial element in pavement management systems (PMSs), providing the prediction of distresses and, therefore, allowing active and efficient management. This work aims to review the modeling techniques that are commonly used in the development of these models. The pavement deterioration process is stochastic by nature. It requires complex deterministic or probabilistic modeling techniques, which will be presented here, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. Finally, conclusions will be drawn, and some guidelines to support the development of PPPMs will be proposed. Full article

As a common cardiovascular disease, atrial fibrillation has the characteristics of high morbidity, high disability, and high fatality rates, seriously endangering human health and sustainability. Some research has confirmed that environmental factors are related to the risk of illness and death from cardiovascular diseases (including atrial fibrillation), while there is still little comparison on the situation of the two cities in China. This research uses medical data in Shanghai and Kunming establishing, through two-step research, logistic models to compare the impacts on atrial fibrillation incidence to figure out the association between environmental factors (including air pollution, weather, temperature, and wind scales) and atrial fibrillation. Finally, this research shows that environmental impacts on atrial fibrillation prevalence have generality, regionality, and lagging characteristics. The result is significant for atrial fibrillation patients and provides a reliable medical theory basis for nursing measures. Besides, this research provides a prospective method of offering early warning for potential atrial fibrillation patients, helping to maintain human beings’ sustainable development. Full article

Within the framework of IEA-SHC Task 59, a multidisciplinary team of experts from around the world has come together to investigate current approaches for energy retrofit of the built heritage with energy efficiency conservation-compatible measures, in accordance with cultural and heritage values, and to check and adapt the new standard EN-16883:2017 for historic buildings. This paper introduces activities within IEA-SHC Task 59 (Subtask C) focused on retrofit solutions with high impact on sustainability, energy efficiency, and the integration of renewables, which is the main goal of the solar group, focused on the integrated solar systems for historic buildings. Relying on an extensive, detailed, and accurate collection of case studies of application of solar photovoltaic and thermal systems in historic buildings, the assessment criteria of the standard have been reviewed and tailored for better solar implementation evaluation in a heritage context. All this is studied based on technical compatibility, the heritage significance of the building and its settings, the economic viability, the energy performances and indoor environmental quality and use, as well as the impact on the outdoor environment of solar renewables. Full article

With the increasing prosperity of the global economy, the protection and sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) are being confronted with many problems, among which the difficulty of passing on ICH, particularly traditional handicraft, from masters to apprentices should be given attention. The main purpose of the study is, from the perspective of knowledge transfer and incentive mechanisms, to explore how to mobilize the positive factors to promote the successful implementation of passing on ICH. On the basis of identifying the key influencing factors of ICH knowledge transfer and establishing the payoff matrix between masters and apprentices, this study uses replicator dynamic equations to analyze strategy choices in different situations and verifies the impacts of these factors on passing on ICH through data simulation. The study draws the following main conclusions: (1) Increases in variables e, a, v, Ju, Jd, Ku, and Kd will drive up the probabilities of adopting a positive strategy and successful ICH inheritance and increases in variables Cu and Cd will drive probabilities down. (2) Changes in any variable have an impact on both sides through the interaction between masters and apprentices, and the impact’s direction is the same. (3) Among all economic measures, cost control should be the first to be considered. These conclusions provide important theoretical guidance for local government and related organizations to support ICH bequeathal and for masters and apprentices to make choices regarding strategy. The paper fills the literature gaps in the study of the influencing factors of ICH knowledge transfer and the game model between masters and apprentices, and on the incentive mechanism and strategy choice of passing on and developing ICH. Full article

Background: Diet impacts both human and environmental health and must be designed to optimize the training and performance of athletes. The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of dietary advice (DA) on the food intake of wheelchair basketball athletes (WBA) and the environmental impact longitudinally. Methods: DA were provided to WBA of the Italian national team (DAM-T1). Nutritional assessment and evaluation of the environmental impact of diet were performed two months (DAM-T2) and one year later (DAM-T3), when a post-COVID-19 survey was performed also in WBA who did not receive counselling (men: NDAM-T3, women: NDAW-T3). Results: After DA, WBA showed a reduced percentage of energy derived from sugars and fats. Athletes adjusted their protein intake according to the personalized recommendations. The intake of some micronutrients improved after DA and was higher compared to NDAM-T3 and NDAW-T3. Despite the lower impact of diet in NDAW-T3, they presented more nutritional deficiency than men. The mean intake of vegetables was in the range of the EAT-Lancet Commission suggestion only two months after DA. After DA, fiber intake increased and adapted to the tolerated level. Conclusions: WBA improved their diet after DA but did not comply with the EAT-Lancet suggestion for red meat and legumes. Full article

Due to concerns, such as global warming and depletion of fossil fuels, countries are forced to integrate energy storage devices (ESSs) and renewable energy sources (RESs), such as photovoltaic (PV) systems, wind turbines and fuel cells, into their power networks. Here, a new high gain DC–DC converter with step-up/down ability is proposed for modern applications. Since this converter provides high variable voltage gain, it can be employed for output voltage regulation purposes in RESs such as solar panels. Additionally, this converter provides a remarkable reduction in voltage stress on the switched capacitors and power switches. Due to its modular structure obtained by employing switched-capacitors (SCs), it is possible for this topology to gain a very high voltage conversion ratio using low duty-cycles produced by a simple and straightforward control system. To be specific, the more the number of SC cells increase, the more the output voltage increases. The proposed converter has a continuous input current allowing to extract the maximum power from RESs like PV panels. It should be noted that the application of this converter is not limited to the aforementioned ones since it can be used in various applications needing high voltage gains such as generating the desired voltage level in high voltage direct current (HVDC) systems especially their transmission lines. For validating the performance of the proposed structure, comprehensive comparisons and experimental results are presented. Full article

In recent years, low energy consumption has become the common choice of economic development in the world. In order to control energy consumption, shipping line speed optimization has become strategically important. to reduce fuel consumption, this study optimizes the container ship fleet deployment problem by adopting the strategy of adjusting each leg of each route’s sailing speed. To calculate fuel consumption more accurately, both sailing speed and the ship’s payload are considered. A multi-objective mixed integer nonlinear programming model is established to optimize the allocation of liner routes with multiple ship types on multiple routes. A linear outer-approximation algorithm and an improved piecewise linear approximation algorithm are used for linearization. If segments of an interval increase, the results will be more accurate but will take more time to compute. As fuel prices increase, to make trade-offs among economic and environmental considerations, the shipping company is adopting the “adding ship and slow down its speed” strategy, which verifies the validity and applicability of the established model. Full article

Within the objectives of the H2020 DIAMOND project, the paper investigates women’s needs and expectations as users of the bike-sharing service managed by Syndicat Mixte Autolib et Velib Métropole in the territory of Paris Region-Petite Couronne (France). The paper presents a thematic literature review focused on gender inclusion in bike-sharing schemes. The proposed methodological approach is based on (i) Geographic Information Systems for the analysis of geolocated open datasets related to land, sociodemographic and mobility characteristics of the areas surrounding each docking stations. This was aimed at identifying a short list of suitable bike-sharing docking stations, which were further characterized through: (ii) structured proprietary data focused on travel demand; (iii) onsite observations focused on universal design indicators; (iv) survey questionnaires focused on women’s concerns, needs and expectations; and (v) social media data from Twitter focused on the opinion of the end-users. Results showed that women use the VELIB’s bike-sharing service much less than men (about 30% of the total number of users), since they are more concerned about the following issues: accessibility (e.g., availability of bikes at the docking stations, distance to the nearest station, type and quality of the cycle paths); safety and security (e.g., perception of danger and insecurity while cycling and using the current bicycle infrastructures); social constraints (e.g., perceptions and cultural stigmatization associated with cycling and bike-sharing); weather and topography (e.g., impact of weather and the urban terrain on cycling and bike-sharing). The final aim of the H2020 DIAMOND project is to support the definition of guidelines and policies for the inclusion of women’s needs in the design of future bike-sharing services. Full article

The present research proposes a new method to analyze the sustainable development goals (SDGs) index using ordered weighted average (OWA) operators. To develop this method, five experts evaluated and designated the relative importance of each of the 17 SDGs defined by the United Nations (UN), and with the use of the OWA and prioritized OWA (POWA) operators, rankings were generated. With the results, it is possible to visualize that the ranking of countries can change depending on the weights related to each SDG because the OWA and POWA operator methods can capture the uncertainty of the phenomenon. Full article

The Mediterranean freshwater resources, mostly represented by groundwater, are under increasing pressure due to natural and anthropogenic factors. In this study, we investigated possible negative effects of climate change and land-use practices on water quality and availability from five springs in the karstic catchments in southern Croatia. The investigated springs are used in the regional public water supply system. Firstly, we employed hydrogeochemical field and laboratory analyses to detect possible traces of anthropogenic activity originating from specific land use. Additionally, we performed hydrological and climate modeling to detect changes in the air temperature, precipitation, and runoff. In particular, we used three regional climate models (Aladin, RegCM3, and Promes). The results estimated an increase in the mean annual air temperature, changes in the precipitation patterns, and reductions in runoff in the study area. Hydrochemical analyses showed standard ion concentrations for karst groundwaters, elevated sulfates due to evaporite deposits in the hinterland, surprisingly low nitrate levels which disproved expected agricultural pollution, and high microbiological activity. Significant water losses are expected in the near future which require immediate attention in order to develop adaptation strategies that focus on sustainable utilization and resilience of freshwater resources. This paper was based on the Interreg Central Europe PROLINE-CE project research in the South Dalmatia. Full article

The tourism sector in Madeira represents 26.6% of the regional GDP and 16.7% of employment in the region. However, the sector is a source of adverse environmental impacts. One of the environmental repercussions of tourism, regarded as an externality, is the generation of solid waste. This paper aims to estimate the impact of tourist activities on solid waste generation in Madeira for the period 1996–2018. We used a fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) model, including annual tourism inflows data. The results show that tourist activities are responsible for 41.9% to 46.6% of solid waste generation per resident in Madeira. The empirical results also support the hypothesis that there is a non-linear effect of tourism on the generation of solid waste. The importance of internalising this negative externality caused by tourism with the implementation of appropriate economic instruments and policies is the main policy implication of the study. Full article

Deforestation and forest degradation mostly caused by human interventions affect the capacity of the forest ecosystem to provide ecosystem services and livelihood benefits. Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is an emerging concept that focuses on the improvement of the ecosystem as well as the livelihood of the people at the landscape level. Nepal has successfully recovered degraded forest land mainly from the hilly region through forest restoration initiatives, especially community-based forestry. However, the Tarai region is still experiencing deforestation and forest degradation. This study navigated the gaps related to forest restoration in the existing policies and practices and revealed that the persistence of deforestation and forest degradation in Tarai is a result of a complex socioeconomic structure, the limitations of the government in implementing appropriate management modality, unplanned infrastructure, and urban development. We suggest that forest restoration should focus on ecological and social wellbeing pathways at the landscape level to reverse the trend of deforestation and forest degradation in the Tarai regions of Nepal. The study provides critical insight to the policymakers and practitioners of Nepal and other countries (with similar context) who are engaged in forest/ecosystem restoration enterprise. Full article