This study examines the impact of sustainable design on firms’ social sustainability performance, and the moderating role of Islamic work ethics in this relationship. 344 chemical manufacturing organisations in Malaysia were invited to participate in a survey. Data from 130 completed questionnaire sets were subjected to partial least square (PLS) analysis. The results demonstrated significant effect of sustainable design on social sustainability performance. It was also shown that Islamic work ethics moderate the relationship between sustainable design and social sustainability performance. Al-Quran and hadith were used to support this study to link the relationships of the variables under study, particularly in the context of chemical manufacturing organisations in Malaysia. The present study has furnished significant theoretical contributions of how the Natural-resource-based view theory and stakeholder theory could be incorporated into the present proposed framework with the inclusion of the moderating role of Islamic work ethics, and eventually enrich the findings of extant research. As for practical contributions, businesses in the chemical industry would make well-informed decisions about which eco-friendly practices, particularly sustainable design, to adopt in order to attain social sustainability performance and successfully implement Islamic work ethics. Direction for future research is also recommended. Full article

The application of selenium (Se) can promote the growth of potatoes and increase the Se content of potato tubers. Nitrogen (N) can promote nutrient absorption and potato yield. However, the effects of Se and N on the yield and Se content of potato tubers have not been reported. Field experiments were conducted in 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. Three N levels, i.e., 0 kg N ha⁻¹ (N0), 150 kg N ha⁻¹ (N1) and 200 kg N ha⁻¹ (N2), and three Se levels, i.e., 0 g Se ha⁻¹ (Se0), 500 g Se ha⁻¹ (Se1) and 1000 g Se ha⁻¹ (Se2), were set up. Potato yield, root dry weight, root activity, leaf area index (LAI), net photosynthetic rate (Pn), malondialdehyde (MDA) content, antioxidant enzyme activity and Se content were investigated. N application increased root dry weight and activity, LAI, antioxidant enzymes activities, Se content and decreased MDA content. Pn, total potato yield and commercial potato yield first increased and then decreased with the increase in N application level. Se application increased root activity, Pn, antioxidant enzyme activities, total yield, commercial potato yield, commercial potato rate, Se content and decreased MDA content. In general, compared with the single application, the combination of N and Se fertilizers further promoted the growth of potatoes, increased the yield of potatoes and the Se content of potato pieces. Full article

The co-operative lifecycle framework has been a very useful concept in depicting the historical lifecycle of co-operatives. It is also particularly helpful in identifying and communicating if a co-operative is on a degenerative trajectory and points to the possibility of choice and re-invention. This paper focuses on this re-invention phase of the lifecycle framework and questions if re-invention is the best concept to use either in theory or practice. The paper explores whether regeneration may be a more promising concept, drawing on regenerative development and relationality literature. This paper concludes with an adaptation of Cook’s co-operative lifecycle framework by incorporating a regenerative enabling capability as a metric for success. Full article

Tourist decision-making has been heavily affected by the pandemic crisis, which increases the complexity of the tourism business operations and shakes the foundations of tourism sustainable development. Thus, studying and comprehension of tourists’ behaviors, including the purchasing decisions, and incorporating this knowledge into the strategies of tourism companies, has a key importance to the organizations’ survival during hard times. The article contains the characteristics of tourist behavior schemes related to decision-making in buying package holidays during COVID-19 crisis. The study was based on analysis of the results of a computer assisted web interview using the CAWI method, conducted among 1502 Poles using the classification tree method (the R statistical package and the RPART library). Research allowed us to identify the four purchase decision-making patterns and to describe four segments of holidaymakers’ buying according to these patterns. In the profiling process, nine demographic and social variables were used, including gender, age, education, residence, marital status, number of all household members, minor children in a household, assessment of own financial standing, and professional situation. The results of the analysis confirm the existence of a relationship between (1) the research online purchase offline behavior and the age, the number of children under 18 in the household, and the marital status of the package holidays buyers, (2) the research offline purchase online behavior and the age and the number of children up to 18 in the households of the buyers of tourist packages, (3) the research offline purchase offline behavior and the age, the number of children under 18 in the household, the assessment of the financial situation, and sex of the buyers of tourist packages, and (4) the research offline purchase online behavior and the age and assessment of financial situation of package holidays purchasers. Full article

Renovation of flat roofs typically involves repairing or replacing the existing roof to improve its performance and extend its lifespan. The renovation process may include a range of tasks depending on the condition of the roof, such as repairing leaks, replacing damaged or deteriorated materials, adding insulation, or upgrading drainage systems. This research aim was to establish the priority of renovation of flat roofs of the public building based on the principles of multi-criteria analysis and fuzzy set theory, using the multi-criteria method PROMETHEE II in fuzzy logic form (F-PROMETHEE II). The proposed approach is adequate due to its ability to transform the uncertain and vague information received from an expert into a fuzzy number. This way, the objective outcome can be obtained, the criteria conflict removed and the alternatives ranking and mutual comparison enabled. It was necessary to analyze the existing literature, the flat roofs of a public building in terms of their current condition, and define the main goals and criteria for the roof renovation project. Based on the defined goals and criteria, the roofs are evaluated and ranked according to the priority for renovation. The planning process of renovation of flat roofs was carried out specifically on the building of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy in Split. Full article

Detecting and locating faults in electrical cables has been a permanent concern regarding electrical power distribution systems. Over time, several techniques have been developed aiming to manage these faulty situations in an efficient way. These techniques must be fast, accurate, but, above all, efficient. This paper develops a new approach for detecting, locating, classifying, and predicting faults, particularly in different types of short-circuits in electrical cables, based on a robust artificial neural network technique. The novelty of this approach lies in the ability of the method to predict fault’s location and type. The proposed method uses the Matlab and Simulink platform and comprises four consecutive stages. The first one is devoted to the development of the Simulink model. The second one implies a large number of simulations in order to generate the necessary dataset for training and testing the artificial neural network model (ANN). The following stage uses the ANN to classify the location and the type of potential faults. Finally, the fourth stage consists of predicting the location and the type of future faults. In order to reduce the time and the resources of the simulation process, a virtual machine is used. The study reveals the efficiency of the method, and its ability to successfully predict faults in real-world electrical power systems. Full article

The increase in home improvement activity during the COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to concerns of increased asbestos exposure risk. This paper describes high-risk asbestos exposure groups based on current home improvement trends in Australia. A series of quantitative and qualitative studies were commissioned to better understand the attitudes, motivations, and behaviours of home improvers in Australia. In 2021, two in three Australian adults were inclined to undertake home improvement projects—big or small—with or without professional help, underscoring the importance of improving the asbestos safety knowledge and capacity of this cohort. The studies commissioned across 2020 and 2021 provide a deep analysis into this cohort, defining who they are and the segments that make up home improvers, their behaviours, and their asbestos awareness and attitudes. This knowledge enables the development and implementation of a range of targeted campaigns to increase asbestos awareness and prevent potential exposure to asbestos fibres. Full article

Drones operate on electric batteries and not on gasoline, so the eco-friendly role of drones has recently attracted a lot of attention. Thus, this study was designed in order to investigate differences in behavioral intentions, such as intention to use, word-of-mouth, and willingness to pay more, according to demographic characteristics and past experiences in the field of eco-friendly drone food delivery services. Data were collected from 422 potential consumers of eco-friendly drone food delivery services in South Korea. The data analysis results indicated that females are more willing to pay extra than males are, respondents who were in their 50s had higher word-of-mouth intention than other generations, marital status showed significant differences in willingness to pay more and intentions to use, and there was a difference in willingness to pay more and word-of-mouth with regards to monthly income. In addition, respondents who had previously heard of drone food delivery services had higher averages with willingness to pay more and intentions to use as opposed to respondents who had not heard of them, and respondents who had experience controlling drones were willing to pay additional fees when they used eco-friendly drone food delivery services. The results of this study would be a great assistance for executives who will operate eco-friendly drone food delivery services. Full article

River water is the most important water source that people can use. Since the 20th century, human influence on river courses has become increasingly serious. The quantitative analysis of water quality is even more difficult. According to the characteristics of Fenhe water chemistry, pollution time and pollution control factors, the contribution rate of people in the polluted water body is not clear. Therefore, this paper aims to use AI identification methods and technologies to study water pollution and provenance tracing. The combination of major elements, trace elements and stable isotopes was used to study the chemical characteristics, water quality status, and sources of pollution of the Fenhe water in the Fenhe area. Because the water contains a large number of pollution sources, it is difficult to find the source using traditional methods. Using correlation analysis, principal component analysis, multi-factor regression analysis, trend analysis and other methods, the macroelements and trace elements in the water body of the Fenhe River were analyzed. The boron sources in the Fenhe river were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed using mass spectrometry equilibrium equation. Using the boron isotope value of the river, it showed a spatial variation of upstream (+5.1‰) < middlestream (+8.6‰) < downstream (+9.5‰) in dry season, and showed a spatial variation of upstream (+6.1‰) < downstream (+7.2‰) < middlestream (+9.0‰) in the wet season. The contribution of silicate to B is calculated by subtracting the contribution of other resources from the comprehensive contribution rate. It is found that the contribution of silicate is about 38.8%, 22% in dry season and 49.2%, 17% in wet season. The research results have provided a reliable scientific basis for the protection of water resources and pollution control in the Fenhe River Basin. Therefore, the above research confirms the role of AI identification method in the process of boron isotope geochemistry and provenance tracing of water pollution in river basins. Full article

Disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, floods, and volcanoes adversely affect human lives and valuable resources. Therefore, various response systems have been designed, which assist in mitigating the impact of disasters and facilitating relief activities in the aftermath of a disaster. These response systems require timely and accurate information about affected areas. In recent years, social media has provided access to high-volume real-time data, which can be used for advanced solutions to numerous problems, including disasters. Social-media data combines two modalities (text and associated images), and this information can be used to detect disasters, such as floods. This paper proposes an ensemble learning-based Deep Social Media Data Classification (DeepSDC) approach for social-media flood-event classification. The proposed algorithm uses datasets from Twitter to detect the flooding event. The Deep Social Media Data Classification (DeepSDC) uses a two-staged ensemble-learning approach which combines separate models for textual and visual data. These models obtain diverse information from the text and images and combine the information using an ensemble-learning approach. Additionally, DeepSDC utilizes different augmentation, upsampling and downsampling techniques to tackle the class-imbalance challenge. The performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed on three publically available flood-detection datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed DeepSDC is able to produce superior performance when compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms. For the three datasets, FRMT, FCSM and DIRSM, the proposed approach produced F1 scores of 46.52, 92.87, and 92.65, respectively. The mean average precision (MAP@480) of 91.29 and 98.94 were obtained on textual and a combination of textual and visual data, respectively. Full article

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami struck the northeastern coastal area of Japan on 11 March 2011, resulting in the relocation of 329,000 households and the repair of 572,000 houses. Previous studies predominantly addressed the impact of demographic factors on housing recovery. However, the types of housing recoveries and the impact of individual psycho-behavioral factors have been poorly addressed. This study examined the impact of survivors’ demographic and personality-trait factors using a discriminant analysis of five types of housing recovery among 573 survivors in the five years after the disaster. The results revealed two important axes. One axis discriminated self-procured (rebuilt, repaired, and chartered housing) houses from those that were publicly available (emergency temporary and public disaster housing) affected by three personality traits (stubbornness, problem-solving, and active well-being) and survivors’ age. The other axis represented rebuilt houses affected by household size. These results demonstrate that personality traits and not just demographic factors impact three types of self-procured housing recoveries. Further exploration of personality traits that impact housing recovery can improve post-disaster reconstruction and recovery practices. Full article

Under the background of rural revitalization and domestic and international double circulation, vigorously developing the rural distribution industry is an important measure needed to accelerate the process of urban–rural integration, and to enhance the effect of poverty alleviation. In this study, 36 poverty-stricken counties in the southeast of Henan Province, China were selected as research objects; the evolution characteristics and factors influencing the counties’ distribution industries and their development were studied, using the modified gravity model, exploratory spatial data analysis, and a spatial econometric model. The overall scale of the county-level distribution industry in the poverty-stricken areas of southeast Henan expanded, but regional development was uneven, and a spatial pattern of “high in the northeast–low in the southwest” was demonstrated. Meanwhile, the development of the distribution industry in the counties of the district had a circular spatial trend of “agglomeration–diffusion–agglomeration”, with a significant local spatial polarization effect. In addition, the technology level, market demand, population size, and industrial structure adjustment had positive spatial spillover effects on the development of counties’ distribution industries, while labor and capital exerted negative spatial spillover effects. On this basis, to promote the interactive development of the distribution industry and rural economic growth and further accelerate the process of urban–rural integration, we should continually optimize the spatial layout of the distribution industry, improve the construction of county-level circulation infrastructure, and boost new circulation formats and models. Full article

Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) is a dominant seagrass species in the temperate waters of the northern hemisphere and is experiencing global declines. The use of eelgrass seeds is increasingly being recognized as a viable option for large-scale restoration projects. Eelgrass reproductive shoots are often collected to obtain seeds or to broadcast seeds in restoration projects. Here, a new method to accurately evaluate the seed provision efficacy of detached eelgrass reproductive is proposed. Viable seeds of detached eelgrass reproductive shoots were collected using in situ net cages at Swan Lake, China. The seed yield and quality of detached eelgrass reproductive shoots under five different treatments (with or without rhizomes and roots, vegetative shoots, and sediment) were compared to select the optimal treatment for this method. The results showed that each detached eelgrass reproductive shoot produced approximately 50 viable seeds on average and the potential seed yield overestimated the actual seed yields by around four times. Seed quality evaluated by size and weight was consistent with that of the natural eelgrass meadow in Swan Lake. Comparing the five different treatments, the simplest treatment (a single reproductive shoot) was convenient and robust for this method. The results indicate that this method is worth further extending to other populations to improve the efficiency of seed use and for effectiveness evaluation in restoration projects. Full article

Insect farming can be an important tool in the realization of a more sustainable future. With a growing insect industry, animal transportation between and within farms is expected to increase. For Tenebrio molitor, using eggs may be convenient as it eliminates the risk of cannibalism, food shortages and has a low risk of asphyxiation. However, there are at least three important variables during regular transport: time, temperature and relative humidity. For each one, as well as their interactions, there is a need to assess the effect on the hatch rate and establish lower and upper boundaries at which a good hatch rate of the eggs is possible. In this study, a total of 20 temperature/RH combinations were assessed (between 5–40 °C and 40–80% RH), with an exposure time ranging between 1 and 6 days for each combination. The results indicated that between 15 and 30 °C no negative effects were observed at any of the assessed RH or exposure times. Higher temperatures did result in a lower hatch rate; no eggs hatched at 40 °C, even after one day. Lower temperatures of 5 and 10 °C can be endured without pronounced adverse effects but only for a limited time (resp. 1 or 2 days). Including relative humidity in the model did improve the overall fit, but the effect is limited (compared to temperature or exposure time) with a slightly better hatch rate in dryer conditions at the extreme temperatures. Full article

This study aims to advance the understanding of sustainable behaviour by exploring the perceptions, knowledge, and opinions about the sustainability of nearly graduated students in Portugal. A three-wave exploratory and longitudinal study was conducted with Management and Marketing students in 2020, 2021, and 2022. The findings come from both quantitative and qualitative approaches. First, the results reveal low levels of knowledge about sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals, and other related concepts. Then, by a qualitative analysis, this study highlights the terms related to sustainability and perceived sustainable practices. It also examines changes perceived since the COVID-19 pandemic and what their threats and opportunities in the coming years are. The main conclusion of this study is the critical need for education on sustainability and related concepts beyond simple recycling practices. The use of sustainability as a marketing tool is insufficient to create a viable future. Higher education must develop a new shared and sustainable vision for sustainability education. Full article