Sustainability — Open Access Journal

Although the use of the Internet is generalised, its potential as a teaching tool is rarely taken into account. At the same time, there exists a digital divide affecting vulnerable or disadvantaged groups: students of foreign origin and students with special educational needs. It is necessary to identify how inequality can be overcome to reach the objectives set by the United Nations regarding sustainable forms of development for education and to foster more inclusive and egalitarian societies. In this research with students aged 12–16, the objective was to establish profiles according to gender, social class, ethnic background and educational special needs. We used a mixed methodological design, applying a questionnaire to 2734 students from 15 centres and qualitative data collection techniques. We made a descriptive and inferential analysis (SPSS program) and a qualitative data content analysis supported by the “Maxqda” program. The results show that, although most students have Internet access, students of foreign origin and students with special educational needs use this resource less frequently. There are significant differences for gender. Likewise, social divide has an impact on the learning potential of the Internet. Some proposals for improvement are provided, from the framework of the school, with a view to improving socio-educational equity and inclusion in societies in search of a more sustainable form of development. Full article

Knowledge-based decision support systems for financial management are an important part of investment plans. Investors are avoiding investing in traditional investment areas such as banks due to low return on investment. The stock exchange is one of the major areas for investment presently. Various non-linear and complex factors affect the stock exchange. A robust stock exchange forecasting system remains an important need. From this line of research, we evaluate the performance of a regression-based model to check the robustness over large datasets. We also evaluate the effect of top stock exchange markets on each other. We evaluate our proposed model on the top 4 stock exchanges—New York, London, NASDAQ and Karachi stock exchange. We also evaluate our model on the top 3 companies—Apple, Microsoft, and Google. A huge (Big Data) historical data is gathered from Yahoo finance consisting of 20 years. Such huge data creates a Big Data problem. The performance of our system is evaluated on a 1-step, 6-step, and 12-step forecast. The experiments show that the proposed system produces excellent results. The results are presented in terms of Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). Full article

Marital happiness is an important symbol of social harmony and can help promote sustainable economic and social development. In recent years, the rapid rise of the divorce rate in China, a country where the divorce rate had previously been low, has attracted wide attention. However, few articles have focused on the popularization of information and communication technology's impact on China’s rising divorce rate in recent years. As a first attempt, the provincial panel data during the period 2001–2016 is applied to study quantitatively the relationship between mobile phone penetration and the divorce rate. In order to get more reliable estimation results, this paper uses two indicators to measure the divorce rate, and quantile regression is applied for further analysis. Additionally, one-year to five-year lag times of the mobile phone penetration are used as the core explanatory variables in order to analyse the lagging effect of mobile phone penetration on divorce rate. The result shows that the correlation between the mobile phone penetration and the divorce rate was statistically positive significant in China during the period 2001–2016. Furthermore, the paper also finds that mobile phone penetration had the greatest impact on divorce rate in central China, followed by eastern China, but it was not obvious in western China during this period. From a technological perspective, this paper provides some possible explanations for the rising divorce rate in China in recent years, and further enriches the relevant research on the impact of the development of information and communication technology on societal changes. Full article

The contents of Education for Sustainable Development should be included in teachers’ initial and advanced training programs. A sustainable consciousness is one of the main foundations for determining the key competences for sustainability. However, there are not many empirical studies that deal with consciousness from education. In this context, the e-portfolio appears as a tool that promotes reflection and critical thinking, which are key competences for consciousness development. This work intends to propose a categorization system to extract types of consciousness and identify the levels of consciousness of teachers in training. For this research work, which is of an eminently qualitative nature, we have selected 25 e-portfolios of students (teachers in pre-service training) in the last year of the School of Education at the University of Macerata (Italy). The qualitative methodological procedure that was followed enabled deducing three bases that shape the consciousness of teachers in training: thinking, representation of reality, and type of consciousness. We concluded that the attainment of a sustainable consciousness in teachers requires activating and developing higher levels of thinking, as well as a projective and macrostructural representation of reality. Full article

Supply chain finance has broken through traditional credit modes and advanced rapidly as a creative financial business discipline. Core enterprises have played a critical role in the credit enhancement of supply chain finance. Through the analysis of core enterprise credit risks in supply chain finance, by means of a ‘fuzzy analytical hierarchy process’ (FAHP), the paper constructs a supply chain financial credit risk evaluation system, making quantitative measurements and evaluation of core enterprise credit risk. This enables enterprises to take measures to control credit risk, thereby promoting the healthy development of supply chain finance. The examination of core enterprise supply chains suggests that a unified information file should be collected based on the core enterprise, including the operating conditions, asset status, industry status, credit record, effective information to the database, collecting related data upstream and downstream of the archives around the core enterprise, developing a data information system, electronic data information, and updating the database accurately using the latest information that might be available. Moreover, supply chain finance and modern information technology should be integrated to establish the sharing of information resources and realize the exchange of information flows, capital flows, and logistics between banks. This should reduce a variety of risks and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of supply chain finance. Full article

Since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came into effect, both UNESCO and other international organisations recommend empowering youth to implement the SDGs in universities. Getting started with the SDGs at university level is of special relevance in pre-service teacher training since future teachers are powerful agents of change in the lives of young people. Future teachers need to acquire competencies in sustainability to be able to promote meaningful changes in sustainable behaviour. To that end, holistic approaches to facilitate their acquisition need to be developed. The aim of this study is to explore which teaching methodologies are suitable for the development of competencies in sustainability and research in Higher Education (HE). The participants taking part in the study are students in pre-service teacher training. The experimental educational model used for the development of competencies in sustainability and research consists of a methodological sequence of Project-Oriented Learning (POL) and a Cross-disciplinary Workshop on Sustainable Food. This study provides evidence that POL is an excellent methodology for developing competencies in sustainability and facilitates the relationship between sustainability and research competencies. Full article

The occurrence of landslide in the hilly region of South Korea is a matter of serious concern. This study tries to produce landslide susceptibility maps for Jumunjin Country in South Korea. Three machine learning algorithms, namely Logistic Regression (LR), LogitBoost (LB), and NaïveBayes (NB) are used, and their final model outcomes are compared to each other. Firstly, a landslide inventory map and the associated input data layers of the landslide conditioning factors were developed based on field verification, historical records, and high-resolution remote-sensing data in the geographic information system (GIS) environment. Seventeen landslide conditioning factors were prepared, including aspect, slope, altitude, maximum curvature, profile curvature, topographic wetness index (TWI), topographic positioning index (TPI), distance from fault, convexity, forest type, forest diameter, forest density, land use/land cover, lithology, soil, flow accumulation, and mid slope position. The result showed that the area under the curve (AUC) values of LR, LB, and NB models were 84.2%, 70.7%, and 85.2%, respectively. The results revealed that the LR and LB models produced reasonable accuracy than respect to NB model in landslide susceptibility assessment. The final susceptibility maps would be useful for preliminary land-use planning and hazard mitigation purpose. Full article

Early simulation work in the decision-making stage faces several challenges, including, for example, rapid changes of design, input variable uncertainties, and the lack of design information, although early design work represents a large percentage of energy saving potential. The availability of simulation tools for early design stages can help the architect analyze more alternatives. In this study, the existing simulation tools were explored and classified into three categories: simulation plugins based on the design software, geometry user interfaces for a simulation engine, and self-governing simulation tools. Each category’s typical tools were illustrated with their use, and a uniform standard comparison was conducted to screen tools that are available in the early design stages. The future trends of simulation tools are discussed in the second part: building databases based on existing knowledge, uncertainty and sensitivity analyses, and optimization. Time-consuming simulation is a problem in the use of simulation tools in early design stages. Advanced techniques were developed in this part for fast computing, i.e., cloud computing, parallel computing, meta-models, and more statistical methods. This paper illustrates the practical application of particular simulation tools in the early design stage, presents their limitations, and discusses decision-support tools for specific building design activities. Full article

The University of Guayaquil, which shares the same name as the city where it is located, faces the challenge of its image transformation for the 21st century. It was deemed necessary to identify details about the urban evolution of the city over time, in relation to the changes produced by the project’s site and its direct area of influence. The goal is to integrate the main university campus within a framework which guarantees sustainability and allows innovation in the living lab. To achieve this, the action research method was applied, focused on the community participation and the logic framework. The proposal, the management model, and the integrated working groups were organized with internal users such as professors, students, and university authorities, and external actors such as residents, local business communities, Guayaquil city council, and its local mayor and governor. As result of the diagnosis, six different analysis dimensions were established which correspond to the new urban agenda for the future campus: compactness, inclusiveness, resilience, sustainability, safety, and participation. As a proposal, the urban design integrates the analysis of the dimensions whose financial support and execution are given by the municipality authorities that integrates the campus with its network of community police headquarters. Full article

Assessment of conservation effectiveness in biodiversity ecological function zones (BEFZs) is important for biodiversity in China. However, a scientific and practical method for effectively comparing biodiversity conservation between different BEFZs is lacking. In this study, a reference condition index that can represent the optimum value of biodiversity in one BEFZ and a conservation effectiveness index that can reflect the effect of conservation measures were developed. Then a method to compare the biodiversity conservation effectiveness between different BEFZs on both temporal and spatial scales was developed. The method was applied to three BEFZs in China—Yili-Tianshan Mountain, San Jiang Plain Wetland and Minshan-Qionglai Mountain—which are located in different geographic environments. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) the reference condition index can reflect differences in the background of conservation capacity among BEFZs examined, allowing comparison of the biodiversity conservation effectiveness between different BEFZs; (2) the conservation effectiveness index is a useful quantitative measure of the biodiversity conservation effectiveness in BEFZs; and (3) application of this method to the three BEFZs indicated that the method can provide a powerful tool for the management of biodiversity conservation in BEFZs at a macroscale in China. Meanwhile, this method can also provide a reference for building strategies for protecting the ecological environments in other countries on a case-by-case basis. Full article

Short-term wind speed prediction is of cardinal significance for maximization of wind power utilization. However, the strong intermittency and volatility of wind speed pose a challenge to the wind speed prediction model. To improve the accuracy of wind speed prediction, a novel model using the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method and the combination forecasting method for Gaussian process regression (GPR) and the long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network based on the variance-covariance method is proposed. In the proposed model, the EEMD method is employed to decompose the original data of wind speed series into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Then, the LSTM neural network and the GPR method are utilized to predict the IMFs, respectively. Lastly, based on the IMFs’ prediction results with the two forecasting methods, the variance-covariance method can determine the weight of the two forecasting methods and offer a combination forecasting result. The experimental results from two forecasting cases in Zhangjiakou, China, indicate that the proposed approach outperforms other compared wind speed forecasting methods. Full article

Manufacturing and service processes are composed of several elements: Technical, financial, logistics, information and human resources. Staff deployment and staffing is an essential problem in the human resource management domain because the structure of employees would be continuously in an optimal relationship to the jobs to be performed. This paper proposes a conceptual model for the analysis of human resource deployment processes. After a systematic literature review, it was found that algorithms are important tools for the design and control of human resource problems since a wide range of models determines an optimization problem. According to that, the main focus of this research is the modelling and analysis of human resource deployment processes of manufacturing companies using Markov-chain mathematics, also taking into account the absorbing phenomena of employees’ promotion. The main contribution of this article includes the model framework of Markov-chain simulation of a human resource deployment problem; the mathematical description of different human resource deployment strategies with subdiagonal and superdiagonal promotion matrices; the computational results of the described model with different datasets and scenarios. In the case of a given human resource strategy, the Markovian human resource deployment process of a company was analyzed. The analyzed model was the HR deployment of assembly line operators in a multinational company, including six levels of promotion. The results of the scenario analysis show that promotion and recruitment rates have a great impact on the future employees’ structure. Full article

The economic circle around Beijing is a very important area that supports the development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China. The economic growths of the economic circle around Beijing are deeply affected by the regional economic disparity. Besides the resources and environment problems, economic factors may be more prominent of regional sustainability. The objective of this paper is: (1) To find out what caused the regional economic disparity of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region; and (2) to assess the economic sustainable development status of the cities around Beijing, and give suggestions to narrow the regional disparity from the economic growth view. We used an assessment method based on the economic sustainable index system—the order relation method named G1 method, revised by standard deviation. The results showed that the fundamental reason for the differences lies in the disparity in production efficiency. The disparity in the regional economy increases the flow of talent to Beijing and Tianjin, so the labor productivity of Hebei Province will not improve. Thus, the economic gap among Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin will continue to grow. This negative feedback will further exacerbate the economic growth problem. In terms of narrowing regional disparity, some implications are highlighted. Rational industrial structure, a high level of development in the manufacturing industry, and a high proportion of strategic emerging industries are important for the cities around Beijing to achieve high-level industry transfer, and the technological progress needed to promote economic growth. Full article

The economic growth and demographic progression in Saudi Arabia increased spending on the development of conventional power plants to meet the national energy demand. The conventional generation and continued use of fossil fuels as the main source of electricity will raise the operational environmental impact of electricity generation. Therefore, using different renewable energy sources might be a solution to this issue. In this study, a grid-connected solar PV-wind hybrid energy system has been designed considering an average community load demand of 15,000 kWh/day and a peak load of 2395 kW. HOMER software is used to assess the potential of renewable energy resources and perform the technical and economic analyses of the grid-connected hybrid system. The meteorological data was collected from the Renewable Resources Atlas developed by the King Abdullah City of Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE). Four different cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, namely, the cities of Riyadh, Hafar Albatin, Sharurah, and Yanbu were selected to do the analyses. The simulation results show that the proposed system is economically and environmentally feasible at Yanbu city. The system at this city has the lowest net present cost (NPC) and levelized the cost of energy (LCOE), highest total energy that can be sold to the grid, as well as the lowest CO₂ emissions due to a highly renewable energy penetration. This grid-connected hybrid system with the proposed configuration is applicable for similar meteorological and environmental conditions in the region, and around the world. Reduction of some greenhouse gasses as well as the reduction of energy costs are main contributors of this research. Full article

Land use types have been strongly modified across mountainous areas. This has substantially altered the patterns and processes of ecosystems and the components of ecosystem services (ESs), and could in turn impact the sustainable development. In the mountainous Mentougou district of Beijing, we explored the changes in land use type (cropland, orchard, forested land, scrubland, grassland, bare land, water bodies, wasteland and built-up land), landscape patterns and ESs as well as their interactions during the past 30 years (1985–2014). The ESs included water yield (WY), carbon stocks (CS) and soil retention rate (SR). The results showed that 23.65% of the land use changed and the wasteland decreased by 80.87%. As for ESs, WY decreased by 47.32% since the year 2000, probably due to the increases in temperature and evapotranspiration. Although the decrease of forested land led to the decrease of CS, the increase of vegetation coverage improved SR. CS decreased by 0.99%from 1990 to 2014, and SR increased by 1.38% from 1985 to 2014. Landscape patterns became fragmented and dispersed, and MPS and CS, SHDI and SR were significantly negatively correlated. IJI and CS was positively correlated. This indicated that landscape patterns were highly correlated with ESs. In order to maintain the sustainable development of ESs, we should not only plan land use types, but also consider the rationality of landscape patterns. Full article

This study uses a human-centered approach to environmental ethics to examine which perceived factors in advertising predict consumers’ intention to purchase “green”, or sustainably and ethically produced, apparel. We use eight different types of green apparel advertisements to build a decision tree model to determine the most influential factors that lead to future purchases of green apparel. We classify consumers’ perceptions of green advertising as either humanistic, environmental, or product-related responses and propose a conceptual framework to outline the essential elements of an effective green advertising strategy. We use a sample of 829 US consumers from the period January 2015 to December 2017 in our empirical research. Our results show that four factors, namely, perception of the apparel’s quality, its uniqueness, caring, and nature connectedness, predict consumers’ intention to purchase green apparel. Notably, the largest segment of consumers (36%), those who perceive high levels of apparel quality and caring in the advertising, are identified as the high-purchase group. Our findings could improve strategies in green apparel advertising by providing a new analytical approach to model consumers’ behavioral intention to purchase green apparel. Full article

Quality human resources are an integral part of corporate strategy. Human capital development is an essential step towards the success of the business on the market. This paper fills the hole by providing the information about the ways how to motivate employees in terms of occupational classification and the age. The aim of the research was to determine whether there are statistically significant differences in the level of importance of employee motivation in terms of occupational classification and the age of respondents and the studied areas of motivation. A total of 3720 employees in small and medium-sized enterprises were analysed all over Slovakia using the method of simple random sampling. Descriptive statistics were used to describe sampling units. The differences in the values of the importance of motivation factors of individual groups were tested using the method of Tukey’s HSD at the level of significance α = 5%. Following the results, the fact that there are significant differences in terms of occupational classification and the age in the analysed areas of motivation can be stated. Therefore, the managers have to motivate employees in different ways that result in the more complicated management of human resources associated with meeting enterprise goals. Thus, the issue of individual motivation programmes created for individual employees tailored to employees’ needs must be discussed. Full article

Nowadays, increased usage of motorized vehicles has become a cause of serious environmental and health problems which results in noise pollution, air pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases. Sustainable transportation options such as green public buses, subways and public cycling have been introduced to improve environmental quality. However, their adoption is still in the initial stage. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the consumer attitude towards sustainable transportation, and their willingness to choose different environmentally friendly options like cycling and public green transportation by applying a norm activation model (NAM). More specifically, this study explored the role of different predictors (sustainable transport benefits awareness, traffic problem awareness, government policies and symbolic motives of using a car) affecting citizen’s acceptability to sustainable transportation options with mediating role of environmental concern and moderating role of self-transcendence and self-enhancement. A questionnaire-based survey conducted in four major metropolitan cities of China including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xi’an found that acceptability towards sustainable transportation is derived from sustainable transport benefits awareness and traffic. Symbolic motives of the car have a negative association with acceptability towards sustainable transportation. The mediating effect of environmental concerns was proved, which extends the role of NAM in this study. Self-transcendence and self-enhancement have positive and negative moderating effects consecutively towards the acceptability of sustainable transportation. This study has potential implications for the government of China, transportation, and urban planning departments in order to take necessary measures to promote sustainable transportation behavior in Chinese citizens. Full article