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Sustainability in Applications Using Quantitative Techniques

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 16701

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Zong Woo Geem

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Guest Editor

Department of Smart City & Energy, Gachon University, Seongnam, Korea
Interests: energy; environment; hydrosystem; renewable energy technologies; optimization; mathematical programming; algorithms; artificial neural networks; harmony search
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability is the capacity of equilibrium status for human civilization and biosystem to coexist. In order to attain this status, we can utilize various quantitative techniques, such as statistics, datamining, optimization, artificial intelligence, on top of policy-oriented approaches.

This Special Issue intends to collect the recent diverse studies in application fields of quantitative techniques for sustainability in our globe, whose applicable issues can include water, food, energy, infrastructure, culture, entertainment, disease, environment and climate change.

Prof. Dr. Zong Woo Geem
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Statistics
Data-Mining
Operations Research
Optimization
Artificial Intelligence
Soft Computing
Evolutionary Computation
Fuzzy Theory
Artificial Neural Network
Machine Learning

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 305 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Does Information Asymmetry Affect Dividend Policy? Analysis Using Market Microstructure Variables

by Seonhyeon Kim, Jin-young Jung and Sung-woo Cho

Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 3627; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073627 - 24 Mar 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2515

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship between information asymmetry and dividend policy in an emerging market, Korea. We adopt several proxies for information asymmetry, such as the Glosten–Harris and Hasbrouk–Foster–Viswanathan models, drawn from market microstructure literature. This study finds a negative relationship between information asymmetry and dividend yields, which appears to be particularly strong when firms have difficulty raising external capital because they have high systematic risk, financial constraints, or low stock liquidity. This result, based on an analysis using market microstructure variables that provide direct measures of information asymmetry, suggests that the pecking order theory holds for the Korean stock market and that information asymmetry is a strong determinant of dividend policy decisions in an emerging market. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Applications Using Quantitative Techniques)

27 pages, 11231 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimized Energy Cost and Carbon Emission-Aware Virtual Machine Allocation in Sustainable Data Centers

by T. Renugadevi, K. Geetha, K. Muthukumar and Zong Woo Geem

Sustainability 2020, 12(16), 6383; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166383 - 7 Aug 2020

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3808

Abstract

Cloud data center’s total operating cost is conquered by electricity cost and carbon tax incurred due to energy consumption from the grid and its associated carbon emission. In this work, we consider geo-distributed sustainable datacenter’s with varying on-site green energy generation, electricity prices, carbon intensity and carbon tax. The objective function is devised to reduce the operating cost including electricity cost and carbon cost incurred on the power consumption of servers and cooling devices. We propose renewable-aware algorithms to schedule the workload to the data centers with an aim to maximize the green energy usage. Due to the uncertainty and time variant nature of renewable energy availability, an investigation is performed to identify the impact of carbon footprint, carbon tax and electricity cost in data center selection on total operating cost reduction. In addition, on-demand dynamic optimal frequency-based load distribution within the cluster nodes is performed to eliminate hot spots due to high processor utilization. The work suggests optimal virtual machine placement decision to maximize green energy usage with reduced operating cost and carbon emission. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Applications Using Quantitative Techniques)

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25 pages, 5826 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CO₂ and Cost Optimization of Reinforced Concrete Cantilever Soldier Piles: A Parametric Study with Harmony Search Algorithm

by Zülal Akbay Arama, Aylin Ece Kayabekir, Gebrail Bekdaş and Zong Woo Geem

Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 5906; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12155906 - 22 Jul 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3388

Abstract

This paper presents the parametric modelling process of cantilever soldier pile walls based on CO₂ and cost optimization with the Harmony Search Algorithm. The study attempted to fulfil the geotechnical and structural design requirements and sustainable usage necessities simultaneously. The variants of the optimum design process are selected as the cross-sectional characteristics of cantilever soldier piles such as the length and diameter of the pile, and the other design variables are the reinforcement detailing of the pile such as the diameter and the number of reinforcement bars. Besides the volume of the concrete, the unit prices of both reinforcement and concrete are evaluated as another part of the variants. The shear and flexural strength necessities, minimum cross section of the reinforcing bars and factor of safety values are identified as the constraints of the optimization. Different objective functions are defined to provide the minimum cost, the minimum CO₂ emission and the integrated multi-objective evaluation of cost and CO₂. In addition, the type of steel and concrete reinforcement on the optimum CO₂ emission is investigated with the use of different material emission values that are selected from current literature studies. Consequently, the results of the optimization analyses are interrogated to investigate if the attainment of both minimum CO₂ and cost balance can be achieved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Applications Using Quantitative Techniques)

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Other

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43 pages, 1712 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

A Systematic Review of Financial Literacy Research in Latin America and The Caribbean

by Silvia Mariela Méndez Prado, Marlon José Zambrano Franco, Susana Gabriela Zambrano Zapata, Katherine Malena Chiluiza García, Patricia Everaert and Martin Valcke

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3814; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073814 - 24 Mar 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5991

Abstract

Several well-known studies have remarked on the low financial literacy (FL) levels in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which represent a problem in an economic context of change and uncertainty. This fact gives us the opportunity to evaluate the current state of literature related to FL in the region. The main list of identified keywords allowed the PRISMA methodology to guide the systematic literature review and analysis procedure. During 2016–2022, the FL search yielded around 4500 FL manuscripts worldwide, but only 65 articles were related to the scope of our analysis (which involved looking at LAC countries). Being the first review from an LAC country about all LAC countries, the findings highlight a lack of FL research focus on regional needs, gender gaps affecting women, and conceptual frameworks used to develop efficient educational program interventions. Most studies in this review build on the OECD definition of FL, but the financial attitude dimension often seems to be omitted from the analyses. These findings open the discussion about efficient policy design concerning FL development in LAC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Applications Using Quantitative Techniques)

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