Search Results (2,644)

Whale watching is frequently presented as a benign form of wildlife interaction, yet its ethical and ecological acceptability depends on two conditions: vessel practices must minimize disturbance to free-ranging cetaceans, and tours must provide meaningful conservation-oriented education. This study assessed whale-watching operations in the New York City Metropolitan Area using three complementary frameworks: the Whale SENSE “On the Water” evaluation, the World Cetacean Alliance (WCA) Best Practice Guidance, and a Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) framework for interpretation. Eight trips representing the active full-time commercial sector in the study area were observed between May and November 2022. The results have revealed that certified operators generally performed better than uncertified operators, but the difference was not large enough to demonstrate that certification alone ensured welfare-protective practice. Educational content was often present but shallow, with limited discussion of cetacean threats, conservation measures, and legal protections, while higher-order engagement and multilingual accessibility were notably weak. Vessel behavior showed a similar pattern: certified operators achieved higher average scores, yet close approaches, inconsistent adherence to conservative speed and maneuvering guidance, and occasional unacceptable practices were still recorded. Overall, some operations still expose whales to avoidable disturbance and fail to meet the educational standards that give ecotourism its conservation value. Responsible whale watching should therefore be evaluated not only by whether vessels find whales and satisfy tourists, but also by whether operators demonstrably protect animal welfare and cultivate informed conservation attitudes. As such, this study offers a regionally novel benchmark for future comparative research, management evaluation, and the development of more responsible cetacean ecotourism. Full article

Sustainable public access to rock art caves requires an evaluation of how visitor presence alters cave microclimates. This study analyzed the response of Santián Cave (Cantabria, northern Spain) to controlled experimental visits conducted during the seasonal phase of reduced cave ventilation and elevated background CO₂. Visitor impact showed a strong spatial contrast: Sector I exhibited only minor thermal anomalies (0.01–0.02 °C), whereas the inner decorated sector recorded mean increases of 0.11 °C in Conjunto I and 0.28 °C in Conjunto II, with a maximum of 0.37 °C. CO₂ showed the clearest cumulative behavior, with daily increases of 268–368 ppm in Conjunto I and 327–376 ppm in Conjunto II, incomplete overnight recovery, and delayed propagation into connected sectors. Suspended particles also increased with visit intensity, from values below 300 particles L⁻¹ for spaced groups of five visitors to a maximum of 686 particles L⁻¹ and recovery times of 13.6 h for consecutive groups of 6–8 visitors. The results show that the most stable cave areas are highly sensitive to visits, cumulative effects become significant without adequate recovery time, and CO₂ serves as the best short-term indicator for access management. The proposed thresholds should be considered preliminary and seasonally dependent. Full article

The development of low-emission and reliable propulsion systems is essential for extending the operational capability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Although aviation decarbonization is widely recognized as an important objective, it must be considered within the broader context of limited renewable-energy availability. Recent system-level analyses of transportation decarbonization have shown that the allocation of renewable electricity and sustainable fuels should prioritize sectors where direct electrification is most efficient, while hard-to-electrify sectors require alternative pathways. Aviation is one of the most difficult transport sectors to electrify because of strict energy-density requirements, especially for long-endurance airborne platforms. Therefore, sustainable liquid fuels and hybrid propulsion systems should not be considered universal replacements for electrification, but rather complementary solutions for applications where batteries alone cannot provide the required endurance, payload capacity or operational flexibility. In this context, the present study focuses on alcohol–kerosene blends for hybrid UAV power systems, where liquid-fuel energy density and partial emission reduction remain relevant engineering requirements. This work provides one of the first systematic experimental evaluations of ethanol–, butanol– and octanol–kerosene blends in a micro-turboprop engine operating as part of a hybrid UAV power-generation architecture. Unlike previous studies focused mainly on micro-turbojet thrust response, the present work evaluates the coupled influence of alcohol chain length and blending ratio on exhaust gas temperature, gaseous emissions, electrical output and operational stability under multi-load conditions representative of UAV operation. Jet-A and nine alcohol–kerosene blends containing 10%, 20% and 30% ethanol, butanol or octanol by volume were tested over four operating regimes, from idle to 2500 W electrical load. The results show that ethanol blends provided the strongest CO reduction, with E30 reducing CO by 24.9% relative to Jet-A under R3, while E10 offered the most balanced behavior across the full operating range. Higher ethanol fractions improved CO suppression but introduced NOx and low-load stability penalties. Octanol blends, particularly O20, exhibited the most kerosene-like and stable response, supporting reliable power delivery with reduced operational variability. Butanol blends showed intermediate behavior without providing a dominant advantage. A multi-criteria evaluation combining emissions, EGT behavior, relative performance, operational stability and cost identified E10 as the best overall compromise for hybrid UAV use. The study demonstrates that alcohol chain length produces nonlinear system-level effects in hybrid micro-turboprop architectures and provides an experimental basis for fuel selection in low-emission UAV power systems. Full article

The adoption of large language models (LLMs) is reshaping how organizations approach automation, decision-making, and user engagement across sectors. This study investigates the trends, theoretical frameworks, and adoption factors influencing the integration of LLMs in five key domains: education, commerce, banking, healthcare, and service. By employing a systematic literature review and meta-analysis, this paper synthesizes research published between 2022 and early 2026, corresponding to the period when LLMs became widely accessible for public and enterprise use, to evaluate both conceptual and empirical dimensions of LLM adoption. The review identifies the Technology Acceptance Model and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, including its extensions, as the most frequently applied frameworks. It also highlights the growing incorporation of complementary models such as the diffusion of innovation, the information system success model, and self-determination theory. The meta-analysis examines 59 pairwise relationships drawn from 154 studies with a cumulative sample size of 88,886 participants. Using correlation coefficients, $I^2$ statistics, and Egger’s test, the analysis reveals strong, consistent associations between behavioral intention and both use behavior and actual use, while also identifying high heterogeneity across contexts. Constructs such as trust, hedonic motivation, and personal innovativeness emerged as influential but were underrepresented in the theoretical modeling. The study underscores the importance of facilitating conditions, infrastructure, and organizational readiness for enabling sustained use while also drawing attention to gaps in addressing perceived risks, privacy concerns, and ethical implications. Full article

The construction sector is undergoing a rapid transition toward more resilient, sustainable, and digitally connected systems, creating increasing demand for materials capable of providing functions beyond conventional structural performance. In this context, smart materials have emerged as promising solutions due to their ability to respond to mechanical, thermal, chemical, or electromagnetic stimuli through adaptive behaviors such as self-healing, structural sensing, energy regulation, vibration control, and reversible deformation. Despite growing scientific interest, available knowledge remains fragmented across specific material families and isolated application domains. Therefore, this study presents a PRISMA-based systematic review of smart materials in construction using peer-reviewed journal literature indexed in Scopus during the 2021–2026 period. The review examines the principal smart material families currently applied in construction, including self-healing concretes, self-sensing cementitious systems, Shape Memory Alloys (SMA), piezoelectric materials, phase change materials, adaptive coatings, conductive nanocomposites, and multifunctional geopolymers. Their engineering functions, structural and architectural applications, reported performance characteristics, sustainability contributions, digital integration potential, and implementation barriers are comparatively discussed and qualitatively synthesized based on the reviewed literature. The findings indicate that smart materials can improve durability, structural health monitoring, seismic resilience, thermal efficiency, lifecycle performance, and carbon reduction when properly integrated into buildings and infrastructure. However, large-scale adoption remains constrained by high initial costs, manufacturing scalability, regulatory uncertainty, long-term durability validation, and limited market confidence. The review further shows that the greatest future potential lies in combining material intelligence with IoT platforms, artificial intelligence, BIM environments, and digital twins. Overall, smart materials are positioned as strategic enablers of next-generation low-carbon, adaptive, and intelligent construction systems. Full article

Developing-country construction sectors continue to record disproportionately high occupational accident rates, partly attributable to the slow adoption of digital safety technologies, including Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Internet of Things (IoT) systems. While prior empirical research has established the population-level factors that explain stakeholder adoption intention through survey-based frameworks, the ability to classify individual stakeholder readiness for targeted, pre-deployment intervention remains methodologically unaddressed. This study fills that gap by applying three supervised machine learning classifiers (Random Forest [RF], XGBoost (XGB), and Support Vector Machine (SVM)) to a dataset of 107 construction professionals purposively sampled from large-scale infrastructure projects in Pakistan, including China−Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) packages and the Barakahu Bypass project. Five construct-level features derived from an integrated Technology Acceptance Model and Technology−Organization−Environment (TAM-TOE) survey instrument were used to classify stakeholders into High, Moderate, and Low readiness tiers. XGBoost achieved the best classification performance (accuracy = 93%, macro F1 = 0.93), followed by RF (91%, F1 = 0.91) and SVM (87%, F1 = 0.87). The convergent performance across three structurally different algorithm families indicates that the readiness signal reflects a consistent attitudinal pattern rather than an artifact of any single modeling assumption. Feature importance analysis consistently identified Perceived Benefits (32%) and Technology Awareness (25%) as the dominant predictive features, followed by Organizational Readiness (20%), Perceived Barriers (15%), and Respondent Profile (8%). Attitudinal readiness mapping classified 62% of stakeholders as High readiness, 28% as Moderate, and 10% as Low, providing an exploratory attitudinal segmentation framework to assist construction managers in prioritizing capacity-building investments, subject to longitudinal behavioral validation. The study also finds that awareness of digital technology consistently outpaces Organizational Readiness for implementation, a pattern consistent with findings from analogous developing-country construction contexts. Full article

Eating behavior and eating habits are shaped from the earliest stages of life through interactions among biological, familial, social, and environmental factors. The aim of this narrative review is to integrate evidence on the early-life determinants of eating behavior and their influence on dietary intake from infancy to adolescence. A narrative review was conducted with a structured search approach prioritized on longitudinal studies, intervention trials, and policy evaluations when available, and using cross-sectional evidence mainly to describe patterns and sociodemographic factors. Synthesizing the current evidence, our framework proposes that breastfeeding, responsive complementary feeding, and self-regulatory parenting are associated with higher responsiveness to internal hunger, satiety cues, and preference for nutrient-dense foods. Conversely, coercive practices, early exposure to highly palatable foods, and the influence of food marketing are linked to dominant hedonic responses and impulsive consumption patterns. Furthermore, family environments characterized by stress or food insecurity, together with high access to low-nutrient foods, may increase vulnerability to poor eating habits and emotional eating during adolescence. Overall, the evidence highlights the need for preventive interventions that integrate parenting support, school food education, digital marketing regulation policies, and the promotion of healthy food environments across multiple sectors. Understanding the biological, psychological, and social factors linking early determinants to dietary intake and eating behaviors across development is essential for promoting a balanced relationship with food and preventing chronic diseases from an early age. Full article

Chitosan, produced through deacetylation of chitin from crustacean byproducts and, increasingly, fungal biomass and insects, is attracting food-sector interest because it combines antimicrobial activity, antioxidant capacity, biodegradability, and film-forming behavior in a single polymer. This review discusses how source, molecular weight (MW), degree of deacetylation, solubility, and charge density shape its performance in food systems. The paper then follows the main technological routes now tested or used: edible films and coatings, hydrogels, cryogels, nanoparticles, microcapsules, and hybrid matrices. These formats can protect fresh produce, meat, poultry, fish, seafood, and dairy foods, while also supporting beverage clarification, emulsion control, release of natural antimicrobials or antioxidants, and freshness monitoring in active or intelligent packaging. The evidence indicates strong promise, especially where microbial growth, lipid oxidation, moisture transfer, and short shelf life remain limiting factors. Yet, wider industrial use is still slowed by water sensitivity, sensory effects, raw-material variation, cost, process scale-up, and regulatory alignment. Future work should move beyond laboratory efficacy and address reproducible production, food-specific validation, and consumer acceptance. Full article

This work reports the combination of pentagonal grain morphology, high phase purity, and non-monotonic thermal conductivity behavior over a wide temperature range (25–1200 °C). The SrZrO₃ coatings with different processing parameters are deposited using atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). Unlike conventional atmospheric plasma-sprayed oxide coatings, distinct pentagonal-shaped grains with multi-directional orientation suggest a unique solidification pathway and anisotropic growth mechanism. The pentagonal morphology may come from the impingement of five radially columnar grain sectors during rapid solidification of a highly undercooled melt splat, constrained by local thermal gradients. This atypical morphology, not commonly reported for SrZrO₃ coatings, is further supported by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) results, which confirm a remarkably high phase fraction (~94.5%) of SrZrO₃ despite rapid quenching inherent to APS processing. The combination of high phase purity and unusual grain geometry represents a significant advancement in tailoring the microstructures of environmental barrier materials. Moreover, the non-linear thermal conductivity response with temperature shows a pronounced decrease up to ~800 °C (0.737 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹) stabilization between 800 and 900 °C, and a subsequent increase at higher temperatures. This behavior indicates a complex interplay between phonon scattering, defect structures, and possible radiative heat transfer contributions at elevated temperatures. Full article

Gelatin is a valuable hydrocolloid produced by partial hydrolysis of collagen from mainly mammalian and fish sources. The rheological properties of fish gelatin differ from those of mammalian species in terms of gel strength, viscosity, and other rheological characteristics, even from different fish species and parts of the fish with different properties. Fish gelatin is sustainable for the environment and easy for people to accept for cultural reasons. Owing to these properties, gelatin is used across food, biomedical, pharmaceutical, and health sectors, where 3D printing enables customization and functional performance. Key determinants of print fidelity include gelatin concentration, rheological properties, temperature, gelling behavior, water content, and printing parameters. Suitability for 3D printing is typically assessed via physicochemical characterization, particularly rheology and gelling mechanisms/kinetics. Gelatin-based 3D printing systems offer various advantages due to their biocompatibility, low cost, and controllable rheological properties, and they have potential applications in the food, healthcare, biomedical, tissue engineering, and drug delivery system areas. Using gelatin in combination with other additives can improve printing accuracy and mechanical strength parameters, overcome the limitations of gelatin’s inherent mechanical strength, and develop higher printing accuracy and performance systems. This allows for the development of functional, innovative, and high-value-added products while ensuring safe use. Full article

Introduction: The entry and accumulation of fish inside the suction tubes of hydroelectric power plants can pose risks to these animals. To protect ichthyofauna, repulsion systems employing diverse methodologies have been developed. Objective: The main objective of this study was to investigate the dissuasive effectiveness of a bubble and light barrier on ichthyofauna. Methodology: The experiment consisted of video recording in three stages, performed in triplicate: before activating the barrier, while the barrier was active, and after deactivating it. The movement of five juvenile Amazonian species (Cichlasoma amazonarum, Dianema urostriatum, Pimelodus blochii, Brycon spp., and Colossoma macropomum) was analyzed across the three stages by counting individuals in specific sectors every 15 s. A total of 30 specimens of each species were used, with 10 individuals allocated to each aquarium. Results: Barrier activation induced repulsion in Pimelodus blochii, Brycon spp., and Colossoma macropomum, but attraction in Cichlasoma amazonarum and Dianema urostriatum. The study reveals that the tested species respond dissimilarly to stimuli from the behavioral barrier. Conclusions: These findings address a research gap regarding native species′ responses to behavioral barriers. They underscore the importance of understanding regional ichthyofauna behavior for designing optimized bubble and light barrier systems to enhance method efficacy. The observed effectiveness highlights the potential of this robust, low-cost technology for ichthyofauna protection in hydroelectric plants. Full article

This study examines the association between digitalization-enabled green human resource management (GHRM) practices and employee green behavior (EGB) within a South African metropolitan municipality. Anchored in an extended Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) framework, a convergent mixed-methods design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from 66 HR employees (from a target population of 80) and analyzed using Spearman’s correlation and hierarchical regression, while qualitative data from seven HR managers were analyzed thematically. Results indicate statistically significant positive associations between digital green training (ρ = 0.524, p < 0.01) and EGB, and between digital performance management (ρ = 0.463, p < 0.01) and EGB. However, regression estimates suggest moderate explanatory power within this context-specific public-sector setting. Qualitative findings identify automation, paperless systems, and e-HRM tools as key digital enablers, alongside infrastructural constraints, skills deficits, and institutional barriers that limit implementation. By integrating quantitative associations with qualitative evidence of implementation gaps, the study proposes a Digitalization-Integrated GHRM–EGB framework and demonstrates that digital HR systems are associated with pro-environmental workplace behaviors, contingent on organizational readiness in resource-constrained municipal environments. Full article

Changes in consumer behavior have intensified the demand for alternative protein sources, driving changes in food consumption patterns. At the same time, the increasing consumer awareness considering the health and environmental impacts in food systems, has stimulated interest in more functional and sustainable products. In this context, plant-based beverages (PBBs) have gained attention as potential alternatives to milk. This study was aimed at evaluating plant-based beverages as alternatives to cow’s milk, focusing on their nutritional composition, environmental impact, and technological challenges. Although cow’s milk has a high biological value and nutritional density, plant-based beverages present variable compositions, generally with lower levels of protein and minerals. However, they stand out for the presence of bioactive compounds and have a nutritional quality which can be improved through fortification strategies. From an environmental perspective, their production is associated with a substantially lower carbon footprint compared to dairy farming. Despite these advantages, the sector still faces technological challenges related to physicochemical stability and sensory acceptance due to complex residual flavors. This review highlights the need for improvements in terms of manufacturing processes and regulatory frameworks to establish these beverages as safe, nutritious, and sustainable options in the global market. Full article

This study addresses the critical challenge of food waste in the hospitality sector, directly contributing to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3. We conducted an intervention at a community-based culinary innovation center involving 18 participants. The research integrated the Collaborative System Model (CSM)—a framework that facilitates multi-stakeholder co-creation through knowledge interaction and feedback loops—into a Participatory Design (PD) process. Results demonstrated that the intervention reduced fruit waste mass by 72% per session and increased byproduct reuse rates from 15% to 68%. Sensory evaluations confirmed that these waste-reduction practices did not compromise product quality (p > 0.05). This approach provides a behavior-anchored unit process for pre-consumer waste reporting. Full article

This study aims to investigate the effect of organizational identification (OI) on green organizational behavior (GOB) and the mediating role of psychological well-being (PWB) in this relationship. To achieve this research goal, a quantitative study was conducted using a structured questionnaire designed to assess the relevant variables. Data was collected from 264 white-collar employees in the service sector in Istanbul. Surveys were collected from participants face-to-face, using a judgmental sampling method. Hypotheses were tested using AMOS22, SPSS 24 and PROCESS Macro. The significance of indirect effects was analyzed by employing the bootstrapping technique. The results indicate that OI has positive and significant direct effects on GOB and PWB. Furthermore, PWB was found to significantly predict GOB. The bootstrapping analysis revealed that the indirect effect was significant, supporting a partial mediation model. This research illustrates that OI increases GOB both directly and indirectly through PWB. The findings are considered to be of relevance to the literature because this is one of the few studies that addresses the concept of green organizational behavior, which is a focal point in the organizational behavior literature, and it emphasizes the importance of psychological resources in promoting environmentally friendly behaviors within organizations. Full article