Search Results (410)

Waste-to-energy technology plays a crucial role in advancing the circular economy framework, a strategy that contributes to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on responsible consumption and production, as well as the provision of affordable and clean energy. Hydrothermal co-liquefaction has emerged as a promising technology for addressing waste material challenges by converting them into valuable biofuels. This review focuses on biomass feedstock classification and provides an overview of hydrothermal co-liquefaction for sustainable waste management and improved energy production. Moreover, the article provides details on integrating other waste treatment methods with hydrothermal liquefaction to promote the circular economy. Research publications from 2015 to 2025 were obtained from Web of Science and Scopus to identify research trends and output across countries and map out future research directions. The retrieved data from Web of Science was analysed for mapping research, keyword occurrence, and network analysis using VOSviewer software. The study highlighted that waste treatment techniques not only mitigate environmental pollution but also provide a sustainable pathway for energy production and contribute to global carbon neutrality. The review shows that biocrude yield varies with blending ratio because of differences in the biochemical composition of feedstocks, which affect reaction pathways and lead to synergistic or antagonistic interactions during co-processing. Therefore, careful selection of biomass feedstock is essential to achieve optimal results. Full article

Korea’s rising shares of variable renewable energy (VRE) and inflexible baseload increases the need for fast-responding and cost-effective flexibility. Most studies on power-to-heat (P2H) emphasize district-heating (DH) economics or load shifting, leaving the system-level impacts of its reserve provision capability unclear. We develop a mixed-integer linear programming model for reserve-constrained unit commitment (RCUC) that co-optimizes the power and DH systems. In addition, the model incorporates a P2H system capable of providing multiple reserve services. Reserve requirements are divided into static and dynamic terms, with the dynamic term represented as a piecewise-linear approximation of short-term VRE variability derived from weather-based generation profiles and evaluated at the scheduled VRE output. Using a 2030 winter week for Korea, we compare five cases: no EB; EB as load only; and EB contributing only to the secondary/regulation reserve requirement, only to the primary reserve requirement, or both. Under the KRW 1000/kWh curtailment-penalty case, EB as load reduces system operating cost compared to the baseline, and enabling reserve provision yields additional cost savings, with the largest benefit observed when primary reserve is provided. EB operation also shifts dispatch from coal and gas toward nuclear, VRE, and pumped storage, while reducing renewable curtailment. Overall, enabling P2H to contribute to reserve procurement, particularly in the primary reserve, delivers substantially greater value than representing P2H solely as a controllable load for energy shifting. Full article

Schools are increasingly recognised as critical public infrastructure for urban climate adaptation, particularly in heat-vulnerable and park-poor neighbourhoods. This study examines schoolyards as distributed cooling systems, social spaces, and educational landscapes and proposes an integrated decision support approach for programme comparison and prioritisation. A comparative review of nine international schoolyard transformation programmes (Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Rotterdam, Los Angeles, New York, Melbourne, and Santiago de Chile) was conducted using municipal plans, reports, and implementation guidance. Design strategies, governance configurations, and monitoring approaches were synthesised through a CAME (Correct, Adapt, Maintain, Explore) framework. Building on this synthesis, a Multicriteria Analysis framework was developed to support prioritisation across four criteria families: environmental and climatic performance, social and educational equity, urban integration and accessibility, and feasibility and co-benefits. The results highlight a recurrent toolkit of interventions—depaving, tree planting, shade provision, cool and permeable surfaces, nature-based drainage systems, and monitoring practices—that is consistently associated in the reviewed evidence with improved thermal comfort, stormwater performance, biodiversity, and community use beyond school hours. It is concluded that a combined CAME–Multicriteria Analysis structure provides a transferable basis for transparent, criteria-based prioritisation of schoolyard interventions by local governments and school authorities. Full article

Traditional cloud pricing models are allocation-centric, where users are charged based on reserved resources rather than workload energy consumption. However, modern AI workloads exhibit substantial and heterogeneous power behavior, limiting the effectiveness of such allocation-centric pricing. This paper presents a comprehensive experimental study of nine widely used workloads across 50 controlled configurations, including standalone and concurrent executions under varying resource partitions. Our results show that total system power is largely unaffected by how resources are divided among co-located workloads, except in cases of explicit resource under-provisioning or severe resource contention. Across 45 workload–core groups, 41 exhibit a coefficient of variation below 3% across different co-located workloads, demonstrating structural stability of workload-level power profiles under heterogeneous execution environments. In contrast, deployment choice (e.g., CPU versus GPU execution) can shift the same model into distinct power regimes. Based on measured power decomposition and scaling behavior, we derive an empirical categorization framework distinguishing GPU-dominant and CPU-dominant workloads, further characterized by utilization and memory dimensions. From an energy perspective, CPU utilization (for CPU-dominant workloads) and SM utilization (for GPU-dominant workloads) emerge as the primary determinants of power magnitude, while memory-related parameters contribute marginally to overall power. These findings provide empirical evidence that allocation-based pricing is a weak proxy for actual energy cost and motivate energy-aligned cloud management strategies grounded in workload power profiles. As our findings are derived from a controlled single-node experiment, evaluations under more realistic data center environments will be required for further generalization. Full article

Microplastic pollution has become widespread in aquatic ecosystems worldwide; however, its consequences for ecosystem service provision and fisheries’ long-term sustainability remain poorly integrated across scientific disciplines. While previous reviews have primarily focused on sources, distribution patterns, and toxicological responses, this review advances the field by synthesizing existing evidence through an ecosystem-service framework. Specifically, it integrates organism-level biological responses with population dynamics and fishery productivity to evaluate how microplastic exposure may influence provisioning, regulating, and supporting services. It also critically provides patterns of sublethal effects, trophic transfer dynamics, and interactions with co-stressors. Particular attention is given to the challenge of scaling from physiological responses to measurable impacts on biomass production, recruitment stability, and habitat functionality. To clarify these linkages, the review provides a structured synthesis of service pathways connecting microplastic exposure to fishery-relevant outcomes and highlights priority research gaps necessary for quantitative risk assessment. In conclusion, advancing sustainability assessments requires long-term, field-based integration of ecotoxicology, population modeling, and ecosystem process metrics. By reframing microplastic pollution within a service-delivery context, this review offers a focused analytical foundation for evaluating its significance to sustainable fisheries and aquatic resource governance. Full article

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) constitutes a major challenge to sustainability worldwide. This also applies to Japan, where urbanization in coastal lowlands is contrasted with widespread agricultural abandonment in rural landscapes. In this systematic review we synthesized the main LULCC trajectories, their driving forces, and specific effects in Japan from 1994 to 2024. Following PRISMA guidelines, 158 peer-reviewed articles were analyzed using quantitative co-occurrence analyses, Chi-squared tests, and Sankey diagrams to map land-use flows. Two dominant and opposing trajectories were confirmed: urban expansion and agricultural abandonment. The most significant land transition flow involved the conversion of agricultural land to forests/natural vegetation, while the conversion of agricultural land to built-up areas came in second place. These transitions were primarily driven by economic and demographic factors, but reforestation trends were strongly influenced by policy and institutional factors (35.70%), reflecting national regreening initiatives. Ecological and biodiversity impacts of LULCC were the most often documented effects (>40% of records). While the published literature describes trends in land-use transformations, the mechanistic understanding of LULCC remains limited. There is an urgent need to move toward process-based predictive modeling that integrates socio-economic variables. Future policies should balance urban density management with the strategic use of rural abandonment for ecosystem services provision and climate mitigation. Full article

Long-term oncological outcomes are significantly influenced by dietary patterns and nutritional status. Emerging evidence suggests that specific nutrients and dietary behaviors modulate the biological pathways involved in cancer initiation, progression, and therapeutic response. Understanding these nutritional mechanisms is essential for optimizing cancer prevention strategies, improving treatment efficacy, and enhancing long-term prognosis. Dieting is a modifiable factor influencing cancer prevention, progression, and survivorship. This review is a molecular, clinical, and epidemiological data amalgamation that aims to figure out the first of the three aspects, i.e., how dietary patterns and nutrients affect carcinogenesis, therapeutic tolerance, and long-term outcomes in long-term oncology. The current review moves from diet-dependent core cancer mechanisms that lead cancer pathways through metabolic reprogramming, inflammation, oxidative stress regulation, and epigenetic alterations. Protective dietary patterns, e.g., plant-based, Mediterranean-style, fiber-rich, and omega-3-fed diets, typically provide lower oxidative and inflammatory loads while also facilitating immune surveillance and metabolic stability. Therapy-personalized nutrition that is high in energy–protein and functional foods is instrumental to treatment tolerance, reduction in complication incidence, and cachexia relief. The newest research highlights the significant influence of epigenetic remodeling and the gut–brain–immune axis as the main processes that connect nutrition to tumor behavior and psychosocial outcomes. Translation into clinical practice changes is still dependent on thoughtfully designed trials, the existence of standard guidelines, and the provision of equal access to digital nutrition tools, despite this advancement. Diet is positioned as a low-toxicity co-therapeutic strategy that supports prevention, treatment efficacy, and long-term survivorship. Full article

This paper develops a bilevel multi-market coupling optimization framework to analyze the strategic participation of nuclear power plants in modern electricity systems where energy, reserve, and capacity markets are simultaneously cleared. The upper-level problem represents the Independent System Operator’s objective of maximizing system-wide social welfare under network, reserve, and carbon-cap constraints, while the lower-level problem captures the nuclear operator’s profit maximization subject to ramping limits, minimum uptime requirements, fuel-cycle depletion, and deliverability restrictions. By embedding these technical constraints into a bilevel structure reformulated through tractable complementarity conditions, the model captures the interdependence of nuclear scheduling, reserve deployment, capacity commitments, and carbon compliance in a single optimization environment. The proposed framework is applied to a stylized but realistic case study with 96-h time resolution, 12-bus network topology, and detailed representations of wind variability, demand elasticity, and emission caps. The model quantifies how nuclear participation displaces 40,000 tCO₂ over the horizon, raises producer surplus by 12 percent, and increases total social welfare by nearly 18 percent when all three markets are coupled, relative to an energy-only benchmark. Nuclear profitability is shown to be highly sensitive to renewable volatility, with ±20 percent swings in wind uncertainty altering profits by 0.24 million USD. Reserve deliverability emerges as the second most influential driver, while policy variables such as carbon price shifts play a smaller role. Reliability analysis based on the complementary cumulative distribution of unserved energy demonstrates that joint market clearing reduces the probability of load shedding at the 0.5 percent threshold from 8 percent in energy-only markets to 2 percent under full coupling. Overall, the study provides the first integrated modeling treatment of nuclear bidding across energy, reserve, and capacity markets within a bilevel optimization framework. By jointly considering operational constraints and policy targets, the framework reveals how nuclear power can simultaneously improve economic efficiency, enhance system reliability, and support carbon mitigation. The results highlight that nuclear’s value extends well beyond baseload energy provision, with multi-market strategies offering measurable gains for both individual operators and social welfare under conditions of uncertainty and constraint. Full article

Public participation in Global South urban regeneration often exhibits a “high-commitment—low-conversion” gap between institutional intent and effective citizen influence. Taking Guangzhou, China, as a case, this study develops a Policy design–Implementation–Evaluation (P–I–E) framework to examine participation across the policy life cycle. We review 48 municipal policy documents (2009–2024) to code 34 participation elements, link them to implementation rates of 798 projects across 11 districts, and triangulate outcomes using a survey of 1000 residents. By operationalizing Arnstein’s ladder into an index and introducing an expert-scored Design Completeness (DC) measure, we identify a participation gradient in which refined, enforceable provisions cluster in ex post compliance, while early-stage agenda-setting remains weak. The persistent conversion gap is explained by contrasting governance mechanisms: procedural participation is administratively legible and low-cost to implement, whereas empowerment requires enforceable decision interfaces, multi-actor coordination, and closed-loop accountability. Empirically, symbolic instruments achieve high implementation, while power-sharing elements are rarely enacted; substantive co-creation bundled with early empowerment and feedback mechanisms is associated with higher resident satisfaction and greater uptake of citizen input. Strengthening legally binding decision interfaces and accountability infrastructures is therefore critical for advancing substantive participation. Full article

AC battery systems (ACBSs) based on multilevel converters (MLCs) have gained considerable attention in recent times for the provision of grid services due to high-power (HP) and high-energy (HE) capabilities. In a hybrid ACBS, multiple low-voltage ports provide DC interfaces for battery modules from the same or different chemistries, enabling flexible operation across a wide range of grid services. However, the design complexity increases substantially, due to (i) higher electrothermal coupling between heterogeneous battery modules and power electronic (PE) switches, (ii) grid compliance constraints and (iii) power quality requirements, which often leads to conservative oversizing and, consequently, increased total cost of ownership (TCO). To address these challenges, this paper proposes a co-design optimization framework for the sizing and selection of battery modules, PE components, and MLC architecture. A multi-fidelity modeling approach is presented to co-simulate the battery modules and MLC. The model captures electrochemical behavior, degradation dynamics, and power losses to enable accurate estimation of system-level energy efficiency. The framework then leverages a multi-objective nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to perform optimal cell-to-module sizing across different chemistries and MLC levels, while incorporating the inter-module balancing and AC power quality constraints. Comparative simulation studies show that the proposed co-design framework achieves life-cycle TCO reduction of 3.5%, 4.5% and 20% relative to non-hybrid (single chemistry) configurations based on LFP, NMC and LTO chemistries, respectively. The test results validate the effectiveness of the proposed co-design methodology for the optimal design of grid-tied AC battery systems. Full article

Current generative AI systems primarily utilize a prompt–response interaction model that restricts user intervention during the creative process. This lack of granular control creates a significant disconnect between user intent and machine output, which we define as the “Agency Gap”. This paper introduces the Agency-First Framework (AFF), which combines cognitive engineering and co-active design approaches to formally define human-AI collaboration. This is operationalized through the development of ten Generative AI Agency (GAIA) Heuristics, a systematic method for evaluating agency-centric interactions within stochastic generative settings. By translating the theoretical layers of the AFF into measurable criteria, the GAIA heuristics provide the necessary instrument for the empirical auditing of existing systems and the guidance of agency-centric redesigns. Unlike existing assistive AI guidelines that focus on output-level usability, the AFF establishes agency as a first-class design construct, enabling mid-process intervention and the steering of the model’s latent reasoning trajectory. Validation of the AFF was conducted through a two-tiered empirical evaluation: (1) an expert heuristic audit of state-of-the-art platforms, such as ChatGPT-o1 and Midjourney v6, which achieved high inter-rater reliability, and (2) a controlled redesign study. The latter demonstrated that agency-centric interfaces significantly enhance the Sense of Agency and Intent Alignment Accuracy compared to baseline prompt-response models, even when introducing a deliberate increase in task completion time—a phenomenon we describe as “productive friction” or an intentional interaction slowdown designed to prioritize cognitive engagement and user control over raw speed. Overall, the findings suggest that the restoration of meaningful user agency requires a shift from “seamless” system efficiency towards “productive friction”, where controllability and transparency within the generative process are prioritized. The major contribution of this work is the provision of a scalable, empirically validated framework and set of heuristics that equip designers to move beyond prompt-centric interaction, establishing a methodological foundation for agency-preserving generative AI systems. Full article

Volunteer tourism is garnering growing attention across various fields, allowing tourists to both consume and co-produce tourism services. In agriculture, however, this remains underexplored, despite a worsening farm labour shortage due to ageing populations and a lack of successors, particularly in industrialised nations. This issue threatens farm productivity and food security. This paper addresses this research gap by examining paid volunteer tourism platforms in Japan. It presents a framework highlighting the co-creation of local tourism demand and analyses wage determinants across 138 farms. Results show that corporate farms engaged in direct sales offer higher wages, especially when prices are elevated or locations are remote, suggesting wage premiums reflect labour shortages. Accommodation and Wi-Fi provision depend on farm finances and unused facilities. Organic and GAP-certified farms offer lower wages, likely due to higher production costs, despite producing value-added goods. As platform-based paid volunteer tourism meets the needs of both farmers and volunteers, its prevalence is expected to increase. Full article

The public-goods nature of ecological products and heterogeneous stakeholder interests mean that protected areas often face weak coordination, limited incentives, and uneven benefit distribution in the identification, transformation, and return of ecological value. Under increasingly strict conservation objectives, ecological product provision is shifting from direct resource use towards maintaining ecosystem functions and realising experiential value. This helps safeguard ecosystem integrity but raises demands on institutional pathways for value transformation and on the sustainability of community livelihoods. Using Pudacuo National Park in China as a case, this study develops an analytical framework linking supply–demand structures, value chains, and value co-creation, and applies policy document analysis, semi-structured interviews, field observation, and process tracing to examine mechanisms of ecological value realisation under strict conservation. The results show that: (1) a collaborative governance network integrating park authorities, local governments, and concession operators provides a stable organisational basis for ecological value identification and transformation; (2) strengthened provision of non-material ecological products reorients the supply system towards regulating and cultural services, driving a shift from material output to function- and experience-oriented provision; (3) a multi-level community participation model combines labour embedding, livelihood diversification, and institutionalised benefit return to form an ecological value return mechanism grounded in value co-creation. Together, these mechanisms support a relative balance between ecological protection and community development under strict protection and offer empirical insights into the institutional logic of ecological value realisation in strongly protected contexts. Full article

This article examines graduate employability challenges in the tourism and hospitality sector of Marrakech, a major tourism destination and strategic regional labour market in Morocco, characterised by strong seasonality, high labour turnover, and persistent education–employment mismatches. Rather than focusing exclusively on technology, the study analyses employability as a multidimensional and context-dependent process, in which digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) constitute one influencing factor among others. The research adopts a qualitative, purposive design based on semi-structured interviews conducted between August and October 2025 with 20 stakeholders directly involved in recruitment, training, or early career integration. These include five-star hotel general managers and HR officers, riad managers, travel agencies, recruitment intermediaries, representatives of Morocco’s public employment service (ANAPEC—National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Skills) and private, regional tourism authorities, academics and young tourism graduates. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed using NVivo to identify recurrent patterns in recruitment practices, skill expectations, and the impact of AI in employability. The results, reflecting stakeholders’ perceptions within this local labour market, show that employability is shaped by six interrelated dimensions: (1) the structure and functioning of the tourism labour market (segmentation, turnover, mobility); (2) partial misalignment between training provision and operational service realities; (3) recruitment standards that prioritise behavioural and relational competences alongside formal qualifications, particularly for frontline positions; (4) language proficiency, especially English and French, as a baseline employability condition; (5) growing expectations regarding digital literacy linked to tourism operations (property management systems, reservation platforms, online reputation management); and (6) the perceived impact of AI-enabled tools (automation of routine tasks, decision-support systems, chatbots), which is seen less as a source of job destruction than as a driver of task reconfiguration and skill upgrading. By situating employer and graduate perceptions within the broader Moroccan employment and training context, the study contributes a place-based understanding of employability in tourism. It highlights the shared responsibility of individuals, employers, and education and training institutions in supporting skill development. The article concludes by discussing policy and practice-oriented levers to strengthen graduate employability, including co-designed curricula, structured internships and mentoring schemes, employer-supported upskilling in tourism-specific digital and AI-related competences, and reinforced labour-market intermediation through ANAPEC and regional governance actors. Full article

Ecuador is considered one of the South American countries with abundant bamboo resources due to its diversity and abundance. This species, considered a non-timber resource, contributes to multiple SDGs because of its environmental potential and provision of sustainable livelihoods. This study uses a life cycle assessment methodology to evaluate the social and ecological impacts of preserved bamboo in two key production regions in Ecuador. The findings show that bamboo conserved in various by-products and processing forms emits less than 0.5 kg of CO₂-Eq, with chemical inputs and transportation distances accounting for most of the environmental impacts. The assessment of the social implications of the actors in the bamboo chain is above average, translating into a “fair” evaluation, which tends to be more positive than negative. Thus, bamboo is seen as a source of livelihood for rural inhabitants, but it faces challenges such as poor agricultural incomes, informal employment, and limited access to basic services. Despite these obstacles, institutional support and the rise in the market for bamboo-based products provide opportunities to improve rural development, create green jobs, and strengthen climate resilience. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders to enhance the role of bamboo in rural development. Full article