Search Results (291)

Background/Objectives: Prostate cancer is one of the most common non-skin solid malignancies among male solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs), in whom radical prostatectomy is technically demanding. We report the first use of indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence for simultaneous transplanted-ureter identification and renal graft vascular mapping during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), and the first use of the CMR Versius^® platform in a SOTR. Methods: Retrospective case series of four consecutive male SOTRs (two renal [RTRs], two hepatic) undergoing RARP. In both RTRs, a dual-route ICG protocol was used on the da Vinci Xi with Firefly^® imaging: pre-docking intraureteral ICG via a ureteral catheter for ureter identification, plus an intravenous ICG bolus for graft vascular mapping and cortical perfusion. One hepatic recipient was operated with the CMR Versius^® system using an infra-umbilical port configuration to avoid the chevron transplant scar. Results: All four procedures were completed robotically without conversion. Median operative time was 176 min and median estimated blood loss 350 mL. Surgical margins were negative (R0) in all four; final pathology was pT3aN0 in three and pT2N0 in one, although in the renal recipients nodal staging reflected a contralateral-only dissection. PSA was undetectable at three months in all patients. One hepatic recipient later developed biochemical recurrence, managed with salvage radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy, with subsequent undetectable PSA. One hepatic recipient had a Clavien–Dindo IIIa complication. No graft dysfunction occurred. Conclusions: ICG-guided RARP and the CMR Versius^® platform appear technically feasible in carefully selected solid organ transplant recipients treated at an experienced multidisciplinary centre, with no graft-related complications observed in this small initial series. These preliminary findings require validation in larger, multicenter studies before general safety and oncological efficacy can be established. Full article

European maritime transport is undergoing a profound transformation driven by the dual imperatives of decarbonisation and digitalisation. Although green and digital shipping corridors are increasingly promoted as mechanisms for supporting this transition, there remains limited understanding of how digitalisation and sustainability can develop in parallel in cross-border maritime systems. This study adapts an existing cluster-based smart port framework to the corridor level to examine digital shipping corridors as integrated socio-technical systems. The framework is structured around four dimensions: technological foundations, intelligent port systems, performance-focused digitalisation, and strategic governance and sustainability. A qualitative case study based on publicly available documents and secondary sources is used to illustrate the framework and examine how these dimensions are reflected in practice. The findings indicate that the corridor demonstrates significant progress towards digital integration at the port-terminal level, although full corridor-wide integration remains incomplete. At the same time, the analysis highlights ongoing challenges related to broader system integration and the transition towards zero-emission maritime transport. The study concludes that digital shipping corridors should be understood as evolving socio-technical systems whose development depends on the alignment of technological innovation, governance capacity, and sustainability objectives. The study demonstrates how cluster-based analysis can be operationalised through qualitative case-study research. The proposed framework contributes to adapting smart port research from individual ports to corridor-level systems and offers a basis for future comparative research on maritime transport transitions. Full article

Ports are increasingly required to respond to environmental regulation, digital transformation, and demands for more sustainable logistics systems. Although research on smart ports, green ports and innovation ecosystems has expanded, less attention has been given to how Open and Sustainable Innovation is enabled, constrained and institutionalised within public port authorities. This study examines this process in the Port of Sines, Portugal’s largest port and a strategic Atlantic logistics hub. A qualitative single-case study was conducted, drawing on institutional documents, nine semi-structured interviews, observational material and MAXQDA-supported qualitative coding. The analysis was structured around four interdependent dimensions: environmental, organisational, cultural and technological. The findings show that Open and Sustainable Innovation is enabled by European sustainability agendas, digitalisation initiatives, the NEXUS Agenda and multi-stakeholder collaboration. However, it remains only partially institutionalised. Organisational fragmentation, limited learning routines, uneven cultural readiness, data-sharing concerns and dependence on externally funded projects constrain long-term innovation capabilities. The study contributes by conceptualising Open and Sustainable Innovation in public port ecosystems as an institutionalisation process rather than as a set of isolated digital, environmental or collaborative initiatives. It offers practical insights for strengthening governance coordination, stakeholder trust, data-sharing arrangements and organisational learning in sustainable port transformation. Full article

Ports and industrial regions increasingly call clean-fuel projects “hubs,” although the market functions behind those projects are often still being developed. In Ulsan, this language has shifted from the Northeast Asian Oil Hub to an oil–gas hub and then to a hydrogen–ammonia vision. This article does not ask whether the infrastructure matters. It asks whether the “hub” label is supported by publicly visible evidence. It develops a public-evidence framework for calibrating claims against evidence and adds a public-label validation layer to sustainability-transition and port-governance analysis. The framework is applied to public documents on Ulsan’s oil, oil–gas, and hydrogen–ammonia projects. The oil-hub narrative began with the use of stockpiling assets and tankage leasing. The North Port later became an oil/LNG terminal through project vehicles, terminal-use agreements, EPC contracts, financing, and commercial operation. These records confirm terminal implementation, not the existence of a trading hub. The South Port is better understood as a low-carbon infrastructure vision, while the April 2026 ammonia-bunkering operation is treated as a port-system fuel-supply milestone. By linking public labels to evidence of implementation, recurring use, coordination routines, market institutions, and external recognition, the framework treats hub naming as a sustainability–accountability issue tied to SDG-related infrastructure claims and ESG disclosure integrity, rather than merely as project branding. Full article

Energy industrial zones can act as a transformative model for industrial decarbonization by integrating renewable energy infrastructure directly with industrial production. By combining energy industrial zones with the energy community framework and peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, this study proposes a pathway toward 100% renewable energy sources. The model was tested using a techno-economic assessment applied to the Bravar-Jasenice case study in Croatia featuring 12 MW of solar PV, 10 MW of wind power, and a 9.3 MW biogas cogeneration plant. This integrated approach can achieve 80–90% energy self-sufficiency and reduce electricity expenditures for participating enterprises by approximately 15%. Furthermore, the system facilitates an annual reduction of roughly 20,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, thus directly supporting European Green Deal objectives. The study also highlights the potential for industrial symbiosis, including green hydrogen production, data centre integration, and waste heat recovery. Ultimately, the proposed framework provides a robust strategy for enhancing industrial competitiveness and ensuring energy security through localized, sustainable energy management. Full article

The integration of photovoltaic (PV) generation with alkaline water electrolyzers (AWE) in DC microgrids offers a highly promising pathway for green hydrogen production. However, the inherent volatility of solar power often induces transient voltage ripples and power surges, degrading the electrolyzer stack and destabilizing the common DC bus. To overcome this, this study proposes a hierarchical multimodal coordinated control strategy tailored for a four-port (PV–Storage–Grid–Hydrogen) DC microgrid. The proposed framework leverages multi-port synergetic coordination among the PV array, battery storage, and grid-interfacing converters to actively buffer extreme power mismatches, thereby ensuring the constant regulation of the DC bus voltage. Through comprehensive time-domain simulations under worst-case step-change boundary conditions, the large-signal transient stability of the proposed strategy is quantitatively verified. Under extreme disturbances, the system successfully confines DC bus voltage deviations to within safe operational boundaries with a rapid settling time, effectively avoiding typical inverter overvoltage trip thresholds. Furthermore, the adaptive power regulation algorithm maintains precise steady-state power tracking. By utilizing a gradient-based flag variable, the system seamlessly transitions between maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and active power-limiting modes, ensuring continuous equipment protection, stable high-purity hydrogen yield, and uninterrupted microgrid stability. Full article

Port integration reforms constitute an important institutional arrangement for promoting green development in the shipping sector and achieving China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. Assessing their carbon-mitigation effect is crucial for improving the governance framework of port integration and promoting high-quality port development. Using panel data for 55 Chinese port cities from 2011 to 2022, this study exploits the staggered implementation of port integration strategies as a quasi-natural experiment and applies a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach to estimate their effects on port carbon emissions. The results indicate that port integration reforms significantly reduce carbon emissions, implying that integration acts as a substantive driver for low-carbon transformation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the emission-abatement effect is stronger for ports outside the Yangtze River Economic Belt, coastal and southern ports, large-scale and small-scale ports, regions with weaker environmental regulation, cities with more advanced industrial structures, and major national hub ports. In contrast, the policy effect is relatively muted for medium-sized ports, highly regulated regions, cities with less advanced industrial structures, and non-core hub ports, where port integration delivers merely weak marginal emission reduction effects. Further mechanism tests reveal that green technological innovation plays a certain mediating role. This study contributes to the literature by providing dynamic causal evidence on how port governance reforms shape green development outcomes. It also offers policy implications for designing differentiated port integration strategies that align with regional development conditions and national low-carbon transition objectives. Full article

Ports are drivers of economic development, but at the same time, they create significant environmental pressures for port cities. Sustainable port development is an important aspect of urban and logistical planning in European coastal cities, helping to improve local air quality, the quality of life in port cities, and impact sustainable economic development. This research aims to analyze the relationship between investments in sustainable practices implemented in ports and air quality in port cities, based on a sample of five European ports observed from 2013 to 2024. The Fixed Effects (FE) estimation model was used as the estimation technique. The results indicate that higher investments in sustainable practices are associated with lower NO₂ concentrations in port cities. This highlights the significance of sustainable investments in improving air quality in port cities while advancing urban sustainability and contributing to economic development. This paper contributes to understanding the role of ports as an important link in the urban energy transition and provides guidelines for further integration of environmental policies into port and city planning. Full article

Under the background of green and low-carbon port development, the single-terminal continuous berth dynamic scheduling problem is simultaneously affected by multiple factors, including dynamic vessel arrivals, tidal conditions, quay crane resources, and carbon emission costs, and has become a complex decision-making problem that must balance operational efficiency and low-carbon objectives. To address this issue, the problem is characterized in this study as an event-driven, dynamic spatiotemporal resource allocation and cost-coordinated optimization problem. A dynamic berth scheduling model is established with the objective of minimizing the total cost composed of waiting cost, delay cost, and carbon emission cost, and the problem is further formulated as a Markov decision process. Considering that conventional experience replay mechanisms are insufficient in exploiting critical samples and often suffer from limited training stability in complex dynamic scenarios, this study introduces an experience quality evaluation mechanism and a dual-replay-buffer collaborative training strategy on the basis of the DDQN algorithm, thereby proposing the QER-DDQN algorithm. The experimental results indicate that, under highly complex and highly congested test scenarios, QER-DDQN shows relatively better cost-control performance, with the average total cost reduced by approximately 8.08%, 10.77%, 7.78%, and 2.43% compared with FCFS, GA, PER-DDQN, and DDQN, respectively. The ablation study and scheduling scheme analysis further demonstrate that the experience quality evaluation mechanism and the dual-replay-buffer collaborative training strategy help improve the utilization efficiency of critical samples and, to a certain extent, enhance the local shoreline utilization structure, thereby alleviating the accumulation of waiting time and the propagation of delays caused by local resource conflicts. Further low-carbon scenario analysis shows that carbon tax level and shore power coverage rate both affect berth scheduling outcomes and carbon emission performance, and that appropriate low-carbon policy constraints and shore power infrastructure configuration are conducive to promoting the coordinated optimization of port scheduling efficiency and emission reduction objectives. Full article

(1) Background: Currently, there is a problem of prompt determination of fat and protein content in the milk–air mixture of milking machines. (2) Methods: A design of a sensor prototype is proposed, combining measurements of light scattering (scatterometry) and fluorescence (fluorometry) to determine the component composition of the milk–air mixture formed during milking. (3) Results: An optical and electronic circuit of a flow sensor has been developed, using four sources of optical radiation: blue, green and red semiconductor lasers (light scattering in milk) and a UV LED (milk fluorescence), as well as an axial photodiode array for recording the light scattering indicatrix and the fluorescence intensity of the milk–air mixture. The use of three laser sources in the scatterometric circuit allows for the determination of the fat content in milk with an error of 0.05%, which is better than all currently known analogs. The developed sensor enables the detection of counterfeit milk containing palm oil instead of milk fat. It operates reliably in a temperature range of 5–35 °C and at milk flow rates of up to 100 mL/sec. (4) Conclusions: The sensor is capable of transmitting real-time data on the fat and protein content of milk to an RS-232 serial port, enabling integration into milking robots and automated milking systems. Full article

Shore-side electricity (SSE) is an effective approach to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutants from at-berth ships. Governments are using subsidies to incentivize ports and vessels to use SSE. However, its utilization remains limited. This paper targets the problem of government subsidy optimization considering games between the government and ports. A two-stage tripartite game model and four subsidy scenarios are proposed to investigate the interactions between the government and two ports. The results show that the choice of subsidy recipients does not affect the overall effectiveness of the subsidies. The optimal unit subsidy should be linked to the environmental benefits of GHG reduction, electricity prices, and fuel oil prices. Port competition can further enhance SSE utilization and environmental performance. Thus, policies should encourage such competition. Furthermore, analysis indicates that the cost of enhancing SSE quality is a key factor affecting SSE performance. Based on the analytical findings, this study offers policy recommendations for designing effective subsidy schemes. Full article

Under the dual-carbon goals, adopting renewable alternative fuels in transportation is crucial. Alcohol-based fuels, produced via biomass fermentation or green electricity-powered CO₂ hydrogenation, offer benefits like renewability, engine compatibility, and long driving range. Bio-butanol, with an energy density close to gasoline, can power SI engines directly, but its high production costs due to low fermentation efficiency limit its viability. In contrast, IBE (a butanol fermentation intermediate) avoids costly separation steps, making it more competitive than pure butanol. Existing research on IBE in spark ignition engines mainly focuses on fixed-ratio IBE-gasoline blends, restricting real-time fuel adjustment. Building on prior findings that IBE outperforms ABE and butanol, this study examines the combustion and emission characteristics of a gasoline port injection + IBE direct injection engine under varying direct injection timings, IBE ratios, and excess air ratios. Research indicates that early direct injection timings with pure IBE provide optimal performance at stoichiometric conditions. As the excess air ratio rises, an 80% IBE direct injection ratio becomes more advantageous. IBE shows great promise as an alternative fuel, enhancing combustion performance and reducing gaseous and particulate emissions. Full article

Ports play a pivotal role in global trade but are also associated with significant environmental and social challenges. Despite growing research on green ports, existing studies remain fragmented, with limited integration between technological, environmental, and governance perspectives within the blue economy framework. This review examines the transition from green port initiatives toward integrated blue-economy-oriented port systems by synthesizing recent advances in sustainable maritime infrastructure, smart port technologies, renewable energy integration, and policy frameworks. The analysis reveals three major findings. First, ports are increasingly evolving into energy-integrated hubs, with leading examples adopting shore power systems, renewable energy microgrids, and hydrogen-based infrastructure, thereby contributing to emissions reductions. Second, digitalization through artificial intelligence, IoT, and data-driven logistics significantly enhances operational efficiency, reduces energy consumption, and improves real-time decision-making. Third, effective governance frameworks that combine regulatory measures and incentive-based instruments are critical to accelerating sustainability transitions while ensuring economic competitiveness. In addition, the review highlights the growing integration of biodiversity conservation, marine pollution mitigation, and community engagement into port management strategies, reflecting a shift toward ecosystem-based approaches. Overall, the findings demonstrate that ports are transitioning from conventional logistics hubs into integrated socio-technical systems that enable low-carbon maritime transport while supporting inclusive and resilient coastal development. Full article

Carbon emission regulations and customers’ green preferences require ports and shipping companies to develop green services, but green investments entail significant costs. Vertical alliance cooperation between ports and shipping companies through sharing costs can address this issue. Most studies use non-cooperative game to analyze the competitive relationship between ports and shipping companies. Although such research can capture price competition, they struggle to address the distribution of cooperative benefits within an alliance. They also fail to simultaneously reflect the coexistence of competition and cooperation. So, we constructed a non-cooperative–cooperative biform game to analyze green investment under vertical alliance. In the non-cooperative stage, the model captures vertical price competition between ports and shipping companies, as well as horizontal competition among supply chains. In the cooperative stage, the Shapley value is used to allocate the coalition profits from green investment cooperation. The results indicate that alliance cooperation can promote the green development of shipping. Moderate green competition can promote the green development of shipping. Route substitution competition will increase service prices and green investment level and reduce the cost-sharing ratio for shipping companies. Port congestion prompts ports to increase green investment level. These findings offer references for the green collaborative development of ports and shipping companies across different countries, thereby enriching the research framework for global sustainable development in shipping. Full article

The maritime sector plays a critical role in global logistics systems, acting as a key link within international supply chains. Companies in this sector generate significant employment across the logistics and global value chain. However, it is noticeable that this sector still lacks innovative ideas related to the growth of the level of sustainable development. A wider adoption of green innovations could significantly improve environmental performance and reduce the ecological impact of maritime activities. A key factor that can stimulate the development of innovations in the maritime sector is green finance solutions. Dedicated financing for the greening of the maritime sector can catalyze innovation implementation processes both on ships and in ports. This article analyzes the opportunities for investments in greening activities using specific green finance instruments. This article presents the current situation of the maritime sector in terms of innovation and opportunities for project financing and increasing the value of companies, as well as key technological solutions that increase the level of sustainability in this sector. One of the key challenges is the limited intervention of governments and international organizations in accelerating maritime decarbonization. Maritime sector companies are slow to make progress towards sustainability—there is a lack of fundamental innovation and voluntary efforts to decarbonize. This has led to a situation where a large part of the innovations created are unprofitable today. The authors of this article suggested key investment directions—digitalization and robotization solutions, modernization of old ships and greening solutions for port companies. These actions would provide a short-term breakthrough, but it is necessary to consistently invest in new types of innovations based on scientific research. Full article