Search Results (124)

Sustainable building design is significantly impacted by the local climate response knowledge ingrained in traditional architecture. However, its integration and dissemination with contemporary green technologies are limited by the absence of a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the regulation of its humid and temperature environment. The Ganzhou Wei family compound from China’s wind–heat environmental regulation systems are examined in this study. We statistically evaluate the synergy between spatial morphology, material qualities, and microclimate using field data with Thsware and Ecotect software in a multiscale simulation framework. The findings indicate that the compound’s special design greatly controls the thermal and wind conditions. Cold alleyways and courtyards work together to maximize thermal environment regulation and encourage natural ventilation. According to quantitative studies, courtyards with particular depths (1–4 m) and height-to-width ratios (e.g., 1:1) reduce wind speed loss. A cool alley (5:1 height–width ratio) creates a dynamic wind–speed–temperature–humidity balance by lowering summer daytime temperatures by 2.5 °C. It also serves as a “cold source area” that moderates temperatures in the surrounding area by up to 2.1 °C. This study suggests a quantitative correlation model based on “spatial morphology–material performance–microclimate response,” which offers a technical route for historic building conservation renovation and green renewal, as well as a scientific foundation for traditional buildings to maintain thermal comfort under low energy consumption. Although based on a specific geographical case, the innovative analytical methods and strategies of this study are of great theoretical and practical significance for promoting the modernization and transformation of traditional architecture, low-carbon city construction, and sustainable building design. Full article

Background/Objectives: Healthcare institutions, similar to other service providers, should prioritize their clients—in this case, patients—to effectively meet their needs. However, fulfilling this objective becomes increasingly challenging due to numerous factors. Therefore, this study explores student patient satisfaction by examining the effects of environmental quality dimensions (Internal Spaces, External Spaces, And Social Environment) and green practices, as well as investigating how environmental knowledge moderates the relationship between green practices and patient satisfaction. Methods: Given the latent nature of the variables investigated, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed. Some variables were conceptualized as hierarchical constructs comprising higher-order and lower-order components. Before testing the relationships among variables, reliability and validity assessments were performed. For this purpose, the SmartPLS 4 software was used. Since the focus of the research was on students’ health in general, the sample consisted of 280 students from the University of Novi Sad (Republic of Serbia). Results: Among the three environmental quality dimensions, only the Social Environment had a significant and positive influence on patient satisfaction. Furthermore, the green practices emerged as a significant determinant of patient satisfaction. However, the moderating effect of environmental knowledge on this relationship was found to be non-significant. Conclusions: This research underscores the significance of patient satisfaction as a critical objective for healthcare institutions. Special attention should be directed toward enhancing positive interactions between medical staff and patients and adopting green practices. Consequently, certain managerial aspects related to human resource management (such as adequate staffing and organization of personnel) should be considered. In addition, issues concerning financial challenges and benefits regarding the implementation of green practices in healthcare were presented. Full article

Under the impetus of achieving global sustainable development goals, the civil construction industry is accelerating its transition towards high-quality, green, and low-carbon practices. Prefabricated, modular building technology has become a key tool due to its advantages in energy conservation, emission reduction, and shortened construction periods. However, existing research on the seismic performance of prefabricated, modular, reinforced concrete column–beam (RCS) composite structures often focuses on the construction form of beam–column joints, paying less attention to the impact of floor slabs on the seismic performance of joints during earthquakes. This may make joints a weak link in structural systems’ seismic performance. To address this issue, this paper designs a prefabricated, modular RCS composite joint considering the effect of floor slabs and uses the finite element software ABAQUS 2023 to perform a quasi-static analysis of the joint. The reliability of the method is verified through comparisons with the experimental data. This study examines various aspects, including the joint design and the material’s constitutive relationship settings, focusing on the influence of parameters, such as the axial compression ratio and floor slab concrete strength, on the joint seismic performance. It concludes that the seismic performance of the prefabricated, modular RCS composite joints considering the effect of floor slabs is significantly improved. Considering the composite effect of the slabs, the yield loads in the positive and negative directions for node FJD-0 increased by 78.9% and 70.0%, respectively, compared to that of the slab-free node RCSJ3. The ultimate bearing capacities improved by 13.2% and 9.98%, respectively, and the energy dissipation capacity increased by 23%. Additionally, the variation in the axial load ratio has multiple effects on the seismic performance of the joints. Increasing the slab thickness significantly enhances the seismic performance of the joints under positive loading. The bolt pre-tensioning force has a crucial impact on improving the bearing capacity and overall stiffness of the joints. The reinforcement ratio of the slabs has a notable effect on the seismic performance of the joints under negative loading, while the concrete strength of the slabs has a relatively minor impact on the seismic performance of the joints. Therefore, the reasonable design of these parameters can optimize the seismic performance of joints, providing a theoretical basis and recommendations for engineering application and optimization. Full article

This systematic review explores how environmental sustainability is addressed in advanced structural systems that utilize innovative materials and technologies such as lightweight designs, adaptive mechanisms, and energy-efficient components. Despite their growing adoption, significant gaps persist across the design–construction–operation continuum, particularly concerning embodied carbon, energy efficiency, material performance, and long-term durability. A total of 61 peer-reviewed studies published between 2013 and 2025 were identified from Scopus and Google Scholar using the PRISMA methodology. The review employed a dual-method approach: a descriptive analysis to examine literature outlets, publication trends, and the frequency of advanced structural topics such as lightweight systems, long-span designs, form and aesthetics, and structural safety, and a thematic analysis using NVivo 14 software, which identified ten key environmental sustainability themes—carbon emissions, thermal performance, energy efficiency, construction waste, life cycle assessment, green certifications, material use, air quality, site and land use, and green environment. While research interest is expanding, limited studies offer comprehensive assessments of Tensile Membrane Structures (TMSs) or Long Span Structures (LSSs), with key challenges including inadequate material optimization and performance under extreme conditions. This review contributes a novel synthesis of existing knowledge by combining a PRISMA-guided selection, descriptive trend analysis, and thematic coding to identify critical gaps and emerging directions, offering a structured foundation for future research and practical strategies in designing environmentally sustainable advanced structures. Full article

This paper investigates the application of open-source software and methods for forest LiDAR analysis, with a focus on enhancing forest inventory metrics in the radiata pine forests of South Australia’s Green Triangle region. A semi-systematic survey identified 22 relevant open-source tools, evaluated for their capabilities in inventory metric extraction and practicality for implementation in industrial workflows. Ground truth data from radiata pine forests across multiple development stages provided the basis for validating the tools’ precision, accuracy, and practicality. Results showed that stratified tool selection, optimized for each forest development stage, achieved high accuracy for inventory, achieving stem detection rates up to 99.1% and errors as low as 0.94 m for height and 1.18 cm for diameter at breast height (DBH) in specific cases. Additionally, we provide scripts to support future research, discuss the limitations of our approach, and propose solutions to address these gaps in future implementations. Our findings highlight the utility of open-source tools to optimize forest inventory workflows through stratified, modular approaches. Full article

In the context of rural revitalization, scientific and efficient improvement of the human settlement environment is of great practical significance to improve the quality of life of farmers as well as to promote modern rural construction. To understand the research status and trends of human settlement environment improvement, the paper visually analyzed the relevant literature from 2012 to 2022 based on CNKI and the Web of Science database with the help of CiteSpace software(developed by Chaomei Chen, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA) (v6.2.r2). The results show the following: (1) the research literature on human settlement environment improvement has undergone three stages of slow growth, steady growth, and explosive growth; (2) many countries and institutions have published research on the improvement of human settlement environment, forming a close cooperative relationship; (3) three research hotspots have been formed: the concept and classification of the human settlement environment, the improvement path of the human settlement environment, and the evaluation method of the human settlement environment; and (4) waste management and green space are the frontier issues in the field of human settlement environment improvement. The subsequent research on the improvement of human settlement environments should strengthen the breadth and depth of research, improve the evaluation index system, innovate research methods, and build interdisciplinary integration, to provide a perfect research paradigm for research on the improvement of human settlement environments in the future. Full article

Background/Objectives: Indocyanine green fluorescence angiography (ICG-FA) enables the real-time visualization of tissue perfusion. However, objective research on microscope-integrated fluorescence angiography (FA) has not been conducted before. This study aims to evaluate the fluorescence light distribution in images formed by ICG-FA in two surgical microscopes using a phantom, and to provide recommendations for their application. Methods: An 11.8 by 6.8 cm ICG and Intralipid phantom was made to evaluate overall spatial fluorescence sensitivity in two surgical microscopes in multiple working distances (WDs) and magnification factors (MFs). The signal was quantified using a tailor-made software in Python 3.8.10. Results: A clear center–periphery effect was present in most settings in both microscopes, with the highest peripheral fluorescence signal loss in the lowest MF: 100% in the Tivato and 83% in the Pentero. Increasing the MF improved homogeneity, where the biggest difference was seen between the first and second MF. A 30 cm WD and 3.5× MF produced the most homogeneous images suitable for free-flap surgery. Manually opening the light beam diameter also reduced the center–periphery effect. Conclusions: Peripheral signal loss in microscope-integrated ICG-FA must be considered during clinical interpretation and for the quantification of tissue perfusion. In clinical practice during reconstructive free-flap surgery, a 30 cm WD, 3.5 MF, and manually opened light beam diameter should be applied to achieve the most homogeneous image. Full article

This study intends to ascertain the correlation between green banking practices and the sustainable environmental performance of private banks. It further investigates the mediating role of employee green behavior and motivation. This study used a quantitative research method to test the study hypotheses. A standardized questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was utilized to collect data for the survey. The sample size consisted of 376 respondents who were conveniently selected. Data were analyzed using PLS software (Version 4.0). The main finding is that employees’ green motivation mediated the link between employee-related and customer-related green practices and a bank’s environmental performance. Equally, employee green behavior mediated the link between employee-related, operation-related, and customer-related green practices and a bank’s environmental performance. This study is one of few in Bangladesh’s banking sector that provide a comprehensive overview of green banking practices, employee green motivation and behavior, and their connections to banks’ sustainable environmental performance. Full article

In this era of perpetual advancement and innovation, the term “smart” is frequently misused. Linking smartness to a city should reflect and solve multiple problems with a single solution. A city, district, or area can only be smart when it contemplates different development axes rather than having just a single strength. This work is an effort to make an area of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India, smart by concentrating the actions on five principal axes—Environment, Energy, Mobility, Community, and Economy. Practical indicators have been selected and well formalised to obtain an output value that can support the methodology to rank each action in its executable manner. Software like ENVI-met (to simulate greening and pollution) and PVSyst (to simulate rooftop solar PV) have been used to simulate the actions proposed, and a detailed discussion for each result has been presented. The methodology involves the creation of a model based on morphological, structural, and environmental data, as well as using SWOT analysis and community feedback to identify key areas for intervention. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed interventions, with notable reductions in CO₂ emissions, improved air quality, and significant energy savings through the implementation of Nature-Based Solutions, solar PV systems, and electric mobility. Full article

The new passive phase change thermal storage window integrates advanced energy-saving materials and technologies to provide efficient insulation and mechanical properties. It is suitable for green buildings. Through on-site experiments and simulations in summer, autumn, and winter in Jilin City, the cyclic use function of summer insulation and winter heating has been verified. This article establishes a numerical model and compares it with measured data to verify the accuracy of the model. In order to further verify the practicality of the new window, it was applied and tested at the Yichun substation in the cold winter region. The results showed that the new window can significantly reduce energy consumption while increasing indoor temperature. This article used a refined model established by Green Building Saville and Airpak3.0 software to deeply analyze the energy consumption and temperature field distribution of the window, and verified the reliability of numerical analysis in performance prediction. This study not only proves the effectiveness of the new phase change thermal storage window but also provides a new solution for the energy-saving design of green buildings. Full article

This study presents an empirical investigation into the energy consumption of discriminative and generative AI models within real-world MLOps pipelines. For discriminative models, we examine various architectures and hyperparameters during training and inference and identify energy-efficient practices. For generative AI, large language models (LLMs) are assessed, with a focus primarily on energy consumption across different model sizes and varying service requests. Our study employs software-based power measurements, ensuring ease of replication across diverse configurations, models, and datasets. We analyse multiple models and hardware setups to uncover correlations among various metrics, identifying key contributors to energy consumption. The results indicate that, for discriminative models, optimising architectures, hyperparameters, and hardware can significantly reduce energy consumption without sacrificing performance. For LLMs, energy efficiency depends on balancing model size, reasoning complexity, and request-handling capacity, as larger models do not necessarily consume more energy when utilisation remains low. This analysis provides practical guidelines for designing green and sustainable ML operations, emphasising energy consumption and carbon-footprint reductions while maintaining performance. This paper can serve as a benchmark for accurately estimating total energy use across different types of AI models. Full article

To achieve the dual carbon goals, countries are transforming their energy structures, with green electricity trading playing a pivotal role in this transition. This paper first analyzes the mechanisms and current state of green electricity trading. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using the keywords “green power” and “green electricity” on 2427 articles from the Web of Science core database (1984–2024). CiteSpace software 6.3 R1 was used to analyze publication volumes, contributing countries, and co-citation patterns of cited references, highlighting foundational research in this field. A deeper analysis of recent five-year trends reveals a focus on renewable energy, low-carbon policies, and the relationship between the green electricity economy and environmental development. This study finds that green electricity trading has become a growing theoretical research hotspot. Practically, China’s green electricity trading has made significant progress but still encounters challenges, such as insufficient operational mechanisms, technical barriers to grid integration, and obstacles in international green certificate trading. Based on the findings, targeted recommendations include enhancing market synergies, refining tariff mechanisms, and streamlining the trading process to support the sustainable growth of the green electricity market. This study highlights that green electricity trading is an emerging research focus, though its supporting infrastructure remains underdeveloped. Moving forward, enhanced policy support and increased R&D investment in renewable energy are urgently needed, particularly for advancing grid integration technologies for distributed energy. Additionally, aligning green electricity policies with broader low-carbon policies is essential. Furthermore, attention should be paid to the coordination between green electricity trading, economic development, and environmental protection. Full article

Serverless computing has emerged as a transformative paradigm in cloud computing, offering scalability, cost efficiency, and potential environmental benefits. By abstracting infrastructure management and enabling on-demand resource allocation, serverless computing minimizes idle resource consumption and reduces operational overhead. This paper critically examines the sustainability implications of serverless computing, evaluating its impact on energy efficiency, resource utilization, and carbon emissions through empirical studies and a survey of cloud professionals. Our findings indicate that serverless computing significantly reduces energy consumption by up to 70% and operational costs by up to 60%, reinforcing its role in green IT initiatives. However, real-world deployments face challenges such as cold-start latency and workload-dependent inefficiencies, which impact overall sustainability benefits. To address these challenges, we propose strategic recommendations, including fine-grained function decomposition, energy-efficient cloud provider selection, and AI-driven resource management. Additionally, we highlight discrepancies between empirical research and practitioner experiences, emphasizing the need for optimized architectures in order to fully harness the sustainability potential of serverless computing. This study provides a foundation for future research, particularly in integrating machine learning and AI-driven optimizations to enhance energy efficiency and performance in serverless environments. Full article

Urban green spaces (UGSs) are crucial for mitigating land surface temperature (LST) in the context of climate change and extremely high temperatures. Although numerous studies have explored the impact of UGSs on the LST, a systematic understanding of the research scope, knowledge network structure, data sources, main methods, and frontier trends in this field is lacking. In this study, 740 documents were retrieved from the Web of Science database, and the hotspots, trends, and frontiers of the impact of UGSs on LST were analyzed using scientometric analysis and CiteSpace 6.2.R4 software. The results revealed that the annual number of publications and citations in this field has increased consistently, with rapid growth from 2019 to 2024. However, the communication and dissemination of research findings were hindered by the lack of efficient international collaboration networks of academic institutions and authors, highlighting the need for more vigorous global academic exchanges and cooperation. Additionally, the eight identified research clusters extracted from literature keywords, covering remote sensing, urban green infrastructure, landscape patterns, spatial regression analysis, threshold values of efficiency, etc., have established a specific research knowledge structure, content system, and methodology. Furthermore, enhancing multi-disciplinary integration and incorporating practical case analysis will improve research accuracy and applicability and facilitate the translation of theoretical findings into practical applications. This study provided a comprehensive overview of current research on the impact of UGSs on LST and offered valuable guidance for studying urban thermal comfort and sustainable development in the future. Full article

In terms of the sustainability of the tourism sector, the green organisational identity and green behaviour of all employees are of great importance in successfully implementing environmental management practices. In this context, the purpose of this study is to determine the mediating role of environmental commitment (EC) in the relationship between green organisational identity (GOI) and employees’ green behaviour (EGB) among individuals working in the tourism sector. The data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 607 participants working in tourism enterprises operating within the borders of the Muğla province in Turkey. As part of the research study, analyses of the validity and reliability of the scales were carried out, and an analysis of the structural equation model was carried out using the SmartPLS 4.1 software to determine the relationships between the variables. As a result of this investigation, it was found that GOI has a significant positive effect on EGB and EC and that EC has a partial mediating effect on the effect of GOI on EGB. The findings of this research study can be considered to contribute to the literature both theoretically and practically. Full article