Search Results (240)

The effectiveness of mixing ventilation for contaminant removal and maintaining indoor air quality remains an active topic of debate. In shared multi-person spaces, it is common for occupants to experience uneven exposure levels due to variations in system configuration and seating arrangements. Previous studies have primarily considered static occupancy schemes, leaving a gap in understanding how dynamic patterns of use interact with ventilation design. This study investigates the combined effects of system settings and occupancy patterns on ventilation effectiveness (VE), while also exploring whether lower ventilation rates can still sustain acceptable air quality. Validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models were developed to simulate multiple scenarios involving three ceiling heights, two inlet and exhaust configurations, and three occupancy patterns. Analysis of air quality at the breathing zone reveals that the spatial arrangement of ventilation inlets and exhausts substantially influences VE, with optimized layouts improved system effectiveness by approximately 20%. Seating arrangement was similarly important, with favorable positioning relative to inlets improving perceived air quality by up to 25%. In addition, modest increases in ceiling height reduced the ventilation rate needed to maintain equivalent air quality, suggesting opportunities for energy savings without compromising occupant health. Overall, this study demonstrates that the interaction between system configuration and occupancy has a stronger impact on ventilation performance. These findings underscore the importance of integrated design strategies that align ventilation layout with occupant distribution to achieve both efficiency and equity in indoor environments. Full article

Location-based services (LBSs), which are used for navigation, tracking, and mapping across digital devices and social platforms, establish a user’s position and deliver tailored experiences. Collecting and sharing such trajectory datasets with analysts for business purposes raises critical privacy concerns, as both symmetry in recurring behavior mobility patterns and asymmetry in irregular movement mobility patterns in sensitive locations collectively expose highly identifiable information, resulting in re-identification risks, trajectory disclosure, and location inference. In response, several privacy preservation models have been proposed, including k-anonymity, l-diversity, t-closeness, LKC-privacy, differential privacy, and location-based approaches. However, these models still exhibit privacy issues, including sensitive location inference (e.g., hospitals, pawnshops, prisons, safe houses), disclosure from duplicate trajectories revealing sensitive places, and the re-identification of unique locations such as homes, condominiums, and offices. Efforts to address these issues often lead to utility loss and computational complexity. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new ($\xi$, $ϵ$)-privacy model that combines data generalization and suppression with sliding windows and R-Tree structures, where sliding windows partition large trajectory graphs into simplified subgraphs, R-Trees provide hierarchical indexing for spatial generalization, and suppression removes highly identifiable locations. The model addresses both symmetry and asymmetry in mobility patterns by balancing generalization and suppression to protect privacy while maintaining data utility. Symmetry-driven mechanisms that enhance resistance to inference attacks and support data confidentiality, integrity, and availability are core requirements of cryptography and information security. An experimental evaluation on the City80k and Metro100k datasets confirms that the ($\xi$, $ϵ$)-privacy model addresses privacy issues with reduced utility loss and efficient scalability, while validating robustness through relative error across query types in diverse analytical scenarios. The findings provide evidence of the model’s practicality for large-scale location data, confirming its relevance to secure computation, data protection, and information security applications. Full article

Energy efficiency in shared environments, such as offices and laboratories, is hindered by a lack of individual accountability. Traditional smart metering provides aggregated data but fails to attribute consumption to specific users, limiting the effectiveness of behavioral change initiatives. This paper introduces the “authenticated energy consumption” paradigm, an innovative approach that directly links energy use to an identified user. We present PlugID, a low-cost, open-protocol IoT platform designed and built to implement this paradigm. The PlugID platform comprises a custom smart plug with RFID-based authentication and a secure, cloud-based data analytics backend. The device utilizes an ESP8266 microcontroller, Tasmota firmware, and the MQTT protocol over TLS for secure communication. Seven PlugID units were deployed in a small office environment to demonstrate the system’s feasibility. The main contribution of this work is the design, implementation, and validation of a complete, end-to-end system for authenticated energy monitoring. We argue that by making energy consumption an auditable and attributable event, the PlugID platform provides a powerful new tool to enforce energy policies, foster user awareness, and promote genuine efficiency. Full article

In order to solve the problem of inconsistent data distribution in machine learning, domain adaptation based on feature representation methods extracts features from the source domain, and transfers them to the target domain for classification. The existing feature representation-based methods mainly solve the problem of inconsistent feature distribution between the source domain data and the target domain data, but only a few methods analyze the correlation of cross-domain features between the original space and shared latent space, which reduces the performance of domain adaptation. To this end, we propose a domain adaptation method with a residual module, the main ideas of which are as follows: (1) transfer the source domain data features to the target domain data through the shared latent space to achieve features sharing; (2) build a cross-domain residual learning model using the latent feature space as the residual connection of the original feature space, which improves the propagation efficiency of features; (3) use a regular feature space to sparse feature representation, which can improve the robustness of the model; and (4) give an optimization algorithm, and the experiments on the public visual datasets (Office31, Office-Caltech, Office-Home, PIE, MNIST-UPS, COIL20) results show that our method achieved 92.7% accuracy on Office-Caltech and 83.2% on PIE and achieved the highest recognition accuracy in three datasets, which verify the effectiveness of the method. Full article

Although Ethiopia has an enormous agroecological potential for beekeeping, only 10% of it is realized. As its conventional smallholder production calls for improvement in market relationships, this paper aims at an in-depth analysis of the honey value chain, value share distribution, and leverages for improvement. Questionnaires, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, value chain mapping, and margin analysis were used for analysis. The main honey value chain actors were input suppliers, producers (beekeepers), collectors, wholesalers, processors, cooperatives, unions, retailers, and consumers. Agricultural offices, research centers, trade and market development offices, financial institutions, and NGOs are major supporters. The value share of beekeepers using traditional hives is still low, while the largest share goes to improved hive users and wholesalers, respectively. Weak market linkages, high costs and shortage of modern equipment, limited access to credit, lack of legal frameworks and standardized laboratories, absconding, pest infestation, and unsafe use of agrochemicals were the major challenges. Nevertheless, attractive investment policy, global market demand, low capital requirements, and support from NGOs were key opportunities. Improving access to better market, finance and modern inputs, capacity building, legal reform, and a standardized laboratory would help to support the honey value chain and its contribution. Full article

This study analyzes the links between urban sustainability goals and the location of office buildings. We propose a concept of a sustainable location of office buildings, one that meets the needs of real estate investors and users and is consistent with the goals of sustainable urban development. The main goal of this study is to develop a method for mapping location potential, which can be used as a tool in the decision-making process of selecting the location of new office buildings. A location with high potential is consistent with the sustainability goals that meet the needs of investors and users with minimal environmental burden. The literature studies on sustainable urban development as well as the analysis of the results of the survey of office space user preferences allow for the determination of the essential characteristics of sustainable office locations: public transportation accessibility, mixed land use, walkability and clean transportation accessibility, parking space, and land reuse. Using these metrics in GIS, a spatial analysis was conducted to map different location potentials in Krakow and to answer the question of whether and to what extent existing office buildings meet these criteria. Full article

This study investigates global innovation trends in machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) technologies within the automotive sector through a patent analysis of 5314 applications filed between 2005 and 2022 across the five major patent offices (IP5). Using Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) codes and keyword analysis, we identify seven sub-technology domains and examine both geographical and corporate patenting strategies. Our findings show that the United States dominates in overall filings, while Japan demonstrates a notably high share of triadic patents, which reflects a strong global-reach strategy. Patent activity is heavily concentrated in vehicle control and infrastructure traffic control, with emerging growth observed in battery management and occupant analytics. In contrast, security-related technologies remain underrepresented, indicating a potential blind spot in current innovation efforts. Corporate strategies diverge markedly; for example, some firms, such as Toyota and Bosch, pursue balanced tri-regional protection, whereas others, including Ford and GM, focus on dual-market coverage in the United States and China. These patterns illustrate how market priorities, regulatory environments, and technological objectives influence patenting behavior. By mapping the technological and strategic landscape of ML/DL innovation in the automotive industry, this study provides actionable insights for industry practitioners seeking to optimize intellectual property portfolios and for policymakers aiming to address gaps such as automotive cybersecurity in future R&D agendas. Full article

The present study examines the role of knowledge management practices in developing business intelligence systems (BISMs) and organizational sustainability (OS) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia. With the underpinning of the knowledge-based view (KBV) in the model of the study, the study employed a deductive approach. Cross-sectional data were gathered from CEOs, senior managers, and business intelligence officers using both offline and online survey tools. Finally, the study utilized 356 usable cases to support its conclusions. The study confirmed a positive effect on knowledge management practices, i.e., knowledge acquisition (KAG) and knowledge dissemination (KDM) on BISMs and OS. On the other hand, the impact of knowledge responsiveness (KRN) on BISMs is negative but positive on OS. Furthermore, BISMs have a positive effect on OS and entrepreneurial leadership (ELP). ELP also positively affects OS. Finally, ELP mediates the relationship between BISMs and OS. The study provides guidelines for SME managers and policymakers on how to invest in knowledge management initiatives to foster a culture of continuous learning and information sharing. The study directly supports Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which requires the development of the sustainability of SMEs. Finally, the study addresses the gaps in the integrated model, providing empirical evidence from a developing context. Full article

High-rise industrial buildings are particularly susceptible to vibration-induced comfort issues, which can negatively impact both the health and productivity of workers and office staff. Unlike most existing studies that focus on local structural components, this study proposes and validates a wave propagation analysis (WPA) method to predict peak accelerations of the floor caused by excitations located on different floors. The method is validated through on-site vibration tests conducted on a high-rise industrial building with shared factory and office space. A simplified regression-based propagation equation is further developed to facilitate practical design applications. The regression parameters are fitted using theoretical calculation results, enabling rapid prediction of peak acceleration responses on the same or different floors. To enhance vibration control, tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are installed on selected floors, and additional tests are conducted with the TMDs activated. An insertion loss-based correction is introduced into the WPA framework to account for the TMD’s frequency-dependent attenuation effects. The extended method supports both accurate prediction of vibration reduction and optimisation of TMD placement across multiple floors in high-rise industrial buildings. Full article

The 8th meeting of the African Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (AACVS), constituted in 2021, convened by the Vaccine Research and Innovation Unit within the Vaccine Preventable Diseases Program, WHO Regional Office for Africa, was held virtually from 14 to 16 April 2025. The meeting brought together independent vaccine experts to provide advice to the Regional Director, WHO, on vaccine safety issues critical to the African region. Discussions focused on critical updates regarding ongoing regional outbreaks, safety data, and associated safety concerns, with emphasis on newly introduced vaccines, including the malaria vaccines (RTS, S and R21), the MenFive pentavalent meningitis vaccine, and the Mpox vaccines—MVA-BN and LC16—alongside the ongoing Mpox response. The Committee conducted a deep dive into comprehensive safety considerations for new vaccine introduction, active surveillance strategies, strengthening the responsiveness of pharmacovigilance systems, and advancing vaccine research and development in Africa. Key observations highlighted significant gaps in safety surveillance systems. These included delays in data collection, access, and signal detection; a lack of harmonized real-time monitoring frameworks; the underutilization of digital technologies; and inadequate manufacturer responsibilities and accountability in post-market safety monitoring. The meeting concluded with a call to action emphasizing the need for sustainable pharmacovigilance funding mechanisms, improved regional coordination, real-time data sharing, standardized early safety study protocols, strengthened manufacturer accountability, and investments in risk communication and community engagement to bolster public trust. Strengthening vaccine safety systems and enhancing regional collaboration were recognized as urgent priorities to support the safe and effective deployment of vaccines and protect public health across Africa. Full article

Sharing is an important part of an organization’s culture, consisting of learning, innovation, and performance through the promotion of expertise, ideas, and best practices among employees. This study aimed to analyze the relationships between transactional leadership, human capital, and knowledge sharing. This study used a quantitative approach by using 355 responses from employees who work at customs offices throughout Sulaymaniyah Governorate, located in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. PLS (SEM) was used as a method of estimation in the study to test the hypotheses. The findings show that although transactional leadership greatly improves the development of human capital, it does not directly affect knowledge sharing. Moreover, knowledge and experience engaging in activities involving knowledge sharing and participating in human capital are quite important. The findings also show that the increase in human capital corresponds to the degree of effectiveness of leadership in knowledge management. Therefore, the findings provide practical implications for companies to increase employee capacities by improving transactional leadership within organizations. Full article

Bike-sharing has been widely recognized for addressing the “last-mile” problem and improving commuting efficiency. While prior studies emphasize how the built environment shapes feeder trips, the effects of station types and spatial heterogeneity on bike-sharing and metro integration remain insufficiently explored. Taking the urban core area of Shenzhen as a case study, this paper examines how the built environment influences such integration during morning peak hours and how these impacts differ across station types. First, we proposed a “3Cs” (convenience, comfort, and caution) framework to capture key built environment factors. Metro stations were classified into commercial, residential, and office types via K-means clustering. Subsequently, the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model and the multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model were employed to identify significant factors and explore the spatial heterogeneity of these effects. Results reveal that factors influencing bike-sharing–metro integration vary by station type. While land-use mix and enclosure affect bike-sharing usage across all stations, employment and intersection density are only significant for commercial stations. Furthermore, these influences exhibit spatial heterogeneity. For instance, at office-oriented stations, population shows both positive and negative effects across areas, while residential density has a generally negative impact. These findings enhance our understanding of how the built environment shapes bike-sharing–metro integration patterns and support more targeted planning interventions. Full article

Sustained green innovation in firms is a crucial driver of sustainable economic development. Chief executive officer (CEO) openness, as a key personality trait related to leadership effectiveness, has an important but largely overlooked impact on sustained green innovation. This study aims to explore the impact of CEO openness on sustained green innovation and its boundary conditions. Using data from Chinese A-share-listed firms between 2011 and 2023, we find that CEO openness has a significant positive impact on sustained green innovation in firms. The moderating effects reveal that both digitalization level and CEO shareholding strengthen the positive effect of CEO openness on sustained green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that this positive effect is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, firms in non-heavily polluting industries, and those with high analyst coverage. These findings provide theoretical support for understanding the determinants of sustained green innovation through the lens of CEO personality. They also enrich the growing literature on the impact of CEO openness on corporate decision-making. Furthermore, this study recommends that firms prioritize CEO openness in selection, enhance digital infrastructure, and improve equity incentive measures to ultimately foster sustained green innovation. Full article

Inheriting a tradition of religious tolerance from the Inner Asian Steppe, the Mongol Yuan Empire elevated Buddhism to a pivotal role in unifying its multiethnic and culturally diverse domain, with Tengriist ideology serving as the political foundation for these Buddhist veneration policies. The ruling class of the Yuan dynasty practiced a complex interaction between religion and political unity through the institutionalization of the cult of writing, printing, and reading the Buddhist Canon. Specifically, the Yuan dynasty established specialized government offices to mobilize elites from Mongolian, Han Chinese, Goryeo, and other ethnic groups for the construction of a multilingual Buddhist Canon. They copied the scriptures with gold and silver ink in Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, and other languages. Participants in scripture copying were rewarded or granted official positions. In this way, they achieved the goal of enlisting local elites, the cohesion of the community’s beliefs, and enhanced the unity of the local elites. By subsidizing the writing and reading of Buddhist classics, the Yuan rulers succeeded in constructing a space of identity at the level of material culture and facilitated cultural interaction and political integration among various social groups such as the Mongols, ethnic groups, and Han Chinese. Through state-sponsored scripture carving and recitation activities, the Yuan rulers cultivated a shared identity in the material culture sphere, facilitating cultural exchange and political integration across the Mongolians, the Han Chinese, and other ethnic communities. However, the effectiveness of state unification was significantly constrained by the Mongolian rulers’ policy of ethnic segregation, central–local conflict, and the high concentration of social wealth in the Buddhist communities. Full article

This study examines safety climate perceptions in construction using two models: the Safety Climate Model (SCM) and the Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50). Data from 20 projects of various sizes (ranging from 11 to 50 floors) and company years of experience (1-25+) were analyzed using the 5-point Likert scale and ANOVA tests. SCM and NOSACQ-50 contained 10 and 7 questions, respectively. Responses were gathered from safety officers and supervisors. Results revealed insights into safety culture and the impact of management practices on safety perceptions in high-rise construction. The study found that safety climate perceptions were relatively poor, with a score of 3.865 for the SCM and 3.600 for NOSACQ-50. The findings emphasize the need for stronger safety practices at higher organizational levels, particularly in management, expressed by the findings of 3.3 and 3.5 in means of management commitment and safety climate fostering in NOSACQ-50 and the relatively large variance in the NOSACQ-50 model (0.23), control, and leadership. Cronbach’s alpha values were 0.935 and 0.943 for SCM and NOSACQ-50, respectively, indicating internal adherence of the models to safety practices. A moderate positive correlation of 0.470 between the two models suggests that both measures overlap but there exist distinct aspects of safety perceptions. In SCM, the highest-rated factors were safety equipment availability and employee participation in safety training, and employees feel the company prioritizes their well-being, highlighting the importance of resources and engagement. Current work pace does not compromise safety measures and protocols received the lowest score. In NOSACQ-50, the highest scores were for management’s commitment to safety and safety communication, while the lowest scores were found for management actions, reflecting their commitment to worker safety management and employees’ shared responsibility, suggesting areas for future improvement. The study underscores that project size and company years of experience do not significantly affect safety perceptions, but effective safety communication, management commitment, and employee engagement are crucial. The findings indicate that the NOSACQ-50 better elucidates safety climate core performance as depicted by the larger coefficient of variance (0.23 compared to 0.16). Full article