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Malta's low carbon transition towards sustainability

Yuriy Bilan Brian Azzopardi Rafał Kasperowicz Marcin Pinczynski Dalia Streimikiene

Publication Name: Sustainable Development

Publication Date: 2024-10-01

Volume: 32

Issue: 5

Page Range: 5120-5128

Description:

The transition to low-carbon energy and energy independence of a country play an important role in the sustainable development of its energy sector. Another important issue of sustainable energy development is the cost competitiveness in the generation process; with new renewable energy technologies, a sustainable energy transition to carbon-neutral society is possible. In this article, we present a view of sustainable energy transformation based on a case study of Malta. We have created a simulation of a Maltese electricity system with projected growth and dominance of photovoltaic energy in the electricity market. The study results suggest that a system with a high penetration of photovoltaics has significant advantage over a conventional system using fossil fuels. In particular, in the simulated Maltese system, the total annual cost of energy was reduced threefold, the CO2 emissions were reduced by 40%, and the energy independence of Malta increased by 60%. In the end, the article gives a recommendation for further research into the Maltese energy system.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1002/sd.2967

Catalysing responsible production: Evaluating the impact of EPR system on manufacturing enterprises

Aknur Zhidebekkyzy Anna Kotaskova Zhansaya Temerbulatova Péter Németh

Publication Name: Journal of International Studies

Publication Date: 2024-01-01

Volume: 17

Issue: 2

Page Range: 178-190

Description:

Responsible production has become increasingly vital in the global sustainability discourse, particularly in manufacturing. The extended producer responsibility (EPR) system is a critical policy mechanism that encourages manufacturers to reduce their environmental impact. Despite its growing significance, comprehensive studies assessing its effectiveness are sparse. Our research aims to address this gap by evaluating the influence of the EPR system on responsible production practices in European manufacturing enterprises. We employed the difference-in-differences (DiD) method to assess the impact, analysing panel data from 27 manufacturing enterprises across the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, from 2010 to 2022. This method was chosen to mitigate endogeneity concerns. The results from the DiD analysis reveal a statistically significant positive impact of the EPR system on the circular material use rate, with an average increase of 10,5%. These findings indicate that the EPR system effectively enhances circular material use within the electronics manufacturing industry, a critical sector for advancing environmental sustainability.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2024/17-2/9

Tracking the shift from health to harm: Development and validation of a short screening tool for orthorexia nervosa (STONE)

Andrea Petróczi Elizabeth Pummell Hilda Mulrooney Elina Mitrofanova

Publication Name: Appetite

Publication Date: 2025-10-01

Volume: 214

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Orthorexia Nervosa (ON), a problematic fixation on healthy eating, has captured researchers' attention for over a decade. We aimed to develop a brief screening tool for ON that captures physical appearance as a motivating factor, behavioural aspects (rigid control over food selection, consumption and preparation), and nutritional aspects (avoidance of foods considered “impure”). Using a sequential, iterative design, 687 participants completed a self-reported survey across four studies: item identification and selection through exploratory factor analysis (n = 248), testing factorial construct validity with confirmatory factor analysis (n = 127), discriminant validity via known group differences (n = 241), and test-retest reliability of two subsequent administrations of the selected items (n = 71). The final unidimensional version of the short Screening Tool for Orthorexia Nervosa (STONE) comprises eight items. It demonstrated excellent known-group validity and ability to differentiate ON from other types of strict dietary control (e.g., health-based or religious restrictions). Consistent with the view of ON as behaviours aimed at rigid dietary control, avoidance of “impure” foods, and motivation to enhance physical appearance, STONE scores positively related to measures of eating pathology and appearance orientation, while only weakly correlating with obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Based on its psychometric properties, STONE is recommended as a first-level screening tool for ON in research contexts and epidemiology studies among adults. Due to its brevity, it can be easily combined with other scales to explore ON or related phenomena. Future studies should examine convergent validity and test it among adolescents and in different cultural contexts.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2025.108227

The Application of DIC in Criminology Analysis Procedures to Measure Skin Deformation

Szabolcs Fischer Szabolcs Szalai Mykola Sysyn Jianxing Liu Brigitta Fruzsina Szívós Dániel Kocsis

Publication Name: Journal of Applied and Computational Mechanics

Publication Date: 2024-01-01

Volume: 10

Issue: 4

Page Range: 817-829

Description:

In engineering, DIC is a widely used measurement technique. Its major advantage is that it provides real-time results (displacements, accelerations, stresses, strains, deformations) of the surface under examination relatively quickly and without contact. However, its application in medicine, biomechanics, and the field of criminalistics is novel. The present research focuses mainly on the frontier areas of forensics and medicine. The research aims to define the test boundary conditions and preparatory activities to measure the surface of the animal and then human skin. Injuries caused by low-energy ballistic bullets, blunt-force trauma, and cuts and punctures caused by knives and/or blades will be investigated. The present research focuses on puncture injuries in animal skin. The main challenge is to create a speckle pattern on the surface that can track deformation well. The research is about developing and validating this. The GOM ARAMIS measurement system was applied for the measurements. This paper demonstrates that a suitable preparation, painting procedure, and measurement setup has been established to measure the above effects, i.e., to identify displacements and deformations of up to tenths of a millimeter with sufficient accuracy. The evaluation of the results will also show that this method could be used in forensic applications, the automotive industry, medical orthopedics, and the textile industry.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.22055/jacm.2024.46966.4634

Fuzzy flip-flop based neural network as a function approximator

László Gál Rita Lovassy Laszlo T. Koczy

Publication Name: Cimsa 2008 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence for Measurement Systems and Applications Proceedings

Publication Date: 2008-09-26

Volume: Unknown

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 44-49

Description:

Artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic systems, in the context of approximate reasoning, share common features and techniques. A family of fuzzy flip-flops is proposed, based on an artificial neural network-like structure which is suitable for approximating many-input one-output nonlinear functions. The neurons in the multilayer perceptron networks typically employ sigmoidal activation functions. The next state of the fuzzy J-K flip-flops (F3) using Yager and Dombi operators present quasi-S-shaped characteristics. The paper proposes the investigation of the possibility of constructing multilayer perceptrons from such fuzzy units. Each of the two candidates for F 3-based neurons is examined for its training capability by evaluating and comparing the approximation properties in the context of different transcendental functions with one-input and multi-input cases. Simulation results are presented. ©2008 IEEE.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1109/CIMSA.2008.4595830

Impact of spontaneous ventilation with intubation on perioperative results in uniportal VATS lobectomy compared to general anaesthesia using a double-lumen tube

Gabriella Kecskés Ferenc Rárosi Judit Lantos Csongor Fabó Evelin Szűcs Júlia Lantos Péter Zsoldos József Furák

Publication Name: Journal of Thoracic Disease

Publication Date: 2025-02-28

Volume: 17

Issue: 2

Page Range: 774-783

Description:

Background: Minimally invasive thoracic surgery is the most frequently used approach for lung resection to minimize surgical stress on the patient. To further reduce invasiveness, the non-intubated spontaneous ventilation method is applied on the anesthesia side. However, due to the unsafe airway associated with this procedure, this method is not widely adopted. This study analyzes the surgical results of our method, which involves spontaneous ventilation with double lumen tube intubation and uniportal video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lung lobectomies. Methods: Between 2015 and 2023, 302 patients underwent uniportal VATS lobectomy in two different periods, depending on the type of anesthesia. Between 2015 and 2019, traditional relaxation, double lumen tube intubation, and general anesthesia (GA) with mechanical one-lung ventilation were used for lobectomies in 210 patients (93 males, 117 females, mean age 64.3 years) (GA-VATS group). Between 2021 and 2023, 92 cases (44 males, 48 females, mean age 66.3 years) underwent lobectomy with spontaneous ventilation after a short relaxation period, double lumen intubation, and vagus nerve blockade (SVI-VATS group). Perioperative data from 66 patients in each group were analyzed after 1:1 sample propensity score matching (caliper 0.1). Results: Respecting all patients, in the GA-VATS and SVI-VATS groups, the mortality and morbidity rates were 1 (0.47%) and 0 (0%), and 52 (24.7%) (P=0.050) and 19 (20.6%) (P=0.32), respectively. The rate of grade IIIB complications was 13 (6.1%) in the GA-VATS group and 0 (0%) in the SVI-VATS group (P=0.01). The length of surgery was 91.1 vs. 86.4 min (P=0.10), duration of chest drainage was 4.64±4.58 vs. 3.39± 3.39 days (P=0.02), the rate of permanent air leak was 43 (20.4%) vs. 8 (8.7%) (P=0.001), reoperation rate was 11 (5.2%) vs. 0 (0%) (P=0.02), and the number of removed mediastinal lymph nodes was 12.7 vs. 12.7 (P=0.97) in the GA-VATS and SVI-VATS groups, respectively. After propensity score-matched analysis, there were no cases of mortality in either group. Morbidity rates were 19 (28.8%) and 15 (22.7%) (P=0.55), length of surgery was 99 vs. 86.7 min (P=0.003), duration of chest drainage was 5.1 vs. 3.8 days (P=0.02), the rate of permanent air leak was 15 (22.7%) vs. 8 (12.1%) (P=0.10), and the reoperation rate was 5 (7.57%) vs. 0 (0%) (P=0.058) in the GA-VATS and SVI-VATS groups, respectively. Conclusions: SVI-VATS lobectomy resulted in fewer complications, particularly those requiring correction under anesthesia (IIIb) and a shorter postoperative period than GA-VATS. The number of removed mediastinal lymph nodes was similar between the groups.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.21037/jtd-24-1396

Numerical simulation of replacement method to improve unsaturated expansive soil

Ammar N. Alnmr Richard P. Ray

Publication Name: Pollack Periodica

Publication Date: 2023-07-11

Volume: 18

Issue: 2

Page Range: 41-47

Description:

In this paper, a parametric study is done with various removal and replacement materials to study the effectiveness of the removal and replacement method on the wetting depth in the expansive soil and the amount of differential heave caused by climate conditions and common irrigation scenarios for the southern region of Syria. Soil suction changes and associated soil deformations are analyzed using finite element codes, VADOSE/W and SIGMA/W. The paper concludes that the optimum thickness for replacement with high permeability soil should be at least 1 m. In addition, it concludes that replacing soil with a permeability coefficient lower than the permeability coefficient of the site soil contributes to a 56% and 79% reduction in total and differential heave, respectively.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1556/606.2023.00762

Outlines of a framework for progressive representation-bridging CogInfoCom channels

Adam B. Csapo

Publication Name: 5th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications Coginfocom 2014 Proceedings

Publication Date: 2014-01-23

Volume: Unknown

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 321-326

Description:

In the context of the development of engineering systems, communication is often interpreted as a behavior that is planned for and implemented a priori, with a concrete use case in mind. In contrast, the natural world follows different patterns: function emerges through evolution, and communication emerges through a process known as (signal) ritualization. Based on these differences, the concept of communication used in engineering would be worth broadening, in an effort to develop systems capable of exhibiting spontaneous communicative behaviors that evolve and develop into patterns through a history of interactions. In this paper, the concept of progressive CogInfoCom channels is proposed along with a generic framework for their implementation.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1109/CogInfoCom.2014.7020471

Safety to Sustainability: The Role of Household Financial Literacy in the Green Transition

Vikas Sharma András Szeberényi

Publication Name: World Sustainability Series

Publication Date: 2026-01-01

Volume: Part F1959

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 55-73

Description:

Financial literacy is increasingly valued not simply as an individual good but as a public good necessary for the low-carbon transition. This chapter explores the relation between financial literacy, resilience, and the goals of sustainable finance in the case of Hungary. Integrating the literature from other countries with survey data from 361 respondents, the study finds a critical “intention-behavior gap”: respondents report high subjective financial literacy, but household behaviour is still defensive, where precautionary savings are preferred before long-term green investing. It is arguable that this “safety-first” mentality is a rational response to historical economic instability, and poses a structural barrier to the uptake of sustainable finance topics. The research implies a relationship where financial resilience is not a competitor to sustainability, but rather a necessary prerequisite for sustainable investing. Therefore, to release household capital into the green transition, policymakers need to reorganise financial education as a pathway for resilience as a baseline for climate-aligned financial engagement.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-19076-5_4