Long-term storage may reduce the nutritional quality of brown rice, so the present study was aimed to evaluate the nutritive values and application in pig diets. In Exp.1, 18 Landrace × Yorkshire (L × Y) barrows with initial body weight (IBW) of 25.48 ± 3.21 kg were randomly assigned to three treatments, which included corn diet, one-year stored brown rice (BR1) diet and six-year stored brown rice (BR6) diet, to determine the digestible energy (DE) and metabolisable energy (ME) value of stored brown rice. In Exp. 2, 24 barrows (L × Y; IBW: 22.16 ± 2.42 kg) fixed with ileal T-cannula were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments, including corn diet, two stored brown rice diets and nitrogen-free diet, to evaluate the amino acid (AA) digestibility of stored brown rice. In Exp. 3 and 4, 108 crossbred weaned piglets (L × Y; IBW: 9.16 ± 0.89 kg) and 90 crossbred growing pigs (L × Y; IBW: 48.28 ± 3.51 kg) were allotted to 3 treatment diets, including control diet and two stored brown rice diets, respectively, to investigate the application of stored brown rice in weaned piglet and growing-finishing pig diets. Results showed that: 1) The DE and ME of corn and stored brown rice showed no significant differences (P > 0.05), while the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of arginine, histidine, aspartic acid, and the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of arginine and histidine were higher in stored brown rice compared to corn (P < 0.05). 2) Compared with the control diet, the stored brown rice diets showed no significant effects on growth performance, nutrient apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and serum biochemical indices (P > 0.05), but decreased digestive enzymes activities in duodenum, jejunum and ileum of piglets (P < 0.05). 3) Compared with the control diet, the stored brown rice diets showed no significant effects on growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality, fatty acids profiles in the longissimus dorsi muscle of growing-finishing pigs (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the brown rice stored for 6 years under good conditions has no obvious changes in available energy and nutrient values. Although it may reduce digestive enzyme activity in small intestine of the piglets, the stored brown rice showed no obvious adverse effect on growth performance and meat quality, and can be effectively used in pig diet.

The purpose of this paper is to explore which financial performance indicators (FPIs) evaluate the level of supply chain capability (SCC) that explicitly touches all of the business functions and processes within and beyond the company. The authors investigated nine FPIs that were selected from the financial statements of 155 companies within nine industries. The authors find that suitable FPIs to measure SCC for shareholders’ value are return-on-assets (ROA), days-sales-outstanding (DSO), and current ratio (CR). This means that higher ROA, shortened DSO, and an appropriate level of CR could reach a sustainable supply chain. These results will help the industry to avert a major disruption in supply chain processes and activities using suitable financial performance indicators.

Policymakers, academics, and industry players have been focused on determining whether connected health (CH) is a fad or a trend by looking at its sustainability. Although the significance of innovation in healthcare is gradually rising, a definitive identification and systematic comprehension of the core drivers, structure, content, and pattern of innovation in CH are missing. To bridge this gap, this study re-examines and analyses CH from the perspectives of its industrial chain and structure, to assess its future prospects and sustainability by focusing on how its structures and participants act in the ecosystem. This study involves an inductive theory building approach based on multi-stage, semi-structured interviews (n=60 in total). The results indicate that the core drivers, constituents, and components of CH need to be identified and restructured. A valid discourse, which is missing in the current literature, should be proposed with regard to the sustainability of CH. A sustainable business model innovation (BMI) system and the methods employed to achieve sustainability are suggested to discover indicators for future success. This study enriches the current CH understanding from a technology perspective and suggests some implications for practitioners as well as policymakers to enhance sustainable development in the healthcare sector.

A wide panel of microtubule-associated proteins and kinases is involved in coordinated regula-tion of the microtubule cytoskeleton and may thus represent valuable molecular markers contrib-uting to major cellular pathways deregulated in cancer. We previously identified a panel of 17 microtubule-related (MT-Rel) genes that are differentially expressed in breast tumors showing resistance to taxane-based chemotherapy. In the present study, we evaluated the expression, prognostic value and functional impact of these genes in breast cancer. We show that 14 MT-Rel genes (KIF4A, ASPM, KIF20A, KIF14, TPX2, KIF18B, KIFC1, AURKB, KIF2C, GTSE1, KIF15, KIF11, RACGAP1, STMN1) are up-regulated in breast tumors compared with adjacent normal tissue. Six of them (KIF4A, ASPM, KIF20A, KIF14, TPX2, KIF18B) are overexpressed by more than 10-fold in tumor samples and four of them (KIF11, AURKB, TPX2 and KIFC1) are essential for cell survival. Overexpression of all 14 genes, and underexpression of 3 other MT-Rel genes (MAST4, MAPT and MTUS1) are associated with poor breast cancer patient survival. A Systems Biology approach highlighted three major functional networks connecting the 17 MT-Rel genes and partners, which are centered on spindle assembly, chromosome segregation and cytokinesis. Together our studies identified mitotic Aurora kinases and their substrates as major targets for therapeutic approaches against breast cancer.

This study examined the relationships between attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention through the perceived value of Pilates participants. The participants of this study were 301 Pilates students using Pilates studios located in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongbuk Province. The participants were selected by convenient sampling, a non-probability sampling method. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling analysis using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 24.0. The results can be summarized as follows. First, among the three subfactors of perceived value, functional and social values had a positive effect on attitude. Second, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, which are three main components of the Theory of Planned Behavior, had a positive effect on the behavioral intention for Pilates. These results suggest that Pilates instructors require meticulous planning and efforts to develop an environment for promoting spontaneous interest and participation to attract students and engage their attention and interest in the field.

Chile faces a serious crisis on housing affordability given that most of the population is unable to secure a house. While housing prices between 2008 increased by 70.96%, wages only increased by 20.43%. This article presents the analysis of the housing prices configuration for the main district in the country: Santiago Centro. The assessment focuses on verticalised housing buildings constructed between 2015 and 2019. The article develops an exploratory study on the price of housing in the city of Santiago de Chile, to generate a diagnosis to identify the role played by expectations of profitability when configuring that price. Based on the information generated, we seek to contribute to the discussion on public policies that advance towards the development of affordable housing for households in central communes with high urban value, as is the case of Santiago Centro. We hypothesize that profitability expectations of real estate developers play a key role in the housing prices and an adjustment in the profit ratios may increase the affordability keeping the housing market over profitable rates. The research is relevant due to the lack of data transparency in the Chilean housing market, where access to investment costs, land values, yields and house price formation are not part of the public discussion, even though this implies that many households are facing severe difficulties in paying for access to decent housing.

The recent years have been marked by rapid growth in the field of "ESG finance," leading to the emergence and expansion of ESG ratings and rating agencies. This study seeks to examine how financial investors respond to updates in ESG ratings provided by two prominent ESG rating agencies: MSCI and Refinitiv. Specifically, the goal is to determine whether any potential positive or negative alterations in a company's sustainability ratings directly affect its market value. The chosen methodology for this investigation is the Event Study, a model employed to assess the influence of economic events on corporate valuations by analyzing their Cumulated Average Abnormal Returns (CAARs). Over 840 instances of rating updates (events) were analyzed using a sample of 75 companies across various industries, all listed on major stock exchanges. The findings indicate that shifts in sustainability ratings, as evaluated by the two rating agencies, do not have a significant impact on companies' market capitalization. Moreover, these outcomes remain consistent over time, suggesting that financial markets are not assigning increasing significance to ESG ratings. Potential explanations are offered and discussed in relation to existing literature on the subject.

The global prevalence of insulin resistance (IR) is increasing continuously, influencing metabolic parameters and fertility as well. The metabolic changes due to IR can alter the molecular composition of plasma and other body fluids. Follicular fluid (FF) is derived mainly from plasma, and it is a critical microenvironment for the developing oocytes. It contains various metabolites and amino acids, and the quality of the oocytes is linked at least partially to amino acid metabolism. Our goal was to determine quantitatively the amino acid (AA) profile of FF in IVF patients and to compare IR and non-insulin resistance (NIR) groups to investigate the AA changes in their FF. By UHPLC-based method we quantified the main 20 amino acids from human FF samples in the IR and NIR groups. Several amino acids (aspartate, glycine, glutamate, and cysteine) differed significantly (p&lt;0.05 or less) between the two groups. The most significant alterations between the IR and NIR groups were related to the glutathione metabolic pathway involving glycine, serine, and threonine. Since insulin resistance alters the amino acid composition of the FF, the oocytes may undergo metabolism-induced changes resulting in poor oocyte quality and less fertility in the insulin resistance groups.

Non-timber forest products (NTFP) have contributed in various ways to the living, livelihoods, and trading of households and communities who live in rural and urban areas all over the world. This paper analyses the value chain of Jiaogulan (Gynostemma pentaphyllum) in the Cao Bang Geopark, Vietnam. 106 actors were surveyed using a semi-structured questionnaire: experts (agricultural extension officers, farmers' associations), harvesters, traders, primary processors, processors, distributors, and consumers. The results show that a map of Jiaogulan value chain, value added of households in main market channels, and impact of value added and distribution of Jiaogulan products on household income.

This review article aims to delve into several aspects of sweetpotatoes and their leaves, including their nutritional composition, health benefits, culinary uses, and potential future implications as a superfood. It suggests an in-depth exploration of sweet potatoes' history, status, and prospects, highlighting their significance and potential economic value. Sweetpotatoes, often referred to as a powerhouse of nutrients, have gained popularity recently due to their remarkable nutritional composition and versatile culinary uses. This starchy root vegetable comes from the Convolvulaceae family and is consumed worldwide, playing a significant role in diverse cultures and cuisines. Besides their vibrant colors ranging from orange to purple, sweetpotatoes offer many health benefits, making them an essential addition to a well-balanced diet. Its extraordinary nutritional profile and numerous health benefits make it a superfood. Incorporating it into the diet can improve digestion, strengthen immunity, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. With their versatility in the kitchen, there is no deficiency of charming and healthy recipes to explore. So, make room for sweet potatoes on your plate and unlock their vast potential to enhance your overall health and well-being. Overall, the future of sweetpotatoes looks bright as research and innovation aim to improve their nutritional value, adapt them to changing climate conditions, develop new varieties and products, and promote sustainable production practices. These developments can contribute to food security, economic growth, and healthier diets. Future research should focus on nutritional composition, health benefits, sustainable farming practices, cultivar development, and industrial applications to ensure sustainable and efficient production. By prioritizing research in these areas, we can enhance the utilization of sweet potatoes in various fields and secure their future for the next century.

The study was conducted to evaluate the agronomic performance, forage yield, and nutritive values of Desho grass varieties under supplementary irrigation at Dambi Dollo University experimental site, Western Ethiopia. Three Desho grass varieties (Areka /DZF#590, Kindu kosha-1/DZF #591, and Kulumsa /DZF #592) were arranged in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The CROPWAT 8.0 model, local climate data, forage data, and soil data were used to determine Desho grass water requirements and irrigation schedules. The agronomic parameters, yield, chemical composition, and in vitro digestibility of the feed samples at standardization cut were determined following the standard procedures. The results showed significant differences (p

The overwhelming evidence supports the assertion that the climate is undergoing change. Understanding the perception of locals of the magnitude of climate change and its influence on non-timber forest products (NTFPs) challenge at a global scale. Although studies on climate change, value addition, and the multiple uses of NTFPs and their impact on local livelihoods have been conducted, locals' perceptions of these factors have not been fully explored. This study aims to assess various social factors, including education, gender, and religion, and their influence on locals' perceptions of the abovementioned factors. The research focused on five regions where NTFPs are prevalent in Ghana (Western North, Bono, Ahafo, Ashanti, and Eastern regions). To investigate the impact of social factors on local perceptions of climate change, value addition, and the multiple values of NTFPs within rural communities, a total of 732 interviews with a team of interviewers across these five regions in Ghana were carried out. We applied a logistic regression model to assess the social factors and their influencing locals’ perceptions of the mentioned variables. It was revealed that age, gender, education, and occupation did not significantly influence locals' perceptions of climate change. However, religion was found to influence locals' perceptions of climate change. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that gender (P<0.000328) and education (P<0.00426) strongly influenced locals' perceptions of value addition to NTFPs. In contrast, religion and constraints (related to time, finance, and skills) did not significantly influence locals' perceptions. Additionally, it was observed that gender (0.00132), education (0.00692), and religion (8.12e-05) significantly influenced how locals perceive and use NTFPs. In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the intricate interplay among local perceptions, climate change, value addition, multiple uses of NTFPs, and the capacity of NTFPs to enhance the well-being of forest fringe communities. These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive, tailor-made interventions that consider local perspectives and adhere to sustainable approaches, with the aim of optimising the positive impacts of NTFPs in poverty alleviation and overall community development.

The use of risk measures such as the Value at Risk (VaR) or Tail Conditional Expectation (TCE) is required by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in determining a bank’s risk profile. However, both measures can be shown to have shortcomings in the information that they provide to regulators and investors. In this paper we present an introduction to risk measure calculations before demonstrating the weaknesses of these measures. Through the exploration of specific cases we show how familiar yet differing risk profiles have identical values for combinations of these measures. From this evidence we recommend that a sequence of several risk measures should be used to give a more accurate representation of the risk contained on banking balance sheet.

The increasing rearrangement is a rewarding instrument in financial risk management. In practice, risk must be managed in different perspectives. A common example is portfolio risk which often can be seen from at least two perspectives: market value and book value. Different perspectives that is different distributions can be coupled by increasing rearrangement. One distribution is regarded as underlying, and the other distribution can be expressed as increasing rearrangement of the underlying distribution. Then, the risk measure for the latter can be expressed in terms of the underlying distribution. Our first objective is to introduce the increasing rearrangement for application in financial risk management and apply the increasing rearrangement to the class of distortion risk measures. We derive formulas to compute risk measures in terms of the underlying distribution. Afterwards, we apply our results to a series of special distortion risk measures, namely Value at Risk, Expected Shortfall, Range Value at Risk, Conditional Value at Risk, Wang's risk measure. Finally, we present the connection of increasing rearrangement to inverse transform sampling, Monte Carlo simulation, and cost-efficient strategies. Butterfly options serve as illustrative example for the method.

This paper is a slightly modified, abridged version of a previous work ``Parametric Gevrey asymptotics in two complex time variables through truncated Laplace transforms'' motivated by our contribution in the conference ``Formal and Analytic Solutions of Diff. (differential, partial differential, difference, q-difference, q-difference-differential) Equations on the Internet'' (FASnet20). It aims to clarify and give further detail at some crucial points concerning the asymptotic behavior of the solutions of the problems studied in that work.

This paper is a slightly modified, abridged version of a previous work "Parametric Gevrey asymptotics in two complex time variables through truncated Laplace transforms'' motivated by our contribution in the conference "Formal and Analytic Solutions of Diff. (differential, partial differential, difference, q-difference, q-difference-differential) Equations on the Internet'' (FASnet20). It aims to clarify and give further detail at some crucial points concerning the asymptotic behavior of the solutions of the problems studied in that work.

We prove an analog of the removable singularity theorem for bounded harmonic functions on stratified sets. The harmonic functions are understood in the sense of the soft Laplacian. The result can become one of the main technical components for extending the well-known Poincaré–Perron’s method of proving the solvability of the Dirichlet problem for the soft Laplacian.

We investigate and discuss in detail the structure of the restricted singular value decomposition for a tensor triplet under t-product (T-RSVD). The algorithm is provided with a numerical example illustrating the main result. For applications, we consider color image watermarking processing with T-RSVD.

Through a variety of unique ecosystem services, peatlands provide critical support to society and play a significant part in the global environmental system. Unfortunately, anthropogenic activities pose a hazard to these peatlands. This study estimated a total economic value (TEV) of peatland ecosystem services and examined relationships between the TEV and landscape characteristics in Riau province, Indonesia. A comprehensive economic valuation questionnaire, covering household socioeconomic conditions, ecological information and landscape characteristics, perception of peatland importance, peatland product collection data, and villagers' willingness to pay (WTP) for habitat and biodiversity protection, was administered to 200 household representatives (92% confidence) from five villages distributing across distinct landscapes. The survey took place from May to June 2023. The respondents derived numerous advantages from the peatlands, culminating in an average TEV of USD 3,174.31 per household per year. This value predominantly reflects a use value, accounting for 80.85% of the TEV. Notably, the use value emanates primarily from the provisioning of food through fishing, soil fertility, wild plants, and animals. However, to a lesser extent, there exists a marginal presence of a non-use value, encompassing the habitats provided to endemic or endangered species, the preservation of biodiversity for future generations, and the sanctity associated with forests deemed sacred. The observed variance in landscape characteristics appears to wield an influence on amounts of benefits derived from the peatlands. This phenomenon can be attributed to prevailing land use conditions and geographical distances.

Mining and processing tailings often contain significant amounts of valuable metals, that can represent valuable sources of secondary raw materials. Especially this is case in early-stage operations, in which the head grades were higher, and the tailings were higher grade. These tailings can also present a substantial risk to the environment. Serbia has copper deposits which have been exploited since ancient times, and these operations have generated large amounts of mineral processing tailings. The main objective of this study is to show how valuables can be recovered from chemically and mineralogically challenging tailings. After detailed chemical and mineralogical characterization, the laboratory scale flotation tests focused on evaluating the effect of particle size, different types of collectors, pH, and pulp potential. Based on the test work, copper and gold can be recovered effectively into pyrite concentrate

Significant problems have arisen in the last years, such as climate change, global warming, and hunger. These complications are correlated with the depletion and exploitation of natural resources and environmental contamination. Due to overcrowding, the list of challenges for the next few years is growing. A comprehensive approach was made to the agro-industrial production of Avocado (Persea americana) and the management of all its biomass waste. So, bioprocesses and biorefinery can be used to produce high added-value products. A large number of residues are composed of lignin and cellulose. They have many potentials to be exploited sustainably for chemical and biological conversion; physical, chemical, and natural treatments improve the following operations. There are some applications to many fields such as pharmaceutical, medical, material engineering, and environmental remediation. Possible pathways are mentioned to take advantage of Avocado as biofuels, drugs, bioplastics, and even in the environmental part and emerging technologies such as nanotechnology using bioprocesses and biotech. In conclusion, Avocado and its waste could be transformed into high value-added products in industries above to mitigate global warming and save non-renewable energy.

With the Paris Agreement, countries are obliged to report greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduc-tions, which will ensure that the global temperature increase is maintained well below 2C. The Parties will report their Nationally Determined Contributions in terms of plans and progress to-wards these targets during the postponed COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. These commit-ments however do not take significant portions of the consumption related emissions related to countries imports in to account. Similarly, the majority of companies that report their emissions to CDP also do not account for their embodied value-chain related emissions. Municipalities, on the path towards carbon neutrality in accordance with the methods outlined by C40, also do not in-clude imported and embodied CO2e in their total emission tallies. So, who is responsible for these emissions - the producer or the consumer? How can we ensure that the NDC's, municipalities and companies reduction targets share the responsibility of the emissions in the value-chain thus en-suring that targets and plans become, sustainable, climate fair, and just in global value chains? Today the responsibility lays with the producer, which is not sustainable. We have the outline for the tools needed to quantify and transparently share the responsibility between producers and consumers at corporate, municipal and national level based on an improved understanding of the attendant sources, causes, flows and risks og GHG emissions globally. Hybrid LCA/EEIO models can for example be further developed. This will, in the end, enable everyday consumption to support a more sustainable, green and low carbon transition of our economy.

This review article aims at improving understanding of the theoretical discussion on technonationalism. Reviewing conventional works of the literature proposes protectionist, innovationist, and strategic industrial approaches toward high-tech industries. The findings show that technonationalism is a concept linking technology and national security, seeking geoeconomic interests in the integrated global market to exert state power for economic statecraft. The nature of industry highly relies on the global value chain, and technological innovation in the high-tech sectors occurs mainly in the private sector; thus, this article points out the issue of embracing business interests into the state’s strategic addenda as a critical criterion of technonationalism. Also, technonationalism is a narrowly defined concept with state actors involved in national security affairs and high-tech business actors.

Deep learning has been applied in many areas that have had a significant impact on applications that improves real-life challenges. The success of deep learning in a wide range of areas is due in part to the use of activation functions, which are particularly effective at solving non-linear problems. Activation functions are a key focus for researchers in artificial intelligence who aim to improve the performance of neural networks. This article provides a comprehensive explanation and comparison of different activation functions, with a focus on the arc tangent and its variations specifically. The paper presents experimental results that show that variations of the arc tangent using irrational numbers such as pi, the golden ratio, and Euler’s number, as well as a self-arctan function, produce promising results. Since we experimented with promising activation functions on two different problems, and datasets, we reached a result that different irrationals work well for different problems. In other words, arctan ϕ gives the best results mostly for multiclass classification and arctan e gives the best results for time series prediction problems. The paper focuses on a multi-class classification problem applied to the Reuters Newswire dataset and a time-series prediction problem on Türkiye energy trade value to show the impacts of activation functions.

In relation to organizational performance measurement, there is a growing concern about the creation of value for people, society and the environment. The traditional corporate reporting does not adequately satisfy the information needs of stakeholders for assessing an organization’s past and future potential performance. Practitioners and scholars have developed new non-financial reporting frameworks from a social and environmental perspective, giving birth to the field of Integrated Reporting (IR). The Economy for the Common Good (ECG) model and its tools to facilitate sustainability management and reporting can provide a framework to do it. The present study is the first one that empirically validates such metrics on a sample of 206 European firms. Consequently, it allows knowledge to advance as it checks their statistical validity and reliability.

This case study examined performance of rural cassava SMEs managed by small scale farmers in Busia and Kisumu Counties in the lake region of Kenya. Formal survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used to collect data from farmers and stakeholders in the region. The data were analysed descriptively using proportions (percentages and proportions), means and standard deviation and inferentially, using statistical tests of significance. The findings revealed gross inefficiencies in the management of cassava SMEs. Grass-root SMEs lack professional managers and exhibit inadequate organizational, quantity and quality management, high operational costs, lack of trust from farmers, inadequate financing, weak technical, agribusiness skills and weak linkages with markets. The findings challenge promotion of farmer-led organizations in rural areas to perform additional roles such as processing and marketing functions beyond their core business which is production. To remain relevant in a competitive value chain, grass-root farmer-led SMEs need to be re structured into viable economic entities with clear market-orientation. Ordinary smallholder farmers should specialize in producing sufficient quantity and quality of agricultural commodities, while processing and marketing functions are taken up by professional entrepreneurs. This study recommends an entrepreneur model rather than farmer-led SMEs as potentially best suited in creating efficiency in the cassava value chain in the lake region of Kenya.

Environmental concern has attained a higher level than in the past, with numerous organisations, including the pioneering "Green Banking" institution, expressing their concern. This study examines the relationship between green brand innovativeness and perceived value, as well as its effect on green brand loyalty. It expands on previous research that investigated the differences between innovation and innovativeness and their effects on brand loyalty. In addition, the role of perceived green value as a mediator and consumer green knowledge as a moderator in the formation of green brand loyalty is investigated. To test the conceptual model, a convenience-sampling survey of 600 Ethiopian customers was administered to capture a sample of respondents for the conceptual model. For data analysis, structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed. The results indicate that consumers' perceptions of green value have indirect effects on brand loyalty and direct effects on the innovativeness of green brands. In addition, green knowledge mediates the relationship between green brand innovation and green value perception in a significant way. Therefore, organisations should concentrate on enhancing consumers' environmental literacy and nurturing positive attitudes towards green brands in order to increase green brand loyalty.

We provide methodology and numerical results for the Hattendorff differential equa- tion for the continuous time evolution of the variance of L(j)t , the loss at time t random variable for a multi-state process, given that the state at time t is j.

Recently the use of food by products as natural sources of biologically active substances has been extensively investigated especially for the development of functional foods fortified with natural antioxidants. Due to their content of bioactive compounds, such as carotenoids, flavonoids and limonoids, Citrus peels could be suitable to formulate enriched olive oils able to boost a healthy nutrition. The aim of this study was: (i) to determine the compositional and sensory profiles of the Citrus olive oil and (ii) to evaluate its nutraceutical properties in rats with high fat diet-induced-metabolic syndrome and oxidative stress. The results obtained show the potential of using the Citrus peels as a source of bioactive compounds to improve the sensory profile as well as the phytochemical composition of olive oil. We demonstrated that the production system of C. aurantium olive oil and C. limon olive oil improves their organoleptic properties without altering their beneficial effects, which, like control extra virgin olive oil, showed protective effects on glucose and serum lipid levels, metabolic activity of adipocytes, myocardial tissue functionality, oxidative stress markers and endothelial function at blood vessel level.

In this paper, we will extend the expected value of the function w.r.t the uniform probability measure on sets measurable in the Caratheodory sense to be finite for a larger class of functions, since the set of all measurable functions with infinite or undefined expected values forms a prevalent subset of the set of all measurable functions, which means "almost all" measurable functions have infinite or undefined expected values. Before we define the specific problem in section 2, we will outline some preliminary definitions. We'll then define the specific problem (along with a partial solution in section 3) to visualize the complete solution. Along the way, we will ask a series of questions to clarify our understanding of the paper.

A complete MAPLE procedure is designed to implement effectively an algorithm for approximating the trigonometric functions. The algorithm gives a piecewise polynomial approximation on an arbitrary interval, presenting a special partition that we can get its parts, subintervals with ending points of finite rational numbers, together with corresponding approximate polynomials. The procedure takes a sequence of pairs of interval-polynomial as its output that we can easily explore in some useful ways. Examples on calculating approximate values of the sine function with arbitrary accuracy for both of rational and irrational arguments as well as drawing the graph of the piecewise approximate functions will be presented. Moreover, from the approximate integration of integrands of the form $x^m\sin x$ on $[a,b]$, another MAPLE procedure is proposed to find the desired polynomial estimates in norm for the best $L^2$-approximation of the sine function in the vector space $\mathcal{P}_{\ell}$ of polynomials of degree at most $\ell$, a subspace of $L^2(a,b)$.

Background: Cervical cancer prevention in regions with limited access to screening and HPV vaccination necessitates innovative approaches. This study explored the potential of a test-and-treat strategy using mRNA HPV tests to impact cervical cancer prevention in a high-prevalence HIV population. Methods: A cervical screening study was conducted at three South African hospitals involving 710 under-screened, non-pregnant women (25 to 65 years) without known cervical diseases. Cytology, HPV testing, colposcopy, and biopsies were performed concurrently. Histopathologists determined final histological diagnoses based on biopsy and LLETZ histology. mRNA-HPV-genotyping for 3 (16, 18, 45) to 8 (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45, 52, 58) high-risk types was performed on leftover liquid-based cytology material. The preventive potential of the test-and-treat approach was estimated based on published data, reporting the causative HPV types in cervical cancer tissue from South African women. Treatment was provided as needed. Results: HPV positivity rate more than doubled from 3-type (15.2%; 95% CI: 12.6-17.8) to 8-type mRNA (31.5%; 95% CI: 28.8-34.9) combinations, significantly higher among HIV-positive women. CIN3+ prevalence among HIV-positive women (26.4%) was double that of HIV-negative women (12.9%) (p&lt;0.01). The 6-type combination showed the best balance of sensitivity, specificity and treatment group size, and effectiveness to prevent cervical cancer. A 4-type combination (16, 18, 35, 45) could potentially prevent 77.6% (95% CI: 71.2-84.0) of cervical cancer burden by treating 20% and detecting 41.1% of CIN3 cases in the study group. Similarly, a 6-type combination (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45), treating 25% and including 62% of CIN3 cases, might prevent 85% of cervical cancer cases (95% CI: 79.6-90.6) among HIV-positive and negative women. Conclusion: Employing mRNA HPV tests within a test-and-treat approach holds huge promise for targeted cervical cancer prevention in under-screened populations. Testing for mRNA of the 6 highest-risk HPV types in this population and treating them all is projected to effectively prevent progression from CIN3 to invasive cervical cancer while reducing overtreatment in resource-constrained settings.

The introduction of digitization has changed all spheres of business on a global level, including geospatial data. In the Republic of Serbia, the process on this topic should begin with the introduction of the terms ePlan and eSpace. The general goal of the paper implies the construction and implementation of the ePlan as a future part of the eSpace for digital management of geospatial data, by creating co-creating value. For this purpose, the authors conducted research in which representatives of local self-governments and holders of public authority participated, by means of structured online research. The focus was on the digitization of urban and planning documents and the establishment a central database of spatial and planning documents in electronic format, and its further distribution through the one system. In that way, easy access to digital plan data expands the user community, and enables communication with different stakeholder groups. Ac-cording to the results of the research, the authors point out that it is necessary to form a new model for managing geospatial data through a eSpace system. This is achieved by shifting the focus from urban and spatial planning to other databases and their registers that are related to geospatial data. The goal of the paper indicates that it is necessary to raise the awareness of society, to introduce the concept of value co-creation, because conditions are created for the implementation of all measures aimed at digitization and management of electronic services in sustainable project society, at all countries.

This study investigates the integration of natural intelligence (NI) and artificial intelligence (AI) within traditional firms, proposing a multilayer network framework to enhance economic value. The research explores the central question: How can the integration of NI and AI, facilitated by copula nodes, drive economic value creation in digitized firms? Through empirical testing across multiple industries—namely manufacturing, retail, and finance—the study evaluates the cost-benefit improvements associated with AI adoption. The findings reveal substantial efficiency gains, improved decision-making, and notable cost reductions, validating the proposed model's predictions. The study emphasizes the critical role of copula nodes in optimizing interactions between NI and AI, ensuring that their integration yields maximum economic benefits. By providing a novel framework for quantifying AI's economic impact within digitized firms, this research fills a significant gap in the literature on multilayer networks and intelligent systems. The practical implications are profound, offering a strategic pathway for firms to enhance profitability and competitiveness in the digital age.

Public participation is significant for the success of any urban planning project. However, most members of the general public are not planning professionals and may not understand the technical details of a 2D paper-based plan, which might hamper their participation. One way to expand the participation of citizens is to present plans in well-designed, user-friendly and interactive platforms that allow participation regardless of the technical skills of the participants. This paper investigates the impacts of the combined use of 3D visualization and E-participation on public participation in Kisumu, Kenya. A 3D City model, created with CityEngine2016, was exported into a web-based geo-portal and used as a Planning Support System in two stakeholder workshops in order to evaluate its usability. For e-participation, 300 questionnaires given out to planning practitioners. Five indicators were developed for evaluating the usability of the 3D model while the usability of e-participation was evaluated using communication, collaboration and learning as indicators. Results showed that effectiveness and efficiency varies within different professional groups while the questionnaires showed strong preference for e-participation methods, especially SMSs/USSDs and emails. The study concludes that the use of 3D visualization and E-participation has the potential for improving the quality and quantity of public participation and recommends further research on the subject.

I examine national environmental security policy cultures to assess the opportunities for increasing global environmental security. The question is whether the difficulties in modeling the state's ecological security are a consequence of limitations in the coherence of the four dogmas: ecological security, sustainable development, social responsibility and environmental management. The presented fragments of theoretical research explain the question by presenting the logic of the constructive value of the national culture of ecological safety policy. I conducted empirical research based on 18 development strategies of regional cities in Poland. The multi-criteria method made it possible to identify and describe a micro-community reflecting the macroscopic observation of regional cities as an emerging whole of the state’s development. Assumption: ownership of the environmental aspects of cities is a natural quantity influencing the ecological security of the state in the contemporary global civilization system. I have formulated new definitions: ecological security of the state, culture of ecological security policy, sustainable development and socially responsible and sustainable development of the city. I have developed 13 catalogues of elements of the structure of the development strategy of regional cities in Poland, containing 1 390 public services. I have shown when there is a lack of culture of the state's ecological security policy in the global ecological security system according to the cause-effect principle. I have been conducting research since 2019.

The time evolution of the continuous measure symmetry for the system built of the three bodies interacting via the potential U(r)~1/r is reported. Gravitational and electrostatic interactions between the point bodies were addressed. In the case of the pure gravitational interaction the three-body-system deviated from its initial symmetrical location, described by the Lagrange equilateral triangle, comes to collapse, accompanied by the growth of the continuous measure of symmetry. When three point bodies interact via the Coulomb repulsive interaction, the time evolution of CMS is quite different. CMS calculated for all of studied initial configurations of the point charges and all of their charge-to-mass ratios always comes to its asymptotic value with time, evidencing the stabilization of the shape of the triangle, constituted by the interacting bodies.

In the face of the upcoming 30th anniversary of econophysics, we review our contributions and other related works on the modeling of the long–range memory phenomenon in physical, economic, and other social complex systems. Our group has shown that the long–range memory phenomenon can be reproduced using various Markov processes, such as point processes, stochastic differential equations and agent–based models. Reproduced well enough to match other statistical properties of the financial markets, such as return and trading activity distributions and first–passage time distributions. Research has lead us to question whether the observed long–range memory is a result of actual long–range memory process or just a consequence of non–linearity of Markov processes. As our most recent result we discuss the long–range memory of the order flow data in the financial markets and other social systems from the perspective of the fractional Lèvy stable motion. We test widely used long-range memory estimators on discrete fractional Lèvy stable motion represented by the ARFIMA sample series. Our newly obtained results seem indicate that new estimators of self–similarity and long–range memory for analyzing systems with non–Gaussian distributions have to be developed.

Biofuels have many environmental and practical benefits as a transportation fuel. They are among the best alternatives to fossil fuels due to their capacity for negative carbon emissions, which is vital for archiving the global ambition of a Net-Zero Economy. However, conventional biofuel production takes place on inland sites and relies on freshwater and edible crops (or land suitable for edible crop production), which has led to the food vs fuel debate. It also suffers technical and economical barriers due to the energy balance and the cost of production compared to fossil fuels. Establishing a coastal integrated marine biorefinery (CIMB) system for the simultaneous production of biofuels, high-value chemicals, and other co-products could be the ultimate solution. The proposed system is based on coastal sites and relies on marine resources including seawater, marine biomass (seaweed) and marine microorganisms (marine yeasts and marine microalgae). The system will not require the use of arable land and freshwater in any part of the production chain and will be linked to offshore renewable energy sources to increase its economic and environmental value. This article aims to introduce the CIMB system as a potential vehicle for addressing global warming and speeding the global effort on climate change mitigation as well as increasing global water, food and energy security. I hope this perspective may serve to draw attention into research funding for this approach.

Urban areas face daunting economic challenges that have increased in scope in recent years. At the same time, cities provide for opportunities for growth and value creation. The interplay of these challenges and opportunities represents the area of intervention for policymakers and researchers. However, the traditional approach to urban policy, deriving from the managerial and economic policy theories, shows difficulties mainly related to the capacity to counterbalance the interests and expectations of a multitude of stakeholders participating to the value co-creation process and to bring all different components to synergically contribute to the sustainability of the system. The Author proposes an innovative approach to urban public policy, by adopting the theoretical corpus of the Viable Systems Approach ("VSA"). Urban planning will be particularly analysed, as systemic components of urban areas, with the aim to investigate the decision-making processes for an integrated, efficient, effective and sustainable management of the territory as a multidimensional, multisectoral and multi-stakeholder entity. By recovering different settings, the VSA intends the co-creation of value as the capacity of the viable systems to increase its surviving chances in its own context. The value derives, first of all, from the strategic decisions aimed at finding both dyadic and context consonance. Through its strategic decisions, the Governing Body of the territory develops a specific system as the overall synthesis of all possible systems organised within a specific area, identifying pattern of development agreed by the several stakeholders of the territory. In the dynamics of value co-creation in systemic multi-subjective organizations, where the level of complexity is particularly significant, the research for consonance among different stakeholders is particular important in order to achieve the most value for the territory. In this respect, the VSA may constitute a valid tool, helping to find the necessary capacities to imagine evolutionary paths towards new competencies.

In the European Union (EU), cannabidiol products require pre-marketing authorisation under the novel food regulation. Currently, 19 CBD applications are under assessment at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). During the initial assessment of the application files, the EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA) located several knowledge gaps in their 07 June 2022 statement on safety of cannabidiol as a novel food that need to be addressed before the evaluation of CBD can be concluded. Namely, the effect of CBD on the liver, gastrointestinal tract, endocrine system, nervous system, psychological function, and reproductive system needs to be clarified. Nevertheless, the available literature allows a benchmark dose (BMD)-response modelling of several bioassays, resulting in a BMD lower confidence limit (BMDL) of 20 mg/kg bw/day for liver toxicity in rats. Human data in healthy volunteers found increases in the liver enzymes alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in a study at 4.3 mg/kg bw/day, which was defined by EFSA NDA panel as a lowest observed adverse effect level (LOAEL). The EFSA NDA panel currently concluded that the safety of CBD as a novel food cannot be evaluated, leading to a so-called clock stop of the applications until the applicants provide the required data. Meanwhile, the authors suggest that CBD products still available as food supplements on the EU market despite the lack of authorisation must be considered as “unsafe”. Products exceeding a health-based guidance value of 10 mg/day must be considered as being “unfit for consumption” (Article 14(1) and (2) (b) of Regulation No 178/2002), while the ones in exceedance of the human LOAEL must be considered “injurious to health” (Article 14(1) and (2) (a) of Regulation No 178/2002).

Data from environmental satellites are underutilized in many branches of operational oceanography. Several challenges exist for potential users of satellite data that may impede or preclude employing satellite products in their work. Users outside of the satellite community often encounter difficulty in discovering the types of satellite measurements that are available, and determining which satellite products are best for operational activities. In addition, the large choice of satellite data providers, each with their own data access protocols and formats, can make data access confusing and inefficient. NOAA’s CoastWatch Program is designed to be a Value Added Provider, whose mission is to help make satellite data easier for users to access. With this objective the West Coast Node of CoastWatch developed the NOAA Ocean Satellite Course, which introduces scientists and resource managers to ocean satellite products, and provides them tools to facilitate data access when using ArcGIS or R software. These tools leverage upon the data services provided by ERDDAP, a data distribution system designed to make data access easier for both humans and machines. The course has been offered annually since 2006, and over 350 participants have taken it. Results of post-course surveys are analyzed to measure course effectiveness. Lessons learned from conducting these courses are summarized.

Introduction: The escalating morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs associated with invasive candidiasis pose significant challenges in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). Conventional diagnostic methods fall short in effectiveness, while various risk factors exacerbate the prevalence of these infections. This study introduces a novel model that amalgamates the Candida Score with key predictors to enhance the specificity and applicability of mortality risk assessments for pediatric patients with fungemia. Methods: This retrospective cohort study aimed to develop an integrated model for estimating mortality risk in children with fungemia in PICUs. We constructed and evaluated multiple predictive models using the Candida Score and other relevant clinical and laboratory variables. The discriminative abilities of the models were assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results: The study cohort comprised 85 pediatric patients admitted between 2016 and 2020, with a median age of 6 months and a male predominance of 62.4%. The mortality rate was 45.9%. Candida albicans was the most prevalent causative agent, accounting for 37.55% of fungemia cases. Multivariable Logistic regression revealed the duration of mechanical ventilation, and the Candida Score were significant predictors of mortality. Each additional day of ventilation increased mortality odds by 11.5% (OR = 1.115, 95% CI: 1.025-1.212, p = 0.011), while a higher Candida Score more than doubled the odds (OR = 2.205, 95% CI: 1.359-3.578, p = 0.001).The Random Forest predictive model demonstrated superior discriminative performance, with an AUC of 0.838 (95% CI: 0.738-0.917), outperforming Gradient Boosting and Logistic Regression models, which had AUCs of 0.7759 (95% CI: 0.667-0.877) and 0.7085 (95% CI: 0.589-0.813), respectively. Although the internal validation yielded satisfactory results, external validation is warranted. Conclusion: This study presents an innovative approach for accurately assessing the risk of mortality due to fungemia in PICU patients by integrating the Candida Score with critical predictors. The Random Forest model emerged as the most effective predictive tool due to its exceptional discriminative ability.

This study aims to analyze various types of pellet fuels used as energy sources in Bulgaria, focusing on their energy characteristics and the consumer preferences. Both standard and specialized methods such as thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are used for the analyses. The results from TG and DSC indicate that during the drying of the samples, moisture is evaporated from their surface, along with the release of volatile substances. The processes during the analysis are accompanied by energy absorption, with the main stage being combustion, where the primary amount of heat is generated. Standard analysis methods show that wood pellets usually contain about 7.31% moisture, 0.72% ash and have a calorific value of 18.33 kJ/kg, while sunflower pellets contain about 7.62% moisture, 2.42% ash and have a calorific value of 19.63 kJ/kg. Mixed pellets contain about 7.07% moisture, up to 0.69% ash and have a calorific value of 18.05 kJ/kg. A specialized marketing research was conducted to investigate consumer attitudes and preferences toward purchasing different types of solid biomass fuels on Bulgarian market. This study provides information on the quality of pellets as fuel by offering a detailed analysis of their fuel properties and ensuring their effective utilization as an energy source.

We introduce a class of logarithmic wave equation. We study the global existence of week solution for this class of equation. We deal with the initial boundary value problem of this class. Using the Galerkin method and the Gross logarithmic Sobolev inequality we establish the main theorem of existence of week solution for this class of equation arising from Q-Ball Dynamic in particular.

The main aim of this paper is to analyse the performance of different intelligent compaction measurement values (ICMVs) and compare them with spot test measurements for asphalt pavement. To accomplish this, a two-layer asphalt testbed was constructed using an instrumented double-drum roller. All ICMVs [compaction meter value ( ), compaction control value ( ), roller-integrated stiffness ( ), and vibratory modulus ( )] were calculated using the same accelerometer data collected during the construction of the asphalt testbed. A novel method using the cross-correlation technique was developed to estimate the phase lag between the excitation force of the roller drum and the ground reaction, which is required for and calculations. The analysis of ICMV data showed a strong correlation between and , while and demonstrated a strong correlation only when double jump of the roller drum did not occur. Further, none of the ICMVs recorded during the last roller pass of asphalt compaction showed an acceptable correlation with asphalt densities [measured using a non-nuclear density gauge (NNDG)], mainly due to the influences of the underlying support and asphalt temperature on ICMVs. A correction method to decouple the influence of underlying support on was developed and validated using existing data from the literature. The applicability of this method for different field scenarios was demonstrated using numerical modelling.

We use Fourier analysis to access risk in financial products. With it we analyze price changes of e.g. stocks. Via Fourier analysis we scrutinize quantitatively whether the frequency of change is higher than a change in (conserved) company value would allow. If it is the case, it would be a clear indicator of speculation and with it risk. The entire methods or better its application is fairly new. However, there were severe flaws in previous attempts; making the results (not the method) doubtful. We corrected all these mistakes by e.g. using Fourier transformation instead of discrete Fourier analysis. Our analysis is reliable in the entire frequency band, even for frequency of 1/1d or higher if the prices are noted accordingly. For the stocks scrutinized we found that the price of stocks changes disproportionally within one week which clearly indicates speculation. It would be an interesting extension to apply the method to crypto currencies as these currencies have no conserved value which makes normal considerations of volatility difficult.

Billions of euros are invested every year by professional football clubs for the recruitment of players. This article presents the latest advances in the statistical modelling of the factors that market actors take into consideration to determine the transfer prices of professional football players. It extends to a global scale the econometric approach previously developed by the authors to evaluate the transfer prices of players under contract with clubs from the five major European leagues. The statistical technique used to build the model is multiple linear regression (MLR), with fees paid by clubs as an independent variable. The sample comprises over 8000 transactions of players transferred for money from clubs worldwide during the period stretching from July 2014 to March 2024. This paper shows that a statistical model can explain almost 85% of the differences in the transfer fees paid for players. Despite the specific cases and other possible distortions mentioned in the discussion, the use of a statistical model to determine player transfer prices seems highly relevant.

The intersection of pedagogy and business models offers a compelling framework for enhancing educational outcomes through strategic innovation and operational efficiency. This is the first study that explores integrating value-based business models into pedagogy, proposing four models: Value Positioning (critical thinking, AI-oriented), Value Delivery (actionable thinking, inquiry-oriented), Value Capture (analytical thinking, sustainability-oriented), and Value Propo-sition (creative thinking, project-oriented). These models aim to foster student engagement, op-timize resource allocation, and drive institutional growth, aligning educational objectives with market demands to prepare learners for future workforce challenges. For instance, Business An-alytics courses, under the Value Delivery category, emphasize actionable thinking. It secures low to middle-level jobs but lacking global decision-making power in value positioning for Finland and the UK. Integrating principles of customer-centric design, continuous improvement, and competitive differentiation, educational leaders can create responsive and impactful learning environments. Value-based business models enhance educational practices by providing a structured and quantifiable approach to improving teaching and learning outcomes. A symbiotic relationship between pedagogical theories and business strategies can lead to innovative educa-tional practices, improved student graduation outcomes, and sustainable success for institutions and countries. This alignment ensures educational programs remain relevant to current market needs and adaptable to future challenges and opportunities.

Linear Hashing is an important algorithm for many key-value stores. Spiral Storage was invented to overcome the poor fringe behavior of Linear Hashing, but after an influential study by Larson, seems to have been discarded. Since almost 50 years have passed, we repeat Larson’s comparison with in-memory implementation of both to see whether his verdict still stands. Our study shows that Spiral Storage has slightly better look-up performance, but slightly poorer insert performance.

Uncertain fractional differential equation (UFDE) is an excellent tool for describing complicated dynamic systems. This paper analyzes the valuation problems of currency option based on UFDE under optimistic value criterion. Firstly, an uncertain fractional currency model is formulated to describe the dynamics of foreign exchange rate. Then, the pricing formulae of European, American and Asian currency option are obtained under optimistic value criterion, respectively. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the validity of our theoretical results.

Monge-Ampere equations have important research significance in many fields such as geometry, convex geometry and mathematical physics. In this paper, under some superlinear and sublinear conditions, the existence of nontrivial solutions for a system arising from Monge-Ampere equations with two parameters is investigated based on Guo-Krasnosel'skii fixed point theorem. In the end, two examples are given to illustrate our main results.

As one of the important wastes, waste PET pollutes human living and natural environment seriously. PET is an important solid waste that needs to be recycled at present. The complete degradation of PET was realized at low temperature. The lipophilic hydrophobic membrane was formed on the surface of stainless steel mesh (SSM) by a simple dip coating method, and the oil-water separation material was successfully prepared. Due to the load of degradation products, the surface roughness of SSM increased from 19.09 μm increased to 62.33 μm. The surface changed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, and the water contact angle increased to 123o. The oil-water separation flux of modified SSM is 9825 L/(m2·h) and the separation efficiency is 98.99%. The modified SSM has good reuse performance. This hydrophobic modification method can also be used to modify other porous substrates, such as activated carbon, filter paper, foam, and other materials. In this study, the porous substrate modified by the degradation product of waste PET was used to prepare oil-water separation materials, which not only solved the problem of white pollution, but also reduced the dependence on non renewable resources in the conventional preparation methods of oil-water separation materials. The research provided new raw materials and methods for the industrial production of oil-water separation materials, and had important application prospects.

This study examines how the design of museum archaeological boxes and the overall museum image affect behavioral intention. This research used partial least squares-structural equation modeling, indicating a relationship between aesthetics, symbolism, affective museum image, perceived value, and behavioral intention. This study found that symbolism predicted behavioral intention. Moreover, aesthetics, symbolism, and affective museum image affected perceived value, in turn triggering behavioral intention. This indicates theoretical and practical implications for museum products.

The Computational theoretical techniques using first principle which make use of the density functional theory as implemented by quantum expresso as well as inter – atomic force constant (IFC) techniques (Born-von Jarman) were used to investigate the phonon dispersion curves of Silver (Ag) and Gold (Au) The results obtained show that for Au, the extension to 1 – 6^th neighbour gave slightly close agreement with the experimental phonon dispersions when compared to the 1 – 5^th neighbor at W_T and L_L symmetry points. The percentage error for Au at W_T are 2.5% and 2.9% ; at point L_L we obtained 0.6% and 0.7% respectively. The Local density Approximation (LDA) results for Ag underestimates the lattice with about 1.6% while the Generalized Gradient Approximation (GGA) overestimates it by 1.9%.

(1) Background: The intermediate-depth seismicity in the Vrancea region (Romania) is characterized by localized and persistent earthquake activity that culminates about two or three times in a century with the occurrence of a large event (M 6.5). Here we have revisited some important seismicity characteristics, using earthquake catalog data spanning two different time periods: 2005 – 2013 and 1960 – 2000. (2) Methods: we have determined the b-value of the frequency-magnitude distribution of earthquakes, using a maximum likelihood procedure, and estimated the parameter to quantify anomalous seismicity rate decreases and increases. (3) Results: by using data from the first period, we have confirmed the existence of a decreased b-value in the deepest part of the seismogenic zone; by using data from the second period, we have statistically confirmed the seismic quiescence that preceded the occurrence of the 1977 M7.4 Vrancea earthquake. (4) Conclusions: the decreased b-value has been interpreted either in terms of an increased lithostatic stress with depth or as an indicator of the depth range where the next major Vrancea earthquake may occur. The time variation of the seismicity parameter may reveal anomalous seismic quiescence and increased earthquake rates that may precede the occurrence of large earthquakes.

In perennial fruit crops, bearing can be influenced by various factors, including environmental conditions, germplasm, rootstocks, and cultivation methods. Cherries, one of the most important and popular fruit species from the temperate climate zone, achieve high prices on the market. New agricultural technologies and environmental factors force a change in the approach to cherry cultivation. Old-type cherry orchards with their high demand for water, nutrients and manual work are replaced by orchards of self-pollinating cherry cultivars grown on dwarf rootstocks. These changes make it necessary to search for ways to regulate fruiting, in particular to thin buds, flower and fruit. In view of environmental regulations and consumer pressure, thinning methods are being sought that either do not involve the use of chemicals or that use eco-friendly chemical agents. This review examines recent progress in understanding the effect of thinning methods on the physiology, tree growth and fruit quality of cherries, discusses horticultural practices aimed to ensure regular cropping and their influence on fruit quality, and provides suggestions for future research.

Twenty-first century infrastructure needs to respond to changing demographics, becoming climate neutral, resilient, and economically affordable, while remaining a driver for development and shared prosperity. However, the infrastructure sector remains one of the least innovative and digitalized, plagued by delays, cost overruns, and benefit shortfalls [1-4]. The root cause is the prevailing fragmentation of the infrastructure value chain [5]. To support overcoming the shortcomings, an integration of the value chain is needed. This could be achieved through a use-cased-based creation of federated digital platforms applied to infrastructure projects. Such digital platforms enable full-lifecycle participation and responsible governance guided by a shared infrastructure vision.

The concept of this prototype is to create a cold air film layer, in indoor side of the window. The function of this extra cold air layer is to increase the amount of window resistance and decrease its U-Value. It provide air film layer by using the same concept of desert cooler or wind catcher. They both bring the hot air from outside then let it go throw straw miost with cold water. After hot air move through straw, it would become cold, thus increase the window resistance and decrease the haet gian, therefore, decrease the cooling load. So, this window model works by heating the air in air room by sun radiation, then after a while, air pressure will rise and its volume will increase then it will impulse to wet hay, and become cold. Then there is fins to guide air flow to its correct direction, thus inner side of window will become cold, not like other type of window which when temperature rise, the inner side of window become hot. So, this window prevents heat transition and creare regenereted trubouland air flim in the inner side of the window. Using calculation to find air film characteristics and WINDOW7.7 software to calculate heat gain through window, shows that it is expected from this prototype to reduce heat gain by 6.85 % for double glazed clear window.

The Planning and implementation of construction projects are difficult processes and are burdened with many risk elements. The budget spread over time, which is developed on the basis of the schedule, presents the expected distribution of costs throughout the duration of the works, which during the implementation of the project is subject to constant changes resulting from time, cost and organizational factors. Managing construction contracts requires managers to be able to analyze on an ongoing basis the variances of production costs - from the values calculated in the offer cost estimate and assumed in the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled. The article attempts to analyze the emerging time and cost deviations using proprietary T/S and T/C monitoring, based on simple indicators of the EVM method. An example of construction of a multi-family housing development was used to study the variances of planned and incurred costs.

Planning and implementation of construction projects are difficult processes and are burdened with many risk elements. The budget spread over time, which is developed on the basis of the schedule, presents the expected distribution of costs throughout the duration of the works, which during the implementation of the project is subject to constant changes resulting from time, cost and organizational factors. Managing construction contracts requires managers to be able to analyze on an ongoing basis the variances of production costs - from the values calculated in the offer cost estimate and assumed in the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled. The article attempts to analyze the emerging time and cost variances using proprietary C-S and S-C monitoring, based on simple indicators of the EVM method. An example of construction of a multi-family housing development was used to study the variances of planned and incurred costs.

The annual budget for the United States National Park Service was roughly three billion dollars in 2016. This is distributed amongst 405 National Parks, 23 national scenic and historic trails, and 60 wild and scenic rivers. Entrance fees and concessions generate millions of dollars in income for the National Park Service; however, this metric fails to account for the total value of the National Parks. In failing to consider the value of the ecosystem services provided by the National Parks we fail to quantify and appreciate the contributions our parks make to society. This oversight allows us to continue to underfund a valuable part of our natural capital and consequently damage our supporting environment, national heritage, monetary economy, and many of our diverse cultures. We explore a simple benefits transfer valuation of the United States national parks using National Land Cover Data from 2011 and ecosystem service values determined by Costanza (et al). This produces an estimate suggesting the parks provide $84 billion / year in ecosystem service value. If the natural infrastructure 'asset' that is our national park system had a budget comparable to a piece of commercial real estate of this value, the annual budget of the National Park Service would be roughly an order of magnitude larger at something closer to $30 billion rather than $3 billion.

Agricultural land conversion (ALC) is an incentive–driven process. In this paper we further investigate the inter–relationship between land economic value (LEV) and ALC. To achieve this goal, we calculated LEV for agricultural and non-agricultural (housing) uses in two areas in East Java, Indonesia. The first area represents suburban agriculture, facing rapid urbanization and experiencing high rate of ALC. The second area represents rural agriculture with zero ALC. Furthermore, we identified factors affecting LEV in both areas for both uses. The resut of this study show that agricultural land yielded higher economic benefit in rural area. Conversely, comparing to agricultural land, housing creates 7 times higher value in urban area. Moreover, agricultural land shown to create higher profit after converted. Ironically, the similar comparison doesn’t exists in rural area. Agricultural land only yielded 19% more value, indicate that agricultural land can be easily converted. It is also proven by the growing number of new urban core in the periphery area. There are several factors affecting land economic value, for agricultural use, soil fertility, accessibility, and cropping pattern are important variables. While accessibility and location in urban area increases land value for housing.

Little in the scholarly economics literature is directed specifically to the performance of sta­ble value funds, although they occupy a leading place among retirement investment vehicles. They are currently offered in more than one-third of all defined contribution plans in the USA, with more than $800 billion of assets under management. This paper rigorously ex­amines their performance throughout the entire period since their inception in 1973. We produce a composite index of stable value returns. We next conduct mean-variance analysis, Sharpe and Sortino ratio analysis, stochastic dominance analysis, and optimal multi-period portfolio composition analysis. Our evidence suggests that stable value funds dominate (on average) two major asset classes based on a historical analysis, and that they often occupy a significant position in optimized portfolios across a broad range of risk aversion levels. We discuss factors that contributed to stable value funds’ past performance and whether they can continue to perform well into the future. We also discuss considerations regarding whether or not to include stable value as an element in target date funds within defined con­tribution pension plans.

This research aims to enhance scholarly understanding Analysis of potential Value Creation research on managing transit oriented that may arise from Mass Rapid Transit resources through an extensive literature review, analyzing 235 papers from the Scopus database spanning 2011-2024, with a specific focus on value creation managing transit-oriented area. Data collection was conducted on January 1, 2024, using Harzing's Publish or Perish tool. The selected studies are associated with keywords such as 'managing transit orientation (154 papers), Value creation MRT (45 papers), Innovation MRT (36 papers)/ In the filtering process, 235 papers were assessed, excluding those unrelated to the research focus on the cash flow statement. The inclusion of 31 carefully selected articles reflects a targeted approach, ensuring alignment with the research focus on value creation in managing transit orientation a relevant dataset for analysis. This article was created by accessing several scientific articles regarding the application of identification in managing transit orientation using Vos viewer. Value creation research in managing transit oriented is needed to explore the following areas: Long-term sustainability of identified core competencies, Competitive Imitation, Organizational Adaptability, Industry Specific Applications, Performance Measurement, Dynamic Capability Development, Cross-Cultural Perspective. Potential areas for further research include Incorporate additional contingent factors into the model, such as environmental dynamism and competitiveness, to test the validity of the Resource-Based View (RBV) model. Extend the analysis to small and medium-sized businesses to examine how organizational structure and competitive strategy impact performance in this context.

The design of thin-walled structures is commonly based on the solutions of linear boundary-valued problems, formulated within well-developed theories for elastic plates and shells. However, in modern appliances, especially in MEMS design, it is necessary to take into account non-linear mechanical effects that become decisive for flexible elements. Among substantial non-linear effects, that significantly change the deformation properties of thin plates, are the effects of residual stresses caused by incompatibility of deformations, which inevitably arise during the manufacture of ultra-thin elements. The development of new methods of mathematical modeling of residual stresses and incompatible finite deformations in plates is the subject of the paper. To this end the local unloading hypothesis is used. It makes possible to define smooth fields of local deformations (inverse implant field) for the mathematical formalization of incompatibility. The main outcomes are field equations, natural boundary conditions and conservation laws, derived from least action principle and variational symmetries with account of implant field. The derivations were carried out in the framework of elasticity theory for simple materials and, over and above, within the Cosserat’s theory of a two-dimensional continuum. As illustrative examples the distributions of incompatible deformations in a circular plate are considered.

This study examines whether information about the winners of the Sustainability Reporting Award (SRA) contributes to the usefulness of the information in the financial statements. This study used a sample consisting of 110 winners of SRA (SRA firms) and 110 companies that did not receive SRA (non-SRA firms) from 2008 to 2016. The study found that earnings per share (EPS), book value per share (BVPS), and earnings per share change (EPSC) are value relevant information. Results of comparison between SRA firms and non-SRA fimrs, this study found that EPS positive association with stock price and with returns for SRA firms is higher than that for non-SRA firms. Findings of this study also show that, value relevance of BVPS for non-SRA firms is higher than that for SRA firms. When mesures of Price and BVPS are transformed into natural logarithm, the value relevance of BVPS for SRA firms is higher than that for non-SRA firms. Thus, the results are sensitive to measures of the variables. The findings of this study indicate that information about the winners of SRA contributes to the usefulness of financial statements.

In this work, we studied the Green’s functions of the second order differential operators with involution. Uniform equiconvergence of spectral expansions related to the second-order differential operators with involution is obtained. Basicity of eigenfunctions of the second-order differential operator operator with complex-valued coefficient is established.

Property valuation services using artificial intelligence (AI) have been developed, with more than 20 services available in Japan. However, since their algorithms and training data are not publicly available, the extent of differences in the AI property valuations among these services is not clear. This study focuses on the five services handling a lot of properties and uses a sample of 4,295 property valuations for 859 condominium units in six popular residential areas in Tokyo. (1) Multiple comparison tests of the AI property valuations among each service are conducted to confirm their statistical significance and to examine the degree of the difference and variation. (2) The business models of each service are compared to examine the factors contributing to these differences and variations. The results showed that there was a variation of approximately 0.15 in the coefficient of variation between the high and low valuation groups, and the service providers in the high valuation group guided the users to their sales, while those in the low valuation group focused on attracting users as their business models. The contribution of this study is to indicate the possibility that the business models may lead to the differences in the AI property valuations.

Recently, there appeared in this journal (Beh and Lombardo \textbf{2022}, {\it Symmetry}, 14, 1103) a paper that showed how to perform a correspondence analysis on a two-way contingency table where Bowker's statistic lies at the numerical heart of this analysis. Thus, we showed how this statistic can be used to visually identify departures from perfect symmetry. Interestingly, Bowker's statistic is a special case of the symmetry-version of the Cressie-Read family of divergence statistics. Therefore, this paper presents a new framework for visually assessing departures from perfect symmetry using a second-order Taylor series approximation of the Cressie-Read family of divergence statistics.

The implementation of grey and green infrastructure is an effective mean to address urban flooding and nonpoint source pollution, but due to the complexity of the process and the diver-sity of benefits, there is a lack of measurement for their comprehensive benefits. Adopting a typ-ical university in Beijing as an example, this paper simulated the multidimensional benefits of the water quantity, water quality, and ecology of grey and green facility renovation by coupling the storm water management model (SWMM) and InfoWorks Integrated Catchment Manage-ment (ICM). Monetization methods and economical means were employed to characterize the comprehensive benefits. The results showed that grey and green infrastructure retrofitting re-duces the number of severe overflow nodes in the study area by 54.35%, the total overflow vol-ume by 22.17%, and the nonpoint source pollution level by approximately 80% under the heavy rain scenario and 60% under the rainstorm scenario. The annual benefits of grey and green infra-structure renovation reached ¥765,600/year, of this amount, ¥83,100/year is from hydrological regulation, ¥454,100/year is from nonpoint source pollution reduction, and ¥228,300/year is from ecological improvement. The benefits of green facilities were higher than those of grey facilities, and the combined benefits were negatively correlated with the rainfall level, with a total bene-fit–cost ratio of 1.19. The results provide methodological and data support for grey and green in-frastructure retrofitting within the context of sponge cities.

An ambitious per capita GDP target has been envisioned by the Chinese government since 2020 to project its sustainable economic growth rate by 2035. Can China fully achieve its goal? This is a question worth investigating. By inserting relevant TABLO modules of the final goods trade, the intermediate goods trade, and factor-strengthening technology spillovers, along with technology absorption thresholds effects of the global value chain, this study builds a global dynamic recursive computational general equilibrium (CGE ) model on basis of GTAP-RD. This approach allows considering the 'dual circulation' system strongly advocated and pointed out as the sole way to realize China’s technological (total factor productivity (TFP)) progress by the Chinese government, which integrates both domestic internal and international external circulations (trade and foreign direct investment (FDI)). We simulate China's technological progress under eight scenarios, and use the latest GTAP Version 11 production and trade data (released in April 2023) for 141 countries and regions and results are aggregated into 10 countries groups with 9 activity sectors and 10 commodities. Main conclusions are as follows: (1) If China maintains its trade opening policy, the 2035 vision goal can be achieved, with external circulation being more important than internal circulation for technological spillovers. (2) The economic growth impacts of external and internal circulation operate relatively independently. However, FDI provides a relatively larger synergistic effect for all forms of external trade circulation than to the internal one. Regarding factor-strengthening effects, spillovers are more favorable to 'capital' than to labor factors. (3) We find that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement is the most important strategic partner for China. (4) It appears that FDI is not an effective way to lift the productive services sector's total factor productivity (TFP), and more realistic for China is to open up the productive services market more widely, as its efficiency is a pivotal reflection of China's independent innovation capability. (5) China–US decoupling has an enormous global impact. In all the Scenarios we consider, the United States is always the country that loses the most, and Europe would be the group of countries that benefits when there is a large increase in TFP in the US.

Agarwood, a highly valuable fragrant wood of Aquilaria spp. has been widely used in perfumes, traditional medicine, religious rites and cultural activities. Due to the presence of aromatic and medicinal properties, the Agarwood has gained its economic importance in recent years. It has been providing livelihood and employment facilities to many people who are cultivating those. Owing to high demand and profitability, the people of Assam has started to cultivate Agarwood in a commercial manner in recent days. This study was conducted to examine the economic viability of Agarwood cultivation in Assam and to understand the problems of the cultivators to consider Agarwood cultivation as the primary source of income. The primary data were collected during the months of May and June, 2022 from 210 households using structured questionnaire. The cost-benefit analysis revealed that INR 100 of initial investment yields a net benefit of INR 623 which indicates that the return from the Agarwood cultivation among the cultivators are very high. Thus, the present study argues that the government should encourage the cultivators by providing the necessary support in the form of a legalized market, credit requirement, creating the awareness about the demand of Agarwood and making provision of training.

Urban transit planning is going through a transition to greater private investment in many parts of the world and is now on the agenda in Australia. After showing examples of private investment in transit globally the paper focuses on historical case studies of private rail investment in Western Australia. These case studies mirror the historical experience in rapidly growing railway cities in Europe, North America and Asia (particularly Japan), and also the land grant railways that facilitated settlement in North America. The Western Australian experience is noteworthy for the small but rapidly growing populations of the settlements involved, suggesting that growth, rather than size, is the key to successfully raising funding for railways through land development. The paper shows through the history of transport, with particular reference to Perth, that the practice of private infrastructure provision can provide lessons for how to enable this again. It suggests that new partnerships with private transport investment as set out in the Federal Government City Deal process, should create many more opportunities to improve the future of cities through once again integrating transit, land development and private finance.

The complete-lattice approach to optimization problems with a vector- or even set-valued objective already produced a variety of new concepts and results and was successfully applied in finance, statistics and game theory. For example, the duality issue for multi-criteria and vector optimization problems could be solved using the complete-lattice approach, compare [11]. So far, it has been applied to set-valued dynamic risk measures (in the stochastic case), as discussed in Feinstein, Rudloff etc. (see [11], for example), but it has not been applied to deterministic calculus of variations and optimal control problems. In this paper, the following problem of set-valued optimization is considered: minimize the functional $$ \overline J_t[y]=\int_0^t \overline L(s,y(s),\dot y(s))\ ds + U_0(y(0)) $$ over all admissible arcs $y$, where $\overline L$ is the associated multifunction to a vector-valued Lagrangian $L$, the integral is in the Aumann sense and $U_0$ is the initial cost. A new concept of \emph{value function}, for which a Bellman's optimality principle holds, is introduced. Also the classical result of the Hopf-Lax formula holds for the generalized value function. Finally, a derivative with respect to the time $t$ and a directional derivative with respect to $x$ of the value function are defined, based on ideas close to the concepts in [12]. The value function is proved to be solution of a suitable Hamilton-Jacobi equation.

Frailty is a common condition in older adults that negatively impacts health and quality of life. This study evaluated a comprehensive, personalized, and coordinated intervention under the Value-Based Care approach to address frailty's multidimensional nature in older people. It em-ployed a pre-post randomized controlled design, involving frail individuals over 65 years in Valencia, Spain. Assessments were conducted at baseline, 12 months (immediately post-intervention), and 18 months. The intervention included a personalized care plan supported by technology, with monthly motivational follow-ups and plan updates by health professionals and participants. Outcomes were measured using an assessment questionnaire that included the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement dataset for the older population: physical health, physical functioning, general mental health, satisfaction with social activities and relationships, ability to carry out usual social roles and activities, pain, general quality of life, loneliness, physical frailty, psychological frailty and social frailty. The study found signifi-cant improvements in physical frailty, quality of life, reduced health resource use and hospitali-zations, and lower levels of pain and depression/anxiety compared to baseline. The findings suggest further research into value-based care approaches, emphasizing the development and activation of personalized, comprehensive programs for older individuals with frailty.

We examine a nonlinear initial value problem both singularly perturbed in a complex parameter and singular in complex time at the origin. The study undertaken in this paper is the continuation of a joined work with A. Lastra published in 2015. A change of balance between the leading and a critical subdominant term of the problem considered in our previous work is performed. It leads to a phenomenon of coalescing singularities to the origin in the Borel plane w.r.t time for a finite set of holomorphic solutions constructed as Fourier series in space on horizontal complex strips. In comparison to our former study, an enlargement of the Gevrey order of the asymptotic expansion for these solutions relatively to the complex parameter is induced.

As medical care aiming to maintain the quality of life for elderly patients is increases, implant treatment for elderly patients is increasing worldwide. Therefore, we aimed to investigate implant stability and the reliability of different measuring devices according to implant placement site and duration in patients aged over 65 years. The study evaluated 60 implants in 60 patients aged ≥ 65 years. The implant placement sites were divided into six evenly distributed sections (n=10) i.e., maxillary right- posterior, A; maxillary anterior, B; maxillary left-posterior, C; mandibular right-posterior, D; mandibular anterior, E; mandibular left-posterior, F. Participants visited the hospital seven times: preoperatively, 1V; implant surgery, 2V; stitch removal, 3V; 1-month follow-up, 4V; 2-months follow-up, 5V; before final-restoration delivery, 6V; and after final-restoration delivery, 7V. The implant stability was evaluated with the Osstell Mentor (ISQ), Periotest M (PTV), and Anycheck (IST). The mean values of ISQ, PTV, and IST were analyzed (α=.05). ISQ, PTV, and IST results of 5V and 6V were significantly higher than those of 2V (P<.05). The lowest ISQ results occurred in E location at 5V and 6V (P<.05). In all mandibular locations, IST results of 7V were significantly higher than those of 2V, 3V, 4V, and 5V (P<.05). ISQ results were negatively correlated with PTV and positively correlated with IST, and PTV was negatively correlated with IST. By considering various factors that affect implant stability, the appropriate implant load application time was determined. This could help increase the implant success rate in elderly patients. And as a diagnostic device for implant stability for evaluation of osseointegration in elderly patients, Anycheck was also able to prove its relative reliability compared to Osstell ISQ Mentor and Periotest M.

Rare diseases are characterized by a wide diversity of signs and symptoms and vary not only from disease to disease, but also from person to person, and living with a disease leads patients to peculiar experiences and treatments, without limits of time and space, as they extend to various environments and relationships of their lives. The objective of this study is the theoretical interaction between Value Co-creation (VC) and the Stakeholder Theory (ST) with the Shared Decision Making (SDM) health care theory. It is configured as a multiparadigmatic proposal by enabling the analysis of multiple perspectives of different stakeholders in health care. Thus, Co-created Decision Making (CDM) emerges in a logic dominated by service, with emphasis on intangible aspects and the interactivity of the relationships. It goes beyond the clinical office and the doctor-patient relationships, as studied in SDM, extending to all environments and interactions that add value to the patient's treatment. It was concluded that the essence of this new theory proposed here is neither in patient-centered care nor in patient self-care, but in co-created relationships with and between stakeholders in both directions, including non-health care environments that are important to the patient, such as relationships with friends, family, other patients with the same disease, social media, public policies, and the practice of pleasurable activities.

Background: Shared value creation in Base of the Pyramid (BoP) communities is a crucial process towards building sustainable societies. BoP communities in developing countries represent more than four billion people who live on low incomes with limited access to basic products and services. Current or emerging technologies offer promising solutions for organisations pursuing manufacturing opportunities in BoP communities. This study seeks to explore the literature on how BoP communities may become active participants in sustainably manufacturing products using micro-manufacturing factories. The research question posed is: What are the core concepts that need to be taken into consideration for creating shared value through micro-manufacturing factories in BoP communities? Method: A Systematised Literature review (SLR) was completed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) method for data selection criteria and analysis. The SLR is used to explore the state of literature with regards to creating manufacturing shared value in BoP communities with the objective to identify study gaps and to explore shared value creation concepts. Results: Literature indicates BoP initiatives that have pursued to engage BoP communities through various innovation strategies. The findings of the review is organised under three strategic pillars: Capability building strategy, Implementation process, and Growth strategy. The capability building strategy defines the users’ intention to create shared value in BoP communities with Micro-manufacturing factories (MMF). It is followed by the implementation process which guides the users to create manufacturing shared value in BoP communities. This is followed by a growth strategy to scale for impact.

This work is concerned with the existence and uniqueness of boundary value problems defined on semi-infinite intervals. These kinds of problems seldom admit exactly known solutions and, therefore, the theoretical information on their well-posedness is essential before attempting to derive an approximate solution by analytical or numerical means. Our utmost contribution in this context is the definition of a numerical test for investigating the existence and uniqueness of solutions of boundary problems defined on semi-infinite intervals. The main result is given by a theorem relating the existence and uniqueness question to the number of real zeros of a function implicitly defined within the formulation of the iterative transformation method. As a consequence, we can investigate the existence and uniqueness of solutions by studying the behaviour of that function. Within such a context the numerical test is illustrated by two examples where we find meaningful numerical results.

Total Nigeria Plc is a Marketing and Services subsidiary of Total; a multinational energy company operating in more than 130 countries and committed to providing sustainable products and services for its customers. For over 50 years, Total Nigeria Plc has remained the leader in the downstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. This study investigated the volatility of the stock price of Total Petroleum Nigeria plc using nine (9) GARCH models namely sGARCH, gjrGARCH, eGARCH, iGARCH, aPARCH, TGARCH, NGARCH, NAGARCH and AVGARCH. We also investigated the Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Backtesting of the Models. The aim actually of this study is to boost the confidence of the shareholders and investors of the Total Nigeria plc. To achieve this, daily stock price for Total petroleum Nigeria plc from secondary was collected from January 2^nd 2001 to May 8^th 2017. . The study used both normal and student t innovations, using Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) to select the best model, for normal innovations for log returns and cleansed log returns of Total plc, the eGARCH and sGARCH models performed best respectively, while NGARCH model performed best for student t innovation for both log returns and cleansed returns of Total plc. The persistence of the models are stable except in few cases where iGARCH, eGARCH where not stable. Also for student t innovation, the sGARCH and gjrGARCH fails to converge. The mean-reverting number of day for the returns of Total Nigeria plc differs from model to model. Evidence from the VaR Analysis revealed from the selected models revealed that the Risk of VaR losses is high at 99% confidence level, slightly high at 95% confidence level and better at 90% confidence level. Although The Duration-Based Tests of independence conducted revealed that the models are correctly specified since in all cases the null hypotheses were accepted. This means that the probability of an exception on any day did not depends on the outcome of the previous day. Finally, both the unconditional (Kupiec) and conditional (Christoffersen) coverage tests for the correct number of exceedances for both Total stock returns and cleansed returns. The tests revealed rejection of the models at 1% level of significance. This confirms that unconditional (Kupiec) and conditional (Christoffersen) coverage tests for the correct number of exceedances are reliable compared to the Duration-Based Tests of independence. Therefore we recommend that shareholders and investors in Total Nigeria plc are to remain and continue to investment in Total Nigeria plc because if there is any form of losses, the price of the stock has the potentials to improve in the future. Again, though the risk is high at 99% confidence level, this in line with the financial theory that states that an asset with high expected risk would pay higher return on the average.

The production of Moringa oleifera capsules has emerged as a promising agricultural activity in Mexico, driven by the plant’s well-documented health and nutritional benefits. In response, farmers have begun producing Moringa oleifera as a dietary supplement, using artisanal methods with minimal production controls. This study aimed to estimate the processing times of the Moringa oleifera production system using simulation modeling with Arena® software, and to evaluate the economic feasibility of capsule production. Methodologically, it was approached as a case study in the state of Veracruz, processing times were estimated through systematic sampling and modeled with Arena simulation software. Three simulation scenarios were considered to select a technically and economically viable alternative for agricultural producers: one with a 200-capsule encapsulator (1E200C), another with two 200-capsule encapsulators (2E200C) and a third with an 800-capsule encapsulator (1E800C). For the initial diagnosis a research stay was conducted for 180 days, and the production capacity was set at 24,000 capsules due to raw material limitations. Results indicated that the 1E800C scenario reduced processing time by 60% compared to the1E200C scenario, and by 35% compared to the 2E200C scenario. Additionally, the 1E800C model required only 2 days (16 hours) of work, while the 2E200C required 4 days (32 hours), and the 1E200C required 7 days (56 hours). In terms of production costs per unit of 90 capsules, the 1E200C was 3.93 USD the 2E200C 3.64 USD and the 1E800C 3.45 USD The study concluded that due to raw material limitations, the company can produce 12,800 units per year of 90 capsules. It is recommended to adopt the 1E800C encapsulator, which would lower overall production costs by 12.23%, representing 0.48 USD per unit produced, resulting in an additional profit of 6,150.50 USD Over a five-year evaluation period, the benefit-cost ratio was 5.03, the NPV was 922,370.11 and the IRR was 42.09%, indicating that this type of agribusiness in Mexico is both technically and economically feasible.

Lignocellulosic biomass has demonstrated great potential as feedstock for pellet production, notwithstanding the fact that the industrial production of pellets is faced with some economic challenges. This study presents a technoeconomic analysis of six case scenarios to develop a process model for pellet production from sawdust and oat straw that employs torrefaction and steam explosion pretreatment prior to pelletization. SuperPro Designer was used to carry out this evaluation. The pellet plants were designed to have a capacity of 9.09 t/h of sawdust and oat straw each. The pellet yield ranged from 59 kt– 72 kt/year. Scenarios analyzed included variations of steam explosion and torrefaction. In some scenarios materials were lost in the form of liquid and gas due to the pretreatment process. The breakdown of equipment purchase cost showed that the torrefaction reactor is the most expensive unit with about 51% of the purchase cost. Facility-dependent and feedstock costs were the major significant contributors to the pellet production cost. The profitability of pellet production as determined by the net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and payback period and was found to be sensitive to variations in feedstock cost.

In this study, we investigate the existence of positive solutions within a system of Riemann-Liouville fractional differential equations that incorporate the (r1,r2,r3)-Laplacian operator while being subject to three-point boundary conditions. These equations incorporate various fractional derivatives and are influenced by parameters represented as (ψ1,ψ2,ψ3). Our approach involves employing techniques such as cone expansion and compression of the functional type, in conjunction with the Leggett-Williams fixed point theorem, to establish the existence of positive solutions. To emphasize the practical significance of our findings in the realm of fractional differential equations, we provide two illustrative examples.

The thermal properties of a building envelope are key indicators of the energy performance of the building. Therefore, methods are needed to determine quantities like U-values or heat capacitance in a fast, reliable way and with as little impact on the use of the building as possible. In this paper a technique is proposed that relies on a simplified electrical analogical model of building envelope components which can cover their dynamic thermal behavior. The parameters of this model are optimized to produce the best fit between simulated and measured outside surface temperatures. As the temperatures can be measured remotely with an infrared camera this approach requires significantly less installation effort and intrusion in the building than other methods. At the same time, a single measurement provides data for a large range of locations on a facade or a roof. The paper describes the method and a first experimental implementation of it. The experiment indicates that this method has the potential to produce results which have an accuracy that is comparable to standardized reference methods.

The application of evolutionary optimization algorithms in problem solving is currently gaining wide popularity. Use of Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm in obtaining analytically approximate solution of unstable second order initial value Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) is presented in this work. The methodology involves solving an associated problem of optimization with con-strains to get an analytically approximate solution for the ODE under consider-ation. Three test cases were used to demonstrate the efficiency of our method. In comparison with other methods discussed in the literature, our method gave significant improvement on the accuracy of the obtained results.

In Europe, the recent application of regulations oriented to zero-energy buildings and climate neutrality in 2050 has led to a reduction in energy consumption for heating and cooling in the construction sector. The thermal insulation of the building envelope plays a key role in this process and the requirements about the maximum allowable thermal transmittance are defined by country-specific guidelines. Typically, high insulation values provide low energy consumption for heating, however, they may paradoxically imply the risk of overheating in summer period and thus negatively affect the overall performance of the building. In addition, the embodied energy and related emissions caused by the manufacturing and transportation processes of thermal insulation cannot be further neglected in the evaluation of the best optimal solution. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the influence in terms of embodied and operational energy of various walls’ thermal insulation thicknesses on residential buildings in Europe. To this end, the EnergyPlus engine was used for the energy simulation within Ladybug &amp; Honeybee tools, by parametrically conducting multiple iterations; 53 variations of external wall U-value, considering high and low thermal mass scenarios, were simulated for 100 reference cities of the European context, using a representative multifamily building as a reference. The results demonstrate that massive walls generally perform better than lightweight structures and, of course, the best solution in terms of energy varies according to each climate. The optimal values are graphically reported on the map of Europe according to specific climatic features, providing a guidance for new constructions and building retrofit.

AAs the global energy market undergoes a wholesale transformation accelerated by the need to decarbonise, a rapid transition to renewable energy and the mass deployment of distributed energy resources, autonomous energy networks or microgrids are emerging as an attractive mechanism for the delivery of electricity to end users. Yet in Australia, at least, relatively little is known about key aspects of microgrids that are fundamental to their successful deployment, not least the more commercial and economic elements rather than the purely technical. Drawing on the extant global literature on microgrids, this paper explores the most important of these aspects including business models, ownership and investment. Identifying the ambiguity, inconsistency and uncertainty evident in many of the feasibility studies currently in train across Australia, this paper highlights specific areas for future research that need to be addressed if the full potential of microgrids is to be realised in the context of a global energy transition both domestically and internationally.

Two sets of initial conditions are used in the investigation of capital return rate and carbon storage in boreal forests. Firstly, a growth model is applied in young stands as early as the inventory-based model is applicable. Secondly, the growth model is applied to observed wooded stands. Four sets of thinning schedules are investigated in either case. First, the capital return rate is aspired without any restriction. Second, the number of thinnings is restricted to at most one. Third, thinnings are restricted to the removal of only trees thicker than 237 mm. Fourth, commercial thinnings are omitted. The two sets of initial conditions yield similar results. The capital return rate is a weak function of rotation age, which results in variability in the optimal number of thinnings. Reducing the number of thinnings to one increases timber stock but induces a capital return rate deficiency. The deficiency per excess volume unit is smaller if the severity of any thinning is restricted by the removal of large trees only. Omission of thinnings best applies to spruce-dominated stands with stem count less than 2000/ha. Restricted thinning intensity applies to deciduous stands and dense pine stands. The albedo effect increases the benefits of restricted thinnings and increased clearcuttings instead of contradicting the carbon storage.

Nested structure is a structural feature that is conducive to system stability formed by the co-evolution of species in mutualistic ecosystems, and reflects the ability of ecosystem stability to be restored to a stable state again after being destroyed. The co-opetition relationship and value flow between industrial sectors in the global value chain are similar to the mutualistic ecosystem, and the pattern of the global economic system is always changing in dynamic equilibrium. Nestedness theory is used in this article to define the generalist and specialist sectors in the global value chain to analyze the changes in the global supply pattern. Then we study the mechanism of the global economic system to reach a stable equilibrium and the role of different sectors in the steady of the economic system, so as to provide countermeasures for enhancing the stability of the global economic system. At the end of the article, the domestic trade network, export trade network and import trade network of each country are extracted, and an econometric model is designed to analyze how the microstructure of the production system affects a country’s macroeconomic performance, thereby deriving the conclusion that the stability of the international trade network is crucial to a country's economic development.

Unique analytical challenges arise when drivers, who face a route choice between a toll lane and a set of free lanes, have different values of time. The most complex situation is one in which multiple sub-populations of drivers exist, each with their own unique mean and coefficient of variation of value of time. This situation, when imbedded within a larger network cannot be tackled using existing planning models, and consequently is usually only approximated. This paper examines these different approximations, the resulting numerical solutions and the implications of these approximations on the estimate of the number of expected toll lane users. The paper also shows how this problem can be solved using a combined traffic assignment/simulation model. The first part of this paper develops an analytical formulation for solving the toll lane scenario using the “value of time” representations range from the simplest to the most complex. It is shown that one of the most critical issues is a determination of who the marginal users are of the toll lane, at each level of usage, as the perceived disutility of the last marginal toll lane user depends dynamically upon that driver’s value of time. Analytical formulations based on these different approximations are then solved numerically in the second part of the paper. These numerical solutions show that significant different lane use estimates result, depending upon the representation of value of time. Consequently, it is clear that solving this problem with the fewest approximations is both of theoretical and practical importance. The third part of the paper illustrates the solution to the toll lane problem, with each level of approximation, using a combined traffic assignment/simulation model. The simulated resulting estimates of the toll lane usage for each case matches both the relative and absolute trends found in analytical solutions. However, the solution using the assignment/simulation model is not only much faster and simpler to obtain, but is also scalable both in size and complexity. The additional complexities, that are associated with a less approximate representation of value of time, should therefore be incorporated in all future assessments of toll lane facilities, be they analyzed analytically or through simulation.

This paper presents and discusses the pedagogical implication of teaching Shared Value, presenting a case study about a contamination lab namely the case of the Shared Value Living Lab (SVLL) which took place at the University of Torino (UniTO) in Italy. The paper analyzes the pedagogical side of CSV (arguments, topics, learning methodologies, etc.) in the framework of recent theories and approaches of teaching sustainability in business school and in the cooperation between industry and academia, as well. Our research methodology relies on the analysis and comparison of one case study under an intrinsic as it enables researchers to find “interactivity” and connectedness between the individuals participating. The SVLL case is an interesting example of co-creation of social value between academia and its stakeholders. First, it represents an inclusive project linking society and business; second, SVLL acted as a hub putting in contact different interlocutors; third, SVLL training stimulated the acquisition of soft skill in students (interviews, managing relations, represents the project outside university, explaining the project to people, research curiosity) through contamination activities. With our study, we demonstrate the change in students participating in the SVLL may not only be cognitive but also affective, making students feel hopeful, empowered and liberated, and ready to contribute to a more profound change towards the vast array of pro-sustainability behaviors.

Land consolidation engineering inevitably interferes with terrestrial ecosystems, leading to natural capital loss. Therefore, conducting an ecological sensitivity evaluation of a project area before consolidation engineering is very important for reducing unnecessary human interference. Conservation of terrestrial ecosystems and the biodiversity therein to the greatest possible extent is urgently needed. This research analyzes the interference by human activities caused by land consolidation engineering in terrestrial ecosystems. GIS technology, ecological values, landscape pattern indexes, and an ecological risk evaluation were used to construct an ecological sensitivity evaluation index. The coefficient of variation method and a comprehensive sensitivity rating evaluation were used to calculate the weights and results. The project area was divided into sensitivity zones according to the results, and the results and suggestions are as follows: In the highly eco-sensitive zone, where bare rocks, gravel, and grass-covered areas compose the main landscape type, vegetation should be restored, and forests should be planted. In the medium eco-sensitivity zone, where irrigated paddy fields and arid land compose the main landscape type, land parcels should be merged, and agricultural infrastructure should be constructed or improved. In the low eco-sensitivity zone, where forests compose the main landscape type, roads should be closed, natural habitat should be restored, and buffer zones should be created. This study provides suggestions for future land management decisions.

Business-to-business (B2B) manufacturing companies are increasingly confronted with transformative trends such as sustainability, digitalization, and servitization. These trends are changing how product portfolios are developed, and value contributions are assessed, and therefore have disruptive potential. Dealing with these disruptive factors in Product Portfolio Management (PPM) is a largely unexplored topic. This study presents an empirical-qualitative exploration that contributes significantly to the field. The aim is to clarify the extent to which disruptive factors influence the evaluation and shaping of the product portfolio in B2B manufacturing companies. The Gioia method was used to evaluate 21 semi-structured interviews with experts from leading B2B manufacturing companies. Eight overarching challenges in PPM resulting from the disruptive factors were identified. Based on the eight overarching challenges and their associated causal relationships, two aggregated dimensions of action were derived: (1) increasing speed and flexibility by using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in a defined PPM process and (2) adjusting the product portfolio evaluation to consider various strategic drivers. These two dimensions of action call for future research to overcome the disruptive factors in PPM.

Cryptocurrencies have obtained a crucial position in the international financial landscape. The cryptocurrency market has been perceived as a highly volatile market since the inception of Bitcoin. This study investigates the relevant performance of extreme value models (EVM) in estimating the Value-at-Risk (VaR) of Bitcoin and Ethereum returns. The extreme value mixture models, GPD-Normal-GPD (GNG) and GPD-KDE-GPD models are fitted to the returns of Bitcoin and Ethereum and the Kupiec likelihood backtesting procedure is performed on the VaR estimates to assess the fits. Both models’ results showed that the fits were a much more decent representation of the observed data when compared to the Normal distribution. The backtesting results showed that the GPD-KDE-GPD model’s fit was superior to that of the GPD-Normal-GPD for both sets of returns at all VaR risk levels except at the 99% level. The results of this study may assist with understanding the dynamics and risks associated with cryptocurrencies and can serve as a beneficial tool for decision-making and risk management to investors, traders, financial institutions and many other participants in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

This research explores the behaviors of Generation Z consumers in China, particularly focusing on their interaction with companies through social media for the joint creation of value. Adopting a qualitative methodology, the research initially constructs a scale for assessing co-creation of value on social media platforms. Subsequently, it delves into the motivational aspects of users' engagement in these co-creative activities. The study unveils a range of utilitarian and hedonic motivations that drive Generation Z's value co-creation actions on social media. Insights derived from the findings offer both theoretical and practical implications for the field.

The steep rise in reinforcement learning (RL) in various applications in energy as well as the penetration of home automation in recent years are the motivation for this article. It surveys the use of RL in various home energy management system (HEMS) applications. There is a focus on deep neural network (DNN) models in RL. The article provides an overview of reinforcement learning. This is followed with discussions on state-of-the-art methods for value, policy, and actor–critic methods in deep reinforcement learning (DRL). In order to make the published literature in reinforcement learning more accessible to the HEMS community, verbal descriptions are accompanied with explanatory figures as well as mathematical expressions using standard machine learning terminology. Next, a detailed survey of how reinforcement learning is used in different HEMS domains is described. The survey also considers what kind of reinforcement learning algorithms are used in each HEMS application. It suggests that research in this direction is still in its infancy. Lastly, the article proposes four performance metrics to evaluate RL methods.

We show how the Poincar\'e--Riemann--Hilbert boundary-value problem enables us to construct effective estimates of the potential in the Schr\"odinger equation. The apparatus of the three-dimensional inverse problem of quantum scattering theory is developed for this. It is shown that the unitary scattering operator can be studied as a solution of the Poincar\'e--Riemann--Hilbert boundary-value problem. This allows us to go on to study the potential in the Schr\"odinger equation

Densimetric Froude (Fr) is the minimum velocity required to prevent sediment deposition in pipes. Prediction of Fr is of utmost importance in numerous applications in civil engineering. In this paper through using a new hybrid method. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used for optimum selection of membership functions of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) method is used to compute the linear parameters of ANFIS’s results section (ANFIS-GA/SVD). Also, two different target functions are known as training error (TE) and prediction error (PE) by Pareto curve, the trade-off between these functions is selected as the optimal modeling point. First, different models will be presented using the parameters affecting Fr prediction, classifying them in different groups; then the Fr parameter will be predicted for all the different models through utilizing three different sets of data and the ANFIS-GA/SVD technique. The results of the models indicate that the best Fr prediction is obtained when independent parameters such as volumetric sediment concentration (CV), ratio of median diameter of particle size to pipe diameter (d/D), ratio of median diameter of particle size to hydraulic radius (d/R) and overall friction factor of sediment (λs) use as input variables in prediction of Fr. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted for the purpose of examining the effect of each of the dimensionless parameters on Fr prediction accuracy. Comparing the results of the suggested models with the existing regression-based equations shows that ANFIS-GA/SVD (R²=0.986, MAPE=4.397, RMSE=0.206, SI=0.053, ρ=0.026, BIAS=-0.025) is more accurate than the rest of the models.