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Climate change as a matter had little attention of public debate, especially in developing countries, until the recent floods caused by the dragon storms in the Middle East and the forest fires in the Mediterranean. Egypt, being strategically crucial in Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Arab world, with strong connections to other countries, aimed to go from promises to action and to discover real answers to climate change by building on past COPs. The administration assumed a more prominent role by coordinating the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27). People started to realize that this is not something only happening elsewhere in the world. Egypt took the initiative; Challenges have been assessed to reach suitable mitigation approaches, and Egypt's first NDC has been issued to meet the global agenda. Egypt's vision was to accelerate global climate action at the UNFCCC 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) through emissions reduction, advanced adaptation, and enhanced flow of appropriate finance, prioritizing developing countries worldwide.

Abstract Nickel nanoparticles supported by commercial carbon paper (CP) are prepared by pulsed laser deposition with deposition time of 3, 6, and 12 min as a catalyst for urea electro-oxidation. The surface conditions and the morphologies of the prepared electrodes have been characterized by Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Urea electro-oxidation reaction in KOH solution on the Ni/CP electrodes is investigated by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The results show that the electrode with less Ni nanoparticle agglomeration shows higher peak current density, which was achieved in the 3 min deposition samples when normalized by electroactive surface areas. However, the highest current normalized by the area of the carbon paper was achieved in the 6 min deposition sample due to the larger quantity of Ni nanoparticles. All the samples show good stability. Our results suggest that the low density, low cost, and environmental friendly CP can be used as support for Ni nanoparticle as a catalyst for urea electro-oxidation. It thus has great potential for many applications involving urea oxidation, such as wastewater treatments.

The paper industry is a high-carbon emission and energy-intensive industry. From the perspective of low-carbon trade and carbon neutrality, its energy conservation and emission reduction are worthy of attention. This study used the input-output model to calculate the embodied carbon emissions of China’s paper industry’s export trade to the United States from 2006 to 2020 and used the logarithmic mean division index (LMDI) method to analyze influencing factors of the change of embodied carbon emissions. The study found that the embodied carbon emissions of China’s paper industry’s export trade to the United States generally shows a stable downward trend after reaching the peak with the increase of export trade scale; scale effect is the main factor that causes the embodied carbon emissions, while technological progress, policy support, and environmental regulations are important driving forces to promote carbon emission reduction. The research results of this paper not only can test and guide China’s paper industry trade policies and industrial policies, but they can also provide decision-making reference for China and the United States to promote the carbon emission reduction of the paper industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon is a wonder material and has served the mankind since the inception of civilization in a variety of ways. Among its different forms, carbon fibers are especially known for their conductivity and favorable strength to weight ratio. Here the development of PAN based carbon fibers embedded in a matrix material followed by pyrolysis to form a fibrous C/C composite has been discussed. The processing of carbon paper has been divided into four steps, with the product of each stage used separately for different energy applications. (1) Carbon fiber preform has been used as a filler to achieve high strength in bipolar plates for PEM Fuel cells (energy conversion). Flexural strength of nearly 80 MPa has been achieved as compared to 40 MPa of the commercially available Schunk plate, Germany. (2) Resin impregnated preform, i.e. the Green composite paper has been employed as an energy efficient heating element (energy conservation). This has been further fabricated as a room heater, which works at 500 cycles). The (4) Graphitized carbon paper has proved to be an excellent electrode (anode and cathode) backing material for PEM Fuel cell. 25% hike in the peak power density of unit PEM FC has been achieved while employing CNT incorporated NPL carbon paper as compared to while using Toray carbon paper of Japan and tested under similar conditions. This in turn is attributed to the unique properties acquired by the material with subsequent processing at each stage which has been discussed in detail. Keywords: Carbon fiber, Porosity, Microstructure, Fuel cell, Li-ion battery, Heating element

The learning process through forecasting patent information based on technology can provide the direction in which technology is needed, especially supporting developments into the future. Technology mapping through patent information in the market becomes leverage development of products. Foresight technology in a patent is a tool to predict advanced technology that brings a competitive product to the market needs. This paper discusses patent information that becomes useful for developing technology through emerging market segmentation through a portfolio, innovation, and emerging market based on the WIPO database. This paper used a qualitative method with descriptive analysis and study literature using Innography software to see related information utilization of bioethanol from sorghum plants. This paper aims to obtain information technology from the patent analysis in bioethanol from sorghum plants to develop foresight products. The results show 310 patents registered in WIPO fields from 2006-2021 with dominant IP Class dominate from sectors C and A, also economic value range held by the Republic of Korea. Foresight technology through patent analysis provides information for industry and stakeholders who need the impact of the implementation of the latest technology and the appropriate level of competition in the commercialization of bioethanol products from sorghum plants.

With the surging energy price and environmental concerns, measures to improve energy efficiency have attracted increasing concerns of the manufacture sector, especially energy-intensive manufacturing industries such as tissue paper mills. Energy-efficiency scheduling, as a novel energy-efficient method, has attracted the attention of an increasing number of researchers in recent years. Drying process is the most energy-intensive production process in tissue paper mills, which has a great energy-saving potential. This paper aims to reduce the energy costs for the tissue paper mill, consisting of processing energy cost and set-up energy cost, through integrating drying process optimization with energy-efficient scheduling. First, the energy cost model and the scheduling model were built. Then, the energy cost of the drying process of every job in a given scheduling problem was optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO). Afterwards, the energy cost was further optimized using energy-efficiency scheduling. In addition, a hybrid non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) was utilized to solve the energy-efficiency scheduling problem. Finally, several real scheduling problems from a real tissue paper mill were addressed using the proposed approach to demonstrate its effectiveness in energy saving. The experiment result showed that there is a great energy-saving potential in the drying process, accounting for up to 12.53% of the total energy consumption. Moreover, the maximum energy saving ratio of the proposed approach could reach 9.03%. On the whole, the proposed approach can provide a new energy-saving method for tissue paper mills or other manufacturing industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this study, three-type paper supercapacitors based on the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/phosphoric acid (H3PO4) gel electrolytes and graphite nanoparticles (GNPs) electrodes have been fabricated. The gel electrolytes and electrodes films have been coated on the paper using push coating and then characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In two types of the paper supercapacitors, on the PVDF gel electrolyte film, a layer of PVA/water and BaTiO3 as a gel separator film has been coated. The specific capacitance of the paper supercapacitors using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic (charge–discharge) methods at the scan rates 20 and 150 mV s−1 have been investigated. The paper supercapacitor based on the BaTiO3 separator film showed higher specific capacitance (312 F g−1) compared to other samples. Also, using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), the Nyquist and Bode curves of paper supercapacitors have been measured. For the paper supercapacitors based on the PVDF gel electrolyte film and BaTiO3 separator film using the Nyquist curves, the equivalent series resistance (ESR) was 306 Ω and 125 Ω, respectively. The paper supercapacitor based on BaTiO3 gel separator structure represents a new type of flexible supercapacitor with high performance that can be applied to electronic devices.

At present, there is no reliable method in use that unequivocally describes paper industry material flows and makes it possible to compare geographical regions with each other. A functioning paper industry Material Flow Account (MFA) that uses uniform terminology and standard definitions for terms and structures is necessary. Many of the presently used general level MFAs, which are called frameworks in this article, stress the importance of input and output flows but do not provide a uniform picture of material recycling. Paper industry is an example of a field in which recycling plays a key role. Additionally, terms related to paper industry recycling, such as collection rate, recycling rate, and utilization rate, are not defined uniformly across regions and time. Thus, reliably comparing material recycling activity between geographical regions or calculating any regional summaries is difficult or even impossible. The objective of this study is to give a partial solution to the problem of not having a reliable method in use that unequivocally describes paper industry material flows. This is done by introducing a new material flow framework for paper industry in which the flow and stage structure supports the use of uniform definitions for terms related to paper recycling. This new framework is termed the Detailed Wheel of Fiber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pulp and paper industry accounts for approximately 5% of total industrial energy consumption and contributes 2% of direct carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from industries. World paper and paperboard demand and production are increasing significantly, leading to an increase in this sector's energy use and CO 2 emissions. Although current studies identify a wide range of energy-efficiency technologies that have already been commercialized for the pulp and paper industry, information is limited or scattered regarding new energy-efficiency technologies that are not yet fully commercialized. Development of emerging or advanced energy-efficiency technologies and their deployment in the market will be crucial for this industry's mid- and long-term energy saving and climate change mitigation strategies. This paper compiles available information on energy savings, environmental and other benefits, costs, and commercialization status for 25 emerging technologies to reduce the energy use and CO 2 emissions. The purpose is to provide a well-structured comprehensive review on these emerging energy-efficiency technologies for engineers, researchers, investors, policy makers, pulp and/or paper companies, and other interested parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An energy audit is a primary step toward improving energy efficiency at the facility level and ensuring a clean production. The pulp and paper sector is one of the most energy-intensive industries in Morocco. This article aimed at identifying energy conservation opportunities at a Small and Medium-sized paper industry. The audit results together with their financial viability are presented regarding the analysis of energy consumption and electrical quality issues. The paper introduces an action plan for a more efficient energy use of some specific applications such as furnaces and compressed-air installations as well. The recommended energy efficiency measures have the potential of saving about 347.85 MWh of electrical energy and 101.78 MWh of thermal energy corresponding to reductions of 11.48% and 2.22%, respectively. The total investments related to the application of the action plan is approximately 290.53 kMAD and the global payback period does not exceed one year. It was also shown that a total quantity of 283.39 t of CO 2 emissions can be saved annually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed at (i) identifying primary school students' attitudes toward environmental issues based on the perspectives of ecocentrism and anthropocentrism and (ii) inspecting students' attitudes (i.e., ecocentric and anthropocentric) toward environmental issues in relation to gender and grade level. Data were gathered from 40 students through the administration of an interview questionnaire along with pictures concerning questions in the questionnaire. Results demonstrated that most of the participants who held positive attitudes reflected anthropocentric attitudes toward water, paper, and electricity consumption, reusing, and playground preferences whereas ecocentric attitudes toward plants, bugs, and other animals. Besides, half and slightly more than half of the participants with positive attitudes expressed ecocentric attitudes toward residence preferences and environmental pollution, respectively while nearly half of the participants with positive attitudes expressed anthropocentric attitudes toward the mentioned issues. It was also found that with the exception of one environmental issue, participants' attitudes toward environmental issues were not significantly associated with their gender. Additionally, no relation was found between participants' environmental attitudes and their grade level.

Summary: Due to the convenience of virtualization, the live migration of virtual machines is widely used to fulfill optimization objectives in cloud/edge computing. However, live migration may lead to side effects and performance degradation when migration is overused or an unreasonable migration process is carried out. One pressing challenge is how to capture the best opportunity for virtual machine migration. Leveraging rough sets and AI, this paper provides an innovative strategy based on Q-learning that is designed for migration decisions. The highlight of our strategy is the harmonious mechanism for applying rough sets and Q-learning. For the ABDS (adaptive boundary decision system) strategy in this paper, the exploration space of Q learning is confined by the boundary region of rough sets, while the thresholds of the boundary region can be dynamically adjusted by the reaction results from the computing cluster. The structure and mechanism of the ABDS strategy are described in this paper. The corresponding experiments show a firm advantage for the cooperation of rough sets and reinforcement learning algorithms. Considering both the energy consumption and application performance, the ABDS strategy in this paper outperforms the benchmark strategies in comprehensive performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the influence of distance asynchronous teaching of Physics-I topics via intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) on academic achievement and permanence. A Web-based learning environment was created by use of an ITS called "Turkish Intelligent Tutoring System" (TURKZOS) for such Physics-I units as work, energy, and conservation of energy. The experimental group of the study consisted of 26 students who had computer and Internet access and participated in the study voluntarily. The achievement test developed by the researchers was used for collecting data. This test was conducted as pre-test and post-test before and after the experimental procedure respectively. The same test was administered to measure permanence 45 days later following the performance of the post-test. The obtained data were analyzed via paired t-test. Mean pre-test score was found to be 23.88, and mean post-test score was found to be 73.80. Mean permanence test, on the other hand, was found to be 71.88. When mean pre-test and post-test scores were compared, a significant difference was identified in favor of the mean post-test score (p < 0.05). In addition, a significant difference was detected between mean permanence test and pre-test scores (p < 0.005). The mean permanence test score was higher than the mean pre-test score. It was concluded that intelligent learning environments created through Web-based tutoring systems have a positive influence on academic achievement and permanence in physics teaching. [This paper was presented at the International Instructional Technologies & Teacher Education Symposium (ITTES2014) (2nd, Afyonkarahisar-Turkey, May 20-22, 2014).]

Sustainable development is development that aims to improve the quality of life for all people around the world, both current and future generations. The focus and alignment of researchers on the theme of sustainable development is highly expected, as evidenced by publications in reputable journals, included in educational journals such as Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (EJMSTE). The purpose of this Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was to review and compare investigations of researches on articles published by EJMSTE so that they are expected to have significant contributions to the topic of sustainable development. This SLR adopts five-step guidelines. The study standards that meet the requirements are, as follows: (i) the data used are from the 2005-2021 publication year; (ii) articles published in English; (iii) full paper can be accessed; and (iv) related to the theme of "sustainable" theme; and (v) only the type of research report articles. It can be concluded that EJMSTE is a pro-sustainable development journal. EJMSTE publishes 22 articles related to the theme of "sustainable". The most frequently used keywords are sustainable development and sustainability. Dominant authors were from Taiwan and China. We succeeded in formulating four important contributions made by articles published in EJMSTE related to sustainable themes, namely: (i) the urgency of science education in supporting sustainability, ESD, and SDGs funds; (ii) the need for curriculum reform and strengthening the competence of teachers in educational institutions, which are oriented towards sustainability and environmental literacy; (iii) the urgency of using technology that supports sustainability and ESD; and (iv) the urgency of energy efficiency, green marketing, green life cycle, and sustainable tourism to support sustainability. In addition, there are 22 useful educational resources that can be used as references/best practices, which can be implemented at the primary school to higher education levels.

This paper outlines the result of an innovative program to develop a competency-based curriculum and a work process to engage students in energy assessment of small commercial buildings in their community. Throughout the resulting course, "Leadership in Building Energy Efficiency (LBEE)," students were trained to gather buildings' energy-related data and make recommendations for potential courses of action. The program facilitated energy assessment for 45 commercial buildings and supported the development of a retrofit plan with financing in place for nearly 30 of these projects. The purpose of this collaborative program was to advance building energy efficiency through the introduction of new methods and processes leading to financially viable energy retrofits of small commercial buildings. The program focused on assisting small restaurants, grocery stores and other food sales/services that are low-profit- margin and usually lack the ability to manage and finance energy efficiency improvements. As a result of this program, students got engaged in making long-term improvements in their communities. Additionally, they gained the real-world skills necessary to develop and execute energy retrofit projects for other customer segments as part of their careers. The program is broadening and scaling up to include other building use types and aims to be part of the development pipeline for energy retrofit projects in a way that develops students' capabilities, increases the knowledge of building owners and operators, and reduces the development costs of energy service firms and third-party financers.

This paper investigates how one could envision a discursive mobilization process to transform protest movements into agents that help reconstruct the universities as agents supporting material mobilizations leading to ecological reconstruction. After reviewing universities' ecological footprints, the author shows how theories of mobilization and conjunctures could contribute to understanding how this transformation could occur. "Discursive mobilizations" advance values or ideas but stop short of innovation and production system changes. "Material mobilizations" affect deployment of human, technological, industrial and financial resources. "Conjunctures" involve linkages of political activity to spaces implicated in both kinds of mobilizations in a given historical time frame. The study shows many nations having both extensive climate activism and concentrations of university students creating a possibility for greening education centers based on various models for doing so. Yet, two key problems emerge. First, some nations lag in climate activism. Second, interest in a Green Deal or Green New Deal does not always match the level of attention to leading activist Greta Thunberg. The paper illustrates how such problems can be addressed by university-based campaigns linking activist cohorts, mobilization supporting green conversion of higher education and solidaristic, mutual aid exchanges among regions.

This paper discusses the representation of resource exploitation and consumption in German geography textbooks. The aim of the paper is to contribute to a critical and reflective understanding of the representation of resource-related issues in textbooks by analyzing two scientific debates (resource curse and actor analysis). The paper shows that all studied geography textbooks contribute to a certain degree to awareness raising in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), but references to the everyday life of students are rare. There are only few action-orientated tasks in the frame of resource exploitation and consumption in the studied textbooks. As real-world examples help develop students' critical thinking skills and shape their ideas of sustainable development, these aspects reflect a pedagogical shortcoming.

Although recycling is considered the core of a circular economy for returning materials to the supply chain, its procedures are poorly understood. Waste recycling is considered a big source of energy saving and a promoter of CO2 recovery. Besides that, it generates jobs and changes markets worldwide. The Brasilian National Policy on SolidWaste (PNRS) recognizesWaste Pickers as the major social agent in the recycling process responsible for putting Brasil among the ten largest paper-recycling countries in the world. This paper presents an analysis of Brasilian recycling chains of paper and plastics and the main challenges for expanding recycling from Municipal solid waste. The research data were obtained from primary and secondary source related to the recycling supply chain of paper and of the following plastics--High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), Polypropylene(PP), Polyethylene Terephthalate(PET) and Polystyrene(PS). Enterprises of various sizes, including informal ones and WPs associations/cooperatives, were visited, in the five Brasilian geographic regions, during the years of 2013 and 2014. A nomenclature was defined for the various enterprises that operate in the Brasilian recycling chain. Each node of the plastic and paper recycling chain was described. The main bottleneck observed in these chains is the lack of continuous programs of selective collection with an emphasis on environmental education processes in the 5570 Brasilian municipalities. Several possibilities not only to promote waste recycling but also to increase the productivity of the sorting process are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the scientific knowledge of the population through education is a development strategy towards a sustainable future. However, there is no equity in the access to science education and scientific knowledge. The aim of this paper is to present and analyse a science kit named "Energy, Environment and Sustainability" (KEAS). Based on research conducted in Guinea-Bissau, it explores strategies to promote science education for a sustainable future. The strengths and limitations of the KEAS were studied using different data collection methods, including interviews, observation, survey, focus groups and document analysis. The participants were teacher trainers from the Guinea-Bissau School of Education. It is concluded that the KEAS is a feasible and suitable teaching strategy appropriate to the context, having the potential to contribute to learning about the environment and sustainability. Further, it addresses real problems for which students should acquire knowledge and skills in order to be able to make informed choices.