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Copyright of Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae is the property of Uniwerystet Kardynala Stefana Wyznskiege w Warzawie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In environmental management and sustainability there is an increasing interest in measurement and accounting of beneficial impact—as an incentive to action, as a communication tool, and to move toward a positive, constructive approach focused on opportunities rather than problems. One approach uses the metaphor of a "handprint," complementing the notion of environmental footprints, which have been widely adopted for impact measurement and accounting. We analyze this idea by establishing core principles of handprint thinking: Handprint encourages actions with positive impacts and connects to analyses of footprint reductions but adds value to them and addresses the issue of what action should be taken. We also identify five key questions that need to be addressed and decisions that need to be made in performing a (potentially quantitative) handprint assessment, related to scoping of the improvement to be made, how it is achieved, and how credit is assigned, taking into account constraints on action. A case study of the potential water footprint reduction of an average Finn demonstrates how handprint thinking can be a natural extension of footprint reduction analyses. We find that there is a diversity of possible handprint assessments that have the potential to encourage doing good. Their common foundation is "handprint thinking." Plain Language Summary: The "handprint" has been suggested as a way of looking at the good we do, to complement the negative impacts captured by environmental "footprints." There are many ways we could try to assess a handprint, which capture different perspectives on the world, and the potential role of the handprint assessment in moving toward sustainability. This paper cuts down the definition of a handprint to three core principles and then discusses five questions that need to be considered and the decisions that need to be made in designing or evaluating a handprint assessment. A case study looks at how an average Finnish consumer can reduce the water footprint of the food they eat. Key Points: "Handprints" encourage positive impact and are inherently value‐ladenHandprint thinking provides the foundation for a variety of possible handprint assessments, centered around five key questionsCase study discusses the potential handprint of an average Finnish consumer aiming to reduce her food water footprint [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments in the Global South have recently started to align their public procurement regulations considering Green Public Procurement (GPP) guidelines to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 12. In this context, it is important to establish environmental criteria to help decision making after analyzing the variety of options available in the market. Thus, using as examples two of the most acquired products in public procurement in Peru: Medium‐density particleboard melamine furniture and paper offset, the aim of this paper is to determine the main environmental hotspots and therefore show the path to foster GPP in Peru. To achieve this goal, a Life Cycle Assessment was carried out considering it is a suitable environmental management tool to quantify environmental impacts. For this, a set of scenarios were modeled and compared for each of the two products selected, covering different geographical and technological options that are currently purchased by the Peruvian government. Results demonstrated that it is possible to attain considerable reductions in the environmental impact of the products analyzed if the main critical stages throughout their life cycle are identified and adequate solutions are applied to avoid burden shifting. Moreover, we argue that it is important for developing countries to carry out case‐specific life‐cycle inventories as they provide higher‐quality information based on the particular characteristics of regional or local industries, allowing the determination of more realistic environmental impact mitigation benchmarks. Nevertheless, the inclusion of lifecycle‐based criteria in GPP must be performed cautiously, avoiding command and control regulations, as numerous challenges remain in terms of capacity building, environmental awareness, and environmental information, and transparency in emerging and developing economies. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1206–1220. © 2021 SETAC Key Points: Latin American governments are currently aligning their public procurement regulations with Green Public Procurement (GPP) guidelines to comply with international environmental recommendations, such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or nationally determined contributions (NDCs).Considering that these nations struggle to develop empirical data to support GPP initiatives, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is presented as an attractive environmental management tool to quantify environmental impacts and orient GPP regulations.Two of the most acquired public procurement products in Peru, melamine furniture and paper offset, were evaluated using LCA to identify environmental hotspots, the sensitivity of the results through scenario analysis, and improvement actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts.Despite the existing challenges linked to building environmental information in Peru, case‐specific life‐cycle inventories for regional industries have proved to allow the determination of realistic environmental impact mitigation benchmarks to include in GPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Mechanical Engineering / Strojniški Vestnik is the property of University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Journal of Mechanical Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Environmental management certification is a common means for companies to conduct environmental management activities. By constructing a comprehensive certification-innovation-performance research framework, this paper analyzes whether environmental management certification can generate innovation incentives and then promote the improvement of corporate economic performance and social responsibility performance. Taking seven-year panel data of companies listed on GEM as a sample, a dynamic effect test including lag periods is carried out. The results show that voluntary environmental management helps to improve economic performance and social responsibility performance, but the influence paths are different. Voluntary environmental management affects economic performance through the mediator variable of green innovation and has a more obvious impact on long-term performance. However, for the performance of social responsibility, the direct effect of voluntary environmental management is significant, and green innovation does not play a mediating role. Regarding voluntary policy, this paper provides new support for the applicability of the Porter hypothesis. The conclusion of this paper has some implications for understanding the impact of voluntary environmental management on enterprise performance and can provide some theoretical support for promoting voluntary environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Existing literature points out that conventional educational modes are not sufficiently motivational for students. Concurrently, the contemporary society requires awareness of sustainability within project management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the use of simulations in project management education can positively impact students' awareness of sustainability and enhance their ability to navigate projects in a sustainable way. Design/methodology/approach: Experiment where 26 experienced professionals with different backgrounds engaged in three extensive project management simulations with sustainable aspects and participated in pre- and post-assessments. Findings: Our research shows that simulations have a high potential for enhancing learning on project management with sustainable aspects. We conclude that simulations can significantly contribute to enhancing student awareness of sustainability. This is through directly confronting them with three areas in which sustainability impacts project management, that is the management of environmental, social, and economic aspects; through handling opportunities, complexities, and adaptability; and by assuming responsibility for sustainable development in the simulation case. Practical implications: We have shown that simulations – as a part of project management education – are highly likely to augment students' capacity to navigate their projects in a sustainable way. Originality/value: This paper offers results of an empirical study on simulations as a means to create awareness of ability to navigate projects in a sustainable way. The paper provides extensive qualitative statements from participants, and thereby gives the reader insights into the raw data leading to insightful conclusions for the field of project management education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional project management in the construction industry has the uniqueness of exclusive customization, the irreversibility of the project, the immobility of the project address, the long-term nature of the project, and the dynamic nature of the project. Based on these characteristics, the complexity and difficulty of project management in the construction industry are determined. Modern engineering is no longer satisfied with the traditional basic needs, but develops in a green, environmental friendly and efficient way. On the one hand, the project is required to meet good use requirements and meet the most basic functional requirements. On the other hand, the project construction process is required to meet the requirements of green environmental protection and ecological harmony. Therefore, the maintenance cost and operation cost corresponding to modern projects have become the key to the sustainable and healthy development of the engineering construction industry. Based on this, this paper will take the construction industry as an example to fully analyze the current situation and existing problems faced by the current project cost management. Through the research on the full life-cycle project cost management mode of the construction industry, the random matrix weight algorithm is creatively introduced, and the adaptive full life-cycle project cost management extended target tracking algorithm is proposed, which cuts the corresponding full life-cycle project cost management model into multiple submodels, and the corresponding management subobjectives are constructed from the submodel, and the expansion status of the corresponding subobjectives is described and analyzed in detail using the inverse distribution description, so as to accurately estimate the effect and target weight coefficient required by the management subobjectives, and finally realize the efficient, reasonable and scientific operation of the construction industry's whole life-cycle project cost management, so as to maximize economic benefits. An experimental verification is carried out for a specific construction company. The verification results show that the full life-cycle project cost management scheme based on random matrix weight algorithm proposed in this paper has obvious advantages in management efficiency, cost control, process control, and other aspects compared with the traditional management scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a conceptual performance assessment tool for evaluating the environmental performance in small seaports. The developed tool is based and built based on a literature review. Ports, depending on their size, tend to have several sustainability and environmental management needs. However, especially small or cargo specialized ports do not often have sufficient resources to implement environmental effectiveness enhancing tools, even if they need them. This paper reviews international quality and environmental management tools, standards, and selected frameworks. These include International Organization for Standardization standards, and Global Reporting Initiative and Corporate Social Responsibility concepts. Because checklist type self-diagnosis solutions are the easiest to adopt, and universally most applicable, the proposed environmental performance measurement tool has four specific categories: (1) environmental management; (2) responsibility; (3) impact assessment; and (4) self-monitoring. The proposed tool allows the ports to assess whether their environmental management practices are comparable to more expensive standards and certificates. The paper concludes with a discussion on the limitations and challenges related to different port types and their specific needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the challenges posed by pollutants is necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 12 or achieve sustainable production and consumption patterns. Convergence assessment of air pollution provides information which can be beneficial to how to handle that air pollution across different countries. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are one of the most popular air pollutants. However, the current empirical literature on environmental economics largely ignores the convergence of per capita NOx. For this reason, this study investigates the stochastic convergence of aggregate and fuel-specific per capita NOx emissions in 20 OECD countries. This paper employs a recently introduced panel stationarity test that considers both smooth and sharp structural changes in the data generation process. The panel results show that the convergence hypothesis is rejected only for NOx from light-oil consumption. However, country-specific results reveal substantial evidence for divergence in the sample countries when NOx emissions per capita generated through diesel consumption, light-oil consumption, and natural gas consumption are considered. Besides, we find that most of the series have convergent behaviour for aggregate NOx, NOx from biomass consumption, NOx from hard-coal consumption, NOx from heavy-oil consumption, and NOx from the process. The policy implications of the empirical results for proper environmental management are elucidated in the paper. Actions taken based on the convergence findings will likely lead to a decrease in NOx emissions per capita as the countries will converge towards a lower level of NOx emissions per capita, in line with SDG's target 12. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental management plans are commonly implemented to manage and monitor the potential impacts of an action on environmental values. This paper examines the results of monitoring the potential impacts of construction and operation of a new highway bypass (the project) on southern pink underwing moth Phyllodes imperialis smithersi, a threatened insect, and lessons learned through the process of implementing an adaptive Threatened Invertebrates Management Plan (TIMP) for this species. The project had no direct impact on breeding habitat but its proximity to known breeding habitat meant indirect impacts from light spill, noise, dust during construction and weeds were possible. The monitoring program in the TIMP focused on using ripe banana baits to attract adult moths at night and searching the foliage of the species' only larval food plant for egg and larval stages at both impact and control sites prior to construction, during construction and the first three years of operation of the highway. The monitoring of banana baits failed to detect any adult moths but searching larval food plants was highly effective in monitoring the abundance of eggs and larvae; the monitoring approach was therefore adjusted to focus on the latter. The monitoring found no indirect impact of the project on breeding habitat and the relative abundance of the larval stage of southern pink underwing moth. Recommendations for the design and implementation of monitoring for this species are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses data from a large‐scale survey on corporate action to support biodiversity and ecosystem services undertaken by firms of all sizes and across manufacturing industries. The analysis focuses on Germany as the largest economy by GDP in the European Union and analyses the uptake of activities directly aimed at protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services compared to the uptake of other environmental protection activities. It furthermore investigates how activity and tool adoption as well as risk assessments vary with firm size and across industries, and with implementing environmental management systems. The analysis finds tensions between risk perception and activities pursued for biodiversity protection, largely because firms shy away from substantive action. It reveals that smaller and medium‐sized firms are less active and that environmental management systems are not conducive to corporate activities in support of biodiversity and ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science. It discusses the challenges faced by water and environmental sustainability in watersheds due to climate change and human interference. The editorial emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary research to understand the dynamics of watershed hydrology, water quality, and ecology. It also highlights the importance of adaptive management approaches to address the complexity and uncertainty associated with environmental changes. The document concludes by presenting recent research papers that explore watershed environmental changes and sustainable management worldwide. [Extracted from the article]

Short-term planning typically involves optimising different mining complex components individually, preventing unlocking value from intercorrelated activities. This paper proposes an integrated framework that defines diglines and shovel allocation decisions to improve the operation's financial performance. This involves a clustering approach, defining diglines and material destination; a simulator of the mining complex operations, forecasting the material flow from benches to processors; and an actor-critic reinforcement learning approach, assigning shovels to mining areas given operating requirements. A case study at a copper mining complex shows 27% cash flow improvements compared to a non-adaptive baseline approach provided by recent advances in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While environmental science, and ecology in particular, is working to provide better understanding to base sustainable decisions on, the way scientific understanding is developed can at times be detrimental to this cause. Locked‐in debates are often unnecessarily polarised and can compromise any common goals of the opposing camps. The present paper is inspired by a resolved debate from an unrelated field of psychology where Nobel laureate David Kahneman and Garry Klein turned what seemed to be a locked‐in debate into a constructive process for their fields. The present paper is also motivated by previous discourses regarding the role of thresholds in natural systems for management and governance, but its scope of analysis targets the scientific process within complex social‐ecological systems in general. We identified four features of environmental science that appear to predispose for locked‐in debates: (1) The strongly context‐dependent behaviour of ecological systems. (2) The dominant role of single hypothesis testing. (3) The high prominence given to theory demonstration compared investigation. (4) The effect of urgent demands to inform and steer policy. This fertile ground is further cultivated by human psychological aspects as well as the structure of funding and publication systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) is an environmental management accounting method that allocates costs to material and energy flows through a process, thereby enabling a simultaneous reduction in environmental impacts alongside an improvement in business and economic efficiency. This study illustrates the versatility of MFCA beyond its usual application to existing production and manufacturing processes. In this paper, MFCA is used to assess the financial viability of two emerging recycling technologies, IRETA2 (Development and Evaluation of Recycling Routes to Recover Tantalum from Electronic Waste) and ReComp (Development of an Innovative, Economically and Ecologically Sensible Recycling Method for Metallised ABS and PC/ABS Composite Waste). These two projects differ in their process structure. Whilst IRETA2 is a strictly linear recycling process, ReComp consists of two process streams, split according to the treatment of its two material fractions. For both projects, the lab-scale experimental results were used to develop an MFCA model of the recycling process scaled at each project partner's facilities. MFCA was utilised to calculate the projects' overall profit or loss, the impact of the final products' market conditions and processing rate (in the case of IRETA2), or machinery capacity (for ReComp) on the overall results. The results show that neither IRETA2 nor ReComp are financially viable based on the current output products' market value and quantity produced. However, through a sensitivity analysis, it is demonstrated that IRETA2 could become financially viable if the processing rate or market conditions were to improve. Additionally, ReComp could become financially viable if there was an increase in machine capacity. Finally, this paper also explores possible implications of MFCA when applied to emerging recycling technologies on EU policy and strategy, particularly those related to the EU Green Deal, such as extended producer responsibility and supply chain acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation decisions are challenging, not only because they often involve difficult conflicts among outcomes that people value, but because our understanding of the natural world and our effects on it is fraught with uncertainty. Value of Information (VoI) methods provide an approach for understanding and managing uncertainty from the standpoint of the decision maker. These methods are commonly used in other fields (e.g. economics, public health) and are increasingly used in biodiversity conservation. This decision‐analytical approach can identify the best management alternative to select where the effectiveness of interventions is uncertain, and can help to decide when to act and when to delay action until after further research. We review the use of VoI in the environmental domain, reflect on the need for greater uptake of VoI, particularly for strategic conservation planning, and suggest promising areas for new research. We also suggest common reporting standards as a means of increasing the leverage of this powerful tool. The environmental science, ecology and biodiversity categories of the Web of Knowledge were searched using the terms 'Value of Information,' 'Expected Value of Perfect Information,' and the abbreviation 'EVPI.' Google Scholar was searched with the same terms, and additionally the terms decision and biology, biodiversity conservation, fish, or ecology. We identified 1225 papers from these searches. Included studies were limited to those that showed an application of VoI in biodiversity conservation rather than simply describing the method. All examples of use of VOI were summarised regarding the application of VoI, the management objectives, the uncertainties, the models used, how the objectives were measured, and the type of VoI. While the use of VoI appears to be on the increase in biodiversity conservation, the reporting of results is highly variable, which can make it difficult to understand the decision context and which uncertainties were considered. Moreover, it was unclear if, and how, the papers informed management and policy interventions, which is why we suggest a range of reporting standards that would aid the use of VoI. The use of VoI in conservation settings is at an early stage. There are opportunities for broader applications, not only for species‐focussed management problems, but also for setting local or global research priorities for biodiversity conservation, making funding decisions, or designing or improving protected area networks and management. The long‐term benefits of applying VoI methods to biodiversity conservation include a more structured and decision‐focused allocation of resources to research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe weather conditions such as rain and snow often reduce the visual perception quality of the video image system, the traditional methods of deraining and desnowing usually rarely consider adaptive parameters. In order to enhance the effect of video deraining and desnowing, this paper proposes a video deraining and desnowing algorithm based on adaptive tolerance and dual-tree complex wavelet. This algorithm can be widely used in security surveillance, military defense, biological monitoring, remote sensing and other fields. First, this paper introduces the main work of the adaptive tolerance method for the video of dynamic scenes. Second, the algorithm of dual-tree complex wavelet fusion is analyzed and introduced. Using principal component analysis fusion rules to process low-frequency sub-bands, the fusion rule of local energy matching is used to process the high-frequency sub-bands. Finally, this paper used various rain and snow videos to verify the validity and superiority of image reconstruction. Experimental results show that the algorithm has achieved good results in improving the image clarity and restoring the image details obscured by raindrops and snows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, concerns regarding the local and cumulative impacts of oil sands development have been increasing. These concerns reflect the industry's emissions, land disturbance, water use, and the resulting impacts to Indigenous Rights. Effective environmental management is essential to address and ultimately manage these concerns. A series of ambient regional monitoring programs in the oil sands region (OSR) have struggled with scope and governance. In the last 10 years, monitoring has evolved from a regulatory‐driven exercise implemented by industry into a focused, collaborative, multistakeholder program that attempts to integrate rigorous science from a multitude of disciplines and ways of knowing. Monitoring in the region continues to grapple with leadership, governance, data management, scope, and effective analysis and reporting. This special series, "A Decade of Research and Monitoring in the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada," provides a series of critical reviews that synthesize 10 years of published monitoring results to identify patterns of consistent ecological responses or effects, significant gaps in knowledge, and recommendations for improved monitoring, assessment, and management of the region. The special series considered over 300 peer‐reviewed papers and represents the first integrated critical review of the published literature from the region. This introductory paper of the series introduces the history of ambient environmental monitoring in the OSR and discusses historic and ongoing challenges with the environmental monitoring effort. While significant progress has been made in areas of governance, expanded geographical scope, and inclusion of Indigenous communities in monitoring in the region, significant issues remain regarding a lack of integrated reporting on environmental conditions, public access to data, and continuity of monitoring efforts over time. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:319–332. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: This article introduces a special series that reviews over 300 manuscripts published over 10 years across environmental disciplines in the oil sands region of Alberta.The series is the first integrated critical review of published literature in the region.We discuss the history of ambient environmental monitoring in the region and the historic and ongoing challenges including how western science and Indigenous knowledge have been considered.While some progress has been made, significant issues remain regarding a lack of integrated reporting on environmental conditions, lack of public access to data, and discontinuity of monitoring efforts over time due, in part, to political influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform of environmental management systems is key to improving environmental pollution treatment and green technology innovation. Based on panel data on 30 provincial administrative regions in China for 2008 to 2016, this paper analyzes the impacts of environmental decentralization and environmental protection investment on green technology innovation. It is first found that environmental decentralization promotes green technology innovation after inhibition. Similar effects are found for environmental administrative decentralization, environmental monitoring decentralization, and environmental supervision decentralization. Second, in the long run, environmental decentralization in developed and low-emission regions is more conducive to green technology innovation. Third, environmental pollution treatment investment has a significant inhibiting effect on green technology innovation under high levels of environmental decentralization, and the inhibiting effects of industrial pollution source treatment investment and "three simultaneous" construction project investments are particularly obvious. This paper explores green technology innovation as the goal of environmental decentralization, which is the driving force behind pollution control. From the perspective of environmental protection investment, the paper further analyzes the impact of environmental decentralization on green technology innovation. The study has important reference value for determining reasonable levels of environmental decentralization among different levels of governance and in formulating differentiated strategies of environmental decentralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many big data applications produce a massive amount of high-dimensional, real-time, and evolving streaming data. Clustering such data streams with both effectiveness and efficiency are critical for these applications. Although there are well-known data stream clustering algorithms that are based on the popular online-offline framework, these algorithms still face some major challenges. Several critical questions are still not answer satisfactorily: How to perform dimensionality reduction effectively and efficiently in the online dynamic environment? How to enable the clustering algorithm to achieve complete real-time online processing? How to make algorithm parameters learn in a self-supervised or self-adaptive manner to cope with high-speed evolving streams? In this paper, we focus on tackling these challenges by proposing a fully online data stream clustering algorithm (called ESA-Stream) that can learn parameters online dynamically in a self-adaptive manner, speedup dimensionality reduction, and cluster data streams effectively and efficiently in an online and dynamic environment. Experiments on a wide range of synthetic and real-world data streams show that ESA-Stream outperforms state-of-the-art baselines considerably in both effectiveness and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent historiography of the South Korean environment and science in the 1960s and 1970s pays attention to the ignored environmental problems and their social implications in the rapid growth of science and technology. This paper contributes to the previous literature by examining the history of the City Saemaul Movement (도시새마을운동). It examines how urban environmental management was, for the first time, initiated in the form of mass mobilization in early 1970s South Korea. In 1971, the Saemaul Movement (or New Village Movement) took place in order to modernize rural areas. The City Saemaul Movement began one year later was part of it but was quite a contrast to the original one in terms of its targets and aims: it aimed to resolve or mitigate environmental and social problems--so-called urban pollution at the time--in urban areas, especially in Seoul. The City Saemaul Movement was a mass mobilization of urban citizens to improve the residential environment projects; it also aims to instill moral ideals in the urban communities that "urban citizens are more immoral than rural people and should resolve all urban problems on their own hands with responsibility." Through this work, this paper will shed light on the authoritarian government's irresponsible response to the environmental degradation in the early 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the phenomenal growth of urban centres in developing countries, cities have become important sites for engaging with environmental issues. Among the many issues, the prevalence of informal settlements in cities and their implications on environmental sustainability have emerged as a growing concern. However, the significance of these spaces in the environmental sustainability function has not been adequately considered. Policy makers and urban planners have often failed to recognize informal settlement upgrading processes as one of the most important avenues for realizing environmentally sustainable cities. As a result, these projects have not only failed to improve the inherent poor environmental quality, but they have also aggravated consumption inefficiencies, waste management problems and disrupted the social structures through which environmental management can be propagated. This paper evaluates the environmental sustainability performance of government led informal settlement upgrading projects in Kenyan cities in an effort to determine the extent to which environmental sustainability outcomes are evident in upgraded settlements. The evaluation focuses on environmental performance of 11 upgraded informal settlements in three cities on resource consumption domain based on 5 indicators using comparative performance rating. Data was collected through multistage cluster and simple random sampling of 600 household; coupled with key informant interviews, observations and focus group discussions. The results indicate low resource consumption environmental sustainability performance in the upgraded settlements in Kenya. There is need for deliberate action to integrate environmental sustainability in informal settlement upgrading processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A green economy refers to a modern form of harmony between the environment and the economy. China showing the fastest economic growth in the world has entered into a new phase of advance, facing a critical industrial transformation and progression. The paper aims to analyse China's green economic development considering the differences in development of regions. The study applied the ultra-efficient slacks-based measure model to scrutinize China's green economic development efficiency. Dagum Gini coefficient and Kernel density methods are used to estimate spatial characteristics, local adjustments, and dynamic evolution trends. The analysis is based on an annual dataset of 30 Chinese provinces from 2010 to 2019. The findings did not confirm extensive China's green economic development. In contrast, the development efficacy reveals an influential drive over the years. Regional green development is detected as unstable and diverges due to interregional differences. The findings showed that environmental regulation, government investment, industrial structure, education development were 0.0648, 0.00154, 0.0035 and 0.118 (significant at 5% and 1%), respectively. Besides, they stimulate the green economic development in the analysed regions. However, urbanization and openness of economy had the negative value. It confirmed their restriction impact on the green economic development. In addition, the findings showed that ongoing Chines policy on management of environmental development is the priority direction and provoke the declining the environmental pollution. Besides, the modernization and optimization of the Chinese industry structure stimulate the further green economic progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green infrastructure can effectively coordinate environmental, social and economic development, and has become one of the important strategies to achieve sustainable development. This study used CiteSpace and VOSviewer to analyze 2194 papers in the field of green infrastructure published from 1995 to 2019 in the Web of Science database using the bibliometrics and visualization methods. Results demonstrate a substantial increase in the number of studies on green infrastructure in recent years, with European and American countries leading the study of green infrastructure. Landscape and Urban Planning, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, and Journal of Environmental Management are the first three cited journals in green infrastructure study. By studying co-cited literature, the study of green infrastructure has been found to involve the relationship between green infrastructure and ecosystem and human health, construction, evaluation and management of green infrastructure, and analysis of a special aspect of green infrastructure, among others. Clustering analysis results of green infrastructure keywords indicate that the existing studies have concentrated on green infrastructure in stormwater management, ecosystem services, biodiversity protection, and climate change. This study provides references for green infrastructure for sustainable environment development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste categorization and recycling are critical approaches for converting waste into valuable and functional materials, thereby significantly aiding in land preservation, reducing pollution, and optimizing resource usages. However, real-world classification and identification of recyclable waste face substantial hurdles due to the intricate and unpredictable nature of wastes, as well as the limited availability of comprehensive waste datasets. These factors limit efficacy of the existing research work in the domain of waste management. In this paper, we utilize semantic segmentation at individual pixel level and introduce a semi-supervised metod for authentic waste classification scenarios, leveraging the Zerowaste dataset. We devise a non-standard data augmentation strategy that mimics the ever-changing conditions of real-world waste environments. Additionally, we introduce an adaptive weighted loss function and dynamically adjust the ratio of positive to negative samples through a masking method, ensuring the model learns from relevant samples. Lastly, to maintain consistency between predictions made on data-augmented images and the original counterparts, we remove input perturbations. Our method proves to be effective, as verified by an array of standard experiments and ablation studies, achieved an accuracy improvement of 3.74% over the baseline Zerowaste method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the changes in land use types and industrial agglomeration brought by the long-term rapid urbanization, the ecology of China's rural areas has been greatly impacted. The health of residents and other living beings living in rural areas has been affected. In recent years, the ecology of the rural environment has been paid attention to. This study performed a bibliometric analysis of 167 papers on the Web of Science from 2013 to 2022. It shows that policy management and environmental science were two main research fields in solving the ecological and environmental crisis in China's rural areas. Additionally, it was found that the study areas often spanned administrative districts, and the research was mainly based on the integrity of the overall ecosystem. The cases studied were mainly distributed in the following three types of areas: continuous river basins and lake basins; economically developed regions; and less developed areas with relatively fragile ecosystems. Ecological elements such as water, soil, air, and vegetation were all included in the study aims. Finally, from the perspective of institutional reform, comprehensive approaches to solving China's rural ecological environmental problems in the current research were identified, including the revision of laws and regulations, economic means, technological innovation, and public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmentalism is a social movement that shows the concern for environment conservation and improvement of the state of the environment. The concept for environmental sustainability by the banks has given rise to concept of green banking. In an emerging economy like India, environmental management needs to be the key focus area of the business fraternity and especially the banking industry being the major intermediary. This would help the firms in the emerging economies to utilize their limited resources in an optimum way without harming the natural environment and face the global challenge of sustainability in successful manner. In the present paper green banking and sustainability has been discussed in detail. The paper also highlights on the stage, initiatives, benefits and future of green banking in Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In anthropogenic landscapes, wildlife reintroductions are likely to result in interactions between people and reintroduced species. People living in the vicinity may have little familiarity with the reintroduced species or associated management, so will need to learn to live with the species in a new state of "Renewed Coexistence." In England, Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) are being reintroduced and U.K. Government agencies are currently considering their national approach to reintroduction and management. Early indications are this will include requirement for "Beaver Management Groups" (BMGs) to engage with local stakeholders. This policy paper reports on qualitative research that captured lessons from the governance of two existing BMGs in Devon (south‐west England), drawing on both a prior study and new interview data. Through the analysis, we identified that BMGs are not a fixed structure, but an adaptive process. This consists of three stages (Formation, Functioning, and Future?), influenced by resource availability and national policy direction. We argue that, where they are used, Species‐specific Management Groups could provide a "front line" for the integration of reintroduced species into modern landscapes, but their role or remit could be scaled back over time and integrated into existing structures or partnerships to reduce pressure on limited resources, as knowledge of reintroduced species (such as beaver) grows and its presence becomes "normalized." There must be sufficient flexibility in forthcoming policy to minimize constraint on the adaptive nature of BMGs and similar groups for other reintroduced species, if they are to facilitate a sustainable coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing realization of the inadequacies of the conventional approach to climate change adaptation has generated interest in sustainable forms of adaptation that could promote long-term ecosystem health and social equity. In this regard, the concept of ecosystem-based adaptation has been receiving attention as an integrative framework for maintaining healthy ecosystems, with the aim of building the resilience and reducing the vulnerability of social–ecological systems to climate change impacts. However, there is currently an inadequate understanding of the institutional requirements for the transition towards ecosystem-based adaptation. A promising institutional mechanism for addressing these governance challenges is adaptive governance, a governance mechanism that relies on flexible, multi-level institutions to connect actors across multiple scales in managing conflicting values and uncertainties in ecosystem-based management processes. This paper discusses four roles of adaptive governance in the transition of water resource systems towards ecosystem-based adaptation: (1) creating awareness about climate change through social learning and the integration of diverse sources of knowledge; (2) generating interest for policy change through the provision of economic and non-economic incentives; (3) creating opportunities for change through the promotion of vertical and horizontal interactions among actors; and (4) building capacities for change through enhanced access to relevant institutions and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing demand for metals used in clean energy technologies, including electric vehicles, has led to an increased demand in certain metals such as Ni, Co, and Mn. This demand has in turn led to an expanding interest in deep‐seabed mining (DSM) of polymetallic nodule deposits that contain these exact metals. The main concerns about DSM relate to the incomplete information available about the environmental risks associated with seabed mineral extraction. Key uncertainties need to be systematically addressed to refine environmental impact predictions and establish effective mitigation measures. Adaptive management is an iterative process for reducing the uncertainty that can be applied by both mining companies and regulatory bodies. This Special Series paper reviews the key opportunities and challenges to operationalizing adaptive management in DSM projects and highlights the need for a framework to move from theory to practice. The discussion proposes a systems approach to adaptive management, which could help to guide the environmental management of deep‐sea mineral extraction. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:674–681. © 2021 SETAC Key Points: Adaptive management is a suitable approach to addressing residual uncertainty for the effective environmental management of deep‐seabed mining projects.Active adaptive management can be implemented in environmental management and monitoring plans to prioritize "learning by doing" and avoid "trial and error."The paper introduces a conceptual framework for Systemic Adaptive Management (SAM), a systems approach to the implementation of adaptive management in deep‐seabed mining projects.Participatory modeling is highlighted as a method to operationalize SAM whereby stakeholders are engaged to build complex system models to support decision making under uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to know how university's strategic managers, from botacademic and administrative systems, perceive the relationship between sustainability and accreditation as sustainability incorporation and the quality of their processes are amongst the actual challenges of universities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper opted for an inductive, exploratory study using the case study approach, including 19 in-depth interviews to administrative and academic managers in a private, high-quality certified university in Colombia. The data were assessed using the content analysis methodology. The Colombian accreditation guidelines were the base to analyse the data as accreditation is part of the quality assurance system. Findings: This paper provides empirical insights into how the implementation of sustainability in universities relates to the Colombian accreditation factors. The main links found were in the areas of the university's social impact and organisational responsibility, which are highly relevant to graduates, external stakeholders and sustainability skills. Sustainable campus operation was associated with environmental management and improvement of the quality of the physical plant, with social and economic benefits in the long-term. Additionally, this research found a need for administrative and academic managers to understand and increase their commitment to sustainability. Research limitations/implications: Because it was a case study, results are not generalisable. Consequently, further research on similar lines is required to universalise the mentioned observation and results. Practical implications: The accreditation factors related to sustainability, inductively defined and exposed in this paper, provide an idea of how sustainability implementation could contribute to higher education quality assurance. Originality/value: This paper contributes to filling the knowledge gap about embedding sustainability in Latin-American universities. This paper postulates a starting point considering accreditation standards and the link of the strategic manager's perceptions of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The development of the Amazon region depends on the organisation and improvement of production chains able to benefit forest species and animals. The purpose of this paper is to map and categorise the studies developed on the Arapaima gigas, a commercialisable fish native to the Amazon, responding to the following research questions: first, which links of the production chain have most of the studies on the pisciculture of the Amazon region? Second, is environmental performance being approached in studies on production chains in the Amazon region? To reach the objective, the authors used the systematic literature review (SLR) method. The authors analysed a sample of 121 articles published in 95 journals between 1981 and 2018. The research contains bibliometric and contents analyses. The main conclusions include the identification of various possibilities of studies throughout the different production chains in the Amazon region; the multidisciplinarity of research on a single species in the Amazon region; the importance of empirical studies in the construction of knowledge about the natural behaviour of the species; the need for integration and sharing of knowledge to create an efficient and competitive production chain. As a limitation, this study encompasses a broad spectrum of issues in the literature, therefore, it was only possible to offer a general overview of these issues. At the same time, this broad and intentional approach presents a comprehensive framing of the themes and phenomena that occur at each link of the production chain of Amazon fish farming. Design/methodology/approach: This research consists in an SLR with organised, transparent and replicable procedures as recommended in the literature (Littell et al., 2008). The SLR is suited to the mapping of areas where there is a high level of uncertainty and new studies are necessary (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006). This research method is especially useful when dealing with a large volume of information (Tranfield et al., 2003). The use of SLR limits researcher bias by trying to evaluate and select relevant studies on the study theme (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006). Findings: There are a number of possibilities for studies of the different production chains in the Amazon region; the results of mapping the production chains help to prioritise "what" should be researched in the Amazon region to promote more effective impacts for all stakeholders; research on pisciculture in the Amazon region can be used as a diagnostic tool for public policy formulators; the development of corporate environmental management is intrinsically linked to the process of analysis and understanding of the operations and costs that arise in different links of the production chain. Research limitations/implications: As a limitation, this study encompasses a broad spectrum of issues in the literature, therefore, it was only possible to offer a general overview of these issues. Practical implications: In terms of practical implications, it is possible to note that the dispersion of themes found in this study confirms the plurality of the richness of the Amazon and suggests that research institutions should be able to commit to the drafting of integrated planning of science, as well as compilation of the results reached. It is also important to highlight Brazil's role in the leadership of research in the Amazon region compared to other countries. Originality/value: The aim of the paper was twofold: to supply a focussed review of the literature on the production chain of a species in Amazon pisciculture and to identify a research agenda capable of overcoming the gaps that impede the development of this chain. More specifically, this study reviewed the available research on the chain in question to analyse the links that have the largest volume of studies and to orient future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing necessity for new long-term planning models to adequately assess the flexibility requirements of significant levels of short-term operational uncertainty in power systems with large shares of variable renewable energy. In this context, this paper proposes an adaptive robust optimization model for the generation and transmission expansion planning problem. The proposed model has a two-stage structure that separates investment and operational decisions, over a given planning horizon. The key attribute of this model is the representation of daily operational uncertainty through the concept of representative days and the design of uncertainty sets that determine load and renewable power over such days. This setup allows an effective representation of the flexibility requirements of a system with large shares of variable renewable energy, and the consideration of a broad range of operational conditions. To efficiently solve the problem, the column and constraint generation method is employed. Extensive computational experiments on a 20-bus and a 149-bus representation of the Chilean power system over a 20-year horizon show the computational efficiency of the proposed approach, and the advantages as compared to a deterministic model with representative days, due to an effective spatial placement of both variable resources and flexible resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to optimize the multichannel resource scheduling of English online translation teaching and realize the goal of adaptive scheduling algorithm, a multichannel resource adaptive scheduling algorithm for English online translation teaching is designed. The clustering algorithm is used to sort out various English online translation teaching multichannel resources and remove redundancy. Build a unified standard specification; establish an English online translation teaching resource scheduling model with three modules of foundation layer, environment layer, and application layer; form an easy-to-find data set; build an adaptive scheduling algorithm function module of system management, standard management, media materials, online courses, courseware library, and test question library; and optimize the integration speed under multiobjective scheduling algorithm; this paper analyzes the multichannel resource scheduling process of English online translation teaching and realizes the research on the designed adaptive scheduling algorithm. The experimental results show that the test results of each functional module of the scheduling platform under the designed algorithm meet the functional requirements, and the update amount of resources is close to the update upper limit, which can reasonably manage teaching resources and improve students' interest and learning ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staying in Aotearoa New Zealand, Ruwhiu and her collaborators present a Kaupapa Maori research project (an Indigenous research approach that is by, with, and for Maori people) with Kati Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki, a Maori tribal community in the South Island of New Zealand (Ruwhiu et al. [28]). In Aotearoa New Zealand, Greenaway and her Maori and non-Maori colleagues bring focus to the role of non-indigenous researchers to embrace the geographical, cultural and social place in which they find themselves as "guests". Since the valuable contribution to I Sustainability Science i of the I Special Feature: Weaving Indigenous and Sustainability Sciences to Diversify our Methods i (WIS2DOM, Vol 11, Issue 1, 2016), knowledge co-production has become a central feature of many sustainability efforts. [Extracted from the article]

Perspectives on the Environmental Implications of Sustainable Hydropower gathers scientific papers from three of the worlds most important hydropower producers to discuss aspects of sustainable hydropower and the means by which it can be studied and achieved. The papers examine the application and use of new technologies and protocols for studying hydropower, adaptive management and the implications and use of long-term data sets for minimizing hydropower impacts on fish populations. The papers include a cross section of biological and hydrological experts. The implicit among country comparisons highlight a number of common hydropower themes, particularly the need to expand from single species studies to include broader consideration of the ecosystem, the importance of maintaining habitat, trait and species diversity and the need for consistently collected long-term data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For this award, we considered all papers published in 2022, excluding note-comments, editorials, message articles, and papers authored by a committee member. In our model, these systemic synergies are considered levers for successfully implementing the 2030 Agenda, while trade-offs are potential hurdles. In our paper, we first statistically determine SDG synergies and trade-offs using indicator data. [Extracted from the article]

In the last decades, research in the management sciences, the modeling and analysis of systems, and artificial intelligence (AI), have provided ways of extracting useful knowledge from data and how that knowledge can better inform decision making. Such models are designed and used to support decision makers and hence these methods as a group are often termed decision support systems. Interactive decision support systems that incorporate visualization to allow users, including decision makers to explore the impacts of possible decisions and assumptions are well known and widely used in the water resources and environmental systems communities, as they are in many other fields. They are now needed to address and analyze possible decisions that may help all of us adapt to, and mitigate the adverse impacts caused by, a changing climate. The literature is full of studies explaining how to develop and use such models for adaptive planning and decision making. Yet studies on how decision makers use the results of these analyses and to the extent they have helped decision makers formulate their decisions are scarce. What is clear, however, is that their use does not always guarantee that they were helpful in addressing a particular challenge or issue. The information these analytical tools provide is only part of the information decision makers consider when making their decisions. This paper considers what might be done to assist decision makers improve the decisions they may make in the post-analysis stages of decision-making processes, especially when they are faced with challenging (and often surprising) situations where there appears to be no satisfactory solution. Addressing climate change causes and impacts are among these challenges. Without modeling support, making and implementing decisions is typically left to each decision maker's experience, biases, mindset, habits, and beliefs based on their evaluation of all the information available to them. With some additional aids to facilitate the creation of new ideas, i.e., to help individuals adapt and innovate, it just may be possible to convert (find acceptable solutions to) some issues or problems considered unsolvable to solvable ones. A case study involving renewable hydroelectric and solar energy development in the Mekong River Basin illustrates how these methods can help enable more adaptive and innovative planning and management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the relationship between Blockchain technology and new sustainable business models (SBMs). The literature notes a lack of empirical classifications and successful case studies. Using a multiple case studies methodology, our research article aims to answer the research question (RQ): How can Blockchain enable new SBMs and support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? We present 20 business stories extracted from a combined analysis of the databases coinmarketcap.com and icobench.com, demonstrating how Blockchain can be used for environmental management. Notably, our analysis finds out four broad research clusters related to (i) smart energy management, (ii) climate change, (iii) waste management, and (iv) sustainable production. Mainly, an actual application of Blockchain toward SBMs is related to supply chain cost reduction. Finally, the research includes investments and their social scalability with Blockchain. Then, the final research cluster discovers social and proof sustainability. This study adds to the empirical literature evidence of SBMs offering a connection with the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of geochemical and epidemiological studies verified that the Lavrion urban and suburban area is highly contaminated and has affected to a variable degree the health of the inhabitants, presented in the first part of review on the Lavrion 'sagas'. In the second part of this review, emphasis is given to the challenge environmental scientists faced in communicating the scientific results to environmental managers and the public and state officials in order for them to understand the benefits of prioritising public health over wealth. Imminent remediation actions have been developed and proposed in order to secure a healthier life for the local population. The proposed integrated environmental management scheme was based on the findings of hazard and health risk assessment. The aim was not only to remediate the contaminated land, but also to inform the local population and authorities regarding the environmental hazards that they were facing, and the necessary safety measures that should be taken. However, the proposed lifestyle changes were viewed with scepticism from all stakeholders. This paper seeks to provide some answers to questions related to the obstacles that have prevented the implementation of the proposed remediation plan on a large scale by reporting on risk perception and response to scientific evidence by the affected community in Lavrion. It also underlines the significant role of SEGH in linking applied environmental research with the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges faced by ODeL institutions to involve students in campus sustainable development goals (SDGs) related practices. Given that universities are mandated by several calls to participate in the implementation of SDGs, one way they can contribute to the SDGs paradigm is through the involvement of students. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through interviewing the Campus Operations Manager and the Students Representative Council (SRC) to determine the challenges of involving students' in SDGs-related practices. The SRC completed the USAT (Part C) to determine SDGs practices students are involved in. An online survey was undertaken to determine how BSc Environmental Management students are participating in SDGs and the challenges faced towards their involvement. Thematic analysis analysed interview data and descriptive statistics analysed online survey data. Credibility and reliability were enhanced by data triangulation. Findings: The research revealed that few students were involved in some campus SDGs-related practices. Few students were involved in off-campus SDG projects. This result is attributed to the distance between the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the students, lack of finance, the misconception around SDGs and a lack of interest in SDGs. The geographical distribution of ODeL students was concluded as the major barrier to student involvement in SDGs. Originality/value: There are few studies, which investigated the involvement of students in campus-related SDGs in universities, let alone distance universities in Africa. The paper testifies that ODeL institutions have avenues to involve students in SDGs if such institutions become proactive through campus SDGs competitions and certification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive management has very important practical significance for climate change adaptation and will play a great role in climate change risk mitigation in agricultural, forestry, and pastoral areas of China. Based on the theory of adaptive management, this paper selects Yuanping City from Shanxi Province, Qingyuan County from Liaoning Province, and Kulun Banner from Inner Mongolia as representative cases in agricultural, forestry, and pastoral areas, respectively, to carry out field research, and it uses 1970-2017 meteorological station data to apply vulnerability assessment and climate element change trend analysis, combined with the meteorological hazards data, and explore the adaptive management measures for agricultural, forestry, and pastoral areas in China. The conclusions are as follows: (1) the vulnerability of precipitation in Yuanping is high, the increase in temperature and drought and floods are the most important factors affecting crop yields in agricultural areas, and the key to climate change adaptive management lies in the awareness of farmers of climate change risks and the institutional guarantee of the government; (2) Qingyuan has high temperature vulnerability, and the forest areas have relatively strong adaptive capacity to climate change, but climate change will significantly affect the forest's carbon sequestration function, and the focus of climate change adaptive management in the forestry sector is on engineering and technology field practices; (3) Kulun has the highest vulnerability to climate change, the frequent meteorological disasters seriously impact livestock development, and climate change adaptive management in pastoral areas relies on the participation of pastoralists' local knowledge and also needs the support of the government and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of watershed environmental management is closely related to the cooperation modes of upstream and downstream regions pollution control, but the existing literature rarely considers it. Additionally, based on the cumulative and cross-border impacts of pollution discharge in different regions, it is appropriate to use dynamic game theory to study pollution control problems. Therefore, this paper develops a dynamic multi game model to analyze the pollution control game behavior between the upstream and downstream regions along the basin in three scenarios: non-cooperation, pollution abatement cooperation, and ecological compensation. By using the optimal control method, we get the dynamic equilibrium strategies of the government and enterprises and pollution stock trajectories under different cooperation modes. The results show that pollution abatement cooperation can improve the environment, but may not improve social welfare; the eco-compensation mechanism is not always conducive to the improvement of the environment and welfare of the basin, and the effective conditions of implementing ecological compensation is put forward. In addition, we also analyzed the impact of consumer preferences, pollution treatment efficiency, and other parameters on governments and enterprises decision-making and the social welfare. These conclusions provide a theoretical basis for cooperative governance scheme for transboundary pollution in river basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microgrids are considered to be smart power grids that can integrate Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) in the main grid cleanly and reliably. Due to the random and unpredictable nature of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) and electricity demand, designing a control system for microgrid energy management is a complex task. In addition, the policies of microgrid agents are changing over time to improve their expected profits. Therefore, the problem is stochastic and the policies of the agents are not stationary and deterministic. This paper proposes a fully decentralized multiagent Energy Management System (EMS) for microgrids using the reinforcement learning and stochastic game. The microgrid agents, comprising customers, and DERs are considered as intelligent and autonomous decision makers. The proposed method solves a distributed optimization problem for each self-interested decision maker. Interactions between the decision makers and the environment during the learning phase lead the system to converge to the optimal equilibrium point in which the benefits of all the agents are maximized. Simulation studies using a real dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for the hourly energy management of microgrids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Security logs in cloud environment like intrusion detection system (IDS) logs, firewall logs, and system logs provide historical information describing potential security risks. However, the use of logs for cyber intrusion detection relies heavily on expert knowledge. It is very difficult for the non-expert to identify these intrusion behaviors. This paper proposes a new method for mining association rules from multi-source logs to detect various intrusion behaviors in the cloud computing platform. In this method, a rule base is constructed to detect cyber intrusion. An adaptive approach is used to speed up the calculation of the association rule mining, in which the decision depends on the time complexity of the algorithm. Various cyber-attacks are simulated in the verification experiments which show the calculation speed of the proposed method is faster than other algorithms. Furthermore, compared with other methods, the performance of the proposed intrusion detection method is better than others in term of precision, recall, and f-measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]