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Energy efficiency has long been considered a key component of an industrial company's competitive repertoire. However, despite the potential benefits of adopting so-called energy efficiency measures, their uptake in such companies remains low. In response, this study proposes a framework aimed at supporting key decision-makers in undertaking a thorough assessment of energy efficiency measures. This involves, on the one hand, providing a complete characterization of a general industrial energy efficiency measure and, on the other, identifying the multiple impacts stemming from its adoption based on a novel performance measurement system that encompasses sustainability features and is defined at the shop floor level. Once theoretically validated through literature, the framework is empirically tested with a heterogeneous sample of Italian companies. The preliminary results demonstrate the framework's ability to thoroughly assess energy efficiency measures, highlighting characteristics and impacts that are sometimes considered more critical than energy saving by industrial decision-makers and therefore able to guide the outcome of the adoption decision.

Nutrient reduction is an essential environmental policy for water quality remediation, but climate change can offset the ecological benefits of nutrient reduction and lead to the difficulty of environmental evaluation. Here, based on the records of three lipid microalgal biomarkers and stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in two sediment cores from the embayment of Perth, Australia, we reconstructed the microalgal biomasses (diatoms, dinoflagellates and coccolithophores) over the past century and evaluated the ecological effects of nutrient reduction on them, using Change Point Modeling (CPM) and redundancy analysis (RDA). The CPM result showed that total microalgal biomarkers increased by 25% and 51% in deep and shallow areas, respectively, due to nutrient enrichment caused by industrial wastewater in the 1950s and the causeway construction in the 1970s, and dinoflagellates were beneficiaries of eutrophication. The nutrient reduction policy since the 1980s had not decreased total microalgal biomass, and diatoms were beneficiaries of this period. RDA based on time series of sediment cores and water monitoring data revealed that the increase of sea-surface temperature and the decrease of rainfall since the 1980s may be important factors sustaining the high total microalgal biomass and increasing the degree of diatom dominance. The result also indicated that the variations of microalgal assemblages may better explain the effect of nutrient reduction rather than total microalgal biomass.

This paper estimates the price impacts of the unanticipated closure of Hazelwood, a large brown coal power plant (1600 MW) in Victoria, Australia. We measure the total impact of the closure on prices in Australia's National Electricity Market for each half-hour interval, and for each state, 12 months from closure. We also break down the impact into direct and indirect effects and find that the total impact of the closure on prices varies considerably across half-hours. The results vary not only in magnitude and across time, but also in statistical significance. Our estimates suggest an upper bound for the impact on the average half-hourly price of $24.02/MWh 12 months from closure, with a total market impact of $6,527.4 million. When we break down the total impact into direct and indirect effects, we find the latter to be the main driver of our results, through a reduction in the merit-order effect of wind generation.

Green energy technologies (GETs) are environmentally friendly in nature, making a promising contribution to attaining net-zero carbon goals. Although the Pakistani government has begun using GETs to minimize the adverse effects of carbon emissions, consumers' adoption rate is quite low. There are few studies examining consumers' desire to adopt GETs in the country. This study attempts to fill this research gap and also contributes by adding three novel factors to the theory of planned behavior (i.e., green energy technology awareness, openness to experience, and green energy technology discomfort) to comprehensively analyze the impact of various factors influencing consumers' desire to adopt GETs. For this purpose, the study establishes a systematic research framework. Data were collected from (n = 330) households in the five major cities (Peshawar, Abbottabad, Mardan, Mingora, and Swabi) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province via an inclusive questionnaire survey. The formulated hypotheses are evaluated and scrutinized using structural equation modeling. The results reveal that environmental concern (β = 0.245), green energy technology awareness (β = 0.362), openness to experience (β = 0.256), and green energy technology benefits (β = 0.225) positively affect consumers' desire to adopt GETs. On the other hand, green energy technology costs (β = 0.325) and green energy technology discomfort (β = 0.395) have a negative effect on consumers' adoption of GETs. The research findings emphasize the importance of increasing recognition of GETs, reforming policy frameworks, and providing budget-friendly and user-friendly technologies. Research limitations and future research perspectives are also addressed.

Renewable energy projects, such as wind farms and hydropower dams, can indirectly benefit biodiversity by mitigating climate change. However, we explain why such indirect benefits should not contribute towards the accounting of project-level net biodiversity outcomes and provide guidance on the steps needed to legitimately claim no-net-loss of biodiversity.

BackgroundResearch on alcohol consumption mostly relies on self‐reported data, which are subject to recall bias. Wearable transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) monitors address this limitation by continuously measuring the ethanol excreted via the skin. This systematic review aims to provide an overview of TAC monitors’ reliability to detect alcohol consumption and methods to estimate breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) and number of standard drinks consumed in a given time frame.MethodsThe databases MEDLINE, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, Engineering Village, and CINAHL were systematically searched to identify 1,048 empirical research papers published from 2013 onwards, of which 13 were included after full‐text screening. The selected studies included 3 TAC monitors: SCRAM™, WristTAS™, and Skyn™.ResultsTAC measures of SCRAM, WrisTAS, and Skyn are found to be positively correlated with BrAC (r = 0.56 to 0.79) and/or self‐reports (r = 0.62). Using the AMS criteria for detection results in low sensitivity, adjusted criteria can increase the sensitivity of the SCRAM from 39.9 to 68.5%. The WrisTAS and an early prototype of the Skyn showed high failure rates (17 to 38%). Recent advances toward transforming the TAC data into more clinically relevant measures have led to the development of mathematical models and the BrAC Estimator Software. Using TAC data, both approaches produce estimates explaining 70 to 82% of actual BrAC and self‐reported drinking or to highly correlate with the actual BrAC measures (β = 0.90 to 0.91).ConclusionsTransdermal alcohol monitors offer an opportunity to measure alcohol consumption in a valid and continuous way with mathematical models and software estimating BrAC values improving interpretation of TAC data. However, the SCRAM seems unable to detect low‐to‐moderate drinking levels using the thresholds and criteria set by the manufacturer. Moreover, the WrisTAS and the Skyn prototype show a high failure rate, raising questions about reliability. Future studies will assess the validity of new‐generation wristbands, including the next Skyn generations.

The surface exchange interactions between the ambient environment and thin layers of black aluminum prepared by different methods are described. These properties are convenient for materials that are suitable for the fabrication of active layers of chemiresistors. The layers were prepared by magnetron sputtering at room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature, and evaporation with different compositions and gas flow rates. In this work, the process of thermally stimulated desorption was measured using mass spectrometry. The calculation of the activation energy Eact for the release of individual desorbing atoms, or radicals, from the surface of black aluminum was performed. Knowing of the temperature and the number of particles released by desorption allows us to get an idea of the number of defects and the functionalized structure of the surface layer.