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Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) experiences a recurrent drought phenomenon. However, few studies have focused on drought monitoring in this region due to lack of ground observations. The newly released Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) with a long-term record and high resolution has a great potential for drought monitoring. Based on the assessment of CHIRPS for capturing precipitation and monitoring drought, this study aims to evaluate the drought condition in LMB by using satellite-based CHIRPS from January 1981 to July 2016. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) at various time scales (1–12-month) is computed to identify and describe drought events. Results suggest that CHIRPS can properly capture the drought characteristics at various time scales with the best performance at three-month time scale. Based on high-resolution long-term CHIRPS, it is found that LMB experienced four severe droughts during the last three decades with the longest one in 1991–1994 for 38 months and the driest one in 2015–2016 with drought affected area up to 75.6%. Droughts tend to occur over the north and south part of LMB with higher frequency, and Mekong Delta seems to experience more long-term and extreme drought events. Severe droughts have significant impacts on vegetation condition.

To reduce plastic waste generation from failed product batches during industrial injection molding, the sustainable production of representative prototypes is essential. Interesting is the more recent hybrid injection molding (HM) technique, in which a polymeric mold core and cavity are produced via additive manufacturing (AM) and are both placed in an overall metal housing for the final polymeric part production. HM requires less material waste and energy compared to conventional subtractive injection molding, at least if its process parameters are properly tuned. In the present work, several options of AM insert production are compared with full metal/steel mold inserts, selecting isotactic polypropylene as the injected polymer. These options are defined by both the AM method and the material considered and are evaluated with respect to the insert mechanical and conductive properties, also considering Moldex3D simulations. These simulations are conducted with inputted measured temperature-dependent AM material properties to identify in silico indicators for wear and to perform cooling cycle time minimization. It is shown that PolyJetted Digital acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) polymer and Multi jet fusioned (MJF) polyamide 11 (PA11) are the most promising. The former option has the best durability for thinner injection molded parts, and the latter option the best cooling cycle times at any thickness, highlighting the need to further develop AM options.

Digital Transformations (DT) play an increasingly important role in academia and business, yet their significant Environmental Footprint (EF) is often overlooked, sidelining their potential for Environmental Sustainability (ES). This paper bridges this gap by integrating ES into the discourse of DT, proposing Green Enterprise Architecture (GREAN) as a method for sustainable transformation. Utilizing a Design Science Research approach, we developed an artefact outlining a comprehensive strategy for embedding ES in DT across various layers of an organization. The tool’s need was validated via a systematic literature review (SLR), highlighting the significant research gap in Green Enterprise Architecture. The artefact provides concrete Courses of Action (CoAs) for incorporating ES into the organizational strategy, business, data, application, and technology layers and proposes relevant capabilities to address this. The paper further presents an ES-aware business capability modelling, an innovative business modelling approach that integrates environmental sustainability principles by using (in a novel way) the presentation and analysis methods that capability mapping offers. The proposed artefact serves as a starting point for environmentally sustainable DTs. Future research directions include in-depth exploration of each enterprise layer for ES, real-world validation of our proposed tools and concepts, and the expansion of these into a full framework.

We use household survey data and results from a lab-in-the-field experiment to examine the impact of governance perceptions on the cooperativeness of water users in the maintenance of 19 small-scale irrigation schemes in northern Ghana. Cooperativeness is measured by two indicators, one indicator derived from the experiment and the other obtained from the survey. We distinguish the governance perceptions of users into six main components, and regress the two indicators on these six components. We consistently find for both indicators that cooperativeness is lower when users perceive that their water user association (WUA) is more successful in resolving conflicts. We also find that perceptions of accountability, transparency, and participation in governance jointly affect cooperativeness in a positive way, but collinearity problems refrain us from identifying which component(s) do(es) so. Type of leadership—whether or not the WUA leader was democratically elected—does not have a significant effect on cooperativeness, while having received irrigation-related training positively affects cooperativeness as measured by labor contributions to scheme maintenance. We argue that these novel insights can be of great importance for promoting sustainable management of small-scale irrigation schemes, but needs further research to examine its external validity.

Walkability has become a research topic of great concern for preserving public health, especially in the era of the COVID-19 outbreak. Today more than ever, urban and transport policies, constrained by social distancing measures and travel restrictions, must be conceptualized and implemented with a particular emphasis on sustainable walkability. Most of the walkability models apply observation and subjective methods to measure walkability, whereas few studies address walkability based on sense perception. To fill this gap, we aim at investigating the perceived neighbourhood walkability (PNW) based on sense perception in a neighbourhood of Brussels. We designed a survey that integrates 22 items grouped into 5 dimensions (cleanness, visual aesthetics, landscape and nature, feeling of pressure, feeling of safety), as well as the socio-demographic attributes of the participants. Using various statistical methods, we show that socio-demographics have almost no effects on perceived neighbourhood walkability. Nonetheless, we found significant differences between groups of different educational backgrounds. Furthermore, using a binomial regression model, we found strong associations between PNW and at least one item from each grouping dimension. Finally, we show that based on a deep neural network for classification, the items have good predictive capabilities (78% of classification accuracy). These findings can help integrate sense perception into objective measurement methods of walkable environments. Additionally, policy recommendations should be targeted based on differences of perception across socio-demographic groups.

This study uniquely employs a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) technique to account for complex relationships in consumption. The fsQCA technique assumes that relationships are based on a set–subset relationship. This assumption is fundamental when decision-makers are affected by information asymmetry and are, thus, required to jointly evaluate the credibility and reliability of a range of external signals. This issue also affects consumers in markets for cultural goods, where the quality of products is not known with certainty in advance of the purchase decision. Our study uses fsQCA to establish the effect of different quality signals on consumption in the US market for video game software. Our results show that reviews from professional critics alongside brand extension and multi-platform release strategies act as signals of product quality and, therefore, lead to high sales performance.

This study investigates the extending negative effects of impression management (IM) on organizational outcomes in the nursing context. Specifically, this study aims to understand the impact of IM on workplace exclusion through workplace deviance. The data came from 277 head nurses (nurses in leadership positions) in elderly care homes in Belgium. Structured paper-and-pencil questionnaires were administered on site in the respondents’ workplaces. In the findings of the current research, IM is positively related to workplace exclusion and the relationship is mediated by workplace deviance. Although, initially, IM is performed by the actors as a natural behavior to maintain their image, at some point, the actors can become fatigued with maintaining their image. Under ego depletion theory, the exhausted IM actors will be highly experienced in deviance or bad performance. Furthermore, consistent with social information processing theory and a correlation study between employees’ poor performance and workplace exclusion, the IM actors who fail to deliver good performance or behavior following their like-based rewards may be subject to social exclusion in their workplace.

Setting up strategies for a sound management of plastic packaging waste (PPW) is becoming increasingly crucial at many levels of the value chain in Europe. After the very first implementation of an extended producer responsibility scheme in Germany in 1991, many EU Countries followed. This resulted in a complex network of schemes that differ from one member state to another. This paper brings together the three latest studies describing the current flows of PPW across the waste value chain from Austria (reference year 2013), Germany and the Netherlands (reference year 2017). With this aim, the models of the three single studies have been adapted to fit into a common model, allowing to perform a comparative analysis. Although with a relatively comparable product market, the three countries have different management systems (e.g., separate collection systems, target sorting products and treatment of residual waste), reflecting different national strategies to achieve the circular economy targets. Recycling rates (in terms of washed milled goods at the output of the recycling process) for the three countries resulted in 23%, 43% and 30% of the total mass of PPW generated in, respectively, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The fraction of mixed recycled plastics, relevant for Germany and the Netherlands only, was determined to be one of the major determinants of the differences in recycling rates. Furthermore, the discussion revolves around new political targets that have the potential to contribute to addressing the issue of tradeoff between quantity and quality of recycled plastics placed on the market, with measures such as design-for-recycling and eco-modulation of EPR fees playing a critical role, while also pointing out the aspects that inevitably hinder closed-loop recycling.