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Analyzing the efficiency of the water, energy, and food (WEF) nexus is critical for effective governance strategies. Therefore, three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to measure the efficiency level of WEF in the 36 districts of Punjab, Pakistan, for the period from 2015 to 2021. Furthermore, the stochastic frontier was used to analyze the effect of external environmental factors on these efficiency scores of the WEF nexus. The results of the DEA showed that the number of frontier efficiency districts decreased, and most districts experienced rank change over time. Overall, the performance of 50% of the districts declined over time. The relative decline in efficiency was found to be higher in districts Bahwalnaghar and Rahim Yar Khan. The performance of districts Multan and Sheikhupura increased over time, while districts Vehari and Sargodha were the most complete and efficient in actual performance. According to the SFA’s findings, the WEF nexus efficiency of South Punjab districts was negatively impacted by external environmental factors (urbanization rate, manufactured industry output, population), leading to severe stress across WEF sectors. Districts in central and southern Punjab, however, were more likely to have lower rankings because of the positive impact of external environmental factors on the efficiency of the WEF nexus. The substantial rise of external environmental variables focused on scale expansion rather than quality improvement, which created a wide gap in WEF inputs and, hence, reduced the efficiency of the WEF nexus in the districts. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for developing governance strategies based on external environmental factors and WEF resource endowment, and they complement the efficiency calculation of WEF nexus research. Future research should focus on the Baluchistan region, the most deprived area in terms of water, energy, and food.

EU has set ambitious commitment to achieve low carbon energy and economy transition up to 2050. This low carbon transition means sustainable energy development path based on renewable energy sources and first of all should address the energy poverty vulnerability and justice issues. The main goal of the paper is to develop indicators framework for assessing low carbon just energy transition and to apply this framework for analysis how climate change mitigation policies in households targeting enhancement of energy renovation of residential buildings and promotion of the use of micro-generation technologies and other policies are affecting household's energy poverty and vulnerability in selected countries: Lithuania and Greece. This framework allows to assess three main dimensions of sustainable energy development: environmental, social and economic. The paper provides policy recommendations how to deal with just low carbon energy transition which means addressing energy poverty issues during moving to 100% renewables in power generation based on performed case studies.

Over the past decade, there has been a constant spotlight on introducing sustainability in the supply chain (SC). The materialistic human greed for production and consumption has led to a radically increased level of greenhouse gases. SC has become its principal contributor. We are addressing this socio-economic environmental challenge by developing a multi-stakeholder framework and focusing on a knowledge-based net zero supply chain, as there are no concrete existing studies that have investigated current state-of-the-art operations in this relevant field. Therefore, this research has been conducted to investigate the drivers, barriers and practices through which net zero economy (NZE) can be attained in a knowledge-based SC. In this regard, the paper conducts an exploratory systematic review of selected articles from peer-reviewed journals. The findings indicate that primary stakeholders (i.e. organisations and suppliers) require to take an active role in bringing about sustainable changes in practice. However, external perspectives (i.e. government, society, consumers and community) have also been identified as sources that create challenges as well as have the potential to aid sustainable industrial practices. Additionally, progress can be enhanced through proper policies, regulations and a knowledge-based conceptual framework to pave the way for a sustainable environment. Proper practices for NZE also provide scope for economic growth through cost-effective production. This paper will be beneficial for practitioners as well as policy makers on a global scale who aim to attain NZE for sustainability.

Concurrent drinking and gambling is prevalent among young adults and may increase negative consequences associated with each behavior. The effects of alcohol, initial gambling outcomes, gambling-related cognitions, and impulsivity on gambling behavior were evaluated. Initial gambling outcomes, gambling-related cognitions, and impulsivity were also assessed as potential moderators of the relation between alcohol and gambling behavior. Participants (N = 130) were randomly assigned to receive active placebo or alcohol (0.84 g/kg and 0.76 g/kg for men and women, respectively) and were invited to wager on a simulated slot machine programmed to produce 1 of 3 initial outcomes (win, breakeven, or loss) before beginning a progressive loss schedule. Alcohol consumption was associated with larger average bets and more rapid loss of all available funds, though no evidence was found for predicted main effects and interactions for gambling persistence. The effect of impulsivity was moderated by beverage condition, such that higher levels of impulsivity were associated with larger average bets for participants in the placebo but not the alcohol group. Results have direct implications for individual-focused and public-health interventions.

Resilience is receiving increasing scientific attention, albeit its notion is still in progress and not univocal, especially when it comes to specific sectors such as energy. Energy and resilience policy is detected as a dominant strategy to achieve international development objectives throughout long-term sustainability and wellbeing goals. Energy resilience also crosses major energy policy issues – namely energy vulnerability, security, poverty, and justice. Making use of the Web Of Science 2018 release, this work aims at contributing to a clarification of the concept of energy resilience, proposing a taxonomy. The bibliometric outputs show a sharp increase in scientific publications on the issue. The bibliometric analysis suggests a taxonomy of energy resilience based on 7 approaches or strategies. The results suggest an evolution of the conceptual contributions, that enlarge resilience early use, merely applied to technical and hard sciences. Resilience is today used in different disciplines, including social sciences and sustainability studies, as part of a holistic approach centered on sustainable development.

Identifying the determinants of household electricity use is a key element in facilitating the efficient use of energy. Even more so, segmenting households into well-resolved and characterised groups makes it possible to explore electricity use trends at more disaggregated levels, revealing consumption patterns and reduction opportunities for different consumer groups. Considering such groups, the drivers and implications of consumption trends can be better understood, bringing new insights into electricity use and offering opportunities to target policies and interventions that represent the needs of population sub-groups. For this reason, the aim of this research is to develop distinct household typologies using a k-means cluster analysis method. This was developed using questionnaire data of 310 households collected in a locality in Botswana. A feature selection procedure that maximises the silhouette was also developed to select the variables with the most significant clustering tendency. The analysis resulted in four distinct groups that are distinguishable by dwelling type, tenure, the number of rooms, the number of bedrooms, annualised electricity consumption and the number of appliances. The clusters identification enhanced the understanding of the fundamental factors underlying electricity consumption characteristics of different household segments. With this known, it is possible to identify those groups that offer the greatest energy saving potentials, thus providing insights for targeted demand-side management (DSM) and other possible strategies aimed at efficient energy use by customers.

Providing access to electricity for the roughly 3 billion people who currently have no access or limited access to reliable service is a fundamental social and economic development challenge. A significant part of this population lives far away from the power grid, mostly in rural areas, where mini-grids could go far in meeting this enormous demand.

In the current era, the importance of proper hand hygiene to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases has become difficult to debate. Yet, compliance rates remain low and are affected by many factors, amongst which is user acceptability of hand hygiene products.The present study aimed at investigating drivers of preference towards different hand hygiene formulations.Three different formulations (liquid, foam and gel) of the same brand were randomly and blindly evaluated by 54 participants based on the WHO Protocol for Evaluation of Tolerability and Acceptability of Alcohol-based Handrubs.The majority (76%) of respondents indicated that the product formulation impacted their level of compliance with hand hygiene protocols. The preferred formulation was liquid, with 50% of participants ranking it as first choice. General product satisfaction, the product texture, the drying speed and the ease of application, were the statistically significant drivers for participants to rank a formulation as their first choice vs not ranking it as their first choice.When designing alcohol formulations and implementing hand hygiene protocols, understanding drivers of preference for formulations may enhance product user acceptability and therefore compliance with hand hygiene.