• Energy Research
• 3. Good health close
• JP close
• DE close
• Sustainability close

Recently, robots have been widely adopted in the hospitality and tourism industry. Efficient robots can help hoteliers and tourism suppliers with their repetitive or manual labor. Due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, there is an increasing number of publications on robotic applications in hospitality and tourism. However, a comprehensive literature review of this realm remains lacking. Therefore, to provide a holistic view of the existing literature on robotic applications in hospitality and tourism, this study reviewed 86 extant robotic application-related articles by conducting descriptive analysis and content analysis. The findings of this study showed that most of the existing relevant studies were conducted from the perspective of consumers in the hospitality context. Potential future research directions for academics are identified herein. Practical implications on robotic adoption are also provided for industry practitioners.

This paper presents the first application of ethnobotanical studies to screen for allelopathic species among medicinal plants for sustainable weed management. This study assesses the possible relationship between ethnobotanical indices and allelopathy of medicinal plants. Ethnobotanical data were collected in 2016 by using semi-structured interviews with 140 informants in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality, Ghana. Data were analysed using statistical tool and ethnobotanical indices including use value (UV), Fidelity Level (FL), Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC). The Sandwich and Dish pack methods were respectively used to evaluate allelopathy through leachates and volatiles of collected samples. Ninety-five species belonging to 43 families are reported in this study, with leaves (52%) cited the most utilised plant part. Cleistopholis patens (UV = 0.54; FL = 90.7%; RFC = 0.37) and Ocimum gratissimum (UV = 0.37; FL = 38.4%; RFC = 0.35) were among the most cited species. Thirty-two species showed inhibition (≥49.3%) by leachates, while twenty-four species were found with potential volatile inhibitory compounds against lettuce radicle growth. There was a significant positive correlation (Pearson) between the UV and RFC of medicinal plants and allelopathy by leaf leachates (r = 0.639 **; p = 0.01 and r = 0.653 **; p = 0.01 respectively). This systematic documentation of medicinal plants in Ejisu-Juaben Municipality shows medicinal plants with ethnomedicinal values and potential allelopathy that can be utilised in sustainable weed control.

Sustainability usually refers to the ability to maintain a certain standard of human lifestyle without causing environmental damage or any other destruction to nature and biodiversity. It is beneficial for human health and well-being in addition to socio-economic benefits and contributes to environmental integrity. However, as Robert Swan (1956) once stated: “the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”—this is true even today; namely, there are still serious threats to the planet and there is “a short time period” for action. We all have to be obliged to save the planet in which we live throughout our daily and local activities. In this study, the authors provide an overview of the meaning of sustainable tourism and its relationship to all global Sustainable Development Goals established by UN (2015) as one way to achieve a brighter sustainable future and society for everyone, leaving no one behind. More specifically, the case of Kosovo and its potential for the development of sustainable tourism is analyzed. In this case, the authors aim to present the potential to serve the local tradition, culture, diversity, and inclusiveness through sustainable actions in the tourism and hospitality sector.

The Healthy City program is a comprehensive health promotion program implemented by local governments to improve citizens’ health. The Healthy City program aims to improve citizens’ quality of life through health promotion activities in daily life. It also improves health by eliminating health risk factors and increasing citizens’ happiness. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of the Healthy City program on the happiness index of local residents and the correlation between the Healthy City program and the happiness index using quality of life as a parameter. We conducted a questionnaire survey of residents of Seoul, where Healthy City networks are actively promoted. A total of 392 responses were obtained. Structural equations were used to analyze the collected data. The Healthy City program had positive effects on the happiness index. In other words, it increased the happiness index by improving the health of the local residents. Relevant policy efforts are also being made to advance health services through Healthy City programs. For an effective Healthy City program, it is necessary to implement policies regarding health equity, to expand Healthy City programs based on a settings approach, and to implement a sustainable Healthy City program through the establishment of Healthy City governance.

Based on a targeted literature review, this vision paper emphasizes the importance of dementia-sensitive built space. The article specifically focuses on supporting spatial orientation and wayfinding for people living with dementia. First, we discuss types of wayfinding challenges, underlying processes, and consequences of spatial disorientation in the context of dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. Second, we focus on current efforts aimed at planning and evaluating dementia-sensitive built space, i.e., environmental design principles, interventions, evaluation tools, strategies, and planning processes. Third, we use our findings as a starting point for developing an interdisciplinary research vision aimed at encouraging further debates and research about: (1) the perspective of a person with dementia, specifically in the context of wayfinding and spatial orientation, and (2) how this perspective supplements planning and design processes of dementia-sensitive built space. We conclude that more closely considering the perspective of people with dementia supports the development of demographically sustainable future cities and care institutions.

Ambient air pollution and its exposure has been a worldwide issue and can increase the possibility of health risks especially in urban areas of developing countries having the mixture of different air pollution sources. With the increase in population, industrial development and economic prosperity, air pollution is one of the biggest concerns in Pakistan after the occurrence of recent smog episodes. The purpose of this study was to develop a land use regression (LUR) model to provide a better understanding of air exposure and to depict the spatial patterns of air pollutants within the city. Land use regression model was developed for Lahore city, Pakistan using the average seasonal concentration of NO2 and considering 22 potential predictor variables including road network, land use classification and local specific variable. Adjusted explained variance of the LUR models was highest for post-monsoon (77%), followed by monsoon (71%) and was lowest for pre-monsoon (70%). This is the first study conducted in Pakistan to explore the applicability of LUR model and hence will offer the application in other cities. The results of this study would also provide help in promoting epidemiological research in future.

The participation of citizens in scientific research has a long tradition, and in some disciplines, especially medical research, it is even common practice. In Technology Assessment (TA), Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), and Sustainable Development (SD), the participation of citizens can be of considerable value. In this paper, we explore this value for three concepts, based on the researcher’s insights from three participatory research projects. The first project is the citizen science project TeQfor1, which was conducted with, for, and on the type 1 diabetes community, who do not feel adequately supported by the conventional health care system. In the second project, citizens with vision impairments participated in the technological development of an audio-tactile navigation tool in the TERRAIN project. The third project (Nachtlichter) dealt with light pollution. Based on the three projects presented, we show that citizen participation makes specific contributions to TA, RRI, and SD. We also investigate the specificity of citizen engagement and motivation by differentiating between existing and emerging involvement. In conclusion, we discuss the benefits that may be added by participatory approaches for the three concepts of TA, RRI, and SD.

LCAs of electric cars and electrolytic hydrogen production are governed by the consumption of electricity. Therefore, LCA benchmarking is prone to choices on electricity data. There are four issues: (1) leading Life Cycle Impact (LCI) databases suffer from inconvenient uncertainties and inaccuracies, (2) electricity mix in countries is rapidly changing, year after year, (3) the electricity mix is strongly fluctuating on an hourly and daily basis, which requires time-based allocation approaches, and (4) how to deal with nuclear power in benchmarking. This analysis shows that: (a) the differences of the GHG emissions of the country production mix in leading databases are rather high (30%), (b) in LCA, a distinction must be made between bundled and unbundled registered electricity certificates (RECs) and guarantees of origin (GOs); the residual mix should not be applied in LCA because of its huge inaccuracy, (c) time-based allocation rules for renewables are required to cope with periods of overproduction, (d) benchmarking of electricity is highly affected by the choice of midpoints and/or endpoint systems, and (e) there is an urgent need for a new LCI database, based on measured emission data, continuously kept up-to-date, transparent, and open access.