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A Circular Economy (CE) is an emerging economic model, restorative and regenerative by both intention and design. The CE evolves in a repetitive cycle, where waste is returned back into the of a new product by recycling and reusing materials. Thus, CE represents a sustainable and productive economy model that is financially, economically, and socially feasible. It is increasingly regarded as an acceptable and desirable solution to achieving prosperity whilst acknowledging ecological and social boundaries. Opposed to the unsustainable Linear Economy, it draws on complexity and systems thinking by imitating nature that does not produce any waste. However, the implementation of CE in industry is slow paced, mainly due to barriers caused by complex sustainability transitions and innovations needed to cover a systemic and systems thinking approach. In the last few years, the concept of a CE and the transition from a linear, take-make-waste system to a cyclic system that reuses, remanufactures, and recycles materials, have gained increased importance, and have attracted considerable attention from both scholars and practitioners. Research that examines the role of emerging technologies in supporting this transition is therefore imperative. The CE has also become a key policy objective due to increased frequency of natural disasters which have been caused by human activity and social pressure on policymakers and governments to introduce measures in order to ensure sustainability, bio-based products and sustainable processing. This study discusses the concept of the CE as well as the transition from a Linear to a closed-loop Circular Economy based on resource regeneration and ecosystem restoration. It unfolds the role and importance of emerging technologies related to Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 in this transition by analyzing their adoption and implementation in the context of the CE. The key benefits of transformational change include increased engagement, improved performance, and higher levels of creativity and ...

We present the design process of a highly portable integrated power system simulator developed to support investigation into human interface design for a complex hydro power system. The most important development phases of the simulator are described followed by insights that guided developers to the final version. The architecture of the simulator is explained in detail. The most important submodels are described to clarify the concepts and architecture used as well as minimal hardware requirements needed to run the simulator. Finally we present some of the results captured during experimental sessions performed with experienced controller-coordinator pairs

Arsenic is a widely dispersed element in the Earth's crust and exists at an average concentration of approximately 5 mg/kg. There are many possible routes of human exposure to arsenic from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Arsenic occurs as a constituent in more than 200 minerals, although it primarily exists as arsenopyrite and as a constituent in several other sulfide minerals. The introduction of arsenic into drinking water can occur as a result of its natural geological presence in local bedrock. Arsenic-containing bedrock formations of this sort are known in Bangladesh, West Bengal (India), and regions of China, and many cases of endemic contamination by arsenic with serious consequences to human health are known from these areas. Significant natural contamination of surface waters and soil can arise when arsenic-rich geothermal fluids come into contact with surface waters. When humans are implicated in causing or exacerbating arsenic pollution, the cause can almost always be traced to mining or mining-related activities. Arsenic exists in many oxidation states, with arsenic (III) and (V) being the most common forms. Similar to many metalloids, the prevalence of particular species of arsenic depends greatly on the pH and redox conditions of the matrix in which it exists. Speciation is also important in determining the toxicity of arsenic. Arsenic minerals exist in the environment principally as sulfides, oxides, and phosphates. In igneous rocks, only those of volcanic origin are implicated in high aqueous arsenic concentrations. Sedimentary rocks tend not to bear high arsenic loads, and common matrices such as sands and sandstones contain lower concentrations owing to the dominance of quartz and feldspars. Groundwater contamination by arsenic arises from sources of arsenopyrite, base metal sulfides, realgar and orpiment, arsenic-rich pyrite, and iron oxyhydroxide. Mechanisms by which arsenic is released from minerals are varied and are accounted for by many (bio)geochemical processes: oxidation of arsenic-bearing sulfides, desorption from oxides and hydroxides, reductive dissolution, evaporative concentration, leaching from sulfides by carbonate, and microbial mobilization. Arsenic enrichment also takes place in geothermally active areas; surface waters are more susceptible than groundwater to contamination in the vicinity of such geothermal systems, and evidence suggests that increased use of geothermal power may elevate risks of arsenic exposure in affected areas. Past and current mining activities continue to provide sources of environmental contamination by arsenic. Because gold- and arsenic-bearing minerals coexist, there is a hazard of mobilizing arsenic during gold mining activities. The Ashanti region of central Ghana currently faces this as a real risk. Historical arsenic contamination exists in Cornwall, UK; an example of a recent arsenic pollution event is that of Ron Phibun town in southern Thailand, where arsenic-related human health effects have been reported. Other important sources of arsenic exposure include coal burning in Slovakia, Turkey, and the Guizhou Province of China; use of arsenic as pesticides in Australia, New Zealand, and the US; and consumption of contaminated foodstuffs (China) and exposure to wood preserving arsenicals (Europe and North America).

Reducing electricity consumption is of great importance by improving the operation performance of the heating systems based on solar-assisted air source heat pumps for domestic heating. The set hot-water-supply temperature of the heating system affect both the system operation performance and the indoor thermal comfort condition. The effect of low temperature heating on the system operation performance is investigated to figure out the way to significantly save electricity. A single-family house is chosen as the reference building and the heating system is modelled and simulated under the weather conditions in the locations of London, Aughton and Aberdeen in the UK over a year. The set hot-water-supply temperatures are taken to be 40 oC, 45 oC, 50 oC and 55 oC. For the heating systems, with the decrease in set hot-water-supply temperature from 55 oC to 40 oC, the yearly seasonal performance factor increases by 16.7%, 19.1% and 15.4% in London, Aughton and Aberdeen, respectively. Consequently, the yearly total electricity consumption decreases by 19.1%, 14.9% and 13.3% in London, Aughton and Aberdeen, respectively. The results show that low temperature heating enables significant reduction in electricity consumption of such heating systems.

Although work is increasingly globalized and mediated by technology, little research has accumulated on the role of culture in shaping individuals' preferences regarding the segmentation or integration of their work and family roles. This study examines the relationships between gender egalitarianism (the extent a culture has a fluid understanding of gender roles and promotes gender equality), gender, and boundary management preferences across 27 countries/territories. Based on a sample of 9362 employees, we found that the pattern of the relationship between gender egalitarianism and boundary management depends on the direction of segmentation preferences. Individuals from more gender egalitarian societies reported lower preferences to segment family-from-work (i.e., protect the work role from the family role); however, gender egalitarianism was not directly associated with preferences to segment …

This review paper emphasised on the origin of hexavalent chromium toxicity in tannery wastewater and its remediation using novel Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology, including electroactive bacteria, which are known as exoelectrogens, to simultaneously treat wastewater and its action in the production of bioenergy and the mechanism of Cr6+ reduction. Also, there are various parameters like electrode, pH, mode of operation, time of operation, and type of exchange membrane used for promising results shown in enhancing MFC production and remediation of Cr6+. Destructive anthropological activities, such as leather making and electroplating industries are key sources of hexavalent chromium contamination in aquatic repositories. When Cr6+ enters the food chain and enters the human body, it has the potential to cause cancer. MFC is a green innovation that generates energy economically through the reduction of toxic Cr6+ to less toxic Cr3+. The organic substrates utilized at the anode of MFC act as electrons (e-) donors. This review also highlighted the utilization of cheap substrates to make MFCs more economically suitable and the energy production at minimum cost.

Energy efficiency is the main concern of research community while designing routing protocols for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This concern can be addressed by using energy-harvesting scheme in routing protocols. In this paper, we propose a secure routing protocol that is based on cross layer design and energy-harvesting mechanism. It uses a distributed cluster-based security mechanism. In the cross-layer design, parameters are exchanged between different layers to ensure efficient use of energy. Energy-harvesting system is used to extract and store energy, which is used to take decisions for the node state and thus for the routing issues. Simulation results show that our routing protocol can perform better in many scenarios and in hostile attack-prone environment.

This paper investigates the capabilities and limitations of different software tools simulating landscape design adaptability. The evaluation of tools is based on the ISO 25010 framework, which investigates software functionality, reliability, performance efficiency, usability, compatibility, and information quality. These quality characteristics of software are analysed during objective experiments where five software tools are used for a case study project at the conceptual design phase. These experiments reveal that the existing software tools for climate adaptation planning are focused on different aspects of climate adaptability, generating different types of information. Moreover, all tools deal with some limitations in terms of compatibility, performance efficiency, and functional operations. The ISO 25010 quality model provides a comprehensive framework to compare the capabilities of different software tools for climate adaptation planning. This paper is part of a wider study including an analysis of the needs of project stakeholders regarding climate adaptation software tools. However, this article focuses on technical capabilities of current climate adaptation software tools.