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Historically, cotton has been regarded as a highly sustainable material; however, thorough research indicates otherwise. The increasing levels of pollution and the need to address climate change have led towards a global search for sustainable alternatives. Plants with comparable chemical compositions, such as hemp, are attracting growing attention. The cultivation of hemp can be done with sustainable methods, thereby making it a viable alternative to cotton. This study investigates the mechanical, physical, and dyeing properties of 100% wet-spun hemp yarn in its natural and bleached state with the objective of incorporating its use in both technical and traditional textiles. Although significant academic literature is available on the properties of cotton, there is a noticeable lack of literature based on wet-spun hemp. This research suggests that the bleaching process positively affects wet-spun hemp yarn, thus making it suitable for use by the textile industries in various applications.

In this paper, an exergoeconomic and exergetic sustainability analysis of a dual-pressure organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and vapor compression refrigeration cycle (VCRC) driven by waste heat is performed for power generation and cooling production. In addition, the most suitable fluid couple among the thirty-five different fluid pairs was investigated for the proposed combined system. The results indicate that the highest energy utilization factor, exergy efficiency, the system coefficient of performance, and net power are calculated for the R123-R141b fluid pair. In terms of exergetic sustainability indicators, the best performance results are obtained for the R123-R141b fluid combination. The minimum unit electricity generation cost and the shortest payback period are calculated as 0.0664 $/kWh and 2.5 years, respectively, for the R123-R290 fluid pair. The system component with the highest exergy destruction is the boiler, with 21.67%. The result of the parametric analysis showed that the thermodynamic performance parameters increase with the increment of the ORC’s boiling temperature. In addition, with the increasing boiling temperature, the environmental effect factor of the system decreases, while the exergetic sustainability index increases. Additionally, as the boiling temperature increases, the total system cost increases, while the unit electricity production cost and payback period decrease. It is suggested to use a R123-R141b fluid couple among fluid pairs created as a result of thermodynamic, exergoeconomic and sustainability analysis.

The resilience of food systems is jeopardized by using food packaging materials that have adverse impacts on the environment, food quality, food safety, shelf-life, food loss, and waste. Therefore, a transition into a more sustainable system can only be possible by adopting circular economy principles and practices that can facilitate the elimination of unsustainable packaging, irresponsible disposal behaviors, and waste management. This paper mainly focuses on circular packaging practices in the existing literature to reveal the drivers of circular food packaging applications. The study also displays the triple combinations of material-sector, material-CE, and sector-CE principles. As a methodology, a systematic literature review (SLR) has been used for this study. Furthermore, this study investigates the literature findings, such as the most frequently mentioned food sector and sub-sector, CE principles, materials adopted for food packaging, and so on. The primary contribution of this study to the body of literature is the synthesis and mapping of the literature as a whole from the perspectives of CE principles, both sector-based and national, and the materials used through circular food packaging, and the attempt to facilitate this transition into a more circular system by outlining the drivers of circular food packaging.

This study aims to contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide and the production of hydrogen through an investigation of the photocatalytic reaction process. Machine learning algorithms can be used to predict the hydrogen yield in the photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction process. Although regression-based approaches provide good results, the accuracy achieved with classification algorithms is not very high. In this context, this study presents a new method, Adaptive Neural Architecture Search (NAS) using metaheuristics, to improve the capacity of ANNs in estimating the hydrogen yield in the photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction process through classification. The NAS process was carried out with a tool named HyperNetExplorer, which was developed with the aim of finding the ANN architecture providing the best prediction accuracy through changing ANN hyperparameters, such as the number of layers, number of neurons in each layer, and the activation functions of each layer. The nature of the NAS process in this study was adaptive, since the process was accomplished through optimization algorithms. The ANNs discovered with HyperNetExplorer demonstrated significantly higher prediction performance than the classical ML algorithms. The results indicated that the NAS helped to achieve better performance in the estimation of the hydrogen yield in the photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction process.

The paper appraised the nexus between electricity consumption, agriculture, GDP, oil production, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Nigeria using a decoupling approach. The result showed that agriculture, electricity, and GDP were predictive variables for CO2 emissions in the Granger causality analysis. The relationship between GDP and CO2 emissions also indicated that the amount of CO2 released tends to rise as the economy’s output and industrial sectors grow, making GDP and CO2 emissions increasingly relevant indicators as a driver of CO2 emissions. Modern agriculture is reliant on large-scale use of fossil fuels and fertilizer production, as well as GHG emissions from crop and livestock production. However, increasing per capita real production can help to enhance quality of the environment, and speed up the uptake of renewable energy which can consequently help to ameliorate global warming. As a result of this study’s policy implications, policies in the agricultural sector that could combat CO2 emissions, including deforestation, land clearing, fertilization with highly environmentally destructive chemicals, neglected integration of agroforestry, and social forestry practices, can help reduce CO2 emissions in the agricultural sector. In addition, the study recommends that the financial markets’ monetary policy should regulate the GDP to charges to compensate for their various sectors’ contributions to CO2 emissions. This investigation might help policymakers in Nigeria to define the CO2 emission monetary and fiscal strategies. In addition, more alternative energy sources such as biofuels, hydropower, solar energy, and other renewable resources should be embraced in Nigeria as sustainable substitutes for fossil fuels.

Green human resource management (GHRM) and green innovation are highly important aspects for firms to achieve corporate sustainability, particularly in developing countries. This study explores the effect of GHRM and green innovation on obtaining corporate sustainability through the mediating effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A quantitative approach using self-administered surveys is deployed, where a total of 192 data points were obtained from bank managers in Beirut. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) is used for analyzing data in Smart-PLS version 3. The findings suggest that both GHRM and green innovation have positive impacts on corporate sustainability. Furthermore, the mediating effect of CSR activities has been supported in both relationships between GHRM and corporate sustainability and between green innovation and corporate sustainability. These results provide both managerial and theoretical implications that can be beneficial for scholars and practitioners alike.

The aim of the study is to determine the effectiveness of nano-silicon dioxide (NaSiO2) application on the tolerance of strawberry plants exposed to drought stress under in vitro conditions. Drought stress was induced with polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000). In the experiment, the effects of PEG 6000 concentrations (0, 4, 8%) and NaSiO2 concentrations (0, 50, 100 mg L−1) on in vitro strawberry plants were determined. Plants treated with PEG 6000 showed reduced vegetative growth parameters, but this decrease was reduced with NaSiO2 application. The addition of NaSiO2 enhanced shoot and leaf growth, SPAD index, and the leaf relative water content (LRWC) of in vitro strawberry plants. NaSiO2 at 50 mg L−1 induced the maximum shoot and root fresh weight (1.20 g, 1.24 g, respectively) and length (40.09 mm, 34.26 mm, respectively), leaves number (16.67 pieces/plant) and SPAD index 53.57 among 4% and 8% PEG applications. When the superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities were examined, the results showed that the application of NaSiO2 enhanced drought stress tolerance by promoting certain antioxidant responses by increasing SOD and CAT activities under drought stress. Our results suggest that the application of NaSiO2 can help maintain the devastating impact of drought stress and markedly enhance all the examined parameters in the Albion strawberry cultivar under in vitro conditions.