• Energy Research
• 2016-2025close
• 9. Industry and infrastructure close
• University of North Texas close

Digitalization and artificial intelligence increasingly affect the world of work. Rising risk of massive job losses have sparked technological fears. Limited income and productivity gains concentrated among a few tech companies are fueling inequalities. In addition, the increasing ecological footprint of digital technologies has become the focus of much discussion. This creates a trilemma of rising inequality, low productivity growth and high ecological costs brought by technological progress. How can this trilemma be resolved? Which digital applications should be promoted specifically? And what should policymakers do to address this trilemma? This contribution shows that policymakers should create suitable conditions to fully exploit the potential in the area of network applications (transport, information exchange, supply, provisioning) in order to reap maximum societal benefits that can be widely shared. This requires shifting incentives away from current uses toward those that can, at least partially, address the trilemma. The contribution analyses the scope and limits of current policy instruments in this regard and discusses alternative approaches that are more aligned with the properties of the emerging technological paradigm underlying the digital economy. In particular, it discusses the possibility of institutional innovations required to address the socio-economic challenges resulting from the technological innovations brought about by artificial intelligence.

Driven by smart grid technologies, a great effort has been made in developing distributed energy resources (DERs) in recent years for improving reliability and efficiency of distribution systems. Emerging DERs require effective and efficient control and coordination in order to harvest their potential benefits. In this paper, we consider optimal DER coordination problem, where the goal is to minimize the total generation cost while meeting total demand and satisfying individual generator output limit. This paper develops a distributed algorithm for solving the optimal DER coordination problem over lossy communication networks with packet-dropping communication links. Under the assumption that the underlying communication network is strongly connected with a positive probability and the packet drops are independent and identically distributed, we show that the proposed algorithm is able to solve the optimal DER coordination problem even in the presence of packet drops. Numerical simulation results are used to validate and illustrate the proposed algorithm.

The purpose of this paper is to explore which financial performance indicators (FPIs) evaluate the level of supply chain capability (SCC) that explicitly touches all of the business functions and processes within and beyond the company. The authors investigated nine FPIs that were selected from the financial statements of 155 companies within nine industries from 2011 to 2017 using Morningstar financial database and Gartner’s report. The authors find that suitable FPIs to measure SCC for shareholders’ value are return-on-assets (ROA), days-sales-outstanding (DSO), and current ratio (CR). This means that higher ROA, shortened DSO, and an appropriate level of CR could reach a sustainable supply chain. These results will help the industry to avert a major disruption in supply chain processes and activities using suitable financial performance indicators.

Almost 46% of the world's population resides in a rural landscape. Smart villages, alongside smart cities, are in need of time for future economic growth, improved agriculture, better health, and education. The smart village is a concept that improves the traditional rural aspects with the help of digital transformation. The smart village is built up using heterogeneous digital technologies pillared around the Internet-of-Thing (IoT). There exist many opportunities in research to design a low-cost, secure, and efficient technical ecosystem. This article identifies the key application areas, where the IoT can be applied in the smart village. The article also presents a comparative study of communication technology options. 5 Pages, Conference: IEEE 7th World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT), New Orleans, June 2021

An attacker can very possibly make significant damage for the power grid with a proper sequence of timing and attacks. Existing approaches neglect the power system generation loss and also identification of critical attack sequences. In this paper, we investigate a reinforcement learning approach to identify the minimum number of attacks/actions to reach blackout threshold. The attacker will only have limited topological information of the power systems. Proper state vectors, action vectors and also reward are designed in this smart grid security environment. The proposed method is evaluated on a W & W 6 bus system and an IEEE 30 bus system. The attack performance is tested for different percentages of line outage. The amount of load shedding is also considered as an attack objective and demonstrated on W & W 6 bus system. The optimal attack sequence is identified through a trial-and-error learning process and is then validated on a power system simulator.

Advanced air mobility (AAM) is an emerging sector in aviation aiming to offer secure, efficient, and eco-friendly transportation utilizing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. These vehicles are designed for short-haul flights, transporting passengers and cargo between urban centers, suburbs, and remote areas. As the number of flights is expected to rise significantly in congested metropolitan areas, there is a need for a digital ecosystem to support the AAM platform. This ecosystem requires seamless integration of air traffic management systems, ground control systems, and communication networks, enabling effective communication between AAM vehicles and ground systems to ensure safe and efficient operations. Consequently, the aviation industry is seeking to develop a new aerospace framework that promotes shared aerospace practices, ensuring the safety, sustainability, and efficiency of air traffic operations. However, the lack of adequate wireless coverage in congested cities and disconnected rural communities poses challenges for large-scale AAM deployments. In the immediate recovery phase, incorporating AAM with new air-to-ground connectivity presents difficulties such as overwhelming the terrestrial network with data requests, maintaining link reliability, and managing handover occurrences. Furthermore, managing eVTOL traffic in urban areas with congested airspace necessitates high levels of connectivity to support air routing information for eVTOL vehicles. This paper introduces a novel concept addressing future flight challenges and proposes a framework for integrating operations, infrastructure, connectivity, and ecosystems in future air mobility. Specifically, it includes a performance analysis to illustrate the impact of extensive AAM vehicle mobility on ground base station network infrastructure in urban environments. This work aims to pave the way for future air mobility by introducing a new vision for backbone infrastructure that supports safe and sustainable aviation through advanced communication technology.

In rural China, successful and sustainable business model design has been viewed as an important strategy to achieve a win–win scenario in which rural poverty can be alleviated and enterprise profit can be improved. Although business model related literature is strong, it lacks a comprehensive framework for appraising business models in rural markets. As a result, entrepreneurs are facing significant challenges in implementing their market development centered business models or resource development centered business models. This study draws on case analysis to present two frameworks for evaluating the two types of business models, respectively. Through open coding and axial coding on eight Chinese cases, we identify the main components for the evaluation frameworks and critical factors within each component. Using the coding results as a lens, we apply a cross-case comparative data analysis to establish the multi-level evaluation systems. Finally, we provide suggestions for entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to better their business model design in China’s rural markets.

The fashion industry generates packaging waste through the entire supply chain. Although brands are making efforts to improve packaging sustainability as demands for low-impact packaging are rising, there is a lack of empirical evidence of innovative packaging solutions among fashion retailers. This study represents the first global report on sustainable packaging innovation in the fashion sector. A data-mining approach was utilized to gather a sample of 400 international fashion brands that advertise sustainable packaging solutions across five continents. The sustainability of the packaging solution was evaluated for each brand based on three factors: sustainability mission, the availability of packaging data, and the actual sustainability of the package. The results showed that 57% of brands have made evident progress in the sustainable packaging area; 34% of brands have initiated the transition from conventional to improved packaging; the remaining brands have committed to rethink (1%) or to improve (8%) their packaging in the future. By providing comprehensive state-of-the-art evidence about practical achievements in the sustainable packaging field, this global report intends to help academics and practitioners to evaluate the environmental, social, and economic impacts of existing packaging products and to design circular packaging that minimizes these impacts.