ALBERT

Description: The paper proposes a new hybrid method based on cuckoo search (CSA) and sunflower optimization (SFO) approach (called HCSA-SFO) for improving the performance of solutions in the optimization power system operation problem. In the power system, the optimal power flow (OPF) problem is one of the important factors which usually minimizes total cost and total active power losses while satisfying all constraints of the output power of generators, the voltage at buses, power flow on branches, the capacity of capacitor banks and steps of transformer taps. HCSA-SFO utilizes the mutation and selection mechanism in the SFO algorithm to replace the Lévy flights function in CSA. Hence, this makes HCSA-SFO avoid the fixed step size in the CSA from that can reduce run time and improve the quality of solution for the HCSA-SFO algorithm in the OPF problem. The proposed hybrid technique is simulated on the 30-buses and 118-buses systems. The obtained simulation results from the suggested technique are compared to many other approaches. The result comparisons in different cases showed that the suggested HCSA-SFO can achieve a better result than many other optimization approaches. Therefore, the suggested HCSA-SFO is also an effective approach for dealing with the OPF problem.

Description: This paper analyzes the relationship between runoff, soil erosion, sediment particles, and natural rainfall characteristics on sloping farmland in the red soil region of southern China. The surface runoff and soil loss data were measured on runoff plots during 66 natural rainfall events from 2015 to 2018 in Jiangxi Province. The results show that the maximum 30-min rainfall intensity (I30) is positively related to the runoff depth, soil erosion modulus, and sediment mean weight diameter (MWD). With the increase in I30 during rainfall, the coarse sand content increases, and the fine sand content decreases. The average annual runoff of slope tillage, hedgerows with slope tillage, straw mulching with conventional tillage, and contour tillage decreased by 32.56%, 65.87%, 83.99%, and 87.30%, respectively, compared with that of bare land. Soil and water conservation measures can significantly reduce slope runoff. The flow-reduction effect of contour tillage and straw mulching with conventional tillage increases as I30 increases, and the flow-reduction effect of hedgerows with slope tillage first increases and then decreases as I30 increases. The coefficients of variation and standard deviations of the flow-reduction effects of different soil and water conservation measures decrease with increasing I30. The average annual soil erosion moduli of slope tillage, hedgerows with slope tillage, contour tillage, and straw mulching with conventional tillage decreased by 59.33%, 91.29%, 97.17%, and 98.45%, respectively, compared with that of bare land. Soil and water conservation measures can significantly reduce the sediment yield on slopes. The flow-reduction effects of hedgerows with slope tillage, contour tillage, and straw mulching with conventional tillage all increase with I30, and their coefficients of variation and standard deviations decrease with I30. The average single rainfall erosion sediment MWD of decreased by 5.91%, 8.33%, 9.69%, and 13.32%, respectively, compared with that of bare land. Straw mulching with conventional tillage can significantly reduce the MWD of erosion sediment, effectively reduce the content of coarse sand, and increase the content of fine sand. Straw mulching with conventional tillage is a very good soil and water conservation measure for sloping farmland. It not only has the best effect on reducing flow and sediment, but also can effectively intercept coarse sand and reduce the MWD of erosion sediment.

Description: With the increase in awareness about the wide range of issues and adverse effects associated with the use of conventional energy sources came an increase in project management research related to sustainability and sustainable development. Part of that research is devoted to the development of sustainable project typologies that classify projects based on a variety of external factors that can significantly impact these projects. This research focuses on developing a sustainable project typology that classifies sustainable projects based on the external institutional influences. The typology explores the influence of the coercive, normative, and mimetic institutional isomorphisms on the expected level of change, level of uncertainty, project team skills and experience levels, and the level of technology information exchange in sustainable projects. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the use of the typology to classify sustainable projects based on the external institutional influences.

Description: Participatory ‘assessment workshops’ were held in 2018 in Yanuo Village, Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. The ‘Indicators of Resilience in Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS)’ tool was used to provide the community with a framework for discussion and analysis of socio-ecological processes essential for resilience. Workshops were planned and implemented by local people together with researchers from outside the community. Discussion, including a scoring process, was undertaken using a subset of twenty indicators designed to capture the communities’ perceptions of factors affecting the resilience of their landscapes. The indicators were also used to provide the local community with a framework to discuss both current conditions of resilience and potential areas for improvement. A key result was that the existing community management approach did not include loss of traditional knowledge as a factor that would impact on the livelihoods and well-being of the community. A mechanism to encourage young people to inherit and actively use traditional knowledge was agreed to be necessary and included in economic activities. In addition, the socio-economic infrastructure in the community needs further improvement. This community management assessment framework in Yanuo Village can be scaled out to other communities in tropical montane regions with similar socio-economic environments by supporting stakeholders (policymakers, NGOs and development agencies, etc.).

Description: Summer is a stressful time of year for many parents as they struggle to meet household expenses and feed children. The aim of the present study is to determine if there is an association between summertime food insecurity (i.e., holiday hunger) and parental stress among a sample of UK parents with school age children living in North East England. A cross-sectional sample of (n = 252) parents are analyzed using holiday hunger as the independent variable and a subjective measure of stress that treats summer as a ‘stressful event’ as the dependent variable. Of the parents in the sample, 64.8% reported at least some level of holiday hunger. We find parents facing any holiday hunger scored substantively higher on the overall 75-point Impact of Event Scale (mean difference = 30.4, 95% confidence interval ((CI) 24.2–36.6), the 35-point intrusion subscale (13.7, 95% CI 10.8–16.5), and the 40-point avoidance subscale (16.7, 95% CI 13.3–20.2). These findings are replicated in a regression analysis. In addition, we find that holiday hunger partially mediates the association between economic hardship (i.e., unemployment and poverty) and parental stress. We conclude by suggesting that government policies addressing economic hardship are not only likely to reduce holiday hunger, but also improve mental wellbeing.

Description: Using data from the WHO’s Situation Report on the COVID-19 pandemic from 21 January 2020 to 30 March 2020 along with other health, demographic, and macroeconomic indicators from the WHO’s Application Programming Interface and the World Bank’s Development Indicators, this paper explores the death rates of infected persons and their possible associated factors. Through the panel analysis, we found consistent results that healthcare system conditions, particularly the number of hospital beds and medical staff, have played extremely important roles in reducing death rates of COVID-19 infected persons. In addition, both the mortality rates due to different non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and rate of people aged 65 and over were significantly related to the death rates. We also found that controlling international and domestic travelling by air along with increasingly popular anti-COVID-19 actions (i.e., quarantine and social distancing) would help reduce the death rates in all countries. We conducted tests for robustness and found that the Driscoll and Kraay (1998) method was the most suitable estimator with a finite sample, which helped confirm the robustness of our estimations. Based on the findings, we suggest that preparedness of healthcare systems for aged populations need more attentions from the public and politicians, regardless of income level, when facing COVID-19-like pandemics.

Description: Governments and institutions across the globe are conducting vulnerability assessments and developing adaptation plans to confront rapidly changing climatic conditions. Interrelated priorities, including the conservation of biodiversity, ecological restoration, sustainable development, and social justice often underlie these efforts. We collaborated with colleagues in an effort to help guide vulnerability assessment and adaptation (VAA) generally in Southeast Asia and specifically in the watershed of the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park (SIEP) in Phetchaburi Province, Thailand. Reflecting upon our experiences and a review of recent VAA literature, we examine a series of seven questions that help to frame the socio-ecological context for VAAs. We then propose a three-dimensional framework for understanding common orientations of VAAs and how they appear to be shifting and broadening over time, particularly in the USA. For example, key leaders in the SIEP project emphasized social development and community-based approaches over more ecology-centric approaches; this orientation was consistent with other examples from SE Asia. In contrast, many efforts for US national forests have evaluated vulnerability based on projected shifts in vegetation and have promoted adaptation options based upon ecological restoration. Illustrating a third, highly integrated approach, many VAAs prepared by indigenous tribes in the USA have emphasized restoring historical ecological conditions within a broader context of promoting cultural traditions, social justice, and adaptive capacity. We conclude with lessons learned and suggestions for advancing integrated approaches.

Description: In recent years, the awareness of sustainable construction has increasingly risen incountries around the world, with the main goal being to avoid depleting energy resources and rawmaterials and to greatly reduce carbon emissions. Therefore, the selection of eco-friendly buildingmaterials becomes a difficult task and choosing the best construction strategy is a complicatedprocess. Most of the studies of the building material selection often focus on optimizing materialrelatedgreen building scores with budget constraints based on the environmental impacts of thosematerials. However, these studies do not pay attention to the impact of sustainable materials on twoimportant aspects of a project: The initial investment cost and the total labor-working days. Hence,this study developed a model that optimizes a material mix for buildings considering the buildingbudget, total labor-working days, and material-related green building scores. A case study inVietnam was conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. This proposed modelprovides a guidance for decision-makers in selecting approximate materials for buildings towardsustainability.

Description: Food insecurity is a substantial problem in nearly every advanced capitalist nation, with sizable portions of residents in many affluent countries struggling to eat healthily every day. Over time, a very large literature has developed that documents food insecurity, evaluates programs meant to reduce that insecurity, and proposes solutions to attenuate the problem. The purpose of the current review is to provide a very broad overview of the food insecurity literature, including definitions, measurement, areas of study, and impacts on health. Importantly, this review suggests there are two major causes of food insecurity in the advanced nations: economic inequality and neoliberalism. The food insecurity literature suggests that diminished government responsibility in advanced capitalist nations corresponds to an increase in feeding programs run by non-profit and charitable organizations. This review concludes by suggesting that, while a massive amount of research on food insecurity currently exists, more research is still needed to address gaps in the literature when it comes to significant events, coping strategies and disadvantaged populations.

Description: Against the background of globalization, institutional embeddedness has become an important theoretical tool to understand the changes in regional economic patterns. This paper starts by discussing the theory of location choice of enterprises and then uses the statistical method of negative binomial regression to analyze the impact factors of enterprises’ transfer from the perspective of institutional embeddedness by taking Guangdong Province, China, as a case study area. It was found that informal institutional factors such as the same language, the same industry, and geographical proximity have significant positive effects on the transfer of regional enterprises. Formal institutions such as counterpart assistance are the core driving force of enterprise transfer, while traditional economic factors such as cost comparative advantage have no significant impact on the transfer of regional enterprises. This research shows that the transfer of regional enterprises is greatly influenced by the current regional institutional environment. Therefore, it is important for future policy makers to consider the regional institutional environment and to deepen regional institutional embeddedness to advance urban and regional development.