Environment

The workplace influences the safety, health, and productivity of workers at multiple levels. To protect and promote total worker health, smart hardware, and software tools have emerged for the identification, elimination, substitution, and control of occupational hazards. Wearable devices enable constant monitoring of individual workers and the environment, whereas connected worker solutions provide contextual information and decision support. Here, the recent trends in commercial workplace tech

Automated decision making and predictive analytics through artificial intelligence, in combination with rapid progress in technologies such as sensor technology and robotics are likely to change the way individuals, communities, governments and private actors perceive and respond to climate and ecological change. Methods based on various forms of artificial intelligence are already today being applied in a number of research fields related to climate change and environmental monitoring. Investme

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are vital energy-storage devices in modern society. However, the performance and cost are still not satisfactory in terms of energy density, power density, cycle life, safety, etc. To further improve the performance of batteries, traditional "trial-and-error" processes require a vast number of tedious experiments. Computational chemistry and artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly accelerate the research and development of novel battery systems. Herein, a hete

Abstract Climate change is happening due to natural factors and human activities. It expressively alters biodiversity, agricultural production, and food security. Mainly, narrowly adapted and endemic species are under extinction. Accordingly, concerns over species extinction are warranted as it provides food for all life forms and primary health care for more than 60–80% of humans globally. Nevertheless, the impact of climate change on biodiversity and food security has been recognized, little i

In this paper, we critique ICT's current and projected climate impacts. Peer-reviewed studies estimate ICT's current share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 1.8%-2.8% of global GHG emissions; adjusting for truncation of supply chain pathways, we find that this share could actually be between 2.1% and 3.9%. For ICT's future emissions, we explore assumptions underlying analysts' projections to understand the reasons for their variability. All analysts agree that ICT emissions will not re

Blockchain technology (BCT) has been gaining popularity due to its benefits for almost every industry. However, despite its benefits, the organizational adoption of BCT is rather limited. This lack of uptake motivated us to identify the factors that influence the adoption of BCT from an organizational perspective. In doing this, we reviewed the BCT literature, interviewed BCT experts, and proposed a research model based on the TOE framework. Specifically, we theorized the role of technological (

Smart cities and artificial intelligence (AI) are among the most popular discourses in urban policy circles. Most attempts at using AI to improve efficiencies in cities have nevertheless either struggled or failed to accomplish the smart city transformation. This is mainly due to short-sighted, technologically determined and reductionist AI approaches being applied to complex urbanization problems. Besides this, as smart cities are underpinned by our ability to engage with our environments, anal

Risk management plays a key role in uncertain times, preventing corporations from acting rashly and incorrectly, allowing them to become flexible and resilient. A global turbulence such as the COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on individual companies and entire economic sectors, raising the question of whether a paradigm shift is necessary, in order to enable a new cycle of development that is much environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. This environmental and socio-econo

With the widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and applications in our everyday lives, accounting for fairness has gained significant importance in designing and engineering of such systems. AI systems can be used in many sensitive environments to make important and life-changing decisions; thus, it is crucial to ensure that these decisions do not reflect discriminatory behavior toward certain groups or populations. More recently some work has been developed in traditional machi

Digital technologies are considered to be an essential enabler of the circular economy in various industries. However, to date, very few studies have investigated which digital technologies could enable the circular economy in the built environment. This study specifically focuses on the built environment as one of the largest, most energy- and material-intensive industries globally, and investigates the following question: which digital technologies potentially enable a circular economy in the

Digital technologies are often seen as an opportunity to enable sustainable futures in agriculture and rural areas. However, this digital transformation process is not inherently good as it impacts on many aspects (e.g. economic, environmental, social, technological, institutional) and their relations. The responsible research and innovation approach calls for a better understanding and anticipation of the often unknown impacts. To meet this aim we have developed a framework that allows to gain

Gait analysis has traditionally been carried out in a laboratory environment using expensive equipment, but, recently, reliable, affordable, and wearable sensors have enabled integration into clinical applications as well as use during activities of daily living. Real-time gait analysis is key to the development of gait rehabilitation techniques and assistive devices such as neuroprostheses. This article presents a systematic review of wearable sensors and techniques used in real-time gait analy

The rapid growth, demand, and production of batteries to meet various emerging applications, such as electric vehicles and energy storage systems, will result in waste and disposal problems in the next few years as these batteries reach end-of-life. Battery reuse and recycling are becoming urgent worldwide priorities to protect the environment and address the increasing need for critical metals. As a review article, this paper reveals the current global battery market and global battery waste st

Digital transformation refers to the unprecedented disruptions in society, industry, and organizations stimulated by advances in digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Presently, there is a lack of studies to map digital transformation in the environmental sustainability domain. This paper identifies the disruptions driven by digital transformation in the environmental sustainability domain through a systematic

The circular economy (CE) has become one of the prominent topics in both natural science and management literature over the last few decades. CE is a dual-loop regenerative system that focuses on the effective and efficient utilization of resources in the ecosystem, which is beneficial to environmental and economic performance optimization. Dual CE initiatives allow firms to increased resource eco-efficiency, as well as resource effectiveness. CE has profound consequences for economic and operat

The emerging concept of smart buildings, which requires the incorporation of sensors and big data (BD) and utilizes artificial intelligence (AI), promises to usher in a new age of urban energy efficiency. By using AI technologies in smart buildings, energy consumption can be reduced through better control, improved reliability, and automation. This paper is an in-depth review of recent studies on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in smart buildings through the concept

Sustainable agricultural development is a significant solution with fast population development through the use of information and communication (ICT) in precision agriculture, which produced new methods for making cultivation further productive, proficient, well-regulated while preserving the climate. Big data (machine learning, deep learning, etc.) is amongst the vital technologies of ICT employed in precision agriculture for their huge data analytical capabilities to abstract significant info

A review of the state-of-the-art applications of machine learning for CO 2 capture, transport, storage, and utilisation.

Advances in nucleic acid sequencing technology have enabled expansion of our ability to profile microbial diversity. These large datasets of taxonomic and functional diversity are key to better understanding microbial ecology. Machine learning has proven to be a useful approach for analyzing microbial community data and making predictions about outcomes including human and environmental health. Machine learning applied to microbial community profiles has been used to predict disease states in hu

The Internet has evolved into a ubiquitous and indispensable digital environment in which people communicate, seek information, and make decisions. Despite offering various benefits, online environments are also replete with smart, highly adaptive choice architectures designed primarily to maximize commercial interests, capture and sustain users' attention, monetize user data, and predict and influence future behavior. This online landscape holds multiple negative consequences for society, such

Abstract Despite the increasing interest in green innovation literature, little is known on how and under what conditions firms' knowledge transfer activities affect green innovation. There is lack of research that on how particular organizational capabilities are seen more useful and how it influences on green innovation performance. To address this research gap, we examine a mediation model in which we explore whether a firm's knowledge acquisition capability and investment in environmental ma

In this article, we develop the concept of Transparency by Design that serves as practical guidance in helping promote the beneficial functions of transparency while mitigating its challenges in automated-decision making (ADM) environments. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the ability of AI systems to make automated and self-learned decisions, a call for transparency of how such systems reach decisions has echoed within academic and policy circles. The term transparency, however

To support an ever-increasing population, modern agriculture faces numerous challenges that pose major threats to global food and energy security. Plant-associated microbes, with their many plant growth-promoting (PGP) traits, have enormous potential in helping to solve these challenges. However, the results of their use in agriculture have been variable, probably because of poor colonization. Phytomicrobiome engineering is an emerging field of synthetic biology that may offer ways to alleviate

The global volume of digital data is expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025. The volume, variety and velocity of water-related data are increasing due to large-scale sensor networks and increased attention to topics such as disaster response, water resources management, and climate change. Combined with the growing availability of computational resources and popularity of deep learning, these data are transformed into actionable and practical knowledge, revolutionizing the water industry. In t

Abstract Study success includes the successful completion of a first degree in higher education to the largest extent, and the successful completion of individual learning tasks to the smallest extent. Factors affecting study success range from individual dispositions (e.g., motivation, prior academic performance) to characteristics of the educational environment (e.g., attendance, active learning, social embeddedness). Recent developments in learning analytics, which are a socio-technical data

Precision Medicine implies a deep understanding of inter-individual differences in health and disease that are due to genetic and environmental factors. To acquire such understanding there is a need for the implementation of different types of technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) that enable the identification of biomedically relevant patterns, facilitating progress towards individually tailored preventative and therapeutic interventions. Despite the significant scientific advances

UK Biobank is a population-based cohort of half a million participants aged 40-69 years recruited between 2006 and 2010. In 2014, UK Biobank started the world's largest multi-modal imaging study, with the aim of re-inviting 100,000 participants to undergo brain, cardiac and abdominal magnetic resonance imaging, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and carotid ultrasound. The combination of large-scale multi-modal imaging with extensive phenotypic and genetic data offers an unprecedented resource for

The fourth industrial revolution, also labelled Industry 4.0, was beget with emergent and disruptive intelligence and information technologies. These new technologies are enabling ever-higher levels of production efficiencies. They also have the potential to dramatically influence social and environmental sustainable development. Organizations need to consider Industry 4.0 technologies contribution to sustainability. Sufficient guidance, in this respect, is lacking in the scholarly or practition

Abstract Multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries abroad are important organizations in their own rights. They typically hold some of the MNE’s most critical resources, and operate at the forefront of complex international environments. In this review, we identify and organize theoretical and empirical research on subsidiary management based on over 600 articles in leading academic journals. We develop a conceptual framework that integrates complementary streams of theoretical and empirical r

With the exponential growth in the mobile device market over the last decade, chatbots are becoming an increasingly popular option to interact with users, and their popularity and adoption are rapidly spreading. These mobile devices change the way we communicate and allow ever-present learning in various environments. This study examined educational chatbots for Facebook Messenger to support learning. The independent web directory was screened to assess chatbots for this study resulting in the i

Water management is paramount in countries with water scarcity. This also affects agriculture, as a large amount of water is dedicated to that use. The possible consequences of global warming lead to the consideration of creating water adaptation measures to ensure the availability of water for food production and consumption. Thus, studies aimed at saving water usage in the irrigation process have increased over the years. Typical commercial sensors for agriculture irrigation systems are very e

Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, today's children face an uncertain future. Climate change, ecological degradation, migrating populations, conflict, pervasive inequalities, and predatory commercial practices threaten the health and future of children in every country. In 2015, the world's countries agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet nearly 5 years later, few countries have recorded much progress towards achieving them.

Today is the era of the Internet of Things (IoT). The recent advances in hardware and information technology have accelerated the deployment of billions of interconnected, smart and adaptive devices in critical infrastructures like health, transportation, environmental control, and home automation. Transferring data over a network without requiring any kind of human-to-computer or human-to-human interaction, brings reliability and convenience to consumers, but also opens a new world of opportuni

Human-Centered AI (HCAI) is a promising direction for designing AI systems that support human self-efficacy, promote creativity, clarify responsibility, and facilitate social participation. These human aspirations also encourage consideration of privacy, security, environmental protection, social justice, and human rights. This commentary reverses the current emphasis on algorithms and AI methods, by putting humans at the center of systems design thinking, in effect, a second Copernican Revoluti

Abstract Internet of Things (IoT) is a new paradigm that has changed the traditional way of living into a high tech life style. Smart city, smart homes, pollution control, energy saving, smart transportation, smart industries are such transformations due to IoT. A lot of crucial research studies and investigations have been done in order to enhance the technology through IoT. However, there are still a lot of challenges and issues that need to be addressed to achieve the full potential of IoT. T

BACKGROUND: After the discovery of fluoride as a caries-preventing agent in the mid-twentieth century, fluoridation of community water has become a widespread intervention, sometimes hailed as a mainstay of modern public health. However, this practice results in elevated fluoride intake and has become controversial for two reasons. First, topical fluoride application in the oral cavity appears to be a more direct and appropriate means of preventing caries. Second, systemic fluoride uptake is sus

As voice-based conversational agents such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant move into our homes, researchers have studied the corresponding privacy implications, embeddedness in these complex social environments, and use by specific user groups. Yet it is unknown how users categorize these devices: are they thought of as just another object, like a toaster? As a social companion? Though past work hints to human-like attributes that are ported onto these devices, the anthropomorphization of vo

With rapidly changing ecology, urbanization, climate change, increased travel and fragile public health systems, epidemics will become more frequent, more complex and harder to prevent and contain. Here we argue that our concept of epidemics must evolve from crisis response during discrete outbreaks to an integrated cycle of preparation, response and recovery. This is an opportunity to combine knowledge and skills from all over the world—especially at-risk and affected communities. Many discipli

There is a rich repertoire of methods for stress detection using various physiological signals and algorithms. However, there is still a gap in research efforts moving from laboratory studies to real-world settings. A small number of research has verified when a physiological response is a reaction to an extrinsic stimulus of the participant's environment in real-world settings. Typically, physiological signals are correlated with the spatial characteristics of the physical environment, supporte