Asian Institute of Technology

Tropospheric ozone and black carbon (BC) contribute to both degraded air quality and global warming. We considered ~400 emission control measures to reduce these pollutants by using current technology and experience. We identified 14 measures targeting methane and BC emissions that reduce projected global mean warming ~0.5°C by 2050. This strategy avoids 0.7 to 4.7 million annual premature deaths from outdoor air pollution and increases annual crop yields by 30 to 135 million metric tons due to ozone reductions in 2030 and beyond. Benefits of methane emissions reductions are valued at $700 to $5000 per metric ton, which is well above typical marginal abatement costs (less than $250). The selected controls target different sources and influence climate on shorter time scales than those of carbon dioxide-reduction measures. Implementing both substantially reduces the risks of crossing the 2°C threshold.

One-dimensional nanostructures exhibit interesting electronic and optical properties due to their low dimensionality leading to quantum confinement effects. ZnO has received lot of attention as a nanostructured material because of unique properties rendering it suitable for various applications. Amongst the different methods of synthesis of ZnO nanostructures, the hydrothermal method is attractive for its simplicity and environment friendly conditions. This review summarizes the conditions leading to the growth of different ZnO nanostructures using hydrothermal technique. Doping of ZnO nanostructures through hydrothermal method are also highlighted.

Abstract Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be traced to five economic sectors: energy, industry, buildings, transport and AFOLU (agriculture, forestry and other land uses). In this topical review, we synthesise the literature to explain recent trends in global and regional emissions in each of these sectors. To contextualise our review, we present estimates of GHG emissions trends by sector from 1990 to 2018, describing the major sources of emissions growth, stability and decline across ten global regions. Overall, the literature and data emphasise that progress towards reducing GHG emissions has been limited. The prominent global pattern is a continuation of underlying drivers with few signs of emerging limits to demand, nor of a deep shift towards the delivery of low and zero carbon services across sectors. We observe a moderate decarbonisation of energy systems in Europe and North America, driven by fuel switching and the increasing penetration of renewables. By contrast, in rapidly industrialising regions, fossil-based energy systems have continuously expanded, only very recently slowing down in their growth. Strong demand for materials, floor area, energy services and travel have driven emissions growth in the industry, buildings and transport sectors, particularly in Eastern Asia, Southern Asia and South-East Asia. An expansion of agriculture into carbon-dense tropical forest areas has driven recent increases in AFOLU emissions in Latin America, South-East Asia and Africa. Identifying, understanding, and tackling the most persistent and climate-damaging trends across sectors is a fundamental concern for research and policy as humanity treads deeper into the Anthropocene.

Fully decarbonizing global industry is essential to achieving climate stabilization, and reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050–2070 is necessary to limit global warming to 2 °C. This paper assembles and evaluates technical and policy interventions, both on the supply side and on the demand side. It identifies measures that, employed together, can achieve net zero industrial emissions in the required timeframe. Key supply-side technologies include energy efficiency (especially at the system level), carbon capture, electrification, and zero-carbon hydrogen as a heat source and chemical feedstock. There are also promising technologies specific to each of the three top-emitting industries: cement, iron & steel, and chemicals & plastics. These include cement admixtures and alternative chemistries, several technological routes for zero-carbon steelmaking, and novel chemical catalysts and separation technologies. Crucial demand-side approaches include material-efficient design, reductions in material waste, substituting low-carbon for high-carbon materials, and circular economy interventions (such as improving product longevity, reusability, ease of refurbishment, and recyclability). Strategic, well-designed policy can accelerate innovation and provide incentives for technology deployment. High-value policies include carbon pricing with border adjustments or other price signals; robust government support for research, development, and deployment; and energy efficiency or emissions standards. These core policies should be supported by labeling and government procurement of low-carbon products, data collection and disclosure requirements, and recycling incentives. In implementing these policies, care must be taken to ensure a just transition for displaced workers and affected communities. Similarly, decarbonization must complement the human and economic development of low- and middle-income countries.

Abstract Deep learning (DL) is revolutionizing evidence-based decision-making techniques that can be applied across various sectors. Specifically, it possesses the ability to utilize two or more levels of non-linear feature transformation of the given data via representation learning in order to overcome limitations posed by large datasets. As a multidisciplinary field that is still in its nascent phase, articles that survey DL architectures encompassing the full scope of the field are rather limited. Thus, this paper comprehensively reviews the state-of-art DL modelling techniques and provides insights into their advantages and challenges. It was found that many of the models exhibit a highly domain-specific efficiency and could be trained by two or more methods. However, training DL models can be very time-consuming, expensive, and requires huge samples for better accuracy. Since DL is also susceptible to deception and misclassification and tends to get stuck on local minima, improved optimization of parameters is required to create more robust models. Regardless, DL has already been leading to groundbreaking results in the healthcare, education, security, commercial, industrial, as well as government sectors. Some models, like the convolutional neural network (CNN), generative adversarial networks (GAN), recurrent neural network (RNN), recursive neural networks, and autoencoders, are frequently used, while the potential of other models remains widely unexplored. Pertinently, hybrid conventional DL architectures have the capacity to overcome the challenges experienced by conventional models. Considering that capsule architectures may dominate future DL models, this work aimed to compile information for stakeholders involved in the development and use of DL models in the contemporary world.

The importance of packaging design as a vehicle for communication and branding is growing in competitive markets for packaged food products. This research utilized a focus group methodology to understand consumer behavior toward such products and how packaging elements can affect buying decisions. Visual package elements play a major role, representing the product for many consumers, especially in low involvement, and when they are rushed. Most focus group participants say they use label information, but they would like it if simplified. The challenge for researchers is to integrate packaging into an effective purchasing decision model, by understanding packaging elements as important marketing communications tools. Propositions for future research are proposed which will help in developing better understanding of consumer response to packaging elements.

Mitigation solutions are often evaluated in terms of costs and greenhouse gas reduction potentials, missing out on the consideration of direct effects on human well-being. Here, we systematically assess the mitigation potential of demand-side options categorized into avoid, shift and improve, and their human well-being links. We show that these options, bridging socio-behavioural, infrastructural and technological domains, can reduce counterfactual sectoral emissions by 40–80% in end-use sectors. Based on expert judgement and an extensive literature database, we evaluate 306 combinations of well-being outcomes and demand-side options, finding largely beneficial effects in improvement in well-being (79% positive, 18% neutral and 3% negative), even though we find low confidence on the social dimensions of well-being. Implementing such nuanced solutions is based axiomatically on an understanding of malleable rather than fixed preferences, and procedurally on changing infrastructures and choice architectures. Results demonstrate the high mitigation potential of demand-side mitigation options that are synergistic with well-being. Evaluation of mitigation actions often focuses on cost and overlooks the direct effects on well-being. This work shows demand-side measures have large mitigation potential and beneficial effects on well-being outcomes.

With continuing depletion of fresh water resources, focus has shifted more toward water recovery, reuse, and recycling, which require an extension of conventional wastewater treatment technologies.Downstream external factors like stricter compliance requirements for wastewater discharge, rising treatment costs, and spatial constraints necessitate renewed investigation of alternative technologies.Coupled with biological treatment processes, membrane technology has gained considerable attention due to its wide range of applicability and the performance characteristics of membrane systems that have been established by various investigations and innovations during the last decade.This article summarizes research efforts and presents a review of the how and why of their development and applications.The focus is on appraising and comparing technologies on the basis of their relative merits and demerits.Additional facts and figures, especially regarding process parameters and effluent quality, are used to evaluate primary findings on these technologies.Key factors such as loading rates, retention time, cross-flow velocities, membrane types, membrane fouling, and backwashing, etc. are some of the aspects covered.Membrane applications in various aerobic and anaerobic schemes are discussed at length.However, the emphasis is on the use of membranes as a solid/liquid separator, a key in achieving desired effluent quality.Further, technology development directions and possibilities are also explored.The review concludes with an economic assessment of the technologies because one of the key technology selection criteria is financial viability.

Direct membrane separation using hollow fibers was applied to wastewater treatment in an activated sludge process. A membrane module with a pore size of 0.1 micron was immersed in the aeration tank and treated water was filtered through the membrane by suction. Various operational modes were applied to investigate stable flux conditions as well as organic and nitrogen removal. The stable treatment with a detention time of 4 hours could be kept for about 120 days at a volumetric organic loading of 1.5 kg COD/(m3 day) using intermittent suction with a low pressure of 13 kPa (1.3 m as water head). The COD removal was higher than 95% and more than 90% of COD supplied was oxidized to keep MLSS almost constant in the reactor without sludge wastage, which suggests that total oxidation of influent biodegradable materials can be achieved in this system. Up to 60% of nitrogen could be denitrified by intermittent aeration. The critical organic loading was estimated as 3 to 4 kg COD/(m3 day) in order to keep both stable flux and aerobic condition. The clogging in the membrane was inevitable to some extent, however, the intermittent suction and low pressure operation without cleaning could prevent the unrecoverable clogging and dead end of operation.

Purpose – The purpose of this conceptual paper is to identify important elements of brand building based on a literature review and case studies of successful brands in India. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a review of the literature and takes a case study approach. The paper suggests the framework for building brand identity in sequential order, namely, positioning the brand, communicating the brand message, delivering the brand performance, and leveraging the brand equity. Findings – Brand-building effort has to be aligned with organizational processes that help deliver the promises to customers through all company departments, intermediaries, suppliers, etc., as all these play an important role in the experience customers have with the brand. Originality/value – The paper uses case studies of leading Indian brands to illustrate the importance of action elements in building brands in competitive markets.

This paper discusses and compares different control techniques for damping undesirable interarea oscillation in power systems by means of power system stabilizers (PSS), static VAr compensators (SVCs), and shunt static synchronous compensators (STATCOMs). The oscillation problem is analyzed from the point of view of Hopf bifurcations, an "extended" eigenanalysis to study different controllers, their locations, and the use of various control signals for the effective damping of these oscillations. The comparisons are based on the results obtained for the IEEE 50-machine, 145-bus test system, which is a benchmark for stability analysis.

This paper analyzes the optimal investment strategy for loss averse investors, assuming a complete market and general Ito processes for the asset prices. The loss-averse investor follows a partial portfolio insurance strategy. When the investor's planning horizon is short (less than 5 years), he or she considerably reduces the initial portfolio weight of stocks compared to an investor with smooth power utility. The empirical section of the paper estimates the level of loss aversion implied by historical U.S. stock market data, using a representative agent model. We find that loss aversion and risk aversion cannot be disentangled empirically.

This paper proposes an enhanced adaptive Lagrangian relaxation (ELR) for a unit commitment (UC) problem. ELR consists of adaptive LR (ALR) and heuristic search. The ALR algorithm is enhanced by new on/off decision criterion, new initialization of Lagrangian multipliers, unit classification, identical marginal unit decommitment, and adaptive adjustment of Lagrangian multipliers. After the ALR best feasible solution reached is obtained, the heuristic search consisting of unit substitution and unit decommitment is used to fine tune the solution. The proposed ELR is tested and compared to conventional Lagrangian relaxation (LR), genetic algorithm (GA), evolutionary programming (EP), Lagrangian relaxation and genetic algorithm (LRGA), and genetic algorithm based on unit characteristic classification (GAUC) on the systems with the number of generating units in the range of 10 to 100. ELR total system production costs are less expensive than the others especially for the large number of generating units. Furthermore, the computational times of ELR are much less than the others and increase linearly with the system size, which is favorable for large-scale implementation.

Large construction projects are inherently complex and dynamic. A comprehensive answer on how to manage such projects successfully is difficult to provide. This paper expounds on the success factors for large construction projects in Vietnam. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from practitioners. Factor analysis was employed to categorize these success factors perceived by 109 respondents from 42 construction‐related organizations. Factor analysis uncovered that these success factors can be grouped under four categories, here titled the four COMs: comfort, competence, commitment, and communication. The result can be used as a guideline to successfully handle construction projects in Vietnam as well as in other countries, especially in the emerging economies in Asia and the rest of the world.

Online telemedicine systems are useful due to the possibility of timely and efficient healthcare services. These systems are based on advanced wireless and wearable sensor technologies. The rapid growth in technology has remarkably enhanced the scope of remote health monitoring systems. In this paper, a real-time heart monitoring system is developed considering the cost, ease of application, accuracy, and data security. The system is conceptualized to provide an interface between the doctor and the patients for two-way communication. The main purpose of this study is to facilitate the remote cardiac patients in getting latest healthcare services which might not be possible otherwise due to low doctor-to-patient ratio. The developed monitoring system is then evaluated for 40 individuals (aged between 18 and 66 years) using wearable sensors while holding an Android device (i.e., smartphone under supervision of the experts). The performance analysis shows that the proposed system is reliable and helpful due to high speed. The analyses showed that the proposed system is convenient and reliable and ensures data security at low cost. In addition, the developed system is equipped to generate warning messages to the doctor and patient under critical circumstances.

Chitosan prepared from natural biopolymer chitin and cast into membranes has been tested as wound dressing at the skin-graft donor site in patients. Bactigras, a commonly used impregnated tulle gras bandage, served as a control. Chitosan membrane, prepared with a 75% degree of deacetylation and a thickness of 10 microm, was used in nonmesh or mesh form. The progress in wound healing was compared by clinical and histological examination. Itching and pain sensitivity of the wound dressed area was scored with the use of a visual analogue scale. Mesh chitosan membrane in contrast to the nonmesh membrane allowed blood to ooze into the surrounding gauze. After 10 days, the chitosan-dressed area had been healed more promptly as compared with the Bactigras dressed area. Moreover, the chitosan mesh membrane showed a positive effect on the re-epithelialization and the regeneration of the granular layer. The data confirm that chitosan mesh membrane is a potential substitute for human wound dressing.

The fundamental parameters such as after-curing void ratio (eot) and cement content (Aw) have been found sufficient to characterize the strength and compressibility of cement-admixed clay at high water contents. From analyses performed on the results of unconfined compression tests, the ratio eot/Aw has been proven to combine together the influences of clay water content, cement content, and curing time on the strength of cement-admixed clay. Moreover, the results of oedometer consolidation tests revealed that while Aw governs the position of the postyield compression line, the magnitude of eot determines the magnitude of the one-dimensional vertical yield stress σvy′ at particular Aw. The value of eot reflects, primarily, the clay water content and, secondarily, the cement content and the curing time. Normalizing the after-curing unit weight, after-curing water content, and after-curing specific gravity were incorporated in an empirical relationship of eot.

The paper presents a new conceptual model for not-for-profit international development projects that identifies different sets of success criteria and factors in the project life-cycle phases and then provides the dynamic linkages among these criteria and factors. The model can serve as a basis to evaluate the project status and to forecast the results progressively throughout the stages. Thus, it helps the project management team and the key stakeholders prioritize their attention and scarce development resources to ensure successful project completion. Empirical data from a field survey conducted in selected Southeast Asian countries confirm the model's validity and also illustrate important managerial implications.

Many Thai banks are currently implementing Internet banking. Banks that offer service via this channel claim that it reduces costs and makes them more competitive. However, many corporate customers are not highly enthusiastic about Internet banking. An understanding of why corporate customers do not accept Internet banking can assist banks to implement this self‐service technology more efficiently. In‐depth qualitative interviews with Thai firms suggest that security of the Internet is a major factor inhibiting wider adoption. Those already using Internet banking seem to have more confidence that the system is reliable, whereas non‐users are much more service conscious, and do not trust financial transactions made via Internet channels. Non‐Internet banking users tend to have more negative management attitudes toward adoption and are more likely to claim lack of resources. Legal support is also a major barrier to Internet banking adoption for corporate customers.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating role of self-construal (independent and interdependent) on the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ innovative work behavior (IWB). Design/methodology/approach – A total of 639 followers and 87 leaders filled out questionnaires from cross-industry sample of five most innovative companies of China. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relations. Findings – Results revealed that psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and IWB. The research established that transformational leadership positively influences IWB which includes idea generation as well as idea implementation. The results also showed that the relationship between transformational leadership and IWB was stronger among employees with a higher interdependent self-construal and a lower independent self-construal. Originality/value – This study adds to IWB literature by empirically testing the moderating role of self-construal and the mediating role of psychological empowerment on transformational leadership-IWB link.