A Classification Review on Green Concrete

This paper is a short review of green concrete as claimed per latest related available literature. Green concrete refers to concrete mixture with lower carbon footprint, during its total life cycle, as compared to ordinary concrete mixture. This may be due to its composition of one or more green component (s) such as silica fume or fly ash, or to its capacity, as a building material, to reduce one or more pollutant (s) and/or to any other sustainable concrete procedure such as reduced raw materials depletion. A leading Italian concrete production group claims the provision of a new air scrubbing green concrete combining all of the above techniques. The claimed air scrubbing is based on a photocatalytic principle whereby natural or artificial light activates an oxidation process converting noxious pollutants into harmless compounds. Green concrete promotes sustainability in a creative way; thus, improving global human health.

Sustainable Development and Digitalization: The Unusual COVID-19 Crisis Requires Original Solutions

This article provides a content analysis of over 20 policy proposals for coping with the COVID-19 crisis that have been published by influential international organizations, governments, corporations, academics and civil society groups. The current situation, the role of digitalization during the crisis, and the composition of anti-crisis measures already taken by the world’s largest economies are investigated, and long-term measures are proposed aimed at restoring the global economy and moving toward more equitable and sustainable development.The authors identify a significant green component in public policy proposals published since the pandemic began and note that many proposals relate to equity and inclusiveness in development and meeting the needs of individuals. The authors further identify key areas of sustainable development that require action in the near future and which can create new opportunities for economic development: renewable energy and clean transport, cyclical economy, digitalization and environmental protection. At the same time, it is noted that the transition to a green economy is of a long-term nature and may conflict with the need in the short term to support the economy in overcoming the crisis.These priority areas for government action require attention within the framework of Russia’s anti-crisis policy. Given the sharp drop in oil prices, the acceleration of digitalization and decarbonization, and the magnitude of the 2020 economic crisis, Russia needs to begin an accelerated transition to low-carbon energy, a cyclical economy and the restoration of its ecosystems with accelerated digitalization.

“Green” component of the state’s economic security

Environmental problems and the emergence of responsible and “green” investors predetermined the formation of the “green” component of the economy. In this work, the author focuses on the possibilities of using the “green” economy as a tool for solving problems of ensuring the economic security of the state. The author also offers general recommendations on stimulating the development of a green economy in the Russian Federation.

Does bruising influence the volatile profile of pears?

Purpose Volatile flavor plays a main role in defining the fruit quality by consumers. Bruising leads often to dark spots on fruits and its amount could highly affect product quality. This paper aims to study the effect of bruising on the volatilome released by pears by using proton transfer reaction – mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). Design/methodology/approach Fingerprints of non-bruised and bruised pear samples were collected through PTR-MS for 28 days, and discriminant analysis was used to discriminate the fruit products. The CIELAB color changes were also measured during the entire ripening period. Findings Bruised pears released a higher intensity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) compared to non-bruised pears (p16days = 0.049, p22days = 0.012, p28days = 0.006). In particular, the release of m/z 45 and m/z 47 were significantly (pm/z 45 = 0.076, pm/z 47 = 0.095.) higher in bruised samples, suggesting that the bruising event accelerated the natural ripening process. CIELAB color coordinates were also recorded. The coordinate a* showed a linear increase during the whole 28 days because of the loss of the green component. The CIELAB ΔE* was higher in the bruised pears than the non-bruised pears (p = 0.022). Originality/value Bruising can affect food quality and taste. Bruise susceptibility has been largely studied on apples, tomatoes and peaches, but rarely on pears. Very little is known about the effect of bruising on the volatilome of pears. Moreover, bruising research usually involved the study of physical properties; on the contrary, PTR-MS, applied to bruising research, has never been used before. Besides the analysis of volatilome, the changes in color were also recorded for the whole 28 days of analysis. The proposed method could be applied for the monitoring of pears quality in the food industry.

Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy Using Bichannel Convolutional Neural Network

Deep learning of fundus photograph has emerged as a practical and cost-effective technique for automatic screening and diagnosis of severer diabetic retinopathy (DR). The entropy image of luminance of fundus photograph has been demonstrated to increase the detection performance for referable DR using a convolutional neural network- (CNN-) based system. In this paper, the entropy image computed by using the green component of fundus photograph is proposed. In addition, image enhancement by unsharp masking (UM) is utilized for preprocessing before calculating the entropy images. The bichannel CNN incorporating the features of both the entropy images of the gray level and the green component preprocessed by UM is also proposed to improve the detection performance of referable DR by deep learning.

Urban Rehabilitation of the Unirii Square in Cluj-Napoca

To improve the design of the Unirii Square from Cluj-Napoca both aesthetically and functionally, principles of urban landscape and sustainable design were implemented. To achieve this goal, modular and mobile structures with two different types of low maintenance plant species, Sedum and Cornus were selected. These species have been chosen because of their ecological benefits, hardiness attributes and morphological characteristics. This paper aims to present an urban green component adaptable to different scenarios such as major annual events without interfering with temporary constructions and pedestrian routes while at the same time creating a more aesthetic and attractive open space for locals and tourists alike. Every element added to the square can be relocated or moved at any given time without negative impact to the environment. To present the potential of this design concept, three different arrangement design scenarios were conducted - one for the everyday life of the public and the other to accommodate the unfolding of two major events held annually: the TIFF film festival and the Christmas fair.

Noncontact monitoring of heart rate responses to taste stimuli using a video camera

Pleasant or unpleasant feeling stimulated by taste usually expressed to describe the acceptance or rejection of food and beverages intake by a human. Since it stimulates the emotional reactions, therefore it also induces other response such as heart rate variations. Traditional sensory tools used only subjective measurement such as self-report, to estimate the feeling of tasting. This method sometimes failed to show some differences between the pleasant and unpleasant type of feelings unconsciously. Previous unconscious measurement methods used the intrusive technique by placing some sensors in contact with the body, which may affect the results of sensory analysis. This study was conducted to avoid the effects of using contact sensors and validate the contact-less method of monitoring heart rate due to emotional changes by extracting plethysmographic signal from the green component of the video images. The videos were recorded while the subject responded to pleasant, unpleasant and neutral stimuli. The findings indicated that the heart rate was significantly related to taste stimuli that also reflected the subjective feelings. The unpleasant-taste influenced heart rate to increase more compared to pleasant-taste and neutral-taste. This proposed approach can be used to remotely detect the feeling/emotion that not overtly express through facial expression, speech or gestures.

Synthesis and investigation of alkaline energetic coordination polymers based on 1,2,3-triazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid for green component of pyrotechnics

The ligand 1,2,3-triazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid was incorporated into alkaline metal to form coordination polymers, which displayed specific emission colors in their combustion, making them have potential applications as green agents of pyrotechnic.

Horsefly object-directed polarotaxis is mediated by a stochastically distributed ommatidial subtype in the ventral retina

The ventral compound eye of many insects contains polarization-sensitive photoreceptors, but little is known about how they are integrated into visual functions. In female horseflies, polarized reflections from animal fur are a key stimulus for host detection. To understand how polarization vision is mediated by the ventral compound eye, we investigated the band-eyed brown horsefly Tabanus bromius using anatomical, physiological, and behavioral approaches. Serial electron microscopic sectioning of the retina and single-cell recordings were used to determine the spectral and polarization sensitivity (PS) of photoreceptors. We found 2 stochastically distributed subtypes of ommatidia, analogous to pale and yellow of other flies. Importantly, the pale analog contains an orthogonal analyzer receptor pair with high PS, formed by an ultraviolet (UV)-sensitive R7 and a UV- and blue-sensitive R8, while the UV-sensitive R7 and green-sensitive R8 in the yellow analog always have low PS. We tested horsefly polarotaxis in the field, using lures with controlled spectral and polarization composition. Polarized reflections without UV and blue components rendered the lures unattractive, while reflections without the green component increased their attractiveness. This is consistent with polarotaxis being guided by a differential signal from polarization analyzers in the pale analogs, and with an inhibitory role of the yellow analogs. Our results reveal how stochastically distributed sensory units with modality-specific division of labor serve as separate and opposing input channels for visual guidance.