Assessing the Potential of “Mobility as a Service” in Passenger Maritime Transport

This article assesses the potential of Mobility as a Service in passenger maritime transport from the supply perspective by collecting and analyzing data provided by interviews to key experts in passenger transport from both industry and academia. “Mobility as a service” in passenger maritime transport (also in this article referred as “Maritime MaaS”) describes the integration of passenger maritime services with land mobility into a single mobility service delivered through a unique platform for planning, booking, ticketing, and payment. The scope of this article is to explore the potential interest of mobility service providers to develop a MaaS that has as a backbone coastal shipping at the Aegean Archipelagos, in Greece. The Maritime MaaS ecosystem with its key actors is identified, while the perceived challenges, opportunities, and benefits envisaged by the adaptation of this innovative concept from urban transport to the maritime sector are recorded. Computer-assisted interviews were performed at a panel of 17 experts representing different types of decision makers. Participants were selected according to their current industry position or their academic profile. A content analysis with the use of NVIVO was conducted, followed by a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis based on the experts’ input, in order to assess the MaaS business environment. Results indicate that the maritime transport sector is relatively ready to adopt MaaS from a technological readiness perspective, while land transport seems to be in a lower level of technological readiness. PAYG (pay as you go) MaaS business model is preferred than a “MaaS package” model by most stakeholders. Finally, main challenges toward MaaS implementation are the discrepancies in reliability of service among different transport modes and the ferry fleet operational flexibility ceilings that are imposed by legal framework for ferry routings in Greece.

V2G Pilot Projects

Electric vehicles (EVs) are not only a viable energy efficient mode of transport, but they have considerable capacity of providing flexible and quick responding storage alternative based on vehicle-to-grid (V2G) scheme. V2G technology facilitates bidirectional flow of energy to and from the vehicle by a power converter. However, there is skepticism regarding the economic profitability of the V2G scheme. Despite the aforementioned challenges, the V2G technology is explored in matured markets. A number of V2G pilot projects across the world have investigated different aspects of V2G integration such as technological readiness, economic feasibility, social benefits, and challenges of V2G. This work aims to review the existing pilot projects on V2G functionality.

Evaluating the Technology Readiness of a Ribbon-Blade Wind Turbine Using NASA’s TRL Method

The aim of this article was to complete a methodologically original study and evaluation of the technological readiness of an innovative ribbon-blade wind turbine in accordance with NASA’s TRL method. The structural form of the wind turbine unit analyzed herein, featuring a new ribbon turbine design, is distinguished by its safe durability. The circumferential speeds of the points on the turbine circumference were technologically verified positively and have a significant impact on the evaluation indicators of the conversion process, these being efficiency, unit energy consumption, and the quality of the power and energy of the wind power plant. The use of a new turbine design in the wind turbine analyzed herein, a working ribbon unit, resulted in a technological increase in efficiency from 13% to 32% and a reduction in unit internal energy consumption from 18% to 36% compared to the traditional wind turbine design. The TRL NASA-based evaluation herein, which consists of modern computer-aided engineering procedures (CAE standard) as well as IT instrumentation, and which includes nine degrees of technological readiness of an innovative ribbon windmill, falls in line with the standards for smart development based on knowledge and innovation (EU 2020 Strategy).

Analysis of basic concepts of advanced engines for supersonic civil aircraft on the basis of foreign designers’ experience

The work contains the results of a study of the basic design concepts of advanced engines for supersonic civil aircraft, carried out in order to make a forecast for the development of aviation technology, taking into account the experience of foreign designers. Engine designs are presented that are considered to be the most rational ones from the point of view of achieving high technical and economic parameters in the range of cruise Mach numbers from 1.2 to 5. Advantages and disadvantages of various engine designs, as well as issues of engine regulation at different flight modes, are discussed. The parameters of some engines being developed and studied at present for supersonic civil aircraft are presented. The analysis of the designs shows that an increase in the cruise Mach number leads to a complication of engine designs in the direction of an increase in the number of controlled elements, the number of working fluid flow paths, a complication of the architecture of turbomachines, as well as in the direction of using combined schemes and alternative fuels. The aspiration to meet new reinforced ecological requirements through the use of new, complex engine designs that differ significantly from traditional gas turbine engines will inevitably entail additional technical risks due to the insufficient level of technological readiness of most of the new controlled units.

Study of Potential Classification of Lost Students in College Based on Information Extraction on Text-Based Social Media; Case Study of Panca Budi Pembangunan University

The main problem studied in this study is the large number of lost students who harm universities because of the difficulty of monitoring or monitoring as a preventive measure. Therefore, this research becomes very important to be done so that college institutions can make efforts to detect early (classification) of students who potentially cannot complete their studies on time or students who will drop out (DO). Thus, PT institutions through related parties such as academic guidance lecturers, academic bureaus and others can do initial prevention by providing the best solution or solution to the problems faced by students. This research aims to determine the training data model consisting of academic and non-academic factors (including the results of extracting information from social media). Furthermore, this model is used as a basis for classifying students who have the potential to "graduate on time", "graduate not on time", and "DO". The method approach used is quantitative with text mining computational algorithms for the process of extracting knowledge / information from social media which is further used in data training, as well as data mining computational algorithms for the process of classification of potential completion of student studies. The mandatory external targeted in the first year is the publication of the international journal Scopus Q4 and in the second year is the publication of the international journal Scopus Q3. For additional external targets in the first and second years respectively are the publication of international journals indexed on reputable indexers, ISBN teaching books and copyrights. The level of technological readiness (TKT) in this study up to level 2 is the formulation of technological concepts and applications to classify the potential completion of student studies using data mining. Keywords: [student lost, knowledge/information extraction, data classification, text mining, data mining].

The Economics of Coking Coal Mining: A Fossil Fuel Still Needed for Steel Production

Coking coal has been on the European list of critical raw materials since 2014 due to its high economic importance and high supply risk. In 2017, coking coal narrowly missed passing the threshold of economic importance. However, out of caution, it remained on the list of critical raw materials, as the steel industry still needs it. It is likely to be phased out of the list below when it does not fully meet the required criteria. As there are no significant alternatives for this energy intensive industry and neither electrification nor material or energy efficiency improvements are yet available at a sufficient level of technological readiness, the European Union remains dependent on coking coal imports. Therefore, any coking coal mining project in Europe is of great importance and an important alternative to solving the problems of providing this raw material. In this study, the Dębieńsko coking coal project in Poland is analyzed using a scientifically proven methodology based on world-class analysis of coking coal projects submitted for financing to financial institutions.

Multi-Criteria Studies and Assessment Supporting the Selection of Locations and Technologies Used in CO2-EGS Systems

The paper describes application of the cross-impact method in the process of selecting locations and technologies used in a geothermal system based on energy accumulated in a dry rock formation, where CO2 is used as the working medium. The survey is based on the opinion of a group of 20 experts representing different fields of earth and technical sciences. They represent Norway and Poland, where the location of such a system is considered. Based on experts’ experience and opinions, all factors that seem to be significant were classified into the following groups: targets, key factors, results, determiners, motor and brakes, regulating factors, external factors, auxiliary factors, and autonomous factors. Direct influences between variables were indicated. Due to major differences in geological conditions in Poland and Norway, the factor of on- or offshore technology was pointed out as the primary determiner. Among key factors, the system operation’s long-term safety and level of technological readiness were indicated. As a target factor, an interest of local authority was pointed out. Among the variables that are important when selecting locations for this type of system, nine are essential: (1) Formal constraints related to local nature protection areas—this variable is essential in the case of an onshore system; (2) Availability of CO2 sources; (3) Level of geological recognition; (4) The distance of the CO2-EGS from a thermal energy user and electricity grid; (5) Existing wells and other infrastructure; (6) Depth of the EGS system; (7) Water depth if offshore, this variable is only important when offshore systems are involved; (8) Physical parameters of reservoir rocks; (9) Reservoir temperature.

Energy Efficiency and Pollution Control Through ICTs for Sustainable Development

The goal of this paper is to prove the necessity for a more thorough consideration and more active use of the modern ICTs for the technological support for the practical implementation of the SDGs’ ecological block in the aspect of the increase of energy efficiency and environmental pollution control. The originality of this paper is as follows: it develops a proprietary methodology of evaluating the technical readiness (level of the development of ICTs) for implementing the ecological block of the SDGs, which envisage the increase of energy efficiency and the growth of environmental pollution control. The highest (but moderate) technological readiness to implement the ecological block of the SDGs among developed countries has been shown by Canada (14.42 points) and Denmark (11.03 points), among developing countries—China (7.72 points). As a result, it has been proved that UCTs are a perspective tool of the practical implementation of the ecological block of the SDGs, stimulating the increase of energy efficiency and improving the environment pollution control. For developed countries, it is recommended to increase the use of Big data and AI analytics by 90.36% and increase the use of ICTs in E-government by 89.74%. This will allow achieving the growth of energy efficiency by 8.28% and the decrease of environmental pollution by 28.41%. In developing countries, it is recommended to increase world robots distribution by 14.17% and increase the use of ICTs in E-government by 76.74%. This will allow increasing the energy efficiency by 16.77% and decreasing the level of environmental pollution by 15.54%. This paper’s contribution to literature (innovative aspect of research) consists in filling the gap of the uncertainty (underdevelopment) of the tools for practical implementation of the SDGs ecological block. This paper has demonstrated the substantial potential of ICTs in the stimulation of the growth of energy efficiency and reduction of environmental pollution in developed and developing countries.

Eleven years of cyberattacks on Chinese supply chains in an era of cyber warfare, a review and future research agenda

Purpose The contribution of this study aims to twofold: First, it provides an overview of the current state of research on cyberattacks on Chinese supply chains (SCs). Second, it offers a look at the Chinese Government’s approach to fighting cyberattacks on Chinese SCs and its calls for global governance. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive literature review was conducted on Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, in Social Sciences Citation Index journals, Scopus and Google Scholar, published between 2010–2021. A systematic review of practitioner literature was also conducted. Findings Chinese SCs have become a matter of national security, especially in the era of cyber warfare. The risks to SC have been outlined. Cybersecurity regulations are increasing as China aims to build a robust environment for cyberspace development. Using the Technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, the results show that the top five factors influencing the adoption process in firms are as follows: relative advantage and technological readiness (Technology context); top management support and firm size (Organization context) and government policy and regulations (Environment context). Research limitations/implications This review focuses on cyberattacks on Chinese SCs and great care was taken when selecting search terms. However, the author acknowledges that the choice of databases/terms may have excluded a few articles on cyberattacks from this review. Practical implications This review provides managerial insights for SC practitioners into how cyberattacks have the potential to disrupt the global SC network. Originality/value Past researchers proposed a taxonomic approach to evaluate progress with SC integration into Industry 4.0; in contrast, this study is one of the first steps toward an enhanced understanding of cyberattacks on Chinese SCs and their contribution to the global SC network using the TOE framework.

Expanding the Level of Technological Readiness for a Low-Cost Vertical Hydroponic System

Climate and social changes are deeply affecting current agro-food systems. Unsustainable agricultural practices and the low profitability of small farmers are challenging the agricultural development of rural areas. This study aims to develop a novel, modular and low-cost vertical hydroponic farm system through reviews of the patented literature, research literature and variants of commercial products. After a detailed conceptualization process, a prototype was fabricated and tested at my university to validate its technology readiness level (TRL). The outcomes supported the usability and performance of the present utility model but highlighted several changes that are necessary before it can pass to the next TRL. This study shows that the prototype has the potential to not only solve food sovereignty but also to benefit society by advancing the innovations in food production and improving quality of life.