Municipal authorities in industrialized and in developing countries face unceasingly the issues of congestion, insufficiency of transport means capacity, poor operability of transport systems and a growing demand for reliable and effective urban transport. While the expansion of infrastructure is generally considered as an undesirable option, in specific cases, when short links or ring roads are missing, new infrastructure projects may provide beneficial solutions. The upgrading and renewal of existing networks is always a challenge to the development of a modern city and the welfare of citizens. Central governance and management of transport systems, the establishment of smart and digital infrastructure, advanced surveillance and traffic monitoring, and intra-city energy-harvesting policy are some of the steps to be taken during the transition to a green and sustainable urban future.
Municipal authorities have also to consider other options and strategies to create a citizen-friendly setting for mobility: diminish the need for trips (digitalization of services, e-commerce, etc.), shift from private to public transport and transform the urban form to promote non-motorized transport in favor of the natural environment and public health. A citizen-friendly policy based on the anticipation of future needs and technological development seems to be a requisite for European cities searching for a smooth integration of their networks into urban space.

Polymer waste drilling fluid has extremely high stability, and it is difficult to separate solid from liquid, which has become a key bottleneck problem restricting its resource recycling. This study aims to reveal the stability mechanism of polymer waste drilling fluid and explore the destabilization effect and mechanism of ultrasonic waste drilling fluid. Surface analysis techniques such as X-ray energy spectrum and infrared spectrum were used in combination with colloidal chemical methods to study the spatial molecular structure, stability mechanism, and ultrasonic destabilization mechanism of drilling fluid. The results show that the particles in the drilling fluid exist in two forms: uncoated particles and particles coated by polymers, forming a high molecular stable particle system. Among them, rock particles not coated by polymer follow the vacancy stability and Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) stability mechanism, and the weighting material coated by the polymer surface follows the space stability and DLVO stability mechanism. The results of ultrasonic destabilization experiments show that after ultrasonic treatment at 1000 W power for 5 min, coupled with the addition of 0.02% cationic polyacrylamide, the dehydration rate is as high as 81.0%, and the moisture content of the mud cake is as low as 29.3%, achieving an excellent solid-liquid separation effect. Ultrasound destabilizes polymer waste drilling fluid by destroying the long-chain structure of the polymer. This study provides theoretical support and research direction for the research and development of polymer waste drilling fluid destabilization technology.

Purpose: The study examines the mediating effect of self-emotion appraisal and other-emotion appraisal on psychological safety, individual resilience, and organizational commitment at the workplace. Design/methodology/approach: This study generated 140 survey responses from workers in diverse occupations and industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed-methods data analysis was conducted. Hierarchical regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses, and process macroanalysis was used to generate the mediation analysis. Qualitative data analysis through thematic coding was adopted to interpret the respondents’ written opinions and narratives. Findings: The results revealed that self-emotion appraisal strongly correlates to resilience, but evaluation of self-emotion has no effect on organizational commitment. Other-emotion appraisal and psychological safety are not significant predictors of resilience at the workplace. Rather, psychological safety is a significant predictor of organizational commitment. The qualitative analysis generated from the respondents’ narratives provides deeper insight into the quantitative results. Additional data that emerged from the qualitative interpretation revealed other factors that are related to emotional appraisal, psychological safety, resilience, and organizational commitment. Practical implications: The findings shed light on the need to understand an individual’s emotional appraisal when instilling workplace resilience. Further, promoting psychological safety, such as by involving employees in the change process, managing fairness perception, and eliciting trust, enhances organizational commitment in the workplace. Integrating open communication, management intervention, and coaching programmes should form part of the employee engagement and development functions to help build organizational resilience and commitment. Originality/value: This research is an original contribution conducted during the global health crisis that led to abrupt changes in the workers’ lives and the workplaces in Singapore. Research implications: This present study demonstrated constructive findings on emotion regulations and perceived psychological safety associated with resilience and commitment amid the disruptive changes in work practices at the workplace. Further, the outcome of the study shows the mediating effect of self-emotional appraisal on psychological safety and resilience. The result draws parallels with past literature that showed that individuals who appraised their emotions tended to recalibrate and recognize their subjective behaviour and take actions to modify it. Social implications: Emotion regulation connotes employees’ emotion coping strategies, and research showed that emotion reappraisal produces a positive effect on workplace relationship quality. 

The electron/hole transport layer can promote charge transfer and improve device performance, which is used in perovskite solar cells. The nanoarray structure transport layers can not only further promote carrier transport but also reduce recombination. It also has a great potential in enhancing perovskite light absorption, improving device stability and inhibiting the crack nucleation of different structure layers in perovskite solar cells. This paper reviewed the research progress of perovskite solar cells with different nanoarray structure transport layers. The challenges and development directions of perovskite solar cells based on nanoarray structure transport layers are also summarized and prospected.

The ultimate objective of the study was to investigate the effects of being landlocked on the living standards in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1991 to 2019. Adopting the two-step estimation technique of System GMM (generalized method of moments), the study found that being landlocked has a negative and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries when using GDP per capita as the living standard measure. Moreover, the historical living standard experiences of SSA countries have a positive and significant influence on the current living standard level. In addition, the population growth rate has a positive and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries. On the other hand, the official exchange rate, broad money as a percentage of GDP, and inflation have a negative and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries. Generally, the estimated result reveals the existence of a significant variation in the living standards in landlocked and coastal SSA countries. This study suggests that regional integration between landlocked and transit countries should be improved to minimize entry costs and increase access to global markets for landlocked countries. We argue that this study is of interest to landlocked and coastal countries to increase trade integration and promote the development of both groups, and it will contribute to the scarce empirical evidence.

The purpose of the article is to present the results of analysis of newly industrialized countries in the context of sustainable development. The study took place within the framework of the Kaldor’s structural-economic model of the gross domestic product and the energy flow model, using the socio-economic systems power changes analyzing method. Within the context of the approach, an invariant coordinate system in energy units is considered, the necessary conditions for sustainable development are formulated, and the main parameters for assessing the potential for growth and development are determined. The article focuses on key issues regarding new concepts of sustainable development and methodology for assessing sustainable development using the concept of socioeconomics useful power for the countries of the newly industrialized economy a group of emerging countries that have made in short time period a qualitative transition in socio-economic development. Based on a new definition of sustainable development in energy units, development trends are formulated for the selected countries during 20 years for the period 2000–2019. Results of the study can be used to planning for the transition to sustainable development. The data of the Central Statistical Office of European Union, the World Bank and the United Nations Organization were used for calculations. Initial interpretation of the calculated data has been done for the largest newly industrialized countries Brazil, India and China in terms of the gross domestic product in the period 1990–2019. For comparison, data on USA are presented as countries with advanced economy.