Polymers obtained from renewable sources are gaining popularity over their petroleum based counter parts in recent years due to their capability to address the environmental pollution related concerns emanating from the widespread usage of synthetic polymers. Even though the polymers from renewable sources are attractive in an environmental point of view, some of the property limitations and the high cost of these materials pose limitations for their extensive commercial applications. These aspects opened the door for a large chunk of research activities in development of polyblends and composites containing polymers from renewable sources as one of the components. Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most discussed and commercialized polymer originated from renewable resources. Even though it has many useful properties, certain disadvantages like high brittleness, low impact resistance etc. limit the wide spread commercialization of PLA. In this review article, the recent research activities which are aimed to fill this gap by various modifications of PLA are discussed with special emphasis on the latest research advancements in the field of biodegradable and non biodegradable systems containing PLA.

Historically, transportation projects and urban mobility policies overlook the dimension of social sustainability, mainly focusing on economic and environmental criteria. This neglect, seen enhanced in the Global South, leads to long travel times, growing congestion, reliance on motorcycles, high traffic accident rates, and limited access to public transport, jobs, and urban facilities, especially for the more vulnerable population. In light of these issues, this paper proposes the Social Sustainability of Urban Mobility (SSUM) approach as an analytical framework that assesses the state of social sustainability in urban mobility by applying a Systematic Literature Review where three gaps were found. First, by tailoring the SSUM approach to the context of the Global South, it is possible to address the population-focused gap in urban mobility. Second, in the literature review, a theoretical gap defining social sustainability in urban mobility and its three primary categories has yet to reach a consensus among practitioners and academics. Finally, more empirical research should be conducted to discuss methodological aspects of operationalizing the SSUM approach through the three main categories: accessibility, the sustainability of the community, and institutionality. The SSUM approach promotes implementing a sustainable urban agenda that builds inclusive, equitable, and just cities in urban mobility.

Reusable bags have been introduced as an alternative to single-use plastic bags (SUPB). While beneficial, this alternative is economically and environmentally viable only if utilized multiple times. This study aims to identify the determinants influencing the use of reusable bags (RB) over single-use plastic bags (SUPB) within the framework of ecological impact reduction, employing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The focus is on understanding how attitudes (AT), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) collectively guide consumers towards adopting reusable bags as a pro-environmental choice. The focus is on understanding how attitudes (AT), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) collectively guide consumers towards the adoption of reusable bags as a pro-environmental choice. Data were collected through a survey administered to 814 consumers in Lahore, employing both regression analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to assess the impact of AT, SN, and PBC on reusable bag consumption (RBC). The TPB framework underpins the hypothesis that these three psychological factors significantly influence the decision to use RBs. Both regression and SEM analyses demonstrated that AT, SN, and PBC positively affect RBC, with significant estimates indicating the strength of each predictor. Specifically, PBC emerged as the strongest predictor of RBC (PBC2, β = 0.533, p < 0.001), highlighting the paramount importance of control perceptions in influencing bag use. This was followed by AT (β = 0.211, p < 0.001) and SN (β = 0.173, p < 0.001), confirming the hypothesized positive relationships. The congruence of findings from both analytical approaches underlines the robustness of these techniques in validating the TPB within the context of sustainable consumer behaviors. The investigation corroborates the TPB’s applicability in predicting RBC, with a clear hierarchy of influence among the model’s constructs. PBC’s prominence underscores the necessity of enhancing consumers’ control over using RBs to foster sustainable consumption patterns. Practical implications include the development of policies and marketing strategies that target the identified determinants, especially emphasizing the critical role of PBC, to promote broader adoption of RBs and contribute to significant reductions in plastic waste.

The reference urban plan is an urban planning tool often used to orient the development of Chadian cities. However, expanding Chadian urban centers, such as Sarh, face challenges in implementing urban planning orientations of their urban plans within the set deadlines. The objective of this study is to identify the factors impeding the effective implementation of the reference urban plan for Sarh town. The methodology employed encompasses a literature review, individual interviews with urban planning experts, geographic information system (GIS) data, household surveys and statistical analysis. The results revealed that less than a quarter (19.72%) of the households surveyed were aware of the reference urban plan. The applied logistic regression model identified age, occupation and level of education as the main factors influencing public participation in the preparation of the reference urban plan. On average, 33.33% of the urban planning guidelines and 21.74% of the projected urban projects were implemented, with a difference of 1631.28 hectares (ha) between the projected plan and the actual plan for the town. Five factors were identified as contributing to the failure to implement the reference urban plan for Sarh town, including low funding, inadequate land management, a lack of political will, weak governance and poor communication. Consequently, participatory and inclusive planning approaches, effective financial mobilisation, strong governance, and the use of modern technologies such as GIS tools are recommended to enhance the implementation of urban planning tools.

This study employed a deductive approach to examine external HRM factors influencing job satisfaction in the post-pandemic hybrid work environment. Explores the intermediary functions of age, gender, and work experience in this particular environment. The data-gathering procedure consisted of conducting semi-structured interviews with carefully chosen 50 managers representing various sectors, industries, organizations, and professions. The applied approach was adopted to allow a systematic and unbiased investigation of the mediating variables. The study used SPSS 25 and Smart PLS 4 to analyze the model, enhancing understanding of HRM challenges in a constantly evolving workplace. The findings offer valuable insights for HR experts and businesses, highlighting the value of comprehending what methods HRM components influence job satisfaction to optimize employee well-being and productivity. The study provides applied recommendations designed for enhancing employee contentment in the AI-evolving professional atmosphere, shedding light on the importance of supportive leadership strategies, particularly during AI-triggered downsizing. Additionally, we welcome a new era to push forward in integrating and managing AI tools and technologies to automate decision-making and data processing. Results propose that Exogenous influences of human resource management (HRM) influence manager job satisfaction considerably. Specifically, downsizing caused by AI was found to have negative consequences, whereas diversity and restructuring have favorable effects. Gender was recognized as a crucial factor that influences outcomes, then age and years of experience have the most visible effect.

The idea of emotions that is concealed in human language gives rise to metaphor. It is challenging to compute and develop a framework for emotions in people because of its detachment and diversity. Nonetheless, machine translation heavily relies on the modeling and computation of emotions. When emotion metaphors are calculated into machine translation, the language is significantly more colorful and satisfies translating criteria such as truthfulness, creativity and beauty. Emotional metaphor computation often uses artificial intelligence (AI) and the detection of patterns and it needs massive, superior samples in the emotion metaphor collection. To facilitate data-driven emotion metaphor processing through machine translation, the study constructs a bi-lingual database in both Chinese and English that contains extensive emotion metaphors. The fundamental steps involved in generating the emotion metaphor collection are demonstrated, comprising the basis of theory, design concepts, acquiring data, annotating information and index management. This study examines how well the emotion metaphor corpus functions in machine translation by proposing and testing a novel earthworm swarm-tunsed recurrent network (ES-RN) architecture in a Python tool. Additionally, the comparison study is carried out using machine translation datasets that already exist. The findings of this study demonstrated that emotion metaphors might be expressed in machine translation using the emotion metaphor database developed in this research.