The study is based on the results of long-term field studies, satellite and aerial data analysis. In the maximum of the Little Ice Age (LIA) 243 glaciers with a total area of 353.4 km2 were reconstructed. By the results of interpretation of Corona images by 1968 the number of glaciers increased (236), the total area reduced to 242 km2. In 2010 glaciation was represented by 237 glaciers with a total area of 201 km2. Thus, from the maximum of the LIA, the glaciation of the Tavan-Bogd mountains decreased by 43%, which is somewhat less than the neighboring glacial centers (Ikh-Turgen, Tsambagarav, Tsengel-Khayrkhan and Mongun-Taiga mountains). The probable cause is the predominance of larger glaciers relatively resistant to warming and higher altitudes. The effect of glacier size on their stability is supported by differences in the relative shrinkage of glaciers in different parts of the Tavan-Bogdo-Ola massif: the smallest decline occurred in the basins of the Tsagan-Gol (31.7%) and Sangadir (36.4%) rivers where the largest glaciers are located. On the contrary, on the lower periphery of the massif, where small glaciers predominate, the relative reduction was large (74-79%). On the background of the general retreat trend large valleys glaciers retreated faster in 1968-1977 and after 2010. In 1990-s the retreat was slow. After 2010 the glacial retreat was extremely fast. The retreat of glaciers in the last 50-60 years was caused by a trend towards a decrease in the amount of precipitation until the mid-1970s and a sharp warming in the 1990s and early 2000s.

This research aims to analyse the sustainability of retirement system and relevant optimal path to achieve sustainable post-retirement livings in Malaysia context. Focus of this study is put on Employees Provident Fund (EPF) which is mainly constituted by employees from private sector. EPF is a fully funded defined-contribution by both employees and employers. In this research, main variables used are contribution rate and retirement age based on relevant indexation of pension. For a sustainable retirement living, retirement benefits are expected to be in a maximisation function. Attempts to find sustainable retirement fund are via step-by-step mathematical calculation using formulas in Microsoft Excel and verification of the result with Excel Solver via Generalised Reduced Gradient (GRG) algorithm. Eventually, two-third retirement decision model is used to justify the sustainability of retirement fund other than justification using monthly household expenditure.

Lignocellulosic biomass has demonstrated great potential as feedstock for pellet production, notwithstanding the fact that the industrial production of pellets is faced with some economic challenges. This study presents a technoeconomic analysis of six case scenarios to develop a process model for pellet production from sawdust and oat straw that employs torrefaction and steam explosion pretreatment prior to pelletization. SuperPro Designer was used to carry out this evaluation. The pellet plants were designed to have a capacity of 9.09 t/h of sawdust and oat straw each. The pellet yield ranged from 59 kt– 72 kt/year. Scenarios analyzed included variations of steam explosion and torrefaction. In some scenarios materials were lost in the form of liquid and gas due to the pretreatment process. The breakdown of equipment purchase cost showed that the torrefaction reactor is the most expensive unit with about 51% of the purchase cost. Facility-dependent and feedstock costs were the major significant contributors to the pellet production cost. The profitability of pellet production as determined by the net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and payback period and was found to be sensitive to variations in feedstock cost.

The recent happenings in the world such as flood and wild forest fire were as a result of climate effect as being envisaged by scientists. It is urgent now to adopt a source of energy that will eliminate this effect on our universe. Solar energy is the major energy means that is abundant which could be utilized. In this review, the prospects of solar energy exploration were studied in Nigeria which include assessments, economic viability and hybrid systems. Findings show higher potential in the North as compared to the Southern region. Additionally, potential of offshore solar energy system was simulated by considering 2002, 2003 and 2004 data sets from Era5-land base. Their monthly mean, seasonal changes and annual mean value were estimated. The algebraic annual solar radiance for 2002, 2003 and 2004 were 34,914.732 kWh/m2, 33,898.316 kWh/m2 and 34,338.324 kWh/m2. Suggestions were made due to the present status of solar energy utilization that will enhance its maximum usage and development. One of these is the establishment of a functioning financial scheme and the database for all renewable energy systems. When all these are put in place, the energy supply will increase, climate effect will be reduced, and the economy will be boosted.

Chile faces a serious crisis on housing affordability given that most of the population is unable to secure a house. While housing prices between 2008 increased by 70.96%, wages only increased by 20.43%. This article presents the analysis of the housing prices configuration for the main district in the country: Santiago Centro. The assessment focuses on verticalised housing buildings constructed between 2015 and 2019. The article develops an exploratory study on the price of housing in the city of Santiago de Chile, to generate a diagnosis to identify the role played by expectations of profitability when configuring that price. Based on the information generated, we seek to contribute to the discussion on public policies that advance towards the development of affordable housing for households in central communes with high urban value, as is the case of Santiago Centro. We hypothesize that profitability expectations of real estate developers play a key role in the housing prices and an adjustment in the profit ratios may increase the affordability keeping the housing market over profitable rates. The research is relevant due to the lack of data transparency in the Chilean housing market, where access to investment costs, land values, yields and house price formation are not part of the public discussion, even though this implies that many households are facing severe difficulties in paying for access to decent housing.

Agarwood, a highly valuable fragrant wood of Aquilaria spp. has been widely used in perfumes, traditional medicine, religious rites and cultural activities. Due to the presence of aromatic and medicinal properties, the Agarwood has gained its economic importance in recent years. It has been providing livelihood and employment facilities to many people who are cultivating those. Owing to high demand and profitability, the people of Assam has started to cultivate Agarwood in a commercial manner in recent days. This study was conducted to examine the economic viability of Agarwood cultivation in Assam and to understand the problems of the cultivators to consider Agarwood cultivation as the primary source of income. The primary data were collected during the months of May and June, 2022 from 210 households using structured questionnaire. The cost-benefit analysis revealed that INR 100 of initial investment yields a net benefit of INR 623 which indicates that the return from the Agarwood cultivation among the cultivators are very high. Thus, the present study argues that the government should encourage the cultivators by providing the necessary support in the form of a legalized market, credit requirement, creating the awareness about the demand of Agarwood and making provision of training.

Despite great interest in how dynamic fluctuations in psychological states such as mood, social safety, energy, present-focused attention, and burnout impact stress, well-being, and health, most studies examining these constructs use retrospective assessments. Here, we discuss how ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) address methodological issues associated with retrospective reports, able to reveal dynamic associations between psychological states at small timescales that are often missed in stress and health research. In addition to helping researchers characterize daily and within-day fluctuations and temporal dynamics between different health-relevant processes, EMAs can elucidate mechanisms through which interventions reduce stress and enhance well-being. EMAs can also be used to identify changes that precede critical health events, which can in turn be used to inform the delivery of ecological momentary interventions (EMIs of just-in-time interventions) that prevent such events from occurring. To enable this work, this narrative review provides examples of scales and single-item questions used in EMA studies, makes concrete recommendations for researchers seeking to employ EMAs in their research, and discusses limitations of EMA methods. In doing so, we aim to encourage the use of these methods in research given that, when used carefully, EMA methods are well-poised to greatly advance our understanding of how intrapersonal dynamics affect stress levels, well-being, and human health.

: There has been an ever-increasing demand for energy from the past decades. Renewable energy technologies play a major role in satisfying the energy demand as well as in a decreased CO2 emissions. Solar and Wind energies are the major upcoming technologies in renewable energies. Decentralized power production is a system where the energy production and consumption are very close to each other. Microgrids can be decentralized or grid connected and they, with renewable energy sources, encounter a problem of storage as the power production from solar and wind is intermittent. This paper discusses the comparison between using batteries and pumped storage hydropower (PSH) as an energy storage system and the integration of wind and solar PV energy sources. HOMER software simulations are used to obtain optimized renewable energy integration in microgrid and to understand its economic analysis. Two scenarios are run with the model where one considers battery and the other considers PSH to obtain the economic and technical best results of these microgrids. The economic analysis showed a lower net present cost (NPC) and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for the microgrid with PSH. The results show that microgrid with storage of PSH is economical with an NPC of 45.8 M€ and an LCOE of 0.379 €/kWh in comparison with batteries solution which has an NPC of 95.2M€ and an LCOE of 0.786 €/kWh. The role of storage is understood by differentiating the data into different seasons using Python for data analysis. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is made by varying the capital cost multiplier of Solar PV and Wind Turbine to obtain optimal solutions.

Cement manufacturing is one of the most energy-intensive industries in the world. Most of the cost of producing cement is accounted by fuel consumption and power expenditures. Thermal power plants are the major source of electricity in Pakistan. But they are not efficient and environmentally friendly. This study simulates four different models for five cement plants of Pakistan on Homer Pro software and compares the optimal solutions based on the net present cost (NPC), levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Model-1 consists of solar panels, electrolyzer, hydrogen tank, hydrogen generator and converter. Model-2 has only a diesel generator and acts as a base case in this study. Model-3 has solar panels and a battery-converter system. In Model-4, diesel generators, solar panels and converters are considered. Based on NPC, the most optimal model is Model-4, having a 0.249 $/KWh LCOE in islanded systems. The NPC and operating costs are US$540 million and US$ 32.5 million per year, respectively, with a 29.80% reduction in CO2 emissions when compared to the base case. Based on GHG emissions, Model-1 and Model-3 are the best models with 0% GHG emissions. Sensitivity analyses is also performed using the parameters of load, inflation rate and discounted rate. The results prove that the proposed hybrid micropower systems (HMS) can sustainably provide electricity for 24 hours a day to the sites under consideration with minimum objectives.

Cement industry is one of the highest energy consuming industries. The quantity of fuel and energy needed accounts for most of the cost of cement manufacturing. Thermal power plants generate electricity but are harmful and ineffective by nature. As a backup mechanism to account for main grid failures, batteries can be utilized. In this paper the first ever investigation on battery’s depth of discharge (DOD) for four different kinds of battery technologies is carried out in the framework of cement industry. The intended battery technologies are the lead-acid battery (LA), lithium-ion battery (Li-ion), vana-dium redox battery (VR), and nickel–iron battery (Ni-Fe). Four hybrid energy generation models (HEGMs) for five cement plants of Pakistan using the HOMER pro software are proposed. Cement plants includes Askari Cement Plant, Wah (ACPW); Bestway Cement Plant, Kalar Kahar (BCPKK); Bestway Cement Plant, Farooqia (BCPF); Bestway Cement Plant, Hattar (BCPH); and DG Cement Plant, Chakwal (DGCPC). HEGM-1 comprises of a diesel generator (DGen), a photovoltaic system (PV), a converter, and a battery system. HEGM-2 comprises of a PV system, a converter, and a battery system. HEGM-3 is the grid-connected version of HEGM-1 and HEGM-4 is the grid-connected version of HEGM-2. A base-model consisting of grid only is used as a reference. A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is performed by formulating a cumulative objective function (COF) which includes net present cost (NPC), levelized cost of energy (LCOE), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The principal objective is the maximization of COF while simultaneously minimizing the objectives (NPC, LCOE and GHG emissions), based on optimal battery technology and DOD. The results reveal that VR is the most suitable battery technology with 10% DOD. It is achieved for DGCPC with HEGM-3 with 61.49% of NPC, 78.62% of LCOE and 84.00% of GHG emissions reduction as com-pared to the base model.

Supermarkets in Port Harcourt (PH) city, Nigeria, predominantly rely on diesel electricity generation due to grid instability, leading to high cost of electricity prices. Although solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have been proposed as an alternative, these supermarkets have yet to adopt them, mainly due to high investment costs and a lack of awareness of the long-term financial and environmental benefits. This paper examines the technical and economic practicality of a PV system for these supermarkets using the PVsyst software and a spreadsheet model. Solar resources showed that PH has a daily average solar radiation and temperature of 4.21 kWh/m2/day and 25.73℃, respectively. Market Square, the supermarket with the highest peak power demand of 59.8 kW, and a 561 kWh/day load profile, was chosen as a case study. A proposed PV system with a power capacity of 232 kW, battery storage capacity of 34,021 Ah, a charge controller size of 100 A/560V, and an inverter with a power rating of 60V/75 kW has been designed to meet the load demand. The economic analysis showed a $266,936 life cycle cost, $0.12 per kWh levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), 4-year simple payback time, and a 20.5% internal rate of return (IRR). The PV system is feasible due to its positive net present value (NPV) of $165,322 and carbon savings of 582 tCO2/year.