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As adaptation and mitigation are separated in international and national policies, there is also a division in the financial resources mobilized by the international community to help developing countries deal with climate change. Given that mitigation activities can benefit or hinder adaptation, and vice versa, promoting activities that contribute to both objectives can increase the efficiency of fund allocation and minimize trade-offs, particularly in land-related activities such as agriculture and forestry. The purpose of this study is to analyze how climate funding organizations consider the integration of adaptation and mitigation.

The authors interviewed representatives of climate funds directed toward forestry and agriculture to gain a better understanding of how they perceive the benefits, risks and barriers of an integrated approach; whether they have concrete activities for promoting this approach; and how they foresee the future of adaptation–mitigation integration.

Interviews revealed a diverse range of perceived benefits, risks and barriers at local, national and global scales. Most interviewees focused on the local benefits of this integration (e.g. increasing the resilience of forest carbon projects), whereas others emphasized global risks (e.g. decreasing global funding efficiency because of project complexity). Despite the general interest in projects and policies integrating adaptation and mitigation, few relevant actions have been implemented by organizations engaged in climate change finance.

This paper provides new insight into how the representatives of climate funds perceive and act on the integration of adaptation and mitigation in forestry and agriculture. The findings by the authors can inform the development of procedures for climate change finance, such as the Green Climate Fund. While managers of climate funds face barriers in promoting an integrated approach to adaptation and mitigation, they also have the capacity and the ambition to overcome them.

There are many indications that government policymakers and supporters of large-scale nuclear expansion in Poland have not seriously grappled with arguments critical of this direction of the country's power development. Instead, there is a mood of euphoric elation in these circles without even an attempt to reflect on why this kind of nuclear power is in a state of perennial crisis and lack of development prospects in Western countries.

The purpose of this chapter is to consider from an economic perspective the potential role of nuclear power in decarbonising the Polish power sector. It needs to answer two questions: why not develop large-scale nuclear power and why small modular reactors (SMRs) can be a better alternative for decarbonisation of the Polish power sector.

The primary research method used in the preparation of this chapter is a critical analysis and synthesis of the literature on the subject.

A technological revolution will offer electricity customers increasingly better alternatives. Among them there is also technology of SMRs which seems to be much less risky option in terms of its compatibility with the direction of the power sector's evolution as well as cost of sectors’ decarbonisation.

The aim of the chapter is to outline a framework for a cultural analysis of terrorism. It is based on an analogy between the logic that characterizes terrorism and the logic that characterizes the “worlds” of artistic and cultural production.

This chapter critically examines some explanations of the logic of terrorism which respectively assign a central role to individual psychology, the rational choice of the group and values. It is therefore based on secondary sources.

The chapter argues that the logic of terrorism can be fully understood only as a result of the “cultural” construction of collective and individual identities.

The chapter provides a framework for a cultural analysis of terrorism.

The chapter borrows the concept of a “political world” and makes of it a central tool to explain the set of symbolic products that characterizes terrorism.

The purpose of this study is twofold; first, it aims to understand the underlying dynamics of the organizations behind the terrorist attacks, and second, to investigate the dynamics of terrorist organizations in relation to one another to detect whether there exist shared patterns of terror between different organizations.

To achieve this purpose, the researcher proposes a computational algorithm that extracts data from global terrorism database (GTD); calculates similarity indices between different terrorist groups; generates a network data file from the calculated indices; and apply network analysis techniques to the extracted data. The proposed algorithm includes applying SQL database codes for data extraction, building a tailored C# computer software to calculate similarity indices and generate similarity networks and using GEPHI software to visualize the generated network and calculate network metrics and measures.

Applying the proposed algorithm to Egypt, the results reveal different shared patterns of terror among different terrorist groups. This helps us in creating a terror landscape for terrorist groups playing in Egypt.

The importance of the study lies in that it proposes a new algorithm that combines network analysis with other data-manipulation techniques to generate a network of similar terror groups.

FOR public libraries the Ministerial statement that proposals for the future of local government will be laid before Parliament before October may prove to be most significant. We say may, because such preliminaries usually raise undue expectations. Meanwhile during the summer speculation may range over the public library possibilities of the situation. Will the known blue‐prints made for us come into the picture: the masterly, and at that time far too advanced, pattern in the McColvin Report, already fourteen years old, and the older Ministry of Reconstruction Report, made as the First World War was closing, which would have given libraries, willy‐nilly, to the Education Committee? Will the present L.A. plan, which everyone knows, affect matters? Will public libraries come in at all? Local Government, as at present organized, does work, even if the machinery creaks with too many uncontrolled bodies intervening in every part, too much remote control, and, conversely, too little co‐operative organization, too many jealousies, boundary graspings, disputes and much expensive, unnecessary litigation. That public librarians can provide an acceptable solution for their own admittedly limited field will, alas, not occur to many authority minds. In the reconstruction of the patchwork now existing our library leaders must be alert to prevent complete indifference to library needs and possibilities. We feel sure they will be. That vigilance will be necessary even if, as we suspect from the tendency of the times, what will be proposed is not likely to produce radical redistributions and changes. The counties, municipal corporations, and the urban districts together form a formidable combination and, we think, can prevent further encroachments on their areas and increased restrictions of their powers. The way may be somewhat plainer before the L.A. Annual General Meeting is held in September, but the announcement we are discussing came later than the printing of the outline programme of the Conference which is inserted in the May L.A. Record.

Blueberry contains bioactive compounds which are beneficial to organisms, such as phenolics and flavonoids. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential protective effects of blueberry extracts (BE) on H₂O₂-induced HepG2 cells.

Cell protection was evaluated via the survivals of the cell. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, antioxidant enzyme and malondialdehyde (MDA) were detected. Western blot was carried out to analysis protein which was related to the cell apoptosis pathway. Changes in morphology including: cell total apoptosis/necrosis and G0/G1 cycle arresting were also concomitant.

The levels of ROS and malondialdehyde (MDA) reduced after the BE treatment while the contents of superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) increased in HepG2 cells induced by H2O2. Furthermore, mechanistic studies indicated that BE regulated the activation of mitochondrial apoptosis signal-regulating (Bcl-2, Bax). Qu was used as a positive control group. All these results demonstrated that the BE have a potential against oxidative stress in vitro.

Few studies have focused on the bioactivities of blueberry on oxidative stress. Taken together, the results confirm that polyphenol-enriched BE have the ability to protect against oxidative stress in cells. It has a great potential as a functional food ingredient to health benefits. Furthermore, this work showed the value of using simple biological models to screen for compounds that are of interest for food and pharmacological industry.

Digital twin (DT) and building information modeling (BIM) are interconnected in some ways. However, there has been some misconception about how DT differs from BIM. As a result, industry professionals reject DT even in BIM-based construction projects due to reluctance to innovate. Furthermore, researchers have repeatedly developed tools and techniques with the same goals using DT and BIM to assist practitioners in construction projects. Therefore, this study aims to assist industry professionals and researchers in understanding the relationship between DT and BIM and synthesize existing works on DT and BIM.

A systematic review was conducted on published articles related to DT and BIM. A total record of 54 journal articles were identified and analyzed.

The analysis of the selected journal articles revealed four types of relationships between DT and BIM: BIM is a subset of DT, DT is a subset of BIM, BIM is DT, and no relationship between BIM and DT. The existing research on DT and BIM in construction projects targets improvements in five areas: planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance, and decommissioning. In addition, several areas have emerged, such as developing geo-referencing approaches for infrastructure projects, applying the proposed methodology to other construction geometries and creating 3D visualization using color schemes.

This study contributed to the existing body of knowledge by overviewing existing research related to DT and BIM in construction projects. Also, it reveals research gaps in the body of knowledge to point out directions for future research.

An interaction between emerging technologies (ETs) for facility management (FM) activities and stakeholder skills is necessary to promote the optimization of FM performance. Previous studies do not show strategies for the selection of ETs in FM considering the technological competencies of stakeholders. Thus, this study analyzes the interactions between ETs and FM from the perceptions of Brazilian professionals, identifying the most appropriate and effective technological solutions, based on a broad literature review.

The steps of the methodology are as follows: systematic literature review (SLR); detailing the ETs for FM; online questionnaire based on SLR findings; sample of Brazilian FM professionals; statistical treatment; and discussion.

Results indicate wireless sensor network, Internet of Thing, building information modeling and Big Data as ETs in FM with greater potential for optimization in the performance of FM activities, from survey respondents.

The scope of possible findings may have been biased, considering the small number of research participants and current transformations resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. changes to standard operating procedures).

The results ensure greater security to facility managers in the effective implementation of ETs in FM activities.

The research explores the published studies and the consultation with Brazilian FM professionals in the selection of ETs.

Despite the opportunities of digital twins (DTs) for smart buildings, limited research has been conducted regarding the facility management stage, and this is explained by the high complexity of accurately representing and modelling the physics behind the DTs process. This study thus organises and consolidates the fragmented literature on DTs implementation for smart buildings at the facility management stage by exploring the enablers, applications and challenges and examining the interrelationships amongst them.

A systematic literature review approach is adopted to analyse and synthesise the existing literature relating to the subject topic.

The study revealed six main categories of enablers of DTs for smart building at the facility management stage, namely perception technologies, network technologies, storage technologies, application technologies, knowledge-building and design processes. Three substantial categories of DTs application for smart buildings were revealed at the facility management stage: efficient operation and service monitoring, efficient building energy management and effective smart building maintenance. Subsequently, the top four major challenges were identified as being “lack of a systematic and comprehensive reference model”, “real-time data integration”, “the complexity and uncertainty nature of real-time data” and “real-time data visualisation”. An integrative framework is finally proposed by examining the interactive relationship amongst the enablers, the applications and the challenges.

The findings could guide facility managers/engineers to fairly understand the enablers, applications and challenges when DTs are being implemented to improve smart building performance and achieve user satisfaction at the facility management stage.

This study contributes to the knowledge body on DTs by extending the scope of the existing studies to identify the enablers and applications of DTs for smart buildings at the facility management stage and the specific challenges.

Despite the innovation and performance of venture capital (VC)-backed firms receiving extensive attention, how and under what conditions VC influences innovation and performance remains unclear. The present paper draws on organizational learning (OL) theory to examine the moderating effect of syndication on backed firms.

Drawing on a literature review that connects OL and innovation to the performance of VC-backed firms, this study examines the effects of OL on innovation and firm performance among these firms by questioning the moderating effect of VC syndication. A sample of 78 VC-backed firms was used to test the robustness of the proposed model and causal relationships through the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The empirical evidence demonstrates that the intervention of venture capitalists can not only stimulate innovation, but also have a significantly positive effect on firm performance. Furthermore, the evidence reveals that syndication of VC investment supports backed firms in improving the firms' performance and generating innovation from acquired knowledge.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first in North Africa that focuses on the moderating effects of venture capital syndication on the relationships between OL, innovation and firm performance.