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Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is an extensively used additive manufacturing method with the capacity to build complex functional components. Due to the machinery and environmental factors during manufacturing, the FDM parts inevitably demonstrated uncertainty in properties and performance. This study aims to identify the stochastic constitutive behaviors of FDM-fabricated polylactic acid (PLA) tensile specimens induced by the manufacturing process.

By conducting the tensile test, the effects of the printing machine selection and three major manufacturing parameters (i.e., printing speed S, nozzle temperature T and layer thickness t) on the stochastic constitutive behaviors were investigated. The influence of the loading rate was also explained. In addition, the data-driven models were established to quantify and optimize the uncertain mechanical behaviors of FDM-based tensile specimens under various printing parameters.

As indicated by the results, the uncertain behaviors of the stiffness and strength of the PLA tensile specimens were dominated by the printing speed and nozzle temperature, respectively. The manufacturing-induced stochastic constitutive behaviors could be accurately captured by the developed data-driven model with the R² over 0.98 on the testing dataset. The optimal parameters obtained from the data-driven framework were T = 231.3595 °C, S = 40.3179 mm/min and t = 0.2343 mm, which were in good agreement with the experiments.

The developed data-driven models can also be integrated into the design and characterization of parts fabricated by extrusion and other additive manufacturing technologies.

Stochastic behaviors of additively manufactured products were revealed by considering extensive manufacturing factors. The data-driven models were proposed to facilitate the description and optimization of the FDM products and control their quality.

The present paper aims to examine the concept of “plant blindness” in the context of current sustainability debates. “Plant blindness” was the term introduced in 1999 by the botanists and educators James H Wandersee and Elisabeth E Schussler to describe what they saw as a pervasive insensitivity to the green environment and a general neglect of plants on the part of biology education.

The fundamental importance of plants for life on Earth and the socio-educational challenges of redacted awareness of this importance are considered. Also, the diverse physiological, psychological, philosophical, cultural and geopolitical origins and consequences of indifference to plants in relation to aspects of sustainability agendas are examined with special reference to education.

An examination of the outcomes of a range of research and practical initiatives reveals how multidisciplinary approaches to education and public engagement have the potential to address the challenge of “plant blindness”. The need for these opportunities to be reflected in curriculums is not widely appreciated, and the socio-economic forces of resistance to confronting plant neglect continue to be formidable.

Plant blindness is a relatively new field of research, and the full breadth of its implications are only gradually becoming apparent. If the present paper contributes to positioning plants as an essential element in sustainability education and practice, it will have met its objective.

This paper aims to identify key sectors in carbon footprint responsibility, an introduced concept depicting CO₂ responsibilities allocated through the supply chain containing sectoral activities and interactions. In detail, various key sectors could be identified according to comparative advantages in trade, sectoral linkage and sectoral synergy within the supply chain.

A semi-closed input–output model is used to make the household income–expenditure relationship endogenous through the supply chain where sectoral CO₂ emissions are calculated, and the production-based responsibility (PR) principle is evaluated. Thus, according to “carbon footprint responsibility”, modified hypothetical extraction method is applied to decompose sectoral CO₂ in terms of comparative advantages in trade, sectoral linkage and synergy. Finally, key sectors are identified via sectoral shares and associated decompositions in carbon footprint responsibility.

Compared to 2005, in 2012, the PR principle failed to track sectoral CO₂ flow, and embodied CO₂ in import and interprovincial export increased, with manufacturing contributing the most; manufacturing should take more carbon responsibilities in the internal linkage, and tertiary sectors in the net forward and backward linkage, with sectors enjoying low carbonization in the mixed linkage; inward net CO₂ flows of manufacturing and service sectors were more complicated than their outward ones in terms of involved sectors and economic drivers; and residential effects on CO₂ emissions of traditional sectors increased, urban effects remained larger than rural ones and manufacturing and tertiary sectors received the largest residential effects.

The value of this paper is as follows: the household income–expenditure relationship got endogenous in intermediate supply and demand, corresponding to the rapid urbanization in megacities; key sectors were observed to change flexibly according to real sectoral activities and interaction; and the evaluation of the PR principle was completed ahead of using a certain CO₂ accounting principle at the city level.

This paper seeks to address emerging practices of social enterprises (SEs) in China by exploring the institutional context, organisational features and legislative framework of this new phenomenon.

The analysis is based on data drawn from secondary sources (laws and regulations, forum transcripts and news reports) and primary evidence (in‐depth study of six SE cases).

The various kinds of SEs are highly diversified in terms of social mission, organisational nature, legal form, and operational pattern; the institutional context is underdeveloped, providing growing but still limited financial, intellectual, technical, and human resources; although it allows increasing space for diversified development dynamics of SEs, the legislative system regulating SEs is still flawed in several vital ways.

This paper relies heavily on qualitative research methods to make a preliminary assessment of the development of China's SEs. Neither primary nor secondary data sources collected for this paper can be used to draw any general conclusion of statistical significance.

The paper sheds light on the overall landscape of the recent development of SEs in China, providing a descriptive and normative foundation for cross‐country comparative studies and quantitative, explanatory analysis.