Alternative biomass pellets may expand the feedstock base for heat production, but their selection requires consideration of fuel quality, combustion performance, implementation constraints, and life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) savings. This study compares ten woody and non-wood pellet alternatives through parallel multicriteria ranking and RED II/III-aligned GHG assessment. Fuel-quality, combustion, and life-cycle inventory data were obtained from the authors' previous studies and subsequently refined through additional testing and data validation. Socio-economic and socio-technical performance was assessed using context-specific expert input. The alternatives were ranked using WSM-AHP and MULTIMOORA-AHP, while pathway-specific GHG savings were calculated according to the RED II/III methodology and compared with the 80 % requirement for heat installations entering operation from 2026. Brewer's spent grain and wood pellets formed the leading group in the overall multi-criteria assessment. Buckwheat husk and sunflower husk pellets received the lowest consolidated MULTIMOORA-AHP scores. When only technical criteria were considered, wood pellets ranked above brewer's spent grain pellets, demonstrating the influence of deployment-related criteria on the complete assessment. All pathways except hemp pellets met the 80 % GHG savings requirement, while grass pellets remained closest to the threshold at 82 %. Processing-energy requirements and use-phase emissions were the principal sources of variation in pathway-specific GHG savings. By contrasting multi-criteria preference with GHG compliance, the proposed approach identifies alternatives that would be evaluated differently by either assessment alone and supports the assessment of pellet pathways lacking directly applicable RED II/III default values.
IntroductionSupervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Industrial Control System (ICS) networks underpin critical infrastructure across energy, water, transportation, and manufacturing sectors. Existing intrusion detection systems face inherent trade-offs: signature-based approaches achieve low false-positive rates but cannot detect zero-day attacks, while anomaly-based methods detect novel threats but generate ambiguous alerts that burden operators and erode trust. Recent empirical studies reveal persistent practical gaps in deployment, including the difficulty of obtaining labeled attack data for supervised methods, severe hyperparameter tuning challenges for one-class classifiers, and limited integration of protocol-aware features despite the prevalence of process-aware detection. Explainability techniques remain underimplemented in industrial intrusion detection despite their potential for improving operator understanding and security workflow integration. This article presents a systematic review and research agenda for explainable hybrid intrusion detection in SCADA/ICS environments; it synthesizes evidence on detection architectures, explainability mechanisms, and deployment challenges, but does not report original experimental results.MethodsA systematic literature review was conducted across major databases for the period 2014–2025, yielding 40 studies for synthesis after screening.ResultsThe review distills five practical gaps: limited zero-day coverage, false-positive control, process awareness vs. protocol blindness, explainability for operators, and deployment complexity including concept drift. Reported performance ranges (90%–99% accuracy, 0.8%–2.1% false-positive rates) and latency benchmarks represent summaries of prior work, not new experimental findings from this study.DiscussionA conceptual reference architecture is proposed that fuses protocol-aware signatures with temporal anomaly detection and feature-attribution-based explanations. An evaluation checklist and research agenda guide future prototype development and pilot deployments under latency and safety constraints.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly rely on digital technologies in everyday operations, often without having sufficient resources or structured mechanisms to manage the cyber risks that accompany this dependence. As digitalization deepens, cyber incidents in SMEs are shaped not only by technical vulnerabilities but also by human behavior and organizational practices. However, much of the existing research still approaches cyber resilience through fragmented technological or managerial lenses. This study takes a conceptual and theory-driven approach to examine cyber resilience in SMEs as a socio-technical system. Building on systems theory and adaptive management, the analysis draws on a structured synthesis of interdisciplinary literature to develop a systemic model of adaptive digital risk management. The model is developed through a structured conceptual process combining systematic exploration of interdisciplinary literature, analytical synthesis of recurring conceptual patterns, and system-level model construction informed by systems theory and adaptive management principles. Cyber resilience is therefore interpreted as a dynamic capability that develops over time, especially in digital environments characterized by increasing automation and evolving forms of human–technology interaction. The study contributes to cyber resilience research by offering a system-oriented perspective and provides SMEs with a conceptual basis for strengthening adaptive approaches to digital risk management.
This study develops and empirically tests a change management framework that incorporates crisis preparedness as a critical success factor, thereby addressing the dual challenges of digital transformation and recurring crises in the emerging era of artificial intelligence (AI). A systematic literature review identified four groups of factors that influence change success: change management processes, change communication, people factors, and crisis preparedness. Survey data obtained from 191 respondents in Latvia were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the assistance of WarpPLS 8.0 software. The results reveal that implementation practices, systematic review, employee experiences, and communication implementation directly predict change success. External consideration, multilevel planning, and leadership support have indirect effects in this context. While crisis preparedness does not directly drive success, it strengthens employees’ perceptions of readiness, thereby indirectly supporting transformation. The study extends Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) through a human-centered lens by reframing employee resistance as constructive engagement that supports organizational resilience. It highlights leadership and capability-building as key HRM mechanisms and offers practical guidance for embedding preparedness, transparent communication, and employee development into change initiatives.
The development of high bio-content materials for additive manufacturing is limited by restricted filler loadings and poor melt processability in filament-based extrusion. This work demonstrates fused granulate fabrication (FGF) of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) composites incorporating up to 55 wt% industrial birch wood dust without chemical compatibilizers. The influence of filler content on rheology, print quality, thermal behavior, and mechanical performance was systematically evaluated. Increasing wood content resulted in progressively higher melt viscosity and a transition from Newtonian to pronounced shear-thinning flow above 20 wt%, enabling improved dimensional stability during deposition. Optimal surface consolidation and interlayer fusion were achieved at 30-45 wt% filler, defining an effective processing window for highly filled PBS-wood composites. The Young's modulus increased from 0.34 GPa for neat PBS to approximately 1.3 GPa at 25 wt% wood, and then remained at a similar level for higher filler loadings up to 55 wt%. Tensile strength exhibited a nonlinear dependence on filler loading, reaching a maximum of 28.9 MPa at 35 wt% wood. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed enhanced crystallinity up to 25 wt% wood, followed by a decline at higher concentrations. Thermogravimetric analysis confirmed that all compositions remained thermally stable within the 200-220 degrees C processing window used for FGF. The established structure-property and processing relationships confirm that PBS-wood composites can be processed at exceptionally high loadings without compromising printability, representing a significant advance toward high bio-content materials for additive manufacturing.
