scholarly journals Contextualization of the Bioeconomy Concept through Its Links with Related Concepts and the Challenges Facing Humanity

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7746
Author(s):  
Leire Barañano ◽  
Naroa Garbisu ◽  
Itziar Alkorta ◽  
Andrés Araujo ◽  
Carlos Garbisu

The concept of bioeconomy is a topic of debate, confusion, skepticism, and criticism. Paradoxically, this is not necessarily a negative thing as it is encouraging a fruitful exchange of information, ideas, knowledge, and values, with concomitant beneficial effects on the definition and evolution of the bioeconomy paradigm. At the core of the debate, three points of view coexist: (i) those who support a broad interpretation of the term bioeconomy, through the incorporation of all economic activities based on the production and conversion of renewable biological resources (and organic wastes) into products, including agriculture, livestock, fishing, forestry and similar economic activities that have accompanied humankind for millennia; (ii) those who embrace a much narrower interpretation, reserving the use of the term bioeconomy for new, innovative, and technologically-advanced economic initiatives that result in the generation of high-added-value products and services from the conversion of biological resources; and (iii) those who stand between these two viewpoints. Here, to shed light on this debate, a contextualization of the bioeconomy concept through its links with related concepts (biotechnology, bio-based economy, circular economy, green economy, ecological economics, environmental economics, etc.) and challenges facing humanity today is presented.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1165-1171
Author(s):  
Karl Gatterer ◽  
◽  
Salah Arafa ◽  

Reliable and affordable energy is the key for the socio-economic development in rural and desert communities worldwide. While energy can be used for consumption purposes such as Lighting, Access to Information, Comfort and Entertainment, productive use of renewable energy is the key enabler for SMEs and Economy to grow. The paper examines the complex interactions among Energy, Materials, Water, Food, Building, Employment and Environment. It also discusses the implementation of renewable energy technologies to overcome some of barriers faced by rural villages and desert communities. It shows some of the special applications and approaches used over the past few decades in energy conversion, consumption and conservation to achieve poverty reduction, social justice and sustainable development. Field experiences in Basaisa projects, Egypt showed that open free dialogues with all stakeholders, site-specific education and training, appropriate local financing systems and access to knowledge are key-elements and essential factors for achieving green economy and sustainable community development. The coming decade will see a continued expansion of knowledge about renewable energy resources and its useful applications as systems friendly to the environment and as tools for economic activities, sustainable living and growth in rural and desert communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1531-1550
Author(s):  
N.N. Yashalova ◽  
I.L. Ryabkov

Subject. We investigate trends in the development of the largest steel companies in the Russian Federation. Objectives. The aim of the study is to conduct an industry-wide analysis of the production and economic activities of the largest domestic enterprises operating in the iron and steel industry. Methods. The study employs methods of comparative and system analysis, graphical and statistical methods for data processing. Results. We present the analysis of main production and economic indicators of the leading steel producers of the Russian Federation, i.e. NLMK, Severstal, MMK, and EVRAZ. The paper reveals their current status and key development trends. Conclusions. The largest Russian steel companies face serious challenges in both the domestic and foreign market. Competitive interactions in the domestic market as to the sale price of rolled metal and the share of presence are particularly sensitive. The threat of reduced supplies to export markets is also significant for Russian steel producers. It may entail insufficient utilization of capacities and potential loss of added value. The companies mainly export semi–finished goods and hot-rolled flat products, i.e. low-added value products. Products with high added value are usually delivered to the domestic market.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Rangwani

Despite substantial improvements over the past 23 years in many key areas of sustainable development, the world is not on track to achieve the goals as aspired to in Agenda 21, adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and reiterated in subsequent world conferences, such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002. While there have been some achievements in implementing Agenda 21, including the implementation of the chapters on “Science for Sustainable Development” and on “Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training”, for which UNESCO was designated as the lead agency, much still remains to be done. This decade had seen the idea of a “green economy” float out of its specialist moorings in environmental economics and into the mainstream of policy discourse. It is found increasingly in the words of heads of state and finance ministers, in the text of G20 communiqués, and discussed in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. The research paper focused to establish a relationship between sustainable development and green economics. The research paper is descriptive and analytical in nature. The data collected from secondary sources such as report from niti aayog, IMF indicators, RBI reports, newspapers, journals. The research design was adopted to have greater accuracy and in depth analysis of the research study. The statistical tools for the analysis are also being used.


2012 ◽  
pp. 124-130

In recent years there has been an interest, partly renewed but largely new, for the development of economic activities which deal, more or less directly, with the environment. Resisting the idea that the greening of the economy in our country (but not only in our country) mainly concerns the energy sector and more specifically the photovoltaic, it seems interesting to confront economic actors working in different product fields (from agriculture to informatics) with a common interest around "environmentally sound" labour practices. We asked to five small enterprises acting in the Marches region to debate around the ideas and practices of the new green economic sector.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-457
Author(s):  
Zhaohui Xue ◽  
Weichen Song ◽  
Xin Gao ◽  
Wancong Yu ◽  
Xiaonan Hou ◽  
...  

Flos Sophorae Immaturus, dried buds of Sophora japonica, exhibits multiple pharmacologic activities including anti-inflammatory, antiaging, and antiallergy effects as well as adjunct to standard of care cancer therapy. However, active components responsible for beneficial effects in cancer are not known. In this study, Flos Sophorae Immaturus was obtained by ethanol extraction, and eight components were purified, identified, and tested for HepG2 cell proliferation inhibition potency. The compounds identified to be the most effective inhibitors were campherol > isorhamnetin > quercetin. These data provide theoretical and scientific basis for the further development, utilization, and the promotion of added value of Flos Sophorae Immaturus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 106-111
Author(s):  
Olga Gizatullina

For economic entities, business partnerships are not based on individual competition or improving individual business processes, but on improving supply chains. When making management decisions, the question arises about the performance indicators of business processes both at the level of an economic entity and at the macro level. When assessing the effectiveness of supply chains, it is necessary to assess the costs arising in the course of financial and economic activities. The logistics component has a large share in the supply costs. A full accounting of logistics costs allows you to obtain reliable information for the analysis and development of measures to reduce them, which increases the efficiency of the entire economic activity of an economic entity. The article proposes a classification of logistics costs according to the degree of added value creation and dependence on the volume of production, including the allocation of transaction costs, which make up a significant share in the overall structure of logistics costs. The classification of logistics costs should be transformed depending on the organizational and legal form of the organization and the field of activity. The system of accounting for the logistics costs of economic entities should highlight them when implementing all logistics functions; study information about the most significant logistics costs and the nature of their occurrence; study the interdependencies of logistics costs throughout the entire supply chain. The developed system allows keeping separate accounting of logistics costs on a separate account, which makes it possible to control them. In modern conditions, organizations are faced with the need to integrate various types of accounting, including accounting, management and statistical. The algorithm for the implementation of this task includes four stages: development of a methodology for the integration of accounting, management and statistical accounting; formation of management accounting policies; development of data transformation regulations; selection of software for the automation of statistical, accounting and management accounting


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart Clegg

The paper takes the assumptions of bounded rationality as the premise for organization theorizing. It draws a distinction between a science of objects and a science of subjects, arguing the latter as the more appropriate frame for organization analysis. Organization studies, it suggests, are an example of the type of knowledge that Flyvbjerg, following Aristotle, terms 'phronesis'. At the core of phronetic organization studies, the paper argues, there stands a concern with power, history and imagination. The core of the paper discusses power and the politics of organizing, to point up some central differences in approach to the key term in the trinity that the paper invokes. The paper concludes that organization theory and analysis is best cultivated not in an ideal world of paradigm consensus or domination but in a world of discursive plurality, where obstinate differences in domain assumptions are explicit and explicitly tolerated. A good conversation assumes engagement with alternate points of view, argued against vigorously, but ultimately, where these positions pass the criteria of reason rather than prejudice, tolerated as legitimate points of view. In so doing, it elaborates and defends criteria of reason.


Polymers ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1084
Author(s):  
Kaimin Chen ◽  
Lan Cao ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Kai Li ◽  
Xue Qin ◽  
...  

Stimuli-responsive nanoparticles are among the most popular research topics. In this study, two types of core-shell (polystyrene with a photoiniferter (PSV) as the core and diblock as the shell) polymer brushes (PSV@PNIPA-b-PAA and PSV@PAA-b-PNIPA) were designed and prepared using surface-initiated photoiniferter-mediated polymerization (SI-PIMP). Moreover, their pH- and temperature-stimuli responses were explored by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and turbidimeter under various conditions. The results showed that the conformational change was determined on the basis of the competition among electrostatic repulsion, hydrophobic interaction, hydrogen bonding, and steric hindrance, which was also confirmed by protein adsorption experiments. These results are not only helpful for the design and synthesis of stimuli-responsive polymer brushes but also shed light on controlled protein immobilization under mild conditions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 351-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Wren ◽  
John Launer ◽  
Michael J. Reiss ◽  
Annie Swanepoel ◽  
Graham Music

SUMMARYIssues of sexual reproduction lie at the core of evolutionary thinking, which often places an emphasis on how individuals attempt to maximise the number of successful offspring that they can produce. At first sight, it may therefore appear that individuals who opt for gender-affirming medical interventions are acting in ways that are evolutionarily disadvantageous. However, there are persuasive hypotheses that might make sense of such choices in evolutionary terms and we explore these here. It is premature to claim knowledge of the extent to which evolutionary arguments can usefully be applied to issues of gender identity, although worth reflecting on the extent to which nature tends towards diversity in matters of sex and gender. The importance of acknowledging and respecting different views in this domain, as well as recognising both the uncertainty and likely multiplicity of causal pathways, has implications for clinicians. We make some suggestions about how clinicians might best respond when faced with requests from patients in this area.LEARNING OBJECTIVESAfter reading this article you will be able to:•understand evolutionary arguments about diversity in human gender identity•identify strengths and weaknesses in evolutionary arguments applied to transgender issues•appreciate the range and diversity of gender experience and gender expression among people who present to specialist gender services, as well as the likely complexities of their reasons for requesting medical intervention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 362
Author(s):  
Salim Bourchid Abdelkader ◽  
Hamidouche M'hamed ◽  
Abderrazak Ahmed Zian

This study presents several indicators for understanding the structure of economic activities in terms of concentration and specialization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, the theoretical description of the different notions of concentration and specialization relating to geographical or sectors aspect is applied to understand the equality in the distribution of wages and employment levels across the country. Thus, the authors have estimated the most important indexes used in a large part of the academic literature and which are most representative of concentration and distribution, such as the Gini, Herfindahl, Theil, Aigiur, and Krugman indexes for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the year of 2017. The sample used in this study consists of four different kinds of firms (very small, small, medium, and large) of twelve sectors of activities and the wages perceived by employees in thirteen administrative areas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The data are in the forms of annual reports in the year of 2017 obtained from the General Authority for Statistics of Saudi Arabia. The results obtained certainly facilitate the comprehension of the type of income distribution to the active population by sectors and by administrative areas. As for the implication, this study’s results contribute to enrich statistical data and bring added-value to the knowledge that eventually leads to understanding socioeconomic context of the country.


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