Influencing factors and reduction of domestic solid waste at university dormitory in Shanghai, China

Increasing domestic solid waste (DSW) is becoming one of the most serious challenges for city and regional environment. As an epitome of the society, the investigation on the influencing factors and reduction of DSW of university students can not only provide policy suggestions for the waste management in the university campus, but also can achieve demonstration effect to other communities due to its high social status and wide impacts. This research combined direct weighing, questionnaire surveys, and regression analysis to quantify the influencing factors of DSW at East China Normal University’s dormitory in Shanghai. Direct weighting and questionnaire survey were conducted in 112 randomly selected dormitory rooms. Totally 523 valid questionnaires were collected. It is found that the average waste generation was 0.275 kg/day/cap, in which residual waste accounted for 64% of total, followed by household food waste (29%), and recyclable waste (7%). Regressions based on ordinary least square method suggested that students’ attitude towards waste played the most important role in affecting the waste reduction with its elasticity − 0.195. Lower educational level and better financial condition would lead to more waste generation, whose elasticity was 0.148 and 0.098 respectively. The influences of gender and major varied from waste types. Policies implications for university administration departments for sustainable waste and resource management include developing personalized and humanized waste management policies, enhancing environmental awareness through diverse educational activities, and expanding the publicity role of campus cultural activities on waste reduction.

Global Change Modulated Asian Inland Climate Since 7.3 Ma: Carbonate Manganese Records in the Western Qaidam Basin

Late Cenozoic drying of the Asian inland has not only exerted a profound impact on the regional environment but also affected global climate as an important source of global atmospheric dust. Continuous and accurately dated sediment records from the Asian interior are pivotal to a better understanding of the evolutionary history of Asian inland drying and the associated driving mechanisms. In this study, we present a continuous record of climate change in the Asian interior spanning the past 7.3 Myr, reconstructed by the redox evolution of a paleolake in the western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibetan Plateau. The paleolake redox conditions are linked to the oxygen concentration of lake bottom water and lake level, and were revealed by the manganese (Mn) concentration in the carbonate fraction (leached by the diluted acetic acid) of the carbonate-rich lacustrine sediments retrieved from two drill-cores (SG-1 and SG-1b). The reconstructed regional climate in the western Qaidam Basin shows long-term fluctuations, consistent with the secular evolution of the coeval global climate, especially the sea surface temperature variation in the high latitude North Atlantic. Three transitions of the paleolake hydrochemical system occurred at 6.2, 5.3, and 2.6 Ma, with a short drying stage at 6.2–5.3 Ma and prolonged Quaternary drying since 2.6 Ma. We argue that drying of the Asia interior has been dominantly forced by global cooling, in particular, the high-latitude cooling of the Northern Hemisphere.

Cooperation of enterprises in innovative activities on the example of Polish regions

Research background: Cooperation is an indispensable element of innovation activities of enterprises. Undertakings in innovation, by nature, require not only significant expenditures or creative human capital, but also cooperation with other enterprises, scientific institutions, and the business environment. Cooperating companies have a greater chance to compete in the international arena while building the innovative potential of the regional environment. Stimulating the permanent cooperation of enterprises operating in the region, in its various forms, is a key challenge for central government authorities, local government authorities, and other actors in social and economic life. The existing literature on the cooperation of enterprises focuses on the motives of cooperation and their effects, but to a lesser extent on the spatial similarity of these processes, i.e. in individual regions of the country. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to diagnose and evaluate regional differences in the level of cooperation between companies conducting innovation activities in Poland. The study used data on innovation activities published by Statistics Poland and data on enterprises participating in cluster cooperation published by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development. Methods: The cluster analysis was used, allowing to identify voivodeships that are similar to each other in terms of the analyzed phenomenon. The spatial classification of voivodeships was performed using the Ward method, which is classified as hierarchical and is often used to group objects. The result is a hierarchical tree that groups the regions in increasingly larger clusters. Findings & value added: The results indicate a low level of cooperation and the existence of significant differences in the cooperation of enterprises as part of innovation activities in Polish regions. The low level of cooperation between companies in individual regions corresponds to the number of marketed innovations. There are similarities between some regions in terms of cooperation on innovation activities. The results of the analysis may provide an indication for national and European Union economic policy entities in the field of creating instruments to support the cooperation of companies on innovation activities.

Directions and tendencies of migration of the population into urban areas of the republic of Srpska

This paper covers internal migrations in the Republic of Srpska, in the period 2007-2015 and their impact to urban and peri-urban development of urban areas of the Republic. Migration directions show a continuity of permanent abandonment of rural areas and settlement of urban and peri-urban areas of the Republic, also including the migrations (immigration) from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The scope of migrations has the trend of decrease as result of decrease in the rural population of the Republic of Srpska and its aging. Urban centres of the northern part of the Republic of Srpska (Banja Luka, Doboj, Bijeljina, Prijedor and Gradiška) have the largest scope of immigration, due to a number of attractive factors. In the southern part of the Republic, in the sub-Mediterranean area, the City of Trebinje is the main immigration area for the population of eastern Herzegovina, but also, more and more, for the population of the rest of the Republic of Srpska, as well for the wider regional environment. Spatial scope of research consists of eight cities in the Republic of Srpska, which defined the status of the city in the period from 1995 to 2019. Those cities are: Banjaluka, Bijeljina, Prijedor, Gradiška, Doboj, Istočno Sarajevo, Zvornik and Trebinje. The specificities in the territorial organization of the Republic of Srpska are the result of complex socio-political processes and the formation of the entity line of demarcation in post-war period (1992-1995), between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska. Given the physiognomy of space and developmental processes, the Republic of Srpska has complex settlement function. In four urban areas, Istočno Sarajevo, Doboj, Zvornik and Trebinje, the settlements are divided by the entity line, which caused the migrations. In 2014, population migration was also affected by administrative separation of the municipality of Stanari from the Doboj city area. Due to the above mentioned, compared to other cities of the Republic, Doboj has the highest negative values of the migration balance in the observed period (2007-2016). Statistical data from the Federal Bureau of Statistics of BiH and the Republic Institute of the Republic of Srpska were used in research related to migrations, as well as other relevant statistical material produced in the period from 1991 to 2016. The key demographic indicators, internal migrations, immigration and emigration and migration balance were taken into consideration. In order to compare the research areas, data were prepared on the basis of demographic indicators. Conclusions on spatial integration of migration, as well as its direction, have been drawn based on internal migration, spatial distribution of population and change in number of inhabitants in urban and suburban settlements.

How regional climate and seed traits interact in shaping stress–tolerance of savanna seeds?

Functional traits related to regeneration responses to the environment are highly determinants of distribution patterns of plant communities. A large body of studies on seed traits suggests that regional climate may act as a strong filter of plant recruitment; however, few studies have evaluated the relative importance of seed traits and environmental filters for seed persistence at the population level. We tested the role of seed mass, water content and desiccation tolerance, as well as the germination time as proxies for seed tolerance to environmental filters (water deficit, heat shock and high temperatures) by comparing the response of tree species co-occurring in savannas located in different regions: Cerrado biome of Central Brazil and the Rio Branco savannas of northern Brazil. Seeds collected in savannas of Rio Branco showed a higher tolerance to environmental filters than those collected in savannas of the Cerrado. While the germination percentages largely varied in response to the treatments, the germination times were virtually unaffected by them, irrespective of seed origin, seed mass and water content. At the population level, the regional environment was a key determinant of seed tolerance to stress, irrespective of seed traits. Germination time was shown to represent a conservative seed trait and more linked to a species-specific germination strategy than to regional characteristics. Our results suggest that recruitment patterns of Cerrado savannas may be more impacted than Rio Branco savannas by the climate scenarios predicted for the future.

Dynamics of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Tax Revenues of the Oil and Gas Regions of Western Siberia Budgets in the Period COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Small and medium-sized enterprises have been significantly affected. Domestic measures of state support, including tax incentives, have become an important support factor. The corresponding Resolution provided for the expansion of opportunities to support the implementation of regional support measures. We found that the choice of a model of behavior by the regional authorities in our case depended on the level of favorable regional environment for the development of SMEs, as well as the level of diversification of regional production. We carried out an initial comparison of the consequences of the implementation of different support models in three similar regions and predicted the impact of the implemented regional support model on the future development of SMEs. The costs of the region for additional support measures, calculated as the lost budget income, in terms of one employee employed in medium and small businesses, turned out to be very insignificant. We draw a conclusion about the high economic and political efficiency of support measures associated with reducing the tax burden. It can be said that the regions that did not expand the support measures provided for by Resolution № 409 at the expense of the regional package missed the chance to convert small funds in support of the population.

Response of the Oligo-Miocene Bivalve Fauna of the Kutch Basin (Western India) to Regional Tectonic Events

ABSTRACTTectonic changes has influenced the evolution of the marine community by changing the land and seaway configuration through time. Two such tectonic events during Oligo-Miocene times — the closure of the Tethyan seaway due to development of the Gomphotherium-Landbridge leading to separation of the Arabian Sea from proto-Mediterranean Sea (∼19 Ma) and significant uplift of the Tibetan plateu marking the initiation of the monsoon (∼16 Ma) — represent a classic case of tectonic shift influencing the regional environment of the Indian subcontinent. We investigated the taxonomic and body size related response of the shallow marine fauna to this regional change using bivalves from 11 time-constrained shellbeds of the Kutch Basin (western India) from three formations — Maniyara Fort (Chattian), Khari Nadi (Aquitanian) and Chhasra (Burdigalian-Langian) representing a time span of ∼9 Ma (24.4 – 15 Ma).Our collection of over 2000 individuals represents a total of 15 families and 61 morphospecies. The fossils are predominantly calcitic in nature and families of aragonitic composition are often preserved as molds indicating a potential negative effect of diagenesis. The taphonomic nature, however, does not vary substantially across shellbeds and hence, less likely produced a temporal pattern. The five most abundant species, Ostrea latimarginata, Ostrea angulata, Talochlamys articulata, Anomia primaeva and Placuna lamellata occur in all the formations. The species composition of the Maniyara Fort formation is substantially different from those of the younger formations implying the possible effect of biogeographic separation. Moreover, the absence of proto-Mediterranean taxa in Oligocene shellbeds support a limited faunal exchange as early as ∼24.4Ma (Chattian) ago. We observed a monotonic increase in the overall rarefied species richness and a decrease in evenness from the Maniyara Fort to the Chhasra Formation. However, shellbed analyses show a dominantly conservative behavior of diversity and body size without a strong directional trend through time. Although it is difficult to rule out the negative influence of taphonomy on the diversity of the studied fauna, Oligo-Miocene marine bivalve fauna of the Kutch Basin demonstrate little or no influence of the Tethyan closure and Himalayan upliftment.