When digital mass participation meets citizen deliberation: Combining mini-publics and maxi-publics in climate policy-making

Notwithstanding the rationale and the demand for public participation in climate policies, aggregated perspectives of maxi-publics are often belittled as uninformed, self-interested and short-term focused. The upcoming vogue of climate assemblies, citizen parliaments and other forms of mini-publics is to give citizens a central role in climate policy-making and in some cases to break political impasse. Yet climate mini-publics face challenges in political environments too, such as co-option, favoring expert-opinions and losing touch with the broader public. To remedy such pitfalls, recent papers have argued to combine synchronous deliberations of small groups of citizens with online participation procedures for the larger public. In this article, we report the results of a three-step combination model, where first a mini-public in the region of Súdwest-Fryslân (NL) were given a ‘carte blanche’ to draft the content and the parameters of several related policy alternatives. Second, their proposals where fed into a digital participation tool, the Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) to consult the wider public. A total of 1,376 (approx. 2% of the inhabitants) expressed their preferences and explained why they favour a dominant role for the municipality and the residents but are reticent about giving the market too big a role. Third, a citizen forum translated the outcomes of the maxi-public into policy recommendations, which were unanimously approved by the municipal council. In this paper, we report our findings of combining mini-and maxi-publics and how actors involved evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the combination of these two participatory approaches.

The Antibacterial Activity of Catunaregam tomentosa Against Selected Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria

Catunaregam tomentosa is a plant from Rubiaceae family that is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of stomatitis and ulcers due to bacterial infections. Besides, it also helps in the treatment of oliguria and dysuria. Indiscriminate use of commercial antibacterial medicines had led to the search for novel antibacterial drugs. Since for ages medicinal plants have been used to treat bacterial infection, so they can be excellent sources of the novel antibacterial drug. To evaluate the scientific basis of the use of plant, antibacterial activity leaves extract of C.tomentosa was investigated against selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The study also investigated the effect of pH on its antibacterial activity. Antibacterial activity of the plant extracts was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using the disc diffusion method at 100mg/mL concentration. Extracts of C. tomentosa inhibit the activity of S. aureus but do not inhibit the activity of Gram-negative bacteria. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was also determined against S. aureus at concentration 100, 50, 25, 12.5, 6, 3, 1.5, 0.75 and 0.395mg/mL and 3mg/mL were the MIC value. Evaluation on the effect of different pH on antibacterial activity of plant extracts shows that the activity of the plant extracts does not affect when treated with acidic pH but increased at alkaline pH. Based on the present finding, C. tomentosa leaves extract have the potential to be a viable candidate in the discovery of a natural antibacterial agent against S. aureus infections. This study provides scientific knowledge to further determine the antibacterial values of C. tomentosa extracts.

Value-oriented approach in Kazakhstani regional development projects

Sustainable regional development projects are a challenge for all countries, regardless of their geographic location, cultural differences, or level of economic development. Kazakhstan is also facing this challenge and tries to counteract this process by actively implementing regional development projects and programs. However, project effectiveness and project value remain bottlenecks as these projects are aimed to improve lives and work in rural areas and eliminate inequality; therefore, managing such projects is a complex issue. This study seeks to obtain data that will help to address these research gaps and to identify value aspects of such projects from the end-users’ perspectives – local communities. This can help to understand how to select projects with high value and enhance their effectiveness.For this purpose, in 2020, a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews of end-users of regional development projects implemented in local communities were conducted. 301 respondents from main mining towns included in the regional development program of the Republic of Kazakhstan have been surveyed and 18 deep interviews have been conducted. The results show that Kazakhstani regional development projects appear to have a low level of value from the perspective of main stakeholders and beneficiaries – local communities. Project value evaluation has also revealed that a concept of value is different for local government authorities, project teams, and local communities. The study expands knowledge on the management of regional development projects, revealing the importance of understanding the value for such projects to achieve success and enhance their effectiveness.

A TOPSIS-Based Model for Evaluating the Performance of the Intellectual Property Value Strategies of Science and Technology Enterprises

Intellectual property comes with risks such as value evaluation and externalities. It is an intangible asset involving a large investment and a long return period; however, it plays an important role in enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises. Some companies see intellectual property as being a long-term development strategy, which makes evaluating the performance of corporate intellectual property particularly important. The TOPSIS method is widely used to evaluate the pros and cons, as well as the performance of various programs. It can make full use of the data to accurately reflect the gaps in various programs. This paper uses the TOPSIS method to evaluate the performance of the intellectual property value strategy of six typical technology companies based on three dimensions: financial performance, external performance, and value chain performance. The study found that the value chain performance was the most important in the performance evaluation of the intellectual property value strategy, followed by the external performance, and then by the financial performance. There were also significant differences in the intellectual property value strategy of the six technology companies.

Tourism Resource Evaluation and Countermeasures Based on Network Communication and TOPSIS Algorithm

Tourism resources are the basis of tourism activities. Affected by traditional values and the reusable characteristics of tourism resources, tourism resources have been regarded as worthless for a long time. In recent years, people have begun to establish correct values of tourism resources. However, due to the particularity of tourism resources, the issue of their value evaluation has been controversial. Value evaluation is value recognition or evaluative recognition. In order to develop a cost-effective method to obtain tourism resource evaluation and countermeasures, this paper has done a research on tourism resource evaluation and countermeasures based on network communication and the TOPSIS algorithm. For this reason, we selected a tourist attraction to conduct survey experiments. During the experiment, network communication was used to realize the exchange and sharing of their information between different people through specific media. At the same time, the TOPSIS method is used in the selection of the plan, based on the calculation results of the combined weighted TOPSIS, and the SPSS is used for the principal component factor. The suggestion and the exact conditions of the local tourism resources are combined to establish a model of the tourism resource evaluation system in this place. The experimental results show that the relative importance of viewing value is prominent in the evaluation of tourism resource value. Its weight reaches 0.509, and its popularity weight is 0.257. The evaluation and countermeasures of tourism resources based on network communication and TOPSIS algorithm are effective.

An Analysis of Internet Enterprise Value Evaluation Method Based on ARIMA

With the rapid development of the times, the Internet has been deeply integrated into various fields, and many Internet companies have emerged at the historic moment, and economic activities such as mergers, reorganizations, acquisitions, issuance and listing, equity swaps, mortgages, bankruptcy and liquidation of Internet companies have also increased frequently. This has led to more and more value evaluation activities related to Internet companies, and the business model of Internet companies is different from traditional companies, so traditional corporate value evaluation methods cannot fully meet the special requirements of Internet company value evaluation. Therefore, we need to establish a sound Internet enterprise value evaluation system, and use more scientific and reasonable evaluation methods to ensure the interests of all parties to the transaction. Starting from the operating characteristics of Internet companies, this article analyzes the characteristics and difficulties of Internet corporate value evaluation, clarifies the effectiveness and limitations of the income method in Internet enterprise value evaluation, introduces the ARIMA model to improve the traditional income method and takes NetEase as an example. This method is applied to practice to verify its feasibility. So as to provide a scientific and reliable reference basis for Internet enterprise value evaluation.