Circular Business Model Innovation and Its Relationship With Business Performance in Brazilian Industrial Chemical Companies

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between circular business model innovation and business performance in Brazilian industrial chemical companies. This is a quantitative study carried out through a survey with Brazilian industrial companies. Based on a homogeneity analysis (Homals), the results showed that the high degree of innovation in business models from the adoption of circular economy (CE) strategies in the analyzed companies confirms that a significant change leads to superior performance, especially in market, production, economic and financial, and social.

PARTNERSHIP IN OPEN INNOVATIONS – EXPERIENCE FROM THE AGRICULTURAL MARKET: POLAND CASE STUDY

The ability to build and manage a knowledge transfer partnership is one of the most highly demanded skills. Knowledge is widely dispersed, so it should be acquired from the environment. For this purpose, partnerships should be established with different entities. Presumably, the most mature type of partnership is the innovation ecosystem. Hence empirical research was conducted among Poland’s Grupa Azoty (GA) Puławy's consortium members based on an in-depth, partially structured interview, supported by an analysis of several innovation ecosystems of chemical companies. The aim of the research was to assess the phenomenon of open innovations in the GA along with the characteristics of the selection of partners, cooperation strategies and declared resources for jointly implemented projects.

Ramblings of a Chemical Engineer: A Book Review

Ramblings of a Chemical Engineer is significantly influenced by the author's personal experiences as a chemical engineer who has worked in a variety of chemical companies. It encompasses his college years, time as a university researcher, and professional career; it is told in a fast-paced way via a succession of vignettes that capture the highlights of the events that formed him into the professional chemical engineer he is today. It was his intention to present information about a profession in chemical engineering to potential students seeking degrees in chemical engineering. It also acts as a guide for aspiring chemical engineers and future engineers, emphasizing what they should aim for and how much fun this profession can be.

Sustainable Polymers from Recycled Waste Plastics and Their Virgin Counterparts as Bitumen Modifiers: A Comprehensive Review

The failure of bituminous pavements takes place due to heavy traffic loads and weather-related conditions, such as moisture, temperature, and UV radiation. To overcome or minimize such failures, a great effort has been put in recent years to enhance the material properties of bitumen, ultimately improving field performance and increasing the pavement service life. Polymer modification is considered one of the most suitable and by far the most popular approach. Elastomers, chemically functionalised thermoplastics and plastomers * (* Note: notwithstanding the fact that in Polymer Science the word ‘plastomer’ indicates a polymer with the simultaneous behaviour of an elastomer and plastics (thermoplastics), this paper uses the term ‘plastomer’ to indicate a thermoplastic polymer as it is more commonly found in Civil and Pavement Engineering.) are the most commonly used polymers for bitumen modification. Plastomers provide several advantages and are commonly acknowledged to improve high-temperature stiffness, although some of them are more prone to phase separation and consequent storage instability. Nowadays, due to the recent push for recycling, many road authorities are looking at the use of recycled plastics in roads. Hence, some of the available plastomers—in pellet, flakes, or powder form—are coming from materials recycling facilities rather than chemical companies. This review article describes the details of using plastomers as bitumen modifiers—with a specific focus on recycled plastics—and how these can potentially be used to enhance bitumen performance and the road durability. Chemical modifiers for improving the compatibility between plastomers and bitumen are also addressed in this review. Plastomers, either individual or in combination of two or three polymers, are found to offer great stiffness at high temperature. Different polymers including HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, MDPE, PP, PS, PET, EMA, and EVA have been successfully employed for bitumen modification. However, each of them has its own merit and demerit as thoroughly discussed in the paper. The recent push in using recycled materials in roads has brought new light to the use of virgin and recycled plastomers for bitumen modification as a low-cost and somehow environmental beneficial solution for roads and pavements.

Debt to Assets Ratio and Management Asset on Financial Performance: an Evidence of Chemical Companies in Indonesia Stock Exchange

This study aims to analyze the effect of Debt to Asset Ratio and Management Asset on Financial Performance in chemical companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The population used in this study are chemical companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The sample used in this study was 9 companies in 2015-2019, so that 36 research samples were obtained. In this study, Management Asset is measured using the Inventory Turnover proxy and Financial Performance using the Return on Assets proxy. Based on research, simultaneously, Debt to Asset Ratio and Management Asset have a significant effect on Financial Performance. While partially the Debt to Asset Ratio has an influence on the Return on Asset and Management Asset has no effect on the Return on Asset. Debt to Assets and Inventory Turnover ratios contributed 53.8% to Return on Asset.

Gene Mining for Conserved, Non-Annotated Proteins of Podosphaera xanthii Identifies Novel Target Candidates for Controlling Powdery Mildews by Spray-Induced Gene Silencing

The powdery mildew fungus Podosphaera xanthii is one of the most important limiting factors for cucurbit production worldwide. Despite the significant efforts made by breeding and chemical companies, effective control of this pathogen remains elusive to growers. In this work, we examined the suitability of RNAi technology called spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS) for controlling cucurbit powdery mildew. Using leaf disc and cotyledon infiltration assays, we tested the efficacy of dsRNA applications to induce gene silencing in P. xanthii. Furthermore, to identify new target candidate genes, we analyzed sixty conserved and non-annotated proteins (CNAPs) deduced from the P. xanthii transcriptome in silico. Six proteins presumably involved in essential functions, specifically respiration (CNAP8878, CNAP9066, CNAP10905 and CNAP30520), glycosylation (CNAP1048) and efflux transport (CNAP948), were identified. Functional analysis of these CNAP coding genes by dsRNA-induced gene silencing resulted in strong silencing phenotypes with large reductions in fungal growth and disease symptoms. Due to their important contributions to fungal development, the CNAP1048, CNAP10905 and CNAP30520 genes were selected as targets to conduct SIGS assays under plant growth chamber conditions. The spray application of these dsRNAs induced high levels of disease control, supporting that SIGS could be a sustainable approach to combat powdery mildew diseases.

Synthetic Attempts Towards Eminent Anti-Viral Candidates of SARS-CoV

: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) aka SARS-CoV spread over southern China for the first time in 2002-2003 and history repeated again since last year and take away more than two million people so far. On March 11, 2020 COVID-19 outbreak was officially declared as pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO). Entire world united to fight back against this ultimate destruction. Around 90 vaccines are featured against SARS-CoV-2 and more than 300 active clinical trials are underway by several groups and individuals. So far, no drugs are currently approved that completely eliminates the deadly corona virus. The promising SARS-CoV-2 anti-viral drugs are favipiravir, remdesivir, lopinavir, ribavirin and avifavir. In this review, we have discussed the synthetic approaches elaborately made so far by different groups and chemical companies all around the world towards top three convincing anti-viral drugs against SARS-CoV-2 which are favipiravir, remdesivir and lopinavir.