Seasonal Variation of the Microbial Quality of Local Vegetables in Giresun, the Northern Province of Turkey

Consumption of vegetables, having a significant place in nutrition of humankind, is increasing day by day as their health-improving effects have been better understood nowadays. For such vegetables, certain criteria such as organic production, season production, regional production etc. are taken into consideration. The objective of this study is to research about existence of Bacillus cereus and Salmonella spp. in the locally-grown vegetables offered in local bazaars. Parsley, lettuce, spinach, turnip, carrot, chard, Brussels sprouts and radish produced in the province of Giresun were used in the study. Bacillus cereus and Salmonella spp. analyses were carried out in line with International Organization for Standardization quality standards. Among 89 vegetable samples analyses, Salmonella spp. and B. cereus were not detected in all and 5 of the samples respectively (

Assessing the Innovative Solvency of Regional Exports in the Russian Federation

Aim. The presented study aims to develop a methodology for assessing the innovative solvency of exports from Russian regions and to identify the leading exporting regions in the development of the country’s innovative exports. Tasks. The authors clarify the definition of ‘innovative solvency of regional exports’; develop a methodology for assessing the innovative component of regional exports; test methodological recommendations for assessing the innovative solvency of exports through the example of industrial regions. Methods. The approach to determining the innovative solvency of regional exports is based on a matrix measurement method using two-component evaluation tools. This method also makes it possible to compare the level of the region’s existing foreign economic relations with the level of the regional production system when considering the latter as a resource and a prerequisite for further increasing the level of innovation in exports; to assess the degree of regional potential realization through a separate comparison of the indicators of commodity production and exports of goods and indicators reflecting the level of production technologies and their exports. Results. A typology of exporting regions is proposed based on the synthesis of two criteria: the level of development of the innovative component in the exports of the region and the level of development of advanced innovative technologies in the region. The study confirms the hypothesis about the heterogeneity of Russian regions in terms of the innovative component of their exports, which has a direct impact on the development of the corresponding regional development strategies. Of the 34 exporting regions analyzed, only 16 regions can be identified as exporters of innovative goods. Conclusions. The methodology proposed by the authors makes it possible to qualitatively assess the innovative component of regional exports based on quantitative data, which reveals the potential of the regional production system for innovative production, and to compare it with the existing and projected levels of innovative exports. The practical significance of this study consists in the formation of a list of regions leading in innovative exports, which can be useful for public authorities when adjusting programs aimed at stimulating innovation activity and forming an export-oriented national economy.

How to measure the territorial economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in contexts with scarce regional data?

In this paper we propose an index to approximate the territorial economic impact of the COVID–19 pandemic in contexts with scarce or outdated regional data, which is often the case in developing countries. This index is based on data that are usually available in most countries: a) the sectoral productive structure of the regions, b) the operational level of each sector, c) the mobility of workers in each region, and d) the possibility of remote work among sectors. The empirical application for Argentina describes the impact of the pandemic on regional production during the second and third quarters of 2020, both for the provinces and labor market areas. Our results show that the regional impact of COVID–19 on private economic activity was highly heterogeneous between and within provinces. The proposed index is also highly correlated with sporadic official data coming from national agencies, while it has a wider geographical and temporal scope, especially in terms of labor market areas.

Research on the Nonlinear Impact of Environmental Regulation on the Efficiency of China’s Regional Green Economy: Insights from the PSTR Model

This paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the green economic efficiency considering undesired output and analyzes the spatial distribution difference of green economic efficiency; secondly, the nonlinear panel threshold model is used to empirically study the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulations and green economic efficiency, and further analyzed the threshold effect of environmental regulations on the efficiency of green economy and concluded as follows. (1) The green economy efficiency index in the eastern region is mostly more significant than 1, and the green economy efficiency in most provinces in the eastern region has improved. These provinces have higher regional production levels and less environmental pollution. The green economy efficiency of the central region is second only to the eastern region. The green economy efficiency of provinces in the western region except Chongqing is less than 1, indicating that these provinces have insufficient regional production, severe environmental pollution, or extensive resource depletion. (2) The impact of environmental regulations on the efficiency of the green economy presents an inverted “U” shape, with a threshold of 0.5128 for environmental regulations. The impact of the industrial structure on the efficiency of the green economy changes from inhibition to promotion after crossing the threshold of the intensity of environmental regulation, and the degree of opening to the outside world has a complementary effect on the efficiency of the green economy. The impact of urbanization on the efficiency of the green economy changes from promotion to suppression after surpassing the threshold of the intensity of environmental regulations.

Decreasing methane emissions from China's coal mining with rebounded coal production

China is the world’s largest anthropogenic methane (CH4) emitter, with coal mine methane (CMM) as one of the main contributors. However, previous studies have not reach consensus on the magnitude and trend of China’s CMM emissions since 2010. Through distribution fitting and Monte Carlo methods, dynamic emission factors (EFs) of CMM at the province-level were derived with high confidence; along with the updated data on surface mining, abandoned coal mines, and methane utilization, we revealed that China’s annual CMM emissions were estimated at 20.11 Tg between 2010 and 2019 with a decline of 0.93 Tg yr-1. Although coal production was revived in 2017, we found that the growing trend of China’s CMM emissions since 2012 were curbed by the previously-overlooked factors including the growth of CMM utilization and coal production from surface mining, and decrease of emission factors driven by the closure of high CH4-content coal mines and a regional production shift to lower-emission areas.

Analysis of production of main crops in Orenburg region

The article analyzes the regional production of major agricultural crops for 2000–2018, taking into account the areas of their crops and planting, gross harvest and yield in farms of all categories and agricultural organizations. During the study period, a gradual reduction in the acreage of grain and leguminous crops in the region was revealed, with stabilization at the level of 2.7 million hectares, with a wide range of variations in gross yields and yields depending on the weather and climatic conditions of cultivation. There was a reduction in the area, a decrease in gross collections and a tendency to increase the yield of potatoes and vegetable crops in farms of all categories. Measures are proposed to optimize the acreage, increase the gross yield and productivity of the main agricultural crops in the agricultural sector of the regional agroindustrial complex.

A Method for Exploring and Analyzing Spatiotemporal Patterns of Traffic Congestion in Expressway Networks Based on Origin–Destination Data

Traffic congestion in expressway networks has a strong negative influence on regional development. Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of traffic congestion in expressway networks is critical for improving the exchange of products in regional production and promoting regional economic development. Nevertheless, existing studies pay less attention to these spatiotemporal patterns of traffic congestion. Considering that Origin–Destination (OD) data are available for the recorded spatial movements of vehicles in expressways, this study proposes a method with which to explore traffic congestion at the level of road segments in the regional expressway network, the mainstream of driving behaviors, and traffic regulations. Methods for analyzing spatial disparity and temporal changes in traffic congestion in expressway networks are also put forward in this paper. The empirical results show that the proposed methods could detect road segments where traffic congestion happens, and then uncover temporal patterns of several congested locations and spatial patterns of road segments with frequent congestion. These spatiotemporal patterns of traffic congestion could be in accord with the actual situation. This study provides a new approach to investigating traffic congestion in expressway networks based on low-cost data, which might be helpful for optimizing expressway network planning and promoting balanced regional development.

Evaluation of the Effects on Regional Production and Employment in Spain of the Renewable Energy Plan 2011–2020

The Renewable Energy Plan for the period 2011–2020 established as a general goal to ensure that renewable sources represent at least 20% of final energy consumption in 2020, together with a minimum contribution of 10% from renewable energy sources in transportation for that year. Then, the goal of this research is to evaluate the effects of the regional production of clean energy, identifying the employment generated in the renewable sector. The adopted methodology was the shift-share analysis, frequently used by researchers to analyze territorial differences. Main results showed important differences, at regional level, in the production of this type of energy. Likewise, we used constant shift and constant share methodology to make a forecast on the evolution of the sector from the data of last published years. Pending the approval of the new Renewable Energy Plan for the period 2021–2030, the results obtained in this research allow the identification of the regions that showed a favorable evolution to the energy change and identifies the projects that generate employment and production in the sector.