Exploring Forest Sector Research Subjects and Trends from 2000 to 2019 Using Topic Modeling

Purpose of Review This review aims to discover the most common topics and trends in international scientific forest sector research between January 2000 and December 2019 and to test the suitability of a quantitative topic-modeling method to extract topics from the data. The results will be helpful for both researchers and policy decision-makers in identifying emerging research topics and possible research gaps. The analysis framework covers the complete forest wood chain (FWC) with PESTE factors. PESTE is applied to analyze political, economic, social, technological, and ecological/environmental factors affecting the FWC. Recent findings In the last two decades, forests and the forest sector have been impacted by several global changes, policies, and megatrends. Previous systematic syntheses of forest sector research reveal that economic, policy, and social research have remained underrepresented in the forest sector literature. Research areas related to forest ecology and climate change have been increasing. More recently, growth has also been detected in social aspects especially related to the increasing literature on forest ecosystem services. Results A total of 160 topics were extracted from 14,470 abstracts of 15 leading international peer-reviewed forest science journals. The ecological topics of forest resources and technological topics of industry and products were by far the two largest subject areas. Ecological topics increased, while technological topics slightly decreased, during the period between 2000 and 2019. A clear decline in the share of topics concerning end-product markets was detected. Indeed, changes in end markets drive changes in the entire forest wood chain. To support the goal of a transition from a fossil-based economy to a bioeconomy, it will be important to increase academic research on policy impacts, as well as social and ecological sustainability issues to cover all the stages of the FWC more evenly. The topic-modeling method was a useful tool in data mining, but human intelligence is needed to interpret and classify the topics extracted by this approach.

The Institutional Grammar: A Method for Coding Institutions and its Potential for Advancing Third Sector Research

Institutions—defined as strategies, norms and rules (Ostrom Understanding institutional diversity, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2005)—are omnipresent in third sector contexts. In this paper, we present the Institutional Grammar (IG) as a theoretically informed approach to support institutional analysis in third sector research. More specifically, the IG coding syntax allows the researcher to systematically wade through rich text and (transcribed) spoken language to identify and dissect institutional statements into finer syntactical segments of interest to the researcher. It is a versatile method that can generate data for small- or large-N research projects and can be integrated with mixed-method research designs. After first introducing and describing the IG, we present a case study to illustrate how a IG-based syntactic analysis can be leveraged to inform third sector research. In the case, we ask: Do the rules embedded in regulatory text addressing the involuntary dissolution of charity organizations differ between bifurcated and unitary jurisdictions in the United States? Using IG’s ABDICO 2.0 syntax, we identify eleven “Activation Condition” (AC) categories that trigger action and assess variation among the 46 jurisdictions. We ultimately conclude that the rules do not differ between bifurcated and unitary jurisdictions, but that finding is not the primary concern. The case demonstrates IG as an important methodological advance that yields granular, structured analyses of rules, norms and strategies in third sector settings that may be difficult to identify with other methods. We then emphasize four areas of third sector research that could benefit from the addition of IG-based methods: analysis of (1) rule compliance, (2) inter-organizational collaboration, (3) comparative study of institutional design, and (4) the study of institutional change. We close the paper with some reflections on where IG-based analysis is headed.

Uso de co-produtos dietéticos no desempenho de coelhos: uma revisão

The Brazilian rabbit farming is in growing expansion, however, the cost with feeding are high. To ensure economic viability in the rabbit sector, research has been developed related to the use of alternative foods and co-products, aiming to reduce diet related costs. Therefore, the objective of this literature review was to approach the use of co-products and alternative foods in the diet of rabbits, focusing on their effect on animal performance. The period of publication of articles estimated for the searches was between 2010 and 2022. The availability of co-products and alternative foods is wide, however, when choosing these, factors such as source, quality and chemical-bromatological composition and region must be taken into accout. These factors are related to possible deleterious effects that can lead to reduced animal performance. Once chosen, it is expected that the dietary inclusion of such foods will promote better intestinal health of the animals, and consequently greater weight gain, lower feed conversion and influence the cost of production of the diet. It is conclude that there is a diversity of ingredients available to be included in diets for rabbits. However, it is necessary to carry out continuous studies to efficiently determine the inclusion levels per phase, as well as the identification of anti-nutritional factors and negative effects present in certain foods.