IMPROVING THE SPHERE OF HOUSEHOLD WASTE MANAGEMENT IN SAINT PETERSBURG

The problem of removing and neutralizing household waste is becoming more acute every year and occupies the main place for any city. This is explained by the fact that waste negatively affects the environment and the person who is the producer of this waste and causes great harm to the economy. On the other hand, the waste itself is the richest source of secondary resources, it is also a free energy carrier since household waste is a renewable energy raw material for fuel energy. The state of the environment on the territory of Russia is determined by a high technical load, as well as a long-term and sustained negative impact, including due to the formation and accumulation of production and consumption waste. Of all the garbage produced in Russia, the largest share falls on solid household waste - more than 25%. Only 3-5% of them are sent for recycling, and the rest - in a landfill. The situation in the field of waste management in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region and the presence of many unauthorized dumps causes serious public concern. The article formulates recommendations to improve the efficiency of organization and management of municipal waste management, addressed to the heads of state and municipal authorities and management.

Potentials and Prerequisites on the Way to a Circular Economy: A Value Chain Perspective on Batteries and Buildings

It is becoming increasingly clear that linear modes of production and consumption are unsustainable. A circular economy would help to minimize both environmental and social problems. As a result, the concept is gaining momentum in the political discourse. However, current policies do not seem sufficient to transform linear value chains to circular ones. This paper compares the potentials of and prerequisites for a circular economy along two important value chains. As a best practice example, the legal framework along the battery value chain is analyzed. This analysis is used to derive recommendations for how to improve the legal framework along the building value chain. We find that the battery value chain is already addressed by targeted instruments and the instruments addressing the building value chain have to be aligned and their credibility improved through mandatory requirements. A value chain-specific approach to develop the legal framework is promising for key sectors, while both general frameworks and value chain-specific instruments are required to fully exploit the CE for every product.

The Impact of Rice Import Policy on Community Economic Welfare in East Java

This study aims to identify policies, levels of imports, production and consumption in East Java, to analyze the impact of rice import tariff policies on production and consumption and also the community welfare changes in East Java. The data that used in this study are secondary data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), BULOG, and other research. The method of analysis uses the 2SLS simultaneous equation and the economic surplus simulation. The results showed that from 2004 to 2018, East Java always had a higher rice production rate than the consumption, but still continued to do rice import to maintain price stabilization. The simulation of a tariff increase causes an increase in production and a decrease in consumption, and vice versa. Liberalization of the rice trade (tariff exemption) has led to greater economic welfare, but from a distribution point of view, producers receive a smaller surplus than consumers, which means that the benefit distribution aspect of government policies is not realized, so the government must pay more attention to producer surpluses and consumer surpluses without much disadvantage one of the parties.

Current Status, Recent Advances, and Main Challenges on Table Olive Fermentation: The Present Meets the Future

Table olives are among the most well-known fermented foods, being a vital part of the Mediterranean pyramid diet. They constitute a noteworthy economic factor for the producing countries since both their production and consumption are exponentially increasing year by year, worldwide. Despite its significance, olive’s processing is still craft based, not changed since antiquity, leading to the production of an unstable final product with potential risk concerns, especially related to deterioration. However, based on industrial needs and market demands for reproducible, safe, and healthy products, the modernization of olive fermentation processing is the most important challenge of the current decade. In this sense, the reduction of sodium content and more importantly the use of suitable starter cultures, exhibiting both technological and potential probiotic features, to drive the process may extremely contribute to this need. Prior, to achieve in this effort, the full understanding of table olive microbial ecology during fermentation, including an in-depth determination of microbiota presence and/or dominance and its functionality (genes responsible for metabolite production) that shape the sensorial characteristics of the final product, is a pre-requisite. The advent of meta-omics technology could provide a thorough study of this complex ecosystem, opening in parallel new insights in the field, such as the concept of microbial terroir. Herein, we provide an updated overview in the field of olive fermentation, pointing out some important challenges/perspectives that could be the key to the olive sector’s advancement and modernization.

The paradox of food production, consumption, poverty and malnutrition in Tanzania: an ecological study design

Background: There have been claims amongst nutrition stakeholders in Tanzania that the food basket regions, are the regions most affected by stunting among children. However, this study could not find evidence that combines food production and stunting levels, to substantiate this claim. Therefore, this study aims to compare data on stunting, food production and consumption within administrative regions of the Tanzania mainland. Methods: The study used an ecological study design to show the relationship between stunting, poverty, food production and consumption across administrative regions in Tanzania. The study used data from three national wide surveys: 2017/2018 Household Budget Survey (HBS), Tanzania National Nutrition Survey (TNNS) 2018 and Agriculture Statistics for Food Security report 2018/2019. Results: The study showed that there is a positive relationship between the prevalence of stunting and food production (r=0.43, p=0.03), while there is a negative relationship between stunting and the level of both the average monthly household consumption expenditure (r = -0.48, p = 0.01) and average monthly household food consumption expenditure (r = -0.509, p = 0.01). It was further found that some regions which have higher levels of stunting such as Njombe, have the lowest level of basic need poverty. Conclusion: The study found a positive relationship between food production and the prevalence of stunting using data across regions in mainland Tanzania. This is an indication that regional food security may not entail nutrition security, hence a call for more advocacy on nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

Individualism and collectivism in advertising – An overview

Advertising is increasingly important in every corner of the world. It has become an indispensable part for both producers and consumers in modern society to boost the production and consumption of the products. To succeed in advertising, one component advertisers cannot ignore is cultural values because they are one of the determinants of customers’ behavior. Of the cultural dimensions, individualism and collectivism are considered the most important one. This study, therefore, sets the light on an overview of how individualism and collectivism is manifested in advertising in term of advertising themes, advertising creative tactics and linguistic advertising features in empirical studies. It then specifies what have and has not been done on the topic alike so that anyone interested in the field will find the gaps for their future research.

Evaluating the Downstream Development Strategy of Oil Companies: The Case of Rosneft

The relevance of this study is due to the low rate of development of the downstream sectors of Russian oil companies. Against a background of the sale of significant volumes of oil and gas raw materials, Russia lags behind world leaders in the production and consumption of petrochemical and chemical products, with their share in the gross domestic product of the country being only 1.1%. Connected to this is the issue of substantiating strategies of development for the downstream sectors of Russian oil companies, which requires detailed research. In this light, it is necessary to take into account current trends in the worldwide demand on petroleum products and also the opportunities and competitive advantages of Russian oil and gas companies in the creation and development of refineries with a consideration of modern technological, environmental, social and market criteria. The paper tests hypotheses about modernisation as a process of increasing efficiency in the development of the industry as a whole. The results of the study show that the planned pace of development in the industry by means of modernisation proves to be insufficient and requires additional investments in innovative development and new construction. The value of the research lies in the modelling of modernisation strategy options by the example of a large oil company, the estimation of results by the criteria of world average indices of technological efficiency of production and the analysis of these results by state indicators of branch development. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using this research approach as an analogue.

“Retweet for More”: The Serialization of Porn on the Twitter Alter Community

This article examines the notion of seriality in the context of the Filipino alter community, a network of Twitter users producing, distributing, and consuming pornographic images. The alter community is prominent among Filipino gay men who satisfy their need for sexual arousal, collective identity, and validation of their sexuality in the alter community. Seriality is influenced by technological features and affordances of a media platform. In the case of Twitter, the platform’s short form formats and real-time content generation fosters a particular kind of seriality. This essay analyzes data from online observations, content analysis of tweets and profiles, and interviews and is informed by theories on seriality, gay sexuality, and Internet studies. In situating seriality within the context of gay amateur porn economy, this article argues that serial pornography is instrumental in satisfying both present and long-standing affective, sexual, and social needs of gay men. These needs, this essay claims, stem from long history of minoritization of homosexuality. As Twitter renders older tweets ephemeral and quantifies social engagement, seriality enables gay men to satisfy the aforementioned needs longer. Furthermore, this essay proposes that serial porn on Twitter brings new insights to how seriality is conceived. Serial porn images are strategically and carefully constructed narratives of sexual encounters aimed at garnering higher social engagement and validation. Thus, serial narratives can resolve present and urgent affective tensions and needs that unravel within an ongoing life narrative rather than working toward supporting a plausible ending, as seen in other serial forms. This article contributes to an understanding of how pornographic images and serial narratives fit into consumerist culture and how platforms exploit long-standing affective needs of sexual minorities to ensure extended production and consumption of contents.