Performance Assessment of Farm Machinery for Persimmon Fruit Cultivation in a Japanese Mountainous Area

Japanese agriculture is facing a decrease in agricultural workers. Mechanization, both to save time and reduce physical input, is essential to solving this issue. Recent worldwide progress in Internet-of-things technology has enabled the application of remote-controlled and unmanned machinery in agriculture. This study was conducted in the Gojo-Yoshino mountainous region in Nara, Japan, which is famous for its persimmon cultivation. The performance of newly introduced smart agricultural machinery was studied in the field by simulating cultivation work. The results showed that the remote-control weeder, speed sprayer, and remote-control mini crawler carrier saved 90%, 75%, and 5% of weeding, spraying, and harvesting times, respectively, when compared with conventional methods. Such time savings led to an 8% decrease in the total working time spent on persimmon cultivation. In addition, using the speed sprayer showed improvement in the fruit’s quality. Results of the power assist suits did not show a time-saving effect but showed a reduction of physical burden. These results suggest that the mechanization of persimmon cultivation is efficient and labor-saving, and satisfies the need for farmers. However, the high investment costs remain an issue in extending mechanization to the region.

Processes of Modernization of Consumption in Poland in the Context of the Sustainable Consumption and the Functioning of the Renewable Energy Market

The process of consumption modernization can be expressed by adopting the principles of sustainable development within the sphere of consumption. It should be emphasized that the implementation of a sustainable consumption model becomes especially important when considering the fact that not only various types of enterprises but also consumers participate in the excessive consumption of natural resources. The processes of sustainable consumption that are related to its humanization and the formation of a responsible society are a response to the overconsumption of goods and services, which is not determined by actual human needs and does not consider social and ecological costs. The aim of the paper is to present a process of consumption modernization in Poland in the context of the functioning of the renewable energy market. Special attention is paid to behaviours that are consistent with the sustainable consumption model, as well as with the motives for using renewable energy sources by Polish consumers and the perception of barriers to increasing the use of renewable energy sources in Poland. This paper is based on literature studies, as well as on the results of an empirical study of quantitative character that was performed in 2021 on a nationwide representative sample of 1020 people. The contribution of the article is represented by showing the motivation of Polish consumers to use renewable energy sources and by indicating barriers to the development of the use of renewable energy sources by consumers in Poland. The analysis of the research results shows that the aspect of saving money plays a significant role among the motives for using renewable energy sources. At the same time, high investment costs in devices that enable the use of renewable energy sources are the main factor that is limiting the increase in the use of renewable energy sources in Poland.

“Hard” High-Investment Adult-Age Adventure Play in the Off Hours

Globally, adults engage in various forms of high-investment adventure play in their leisure. Sometimes, these are complementary to their careers, their self-identities, and their social circles. This type of adventure play requires investments in learning, KSA (knowledge, skills, and abilities) development, social network development, time, moneys, reputation, and other costs. It may involve some level of risk-taking. This work explores this niche space of “hard” adventure play as expressed on the Social Web as a type of peer-shared teaching and learning, with a focus on “luxury geocaching” as the activity.

Adoption of Virtual Reality in Construction Projects

In recent years, virtual reality has emerged in various fields such as manufacturing sectors, construction sectors etc. Virtual reality technology has a wide variety of applications in various fields. Several applications of VR in construction sector are design review and support, construction support, operations and management, safety training, stakeholder management. Recent researches had shown that VR can also be used widely in decision making process. Despite the various applications of VR in construction sectors, the adoption level of the VR technology is comparatively very low. This study aims to identify the factors that are preventing the adoption of virtual reality in construction projects. The factors are identified through a wide review of literature survey and analysed by means of questionnaire survey with statistical methods. The factors are ranked through the analysis and the most affecting factors are found out. The findings of this study show that requirements of specialized high processing equipment, high investment in VR, lack of awareness about the technology, lack of client’s interest, limited finance of the organizations, existence of champions using VR are the most preventing factors for the adoption of VR in construction projects. To mitigate these issues, several possible mitigation measures has been suggested in this study.

Asymmetric Evolutionary Game Analysis of Building Information Modeling (BIM) Technology Diffusion

Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology plays a pivotal role in the process of building process informatization. In the context of extensive promotion by all parties, how to effectively evaluate the promotion value of countries and enterprises is particularly important. In order to better analyze the promotion trend of the BIM technology diffusion system in China, a noncooperative evolutionary game model of BIM technology diffusion between the government and enterprises is constructed, and Vensim PLE software is used for simulation analysis in this paper. The model includes government subsidy cost and penalty, social benefit and loss, and income payment matrix of BIM technology input income and cost. The results show that enterprises need not only direct cost subsidy from the government but also indirect cost subsidy in the process of BIM technology diffusion. Appropriate government penalties can effectively promote the initiative of enterprises to adopt BIM technology; BIM has a great impact on the input income and cost of enterprises. In view of this, it is suggested that the first task for enterprises to promote the diffusion of BIM technology is to clarify the definition of BIM's high investment cost and do a good financial impact analysis.

Cleaner Fuel Production via Co-Processing of Vacuum Gas Oil with Rapeseed Oil Using a Novel NiW/Acid-Modified Phonolite Catalyst

Clean biofuels are a helpful tool to comply with strict emission standards. The co-processing approach seems to be a compromise solution, allowing the processing of partially bio-based feedstock by utilizing existing units, overcoming the need for high investment in new infrastructures. We performed a model co-processing experiment using vacuum gas oil (VGO) mixed with different contents (0%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, and 100%) of rapeseed oil (RSO), utilizing a nickel–tungsten sulfide catalyst supported on acid-modified phonolite. The experiments were performed using a fixed-bed flow reactor at 420 °C, a hydrogen pressure of 18 MPa, and a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 3 h−1. Surprisingly, the catalyst stayed active despite rising oxygen levels in the feedstock. In the liquid products, the raw diesel (180–360 °C) and jet fuel (120–290 °C) fraction concentrations increased together with increasing RSO share in the feedstock. The sulfur content was lower than 200 ppm for all the products collected using feedstocks with an RSO share of up to 50%. However, for all the products gained from the feedstock with an RSO share of ≥50%, the sulfur level was above the threshold of 200 ppm. The catalyst shifted its functionality from hydrodesulfurization to (hydro)decarboxylation when there was a higher ratio of RSO than VGO content in the feedstock, which seems to be confirmed by gas analysis where increased CO2 content was found after the change to feedstocks containing 50% or more RSO. According to the results, NiW/acid-modified phonolite is a suitable catalyst for the processing of feedstocks with high triglyceride content.

PRODUCTION OF BIOGAS BASED ON HUMAN FESSES AS AN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY FOR REMOTE AREAS APPLICATION

The utilise of biogas for remote areas is a problem because it is challenging to supply hydrogen. Hence a study of the utilisation of human fesses as biogas raw material for biogas production is proposed. Due to high investment costs to build miniature power plants, modified gasoline engines are used as mini power plants even though it is a laboratory scale. Based on results, human fesses can be used as raw material for biogas production. Performance engine using biogas derived from human fesses is 9% different from LPG. The maximum efficiency of the biogas system is 32%, and that of the LPG is 41%.

Green Warehousing: Exploration of Organisational Variables Fostering the Adoption of Energy-Efficient Material Handling Equipment

The lithium-ion battery (LIB) represents a useful lever for reducing material handling equipment’s (MHE) environmental impact. The exploitation of opportunity charging might improve LIB adoption, which is still prevented by the high investment cost. Since opportunity charging is affected by the system organization, the relationship between LIB and organizational variables is a meaningful work direction to reduce warehouses’ environmental impact, which is underrepresented by the current literature. The present paper aims at filling this gap by investigating the implications of organisational variables on LIB adoption in warehouses where handling activities are performed with forklift trucks. Based on an in-depth review of the literature and semi-structured interviews, the research presents an input-process-output model linking organisational variables and LIB forklift related costs with an application to a real case. This paper is original as it extends findings from the research fields of production and mobility to the warehouse arena, and it opens room for further research on warehouse sustainability. The paper also offers insights to warehouse managers making decisions about LIB adoption for their electric forklift fleets. This is particularly meaningful to reduce warehouse environmental impact, since MHE power source significantly contributes to greenhouse gases emissions.

Inter-market Variability of Smallholder Beef Cattle Farming in East Java Indonesia

Indonesia has failed to achieve meat self-sufficiency; meanwhile, East Java is among the centers of beef cattle with a relatively high contribution in terms of GDP and employment. Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyze the market structure of the beef cattle commodity chain by considering the concentration ratio, Gini Index, as well as barriers to exit and entry. The study was conducted in Malang Regency and Sapudi Island, with 164 respondents, which consisted of calf suppliers, farmers, traders, and slaughterhouses. Furthermore, the analytical tools used include descriptive, concentration ratio, Gini Coefficient, and analysis of barriers to entry and exit. Based on the results, the market structures in the beef cattle commodity chain in terms of its input market was perfect competition, while the intermediate and output market was oligopoly. These results were confirmed by the concentration ratios of calf suppliers and farmers, which were lower than the ratios of traders and slaughterhouses. Although the market structures were different, their Gini Coefficients are almost similar because a value of 0.2 showed an equitable distribution. Additionally, the barriers to entry into the market were high investment with a large number of import and market problems. Meanwhile, the barriers to exit the market were a large number of potential demands, high investment, and a source of income.