GREEN ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

The subject of this study is the principles, factors and features of the green economy as a complex multicomponent system. It was important to clarify the ontology of the term “development” and to propose a methodology for filling the meaning of this term with a specific scientific approach, which consisted in identifying factors that shape directed, natural (regular) and inevitable changes as mandatory elements of development in the philosophical sense of the latter. The article analyzes different approaches to the definition of green economy, which gave the authors a reason to propose their own perception of the green economy as a socio-eco-economic system, which should be simultaneous under directed, natural (regular) and inevitable changes to ensure its development. The authors dwelled on the characteristics of each of the three mandatory changes. Directed changes in the green economy as a system were considered through the prism of seventeen goals of sustainable development (defining those for which the green economy “works” directly), which form new requirements for key components of the economic system: production, exchange, distribution and consumption. Regular changes are characterized as those that correspond or do not contradict the basic economic laws of the post-industrial era and form the ecological basis for the competitiveness of the economy. Irreversibility of change is defined as justified regulatory measures of strict environmental and economic policy, based on the methodological, proven by scientists, the principle of regulation in a mixed economic system and the abandonment of free market mechanisms (which “does not work” to achieve sustainable development). The authors have proposed a system-hierarchical approach to ensuring intermediate principles of green economy development as a system (direction, regularity and irreversibility of changes) and their integral effect on the quality of sustainable development of the social system as a whole. Further directions of research of system principles of development of green economy have been defined as well.

Evaluation of Integral Effect of Thermal Comfort, Air Quality and Draught Risk for Desks Equipped with Personalized Ventilation Systems

This work evaluates the integral effect of thermal comfort (TC), indoor air quality (IAQ) and Draught Risk (DR) for desks with four personalized ventilation (PV) systems. The numerical study, for winter and summer thermal conditions, considers a virtual chamber, a desk, four different PV systems, four seats and four virtual manikins. Two different PV configurations, two upper and two lower air terminal devices (ATD) with different distance between them are considered. In this study a coupling of numerical methodology, using one differential and two integral models, is used. The heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system performance in this work is evaluated using DR and room air removal effectiveness (εDR) that is incorporated in an Air Distribution Index (ADI). This new index, named the Air Distribution Turbulence Index (ADTI), is used to consider simultaneously the TC, the IAQ, the DR and the effectiveness for heat removal (εTC), contaminant removal (εAQ) and room air removal (εDR). The results show that the ADI and ADTI, are generally higher for Case II than for Case I, increase when the inlet air velocity increases, are higher when the exit air is located at a height 1.2 m than when is located at 1.8 m, and are higher for summer conditions than for winter conditions. However, the values are higher for the ADI than ADTI.

Revealing the promoting effect of betaine on vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway of Pseudomonas denitrificans by using a proteomics analysis

Background: Our previous comparative metabolomics research revealed that betaine (N,N,N-trimethylglycine, a typically essential methyl-group donor for vitamin B12 biosynthesis) had a powerful promoting effect on the generation of vitamin B12 precursors and intermediates in vitamin B12-producing Pseudomonas denitrificans. However, the integral effect of betaine on the vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway is still unclear. Objective: Considering the vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway of P. denitrificans as a whole, this work aimed to reveal the biological function of betaine on the vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway in P. denitrificans, which would sharpen and expand the understanding of betaine as the methyl-group donor for vitamin B12 biosynthesis. Materials and Methods: By using a proteomics method based on the iTRAQ technique, the present study compared and analyzed the differential expression of proteins involved in vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway under 10 g/L betaine addition to P. denitrificans fermentation medium. Results: The results showed that betaine could significantly up-regulate the expression of proteins related to the vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway, which was mainly reflected in the following three aspects: 1) the δ-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) synthase and porphobilinogen synthase that were responsible for the formation of the committed precursors for tetrapyrrole-derived macrocycle in vitamin B12 molecule; 2) the C-methylation-related enzymes (such as precorrin-4 C(11)-methyltransferase, Precorrin-2 C(20)-methyltransferase, Precorrin-8X methylmutase, and Precorrin-6Y C5,15-methyltransferase) and methionine synthase that were crucial to the C-methylation reactions for vitamin B12 biosynthesis; 3) the late-stage key enzymes (Cobaltochelatase, and Cob(I)yrinic acid a,c-diamide adenosyltransferase) that were related to cobalt chelation of vitamin B12 molecule. Conclusions: The present study clearly demonstrated that betaine could significantly promote the expression of the integral enzymes involved in the vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway of P. denitrificans, thus promoting vitamin B12 biosynthesis.

Physical Phenomena in Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Current Status

116 nuclear Thermal-Hydraulic Phenomena T-HP are identified in the present paper, following documents issued during the last three decades by the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations of Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD/NEA/CSNI) and by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The derived T-HP list includes consideration of experiments performed in Separate Effect Test (SET) and Integral Effect Test (IET) facilities relevant to reactor coolant system and containment of Water Cooled Nuclear Reactors (WCNR). We consider a dozen WCNR types: Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR), Boiling Water Reactors (BWR), Russian reactors (VVER-440, VVER-1000 and RBMK), pressure tube heavy water reactors by Canada (CANDU) and India (PHWR) and so-called ‘advanced’ reactors (e.g. AP-1000 and APR-1400 designed in US and Korea, respectively). We envisage a variety of applications for the T-HP list. Four of the phenomena are helpful to characterize the current state of art in nuclear thermal-hydraulics: Counter Current Flow Limitation (CCFL), Critical Heat Flux (CHF), reflood and Two-Phase Critical Flow (TPCF). Furthermore, the T-HP identification contributes to addressing the scaling issue, performing uncertainty evaluations, developing constitutive equations and ‘special models’ in codes and prioritizing the research.

Prediction of hypericin content in Hypericum perforatum L. in different ecological habitat using artificial neural networks

Background Hypericum is an important genus in the family Hypericaceae, which includes 484 species. This genus has been grown in temperate regions and used for treating wounds, eczema and burns. The aim of this study was to predict the content of hypericin in Hypericum perforatum in varied ecological and phenological conditions of habitat using artificial neural network techniques [MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptron), RBF (Radial Basis Function) and SVM (Support Vector Machine)]. Results According to the results, the MLP model (R2 = 0.87) had an advantage over RBF (R2 = 0.8) and SVM (R2 = 0.54) models and it was relatively accurate in predicting hypericin content in H. perforatum based on the ecological conditions of site including soil types, its characteristics and plant phenological stages of habitat. The results of sensitivity analysis revealed that phenological stages, hill aspects, total nitrogen, altitude and organic carbon are the most influential factors that have an integral effect on the content of hypericin. Conclusions The designed graphical user interface will help pharmacognosist, manufacturers and producers of medicinal plants and so on to run the MLP model on new data to easily discover the content of hypericin in H. perforatum by entering ecological conditions of site, soil characteristics and plant phenological stages.

Influence of strategic consumers on the network goods market

One of the important trends in modern economic development is the expanding variety ofso-called network commodities. Network commodity is such a good the usefulness of which for each consumer depends on the total number of using it consumers. The purpose of the paper is to study dynamic pricing in the network commodity market with a positive network effect in the presence of two types of consumers: myopic, taking into account only the current utility of the commodity, and strategic, focused on utility for the entire period of use of the commodity. Market dynamics, including price trajectories maximizing the monopolist supplier's revenues, are established by running numerical experiments on the corresponding theoretical model. The features of this dynamics are revealed for the cases of a large share of myopic consumers and under the conditions of dominance of strategic consumers. It is demonstrated that, in contrast to the situation in the market of ordinary commodities, a monopoly supplier of the network commodity may be interested in the presence of strategic consumers in the market. The more such consumers are present, the shorter the period of warming up the market by the supplier by means of low prices and the higher the rate of the consequent price growth. Strategic consumers find themselves hostage of their own focus on the integral effect in consumption. The directions of further research of the market of network commodities with the heterogeneous consumers are presented.

Scenario analysis of the expected integral economic effect from an innovative project

The purpose of the article is to analyse conceptual approaches to determining the financial feasibility of an innovative project and to develop a methodology for assessing the expected integral economic effect of an innovative project based on a set of performance indicators while ensuring the compatibility of the considered scenarios. Analysed are theoretical approaches to assessing the effectiveness of an innovative project in conditions of uncertainty. The features of evaluating the effectiveness of innovative projects are identified, and the need to assess the expected integral economic effect of socially significant innovative projects is substantiated. The indicators of efficiency and feasibility of evaluating an innovative project in the context of applicability in various economic conditions are critically studied. A set of indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of innovative projects has been determined based on the provisions of the integral approach, and these indicators have been systematised based on their relationship. The expected integral economic effect or possible damage from the implementation of an innovative project has been calculated. The expected integral effect of an innovative project with given intervals of probabilities for individual scenarios is calculated. An integrated methodology for assessing the integrated effectiveness of innovative projects is proposed, which combines quantitative and qualitative performance indicators, economic and non-economic effects. The key directions for the selection of effective innovative solutions in the presence of uncontrollable factors, taking into account a variety of indicators, have been determined. A methodology has been developed for evaluating effective innovative projects with a lack or absence of information about the conditions for their implementation and functioning. Methods have been developed for determining the best options for innovative projects based on the theory of multicriteria choice while ensuring the compatibility of the considered scenarios.