Dissecting the illegal pangolin trade in China: An insight from seizures data reports

Wildlife trafficking poses a major threat to global biodiversity. Species such as pangolins are particularly vulnerable and trade continues almost unabated despite numerous interventions aimed at eradicating illegal wildlife trade. Despite restrictions on the pangolin trade, thousands of pangolins continue to be intercepted annually. We focused on China because of the recent delisting of pangolins from the Chinese pharmacopeia, and their removal from healthcare insurance, despite deeply ingrained traditions of having pangolins for ethno-medicinal use. We collated pangolin interception data from public online media seizure reports to characterize the pangolin trade within China, and found that a total of 326 independent seizures equivalent to 143,130 pangolins (31,676 individuals and 222,908 kg of scale) were reported in 26 provinces. Pangolin domestic seizures are greatest in the southern cities of Dehong, Fangchenggang, and Guangzhou. Also, we found 17 countries within the global pangolins range which were the major source of the pangolin shipments to China. The number of arrests and convictions was much lower than the number of pangolin incidents reported. Our results show a significant increase in the volume of scales and number of live pangolin seizures after amended endangered species law came into effect in 2018, and recorded the highest number of individual pangolin interceptions. China has shown increasing wildlife seizures over time, owing partly to emergent trends in the international wildlife trade as well as increasing global demand for ethnomedicine. The future eradication of illegal wildlife trade in China is dependent not only on stringent border control and offender prosecution but also the; removal of other threatened species from the pharmacopeia and healthcare insurance which includes wildlife derivatives. Furthermore, our work highlights importance of current policy intervention to combat the pangolin trade within China, and the need for further interventions both within China and in export countries.

Russian corporate recovery varies by company profile

Significance Recovery in the corporate sector is unevenly divided between large and smaller companies. More robust global demand and rising commodity prices boosted the profitability of large exporters, whereas the recovery of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was delayed by pandemic restrictions and falling real disposable incomes. Impacts High metals prices will constrain investment in infrastructure. Rising interest rates will limit capital market borrowing by medium-sized companies. Government price controls threaten to undermine private investment in agriculture, metallurgy and chemical production. A deterioration in banks' corporate portfolio will be adequately offset by high earnings and previous provisioning.

Available Technologies and Commercial Devices to Harvest Energy by Human Trampling in Smart Flooring Systems: A Review

Technological innovation has increased the global demand for electrical power and energy. Accordingly, energy harvesting has become a research area of primary interest for the scientific community and companies because it constitutes a sustainable way to collect energy from various sources. In particular, kinetic energy generated from human walking or vehicle movements on smart energy floors represents a promising research topic. This paper aims to analyze the state-of-art of smart energy harvesting floors to determine the best solution to feed a lighting system and charging columns. In particular, the fundamentals of the main harvesting mechanisms applicable in this field (i.e., piezoelectric, electromagnetic, triboelectric, and relative hybrids) are discussed. Moreover, an overview of scientific works related to energy harvesting floors is presented, focusing on the architectures of the developed tiles, the transduction mechanism, and the output performances. Finally, a survey of the commercial energy harvesting floors proposed by companies and startups is reported. From the carried-out analysis, we concluded that the piezoelectric transduction mechanism represents the optimal solution for designing smart energy floors, given their compactness, high efficiency, and absence of moving parts.

Odor and Constituent Odorants of HDPE–Lignin Blends of Different Lignin Origin

The still-rising global demand for plastics warrants the substitution of non-renewable mineral oil-based resources with natural products as a decisive step towards sustainability. Lignin is one of the most abundant natural polymers and represents an ideal but hitherto highly underutilized raw material to replace petroleum-based resources. In particular, the use of lignin composites, especially polyolefin–lignin blends, is currently on the rise. In addition to specific mechanical property requirements, a challenge of implementing these alternative polymers is their heavy odor load. This is especially relevant for lignin, which exhibits an intrinsic odor that limits its use as an ingredient in blends intended for high quality applications. The present study addressed this issue by undertaking a systematic evaluation of the odor properties and constituent odorants of commercially available lignins and related high-density polyethylene (HDPE) blends. The potent odors of the investigated samples could be attributed to the presence of 71 individual odorous constituents that originated primarily from the structurally complex lignin. The majority of them was assignable to six main substance classes: carboxylic acids, aldehydes, phenols, furan compounds, alkylated 2-cyclopenten-1-ones, and sulfur compounds. The odors were strongly related to both the lignin raw materials and the different processes of their extraction, while the production of the blends had a lower but also significant influence. Especially the investigated soda lignin with hay- and honey-like odors was highly different in its odorant composition compared to lignins resulting from the sulfurous kraft process predominantly characterized by smoky and burnt odors. These observations highlight the importance of sufficient purification of the lignin raw material and the need for odor abatement procedures during the compounding process. The molecular elucidation of the odorants causing the strong odor represents an important procedure to develop odor reduction strategies.

Sustainable Development Through Franchise Innovation in the Digital Economy

Franchising has been popular as a strategy for businesses to grow and innovate. It is even more so in today's business need of developing digital solutions for sustainability. In responding to United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, using franchise innovation to replicate proven sustainable solutions in other parts of the world is an effective approach to scaling up solutions to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. The essence of a successful franchise innovation lies in managing the good relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee. In this paper, we show that digital business solutions for sustainability play an important role in growing and nurturing such a good relationship. Specifically, we discuss that franchise innovation via Netchising, combining the digital power of the Internet for global demand-and-supply processes and the international franchising arrangement with local business solutions for sustainability, is an entrepreneurial approach to communities' development where economic and social aspects are mutually supportive.

Climate Change and the Circular Economy

The world is presently facing a climate catastrophe of its own making through the unabated increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Global consumption patterns are to blame, as presently, the global annual demand for resources outpaces the annual rate of the earth's ability to regenerate those resources. Thus, there is an urgent need to reduce the global demand for resources to a sustainable level, through the adoption of a circular economy. Individual consumption behavior habits form the basis of global consumption patterns, and therefore, adoption of sustainable consumption habits and lifestyles are necessary for addressing the climate crisis. In this chapter, the authors assess the potential for addressing the climate crisis through the adoption of a circular economy and sustainable consumption behavior. The authors also evaluate the extent of adoption of sustainable consumption behavior in India and make recommendations for adopting a circular economy in India.

Rising Global Challenges in Energy Demand and the Politics of Climate Change in Government Operations

While most governments subscribe to boosting global energy supplies since it paves the way for improved economies, which translates to better living conditions and gainful employments which in turn boost government operations, the rising global demand for energy from all human endeavors have activated unparalleled consequences on the environment, resulting to harmful repercussions for government operations and processes all over the world. Hence, scholars argue that the rising demand for global energy by industrialized nations have further increased the vulnerability of governments' operations and processes, especially in countries where these energy sources abound. Consequently, governments, multinationals, and various interest groups are divided on how best to address the quandaries resulting from rising global demand for energy and its effect on the environment and government operations. Recommendations that would enhance government operations were proposed.

Review on Camptothecin Producing Medicinal Plant: Nothapodytes Nimmoniana

Nothapodytes nimmoniana is an endangered medicinal plant widely distributed throughout the Western Ghats of India. The plant contains camptothecin (CPT) which is renowned anticancer drugs. Though, CPT found in many plant species but maximum amount of CPT has been reported from N. nimmoniana. Due to very good source of CPT, this plant has been explored for its Phytochemical, Biotechnological and Pharmacological aspects. Looking to the huge global demand for CPT, overexploitation of N. nimmoniana, unplanned deforestation, and lowest production of CPT from intact plant, reduction of seed germination, high market cost and not have economically feasible process of production has optimistic us to investigate this plant in a systematic manner. The proposed article can be utilized for the establishment of extraction methods and analytical protocol for CPT. Also, Bioreactors production of CPT using high yielding cell line of N. nimmoniana. The pharmacological data will be applicable for discovery of new Drug and development lead to novel compounds which are safe and effective.

Expert Demand for Consumer Sleep Technology Features and Wearable Devices

Global demand for sleep-tracking wearables, or consumer sleep technologies (CSTs), is steadily increasing. CST marketing campaigns often feature a scientific component, but the scientific relevancy and monetary value of CST features within the sleep research community remains unquantified. Sleep medicine experts were recruited through social media and nonprobability sampling techniques to complete a survey identifying sleep metrics and device features that are most desirable to the scientific community. A hypothetical purchase task (HPT) estimated economic valuation for devices with different features by price. Forty-six (N=46) respondents with an average of 10±6 years’ experience conducting research in real-world settings completed the online survey. Total sleep time was ranked as the most important measure of sleep followed by objective sleep quality while sleep architecture/depth and diagnostic information were ranked as least important. Experts preferred wrist-worn devices that could reliably determine sleep episodes as short as 20 minutes. Economic value was greater for hypothetical devices with longer battery life. These data set a precedent to determine how scientific relevance of a product impacts the potential market value of a CST device. This is the first known attempt to establish consensus opinion or economic valuation for scientifically-desirable CST features and metrics using expert elicitation.