This paper uses the spatial analysis software GeoDa as a tool, takes GRP (Gross regional product) of Sichuan Province in 2012 and 2018 as the dependent variable, and takes the city (autonomous prefecture) factor-driven, investment-driven and innovation-driven indicators as the dependent variable to explore the impact of innovation activities on regional economic development and the spatial distribution characteristics of regional economy. Through the comparison of the global correlation and local correlation, this paper explores the crux of the regional economic polarization and unbalanced development, and puts forward some measures to solve the existing economic development problems, such as cultivating and improving the regional industrial dependence, accelerating the regional transportation accessibility and convenience, and constructing the regional collaborative innovation system, So as to achieve the strategic goal of the construction of innovative Province in Sichuan Province.

In this study, the efficiencies of flat-plate and U-tube solar collectors were investigated experimentally when an Al₂O₃ nanofluid was used as a working fluid and compared to those of solar collectors using water. The energy saving and CO₂ and SO₂ generated were calculated and compared to those of solar collectors using water. In addition, based on the experimental results, an economic analysis of the use of solar collectors in various countries was performed. As the concentration of the Al₂O₃ nanofluid increased, the performance of the solar collector improved. The highest efficiency for the solar collectors was shown at the concentration of 1.0 vol% with the nanoparticle size of 20 nm. The maximum efficiencies of the flat-plate and U-tube solar collectors using 1.0 vol%-Al₂O₃ nanofluid with 20-nm nanoparticles was 74.9% and 72.4%, respectively, when the heat loss parameter was zero. The efficiencies of the flat-plate and U-tube solar collectors using Al₂O₃ nanofluid were 14.8% and 10.7 higher, respectively, than those using water. When 50 EA flat-plate solar collectors were operated for one year using Al₂O₃ nanofluid, the coal use, generated CO₂, and generated SO₂ were 189.99 kg, 556.69 kg, and 2.03 kg less than those of solar collectors using water, respectively. In addition, the largest electricity cost reduction was in Germany.

The phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy is a growing threat to public health with far-reaching implications. The widening gap between the vaccinated and the proportion needed for herd immunity raises two critical research questions that are of interest to practitioners, researchers, and policymakers: (1) What determines one’s decision to be vaccinated? and (2) What is the implication of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy on economic recovery? In this study, we use empirical data in the context of South Africa to investigate factors affecting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and their implications for economic recovery. Findings reveal key socio-demographic and institutional drivers of COVD-9 vaccine hesitancy, which include age (the youth are more hesitant), inadequate information on the vaccine (those who perceive they have adequate information are vaccinated), trust issues in government institutions, conspiracy beliefs, vaccine-related factors, and perceived side effects associated with the vaccine. Additionally, an individual’s decision to remain hesitant about COVID-19 vaccination has implications for businesses and the economy by limiting movement and trade, increasing unemployment, and causing a resurgence of new variants. Based on the findings, action plans such as information dissemination, convenience vaccination centers, consistency communications, and targeted campaign strategies are recommended for improving vaccine intakes and a positive economic recovery.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands as an emerging technology poised to reshape various facets of our daily lives, with a particularly noteworthy influence on the labor market. In Morocco, AI adoption has commenced in diverse sectors, including finance, insurance, and telecommunications, opening up fresh avenues for employment. Nevertheless, this technological shift also ushers in challenges for Moroccan workers, necessitating training and upskilling to effectively engage with AI-driven systems. Within this article, we delve into the burgeoning impact of AI on the Moroccan economy and job landscape, delving into both the opportunities and obstacles that accompany its proliferation. Furthermore, we explore strategies that authorities and businesses can employ to harness the benefits of AI while mitigating its potential adverse effects on Morocco's workforce.

Uzbekistan, as an emerging national economy, aims to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to foster the development of its free economic zones (FEZs). While recent policy reforms have enhanced the country's appeal to investors and facilitated the inflow of international capital, challenges persist in attracting investment. This study employs an economic geographical approach to analyze and propose solutions to these obstacles. By examining the spatial patterns of FEZs and FDI through a comprehensive geographical lens, this research utilizes document analysis as an alternative to empirical analysis, considering the broader context rather than focusing on a specific FEZ. The findings reveal that the insufficiency of an innovation-driven environment, logistical systems, energy resource-related issues, among others, negatively impact the inflow of FDI into FEZs. Moreover, the study underscores the significance of economic geography in understanding these factors. Finally, relevant insights and recommendations are provided from an economic geographical perspective.

This paper summarizes the estimates of the total changes in sales, expenses, and income of participants of the horticulture research and extension programs at the Mississippi State University - Coastal Research and Extension Center for the past five years. Major items outline the estimation procedures for the past five years. The average annual values were used in estimating the total economic impacts of added gross sales, expenses, and incomes of participants in horticulture events. The cumulative total impacts reach $8.7 million in sales, 76 jobs, $1.4 million in labor income, $2.4 million in value-added, and $0.4 million in local, state, and federal taxes. In addition, the total willingness to pay for the horticulture program by the adult participants reached $1.8 million. In comparison, the annual public spending on the horticulture program averaged $1.4 million, creating additional substantial economic impacts to the region.

A global revolution in information and communication technologies (ICT) has occurred over the past few decades, emerging first in industrialized countries and then in developing countries. While researchers have examined many facets of the ICT revolution, relatively little work has systematically examined the degree to which ICT has reduced natural disaster vulnerability. In this article we use cross-country data over the 1980-2013 period to estimate the relationship between newly-emerging cell phone access/use and disaster-induced fatalities. Our estimates suggest that a one-standard-deviation increase in cell phone usage reduces disaster fatalities by nearly one half. The estimated effect increases to almost three quarters for geologic events where people are typically afflicted without warning. The largest marginal benefit from cell phones in terms of saving lives come from events where there is typically no warning, thus many are caught by surprise; cell phones are used to call for help and coordinate assistance.

The study presents empirical results investigating the relationships among renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and GDP within the Visegrád Group (V4) countries. Using FMOLS/DOLS and ARDL approaches, along with causality tests based on the Toda-Yamamoto method, the study explores these relationships at a regional level. The findings indicate that renewable energy has a small positive impact on long-term economic growth, with non-renewable energy having a more significant effect. Moreover, CO2 emissions have a negative impact on economic growth, suggesting ongoing reliance on non-renewable energy sources and a burden on economic expansion. On an individual country level, the effects vary. Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary exhibit a negative relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth. Energy sources also differ in impact: in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, non-renewable energy significantly affects economic growth, while in Hungary, renewable energy plays a more substantial role. Causality tests reveal a causal relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in the Czech Republic and Poland, suggesting CO2 emissions significantly influence economic expansion. In terms of energy production, renewable energy is causally related to economic growth in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. All countries demonstrate significant causality between non-renewable energy and economic growth. Additionally, a relationship between renewable energy and CO2 emissions is confirmed in Poland.

This paper explores how the sustainable investment impacts financial returns and economic development in of Asia Pacific and North America, utilizing real data empirically. In academia and industrial field, it is polemical that indeed, the sustainable behavior has economic returns. In order to clarify that, we tested hypotheses with an analysis of seven stock markets, accounting of rates such as ROI, ROIC, and ROA in eleven companies, and GDP/GNI per capita. The results indicate that both financial return and economic development are positively germane to the sustainable investment. Besides, the variance of sustainability to economic development exists, depending on GDP per capita between two regions. We conclude, concerning the sustainability, by corroborating micro perspective for corporate level and macro perspective of economic development in the private and public sector. This research consequence will be interested in both practitioners and researchers in the measurement of sustainability performance

This research investigates the socio-economic impact of rattan cane processing on the livelihoods of practitioners in Ibadan Metropolis. It comprehensively assesses raw material availability, examines factors influencing demand and supply, and evaluates sales to determine the profitability of rattan processors. With the snowball and total enumeration sampling methods, the study engages with a diverse group of rattan processors. The study reveals a concerning 36% acknowledgement of a decline in the availability of canes attributed to deforestation and over-exploitation. Notably, it emphasizes that rattan product manufacturing in Ibadan Metropolis operates at a craft level, employing tools like saws, hammers, knives, gas cylinders, pinches, and tape rules, impacting production efficiency and product longevity. Additionally, the research underscores the absence of government support and credit facilities reported by all respondents. The Market Margin analysis highlights varying profitability levels across rattan products, with chairs exhibiting notably higher profitability (32.22%) than others. Individual profit margins for specific products, such as chairs (145.00%), underscore the significance of processing costs, production time, and market demand. The study offers strategic recommendations, advocating for district-level service centres for training, technology transfer, and support to enhance skills and technical efficiency. It calls for government intervention through incentives, facilities, tax breaks, and policies to fortify the rattan trade, improving production standards and unlocking export market potential. Furthermore, financial support, technical assistance, and mechanization should be employed to reduce production costs and time, ultimately elevating income generation in the rattan industry. This research contributes valuable insights to the discourse on sustainable livelihoods and economic viability within the rattan sector.

forging a resilient path towards a low carbon future, this research delves deep into the intricate dynamics of the petroleum and petrochemical industries. By uncovering the challenges posed by transitioning to a low carbon economy, this study emphasizes their transformative potential as catalysts for growth. Through an in-depth analysis of the oil and natural gas sector, it not only sheds light on the carbon footprint of Nigeria's petroleum and petrochemical industries but also identifies the opportunities for sustainable transformation within these sectors. Ultimately, this research aims to pave the way for a greener future by unraveling the complexities and intricacies of building a low carbon economy."By incorporating the unique attributes of the petroleum and petrochemical industries and considering the evolving domestic and global context, this research investigates the challenges and prospects associated with the shift towards a low-carbon economy. It delves deep into the complexities of the sector, taking into consideration the distinct characteristics of petroleum and petrochemical production. Through a comprehensive analysis, this study aims to uncover the potential barriers and opportunities that arise from the pursuit of a sustainable and low-carbon future within the petroleum and petrochemical industries. In addition, this research thoroughly examines the current global and local conditions, shedding light on the opportunities for growth and transformation within the petroleum and petrochemical sectors. By presenting insightful perspectives and recommendations, the study aims to provide valuable guidance for fostering the development of a low-carbon economy within these industries. Ultimately, the research seeks to drive positive change by offering actionable insights and strategies to propel the transition towards a sustainable future.

The sample data are used from Shaanxi Statistical Yearbook （1999-2018）and poverty population in X County of Southern Shaanxi in 2018. By using Eviews and Excel, this report focuses on analyzing the relationship between education investment and economic growth, education for poverty population, per capita income and poverty caused by education in X county, which can explain reasons for the phenomenon of poverty caused by education. The countermeasures are proposed to solve the phenomenon of poverty caused by education, including establishing scientific education view, correctly understanding education investment and benefit, and improving the aid mechanism for poor students to realize the effective connect among poverty alleviation through education, accurate poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

During the last two decades, energy poverty has captured a growing attention of researchers and policymakers due to its strong association with economic poverty and poor economic performance. This study uses a broad set of macro level indicators and makes the first attempt to measure energy poverty and its impact on economic growth of Pakistan over the period 1990 to 2017. In particular, our energy poverty indicator considers four main dimensions of energy poverty, namely, energy services, clean energy, energy governance and energy affordability. Our main results show that though the overall energy poverty has reduced in Pakistan during the selected sample period, the country shows an increasing dependence on polluted energy supply in order to meet its growing demand of energy. In second stage of the investigation, we test the neoclassical growth theory where we incorporate energy poverty along with human capital as source of economic growth. Our cointegration results reveal a strong relationship between energy poverty and economic growth that is also dynamically stable in short run. These strong negative linkages between energy poverty with economic growth for the sample economy complement the previous literature on the subject.

World Economy today depends on business investments that are propelled by Green technology, innovations and entrepreneurial activities. In recent years, developing economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America have embarked on easy capital access to Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to facilitate their economic growth. Kenya is among the Middle Level Income Countries that have gained global recognition through entrepreneurial innovations. In this study we assess the role of entrepreneurship towards poverty alleviation in Kenya. The objectives of the study were: to evaluate the role of entrepreneurship in poverty alleviation in Kenya; to identify entrepreneurship innovations and their economic contribution in Kenya and to determine the significance of entrepreneurship to Kenyan economy. Methodology of study took a parametric approach through pure desktop studies on entrepreneurship cases in Kenya. Success case studies of entrepreneurial innovations like M-pesa, M-soko and Uwezo Fund initiatives were assessed. The paper notes that activities undertaken in each of these case studies have made great contributions to poverty alleviation and economic development in both urban and rural areas of Kenya.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 changed the way we interact and engage in commerce at a fundamental level. Social distancing and stay-at-home orders leave businesses and cities wondering what economic activity will look like in the future. Given a likely reduction in face-to-face interactions, it is important to better understand how social interactivity influences economic outcomes. Here we measure the effect of social interactions in the workforce on patent production and economic efficiency. We decompose U.S. occupations into individual work activities, determine which of those activities are associated with face-to-face interactions, and reaggregate the labor force of each U.S. metropolitan statistical area (MSA) into a metric of social interactiveness. We then calculate each MSA’s density of social work activities and find that this measure is more highly correlated with an MSA’s per capita patent production than simple population density. This suggests that density of face-to-face interactions is the important driver of a city’s rate of invention. We close by exploring analogies between the development of cities and the development of stars, suggesting ways these analogies may help frame future research on cities.

The main objective of this paper is to develop a readiness index model that can serve as an analytical tool for exploring the achievements of electrification of transportation systems. We have applied this readiness index model to evaluate the readiness positioning of China, Norway, and Sweden to-wards transport electrification. We have chosen these three countries as they represent diversity among countries that are in the process of adopting electric transport system solutions. Our developed readiness index model has four key dimensions, technological readiness, political readiness, societal readiness, and economic readiness. The embeddedness of all four dimensions in one model provides a multi-perspective way of analyzing and evaluating the readiness levels of countries moving towards transforming the transportation system. Therefore, we named the model a “multidimensional readiness index.” Our main conclusions are that the political processes and political decisiveness involved are the most important factors followed by the societal needs and economic ability, with the current technology available as the fourth. Without the participation of dedicated and determined political decision-makers being involved, the other three factors are challenging to obtain. Political decision-makers need to facilitate the use of economic means to support the transformation in the society and affected industries to balance the initial economic disadvantages of the electrically powered systems until they pass the cost disadvantage turning point. The development of the relevant technology is no longer a great barrier as it was at the beginning of this transformation, about 20 years ago. The technology for electrically powered transportation systems and devices is widely available now, although it is continuously evolving and being improved. Associated industries cannot be expected to initiate, finance, take the risk, and take the lead in this global societal transformation without clear and strong political support.

Aim: This study measures and evaluates the socioeconomic burden of people living with keratoconus in Saudi Arabia. Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional design, a Keratoconus Economic Burden Questionnaire, and a convenient sample of 89 keratoconus patients (58.4% male) drawn from multiple regions in Saudi Arabia. It was conducted using online surveys and the data was analysed using appropriate quantitative techniques. Results: The mean age and annual income of participants were 33.24 years and Saudi Riyal (SAR) 33,505.6180 (SD=62,215.29), respectively, with only 37% being employed for wages. Up to 94.4% needed glasses or contact lenses at least once a week and 73.0% received care from optometrists. The condition forced 45.9% of the respondents to change careers or leisure activities, with a further 51.3% having to take time off work. The mean annual out-of-pocket expenses for buying and maintaining glasses or contact lenses as well as traveling and accommodation for keratoconus-related treatment were SAR 8,673.19 (SD=11,307.73), with 48.32 incurring upwards of SAR 12,000 over the period. The treatment costs increased with disease duration, r(89) = .216, p < .05. Regression results show that the existence of comorbid eye disease, changing glasses at least once a year, and wearing either glasses or contact lenses at least once a week individually have statistically significant, negative effects on the total annual keratoconus treatment costs, while disease duration, utilisation of optometrists, and taking time off had a statistically significant increase on the total cost (p<.05). Conclusion: With a prevalence rate of 1 in 375, progressive debilitation, and the lifetime nature of the disease, keratoconus is a critical public health concern in Saudi Arabia. The resulting visual impairment and discomfort as well as both direct and indirect economic burdens have considerable impacts on the patient's quality of life.

Like the most of crops, especially sugarcane needs to be kept upright until it is harvested. Because, lodging of sugarcane has a significant negative effect on cane yield and sugar content of sugarcane. To keep sugarcane upright earthing up is an utmost intercultural operation. In Bangladesh, most of the operations for sugarcane cultivation including earthing up are generally done in traditional method using human labor which increases production costs as well as reduces the income of sugarcane growers. So, a cost effective two-wheeled tractor (2WT) mounted earthing up machine was developed in Bangladesh Sugarcrop Research Institute (BSRI), Pabna to reduce drudgery and cost of sugarcane production. Field tests were conducted in experimental sugarcane field at BSRI and technical and economic performances of the developed earthing up machine were also carried out based on the field test. Average effective field capacity and field efficiency were found 0.16 ha/hr and 77.41 %, respectively for the developed earthing up machine. The earthing up machine was not found economically viable when it is used only for earthing up operation. Besides, when the 2WT was being used as the main driver for other activities including earthing up operation, then the earthing up machine becomes economically beneficial with net cash flow, net present value, internal rate of return, benefit-cost ratio and payback period of BDT 148497/ha, BDT 23184, 3%, 3.81:1 and approximately 1 year, respectively. On the contrary, considering cost of only earthing up tool without 2WT, then it was found economically beneficial with net cash flow, internal rate of return, net present value, benefit-cost ratio and payback period of BDT 16428/ha, BDT 3053, 4.7%, 2.71:1 and approximately 2 years, respectively. Since 2WT is commonly used for versatile farming purposes. Therefore, versatile use of 2WT as prime mover for other machines including earthing up machine can make earthing up machine economically viable and beneficial for sugarcane growers.

In order to better realize rural revitalization, this paper analyzes the spatial and temporal char-acteristics and influencing factors of agricultural surface source pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from the three perspectives of government, enterprise and agriculture by using the spatial Durbin model and the dynamic GMM method in the period of 2006-2021, and further re-searches the threshold characteristics of the distortion of the factor market on the agricultural surface source pollution under the different strengths of environmental regulation. The results show that there is a positive spatial correlation between agricultural surface pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and government environmental regulation, input factor market distortion and labor force transfer all have a significant impact on agricultural surface pollution. Among them, factor market distortion has a significant spatial spillover effect on agricultural surface pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Zone, and has a significant single-threshold ef-fect on environmental regulation. Accordingly, the government should strengthen environmental regulation, continuously improve the agricultural factor market mechanism, and pay attention to the construction of talents to provide support for rural revitalization.

The goal is to reduce poverty, the method used is a literature study to see the effect of using Financial Technology (Fintech) on financial inclusion, method to see the effect of financial inclusion on poverty. From the results of the tests, the use of Fintech can increase financial inclusion, thereby encouraging poverty alleviation. It can be seen that the Financial Inclusion variable has a significant and negative effect on the poverty variable. This shows that countries that have high levels of financial inclusion are generally estimated to have low poverty rates. Increasing a country's financial inclusion can reduce poverty.

Background: Covid-19 patients with any pre-existing cardio-vascular disease (CVD) are at highest risk for viral infection and for developing of severe disease. Pathophysiological mechanism is characterized by the viral link to Angioten-sin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) and the involvement of the endothelial system with the release of cytokines and direct damage on myocardium, micro throm-bosis, and alterations of oxygen diffusion. Aim of the study is to analyze clinical course, treatment and outcome in patients (gender stratified) with pre-existing CVD. Methods: Out of the 1299 (700 M/599 F) patients admitted to Internal Medicine COVID Unit of “Castelli Hospital”, Lazio, Italy, from 01/01/2021 to 31/12/2021, 278 patients (167 M/111 F), mean age 76 (76 M/ 75 F) had previous CVD. Demographic characteristics, length of the stay (LOS) and oxygen therapy were evaluated. Results: Most common CVD pathologies were Hearth Failure (HF): 131 (72 M/59 F), Atrial Fibrillation (AF): 45 (25 M/20 F), Myocardial Infarction (MI): 26 (19 M/7 F) and associations among them. 100% of CVD COVID patients under-went Non-Invasive Ventilation (NIV) and were treated with more than 5 drugs. HF was linked with increased LOS (23 days) compared to AF (21 days), MI (18 days) and no CVD (16 days). Overall mean LOS was 16,5 days. 21,4% of total pa-tients had CVD. Conclusions: Timely identification and evaluation of patients with pre-existing CVD are fundamental for adequate treatment based on gender, severity and state of illness and for risk reduction. Keywords: polypharmacy, gender medicine; COVID 19; Sars CoV 2; cardiovas-cular disease.

A comprehensive review of uncertainties in power systems, covering modeling, impact, and mitigation, is essential to understand and manage the challenges faced by the electric grid. Uncertainties in power systems can arise from various sources and can have significant implications for grid reliability, stability, and economic efficiency. Australia, susceptible to extreme weather such as wildfires and heavy rainfall, faces vulnerabilities in its power network assets. The decentralized distribution of population centers poses economic challenges in supplying power to remote areas, a crucial consideration for emerging technologies emphasized in this paper. In addition, the evolution of modern power grids, facilitated by deploying the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), has also brought new challenges to the system due to the risk of cyber-attacks via communication link. However, the existing literature lacks a comprehensive review and analysis of uncertainties in modern power systems, encompassing uncertainties related to weather events, cyberattacks, and asset management, as well as the advantages and limitations of various mitigation approaches. To fill this void, this review covers a broad spectrum of uncertainties considering their impacts on the power system and explores conventional robust control, and modern probabilistic and data-driven approaches for modelling and correlating the uncertainty events to the state of the grid for optimal decision making. This article also investigates the development of robust and scenario-based operations, control technologies for microgrids (MGs) and energy storage systems (ESSs), and demand-side frequency control ancillary service (D-FCAS) and reserve provision for frequency regulation to ensure a design of uncertainty-tolerance power system. This review delves into the trade-offs linked with the implementation of mitigation strategies, such as reliability, computational speed, and economic efficiency. It also explores how these strategies may influence the planning and operation of future power grids.

The utilization of wind energy has become increasingly popular in the United States and many European countries due to its abundant natural source and optimized design. While existing wind turbines are predominantly large-scale and not suitable for standalone or distributed power production, Lubbock County in West Texas offers a diverse range of renewable energy options to meet its energy needs. The region relies heavily on utility-scale wind energy sources to supply power to the Texas Grid, replacing conventional fossil fuel-based systems. Currently, standalone solar PV systems are the preferred choice for renewable energy generation. However, West Texas possesses an ample supply of wind energy that can be harnessed to establish a microgrid and provide standalone power to rural communities. By employing the latest technology and optimizing efficiency, even in low-scale generation, a 6 kW permanent magnet alternator-based distributed wind turbine has been designed. This paper focuses on analyzing the techno-economic aspects of implementing this wind turbine in a real-world scenario, taking into account wind attributes such as velocity and available power at the specific location.

At the Atsumi Wind Farm in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, damage to wind turbines occurred frequently due to terrain-induced turbulence. In the present study, numerical analyses of terrain-induced turbulence were conducted by reproducing the topography in the vicinity of the wind turbine sites in high resolution and using RIAM-COMPACT natural terrain version, which is based on large eddy simulation (LES). The results of the diagnoses indicated that, in the case of south-easterly wind, terrain-induced turbulence is generated at a small terrain feature located upstream of Wind Turbine (WT) #2, which serves as the origin of the turbulence. At the Atsumi Wind Farm, a combination of the series of wind diagnoses and on-site operation experience led to a decision to adopt an "automatic shutdown program" for WTs #1 and #2. Here, "automatic shutdown program" refers to the automatic suspension of wind turbine operation upon the wind speed and direction meeting the conditions associated with significant effects of terrain-induced turbulence at a wind turbine site. The adoption of the "automatic shutdown program" has successfully resulted in a large reduction in the number of occurrences of wind turbine damage, thus, creating major positive economic effects. 1) a reduction in the repair costs by 9.322 million yen per year per wind turbine, 2) an increase in the availability factor by 8.05%, and 3) an increase in the capacity factor by 1.7%.

This paper studies the mechanism of how China’s state-owned enterprise (SOEs) reform can influences economic growth, and distinguishes the capital efficiency between state-owned and private enterprises. The results show that: 1) the capital allocation efficiency among state-owned enterprises is lower than private enterprise due to an insufficiently released productivity of state-owned enterprises; 2) although with a higher capital allocation efficiency, the improvement of technology progress of private enterprises at a much slower pace compared to its rapidly increasing share in China’s economy. In case of poor allocation with private sector, blindly reforming ownership of state-owned enterprises cannot effectively alleviate the problem of efficiency losses. State-owned enterprise reform can boost economic growth by increasing capital marginal output, improving capital dynamic allocation efficiency, promoting TFP growth and exerting external spillovers on other firms. At present, China is exploring the endogenous power of economic growth, improving the market institutions and promoting the state-owned enterprises reform with positive and steady pace. By properly re-allocation SOEs into the private sector, which has significant influence on improving economic efficiency and promoting sustained economic growth.

The Ghana Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), a government-sponsored initiative, plays a pivotal role in providing patient capital to foster entrepreneurship and spur economic development, particularly in emerging markets where traditional funding avenues may be limited. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the VCTF's financial robustness, growth trajectory, and sustainability over a seven-year period from 2016 to 2022. Through an examination of critical financial metrics, growth indicators, and sustainability benchmarks, we scrutinize the fund's financial health, investment strategies, and capacity to bolster the Ghanaian entrepreneurial ecosystem.The analysis reveals nuanced insights into the VCTF's financial performance over the study period. Despite encountering challenges such as negative net profit margins and subdued asset turnover ratios in previous years, the fund showcases resilience and sustainability, particularly as evidenced by notable improvements in 2022. These findings carry implications for management, policymakers, and various stakeholders within the Ghanaian venture capital landscape, offering valuable insights to inform strategic decision-making and policy formulation.

Introduction: Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention has been implemented in several countries. Previous literature has shown that its cost-effectiveness (and, under some specifications, cost-saving character) is dependent on the reduction in price due to generics, the time-horizon and its effectiveness. The intervention has never been studied in Catalonia, a territory with extensive implementation. Methods: Economic evaluation of the implementation of HIV pre-exposition prophylaxis using administrative data from Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) who receive the treatment (at the generic price). A deterministic compartmental model and a social perspective with a micro-costing approach over the time horizon 2022-2062 are used. A baseline 86% effectiveness of PrEP is assumed. Results: Daily oral PrEP is found to be cost-saving: discounted savings in costs are attained after 16 years, and after 40 years they reach 81 million euros. In terms of health indicators, 10,322 additional discounted QALYs are generated by the intervention. Results are sensitive to sexual behavioral patterns among MSM, the price of PrEP (reduced if offered on-demand), its effectiveness and the discount rate. Conclusions: The use and promotion of PrEP in Catalonia is predicted to result in substantial health and monetary benefits because of reductions in HIV infections. Short-term investments in the promotion of PrEP will result in important cost-savings in the long term.

Kei-apple (Dovyalis caffra L) is an indigenous fruit tree of southern Africa. It is currently found in the dry, wooded grassland and forest edges of the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Existing literature have mainly focused on the medicinal and nutritional as well as phytochemical characterization of Kei-apple. Thus, this review highlights beneficial economic prospects of Dovyalis caffra and its contribution to the economic prosperity. It is a drought tolerant plant with diverse uses such as income from the sale of the fruit, cultivated as a fence or to form an impenetrable hedge while the leaves are used for nutrient leaching prevention, fodder and compost making. The trunk of Dovyalis caffra serves as a good source of hard wood for fuel, house building and furniture making. It is also a good apicultural fruit tree and an excellent habitat and fertilizer derivation agent for farming activities. Considering the multidimensional effect of poverty and the food insecurity on many rural communities globally, there is a need to explore the potentials by encouraging the cultivation of Dovyalis caffra to assist with reducing unemployment, food insecurity and income-poverty problems in the arid and semi-arid areas of the world.

Background-The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global economy from its starting. Indian economy is also affected by the pandemic and experienced a lot of economic damages. India has become the global hotspot of COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic and recorded the second-highest position in terms of positivity rate after China. The present study attempts to analyze the economic issues that emerged in the first and second waves of the pandemic in India. Method/Approach-There is no econometric tools or analytical models used in the present study. This study attempts to evaluate the two research questions which are formed on the basis of some previous studies by various organizations and researchers. The research questions are as follow, First, what are the sectors those are primarily affected at the time of the first COVID-19 outbreak? Second, which economic issues and impacts emerged in the second wave of the pandemic? Results/ Findings-From the study, it is found that the second wave of COVID-19 is not much affected by the Indian economy. At this time, no nationwide lockdown was announced by the Government. But so, it was much severe in the time of the first wave of COVID-19. Many sectors were affected by the pandemic like agriculture, MSMEs, Tourism, etc., and these resulted in substantial unemployment problems in the economy. The study is trying to analyze these problems and concluding it with a few policy recommendations for the economy of India.

1) Background: The environmental, financial and social questions in Africa remain unanswered up-to-date, with the rapid increase in human population and the demand for fuel energy, trigger the need to generate data on the socio-economic factors influencing the knowledge of use and adoption of family-sized bio-digesters. The increasing prices of fossil fuels and taxes on energy sources require finding the alternative, clean and economical sources of energy for households in developing countries. Moreover, in Africa, the consumption of firewood and charcoal continues to increase, with wood fuel consumption predicted to increase by 2030 to over 140%. The study objectives were 1) to determine the socio-economic characteristics of the people in Ngoma district, 2) to assess socio-economic factors influencing people to use and adopt family-sized bio-digesters. 2) Methods: Quantitative data collected with semi-structured questionnaires and interviews were analyzed using descriptive statistics. 3) Results: The results show that many households had not realized the potential benefits of biogas use and adoption in Rwanda. The study further found that a number of factors such as household income levels, socio-economic, technological, and institutional influence the household use and adoption of biogas energy. 4) Conclusions: At the end, the study suggests the need for all players such as Government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and local communities to work together to provide incentives and favorable environment that can attract individual households to invest in biogas energy production and utilization.

The study's motivation is to gauge the nexus between economic policy uncertainty and financial innovation for the period 2004M1 to 2018M12 in BRIC nations. For establishing a long-run cointegration study applied Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) and asymmetry effects of economic policy uncertainty investigated following nonlinear framework known as NARDL. Furthermore, directional causality is established by performing a non-granger causality test. Cointegration test results of Fpss, Wpss, and tBDM confirmed the long-run association between EPU and financial innovation. On the other hand, the Wald test results proved asymmetry effects furring from EPU to financial innovation both in the long-run and short-run. Referring to asymmetry effects that positive and negative shocks in financial innovation, the study revealed that negative linkage between shocks in EPU and financial innovation in the long-run but short-run effects are insignificant. Furthermore, financial innovation measured by R&D investment exhibits positive linked with shocks in EPU, implying that uncertainty induces innovation in the economy. Refers to directional causality estimation, the study revealed evidence supporting the feedback hypothesis between EPU and financial innovation in all sample countries.

Dwindling Economy is otherwise known as depression economy or economy depression interchangeably and/or recess economy. It is an occurrence wherein an economy is in a state of financial turmoil, often the result of a period of negative activity based on the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate. However, this has become a global phenomenon; a good example of a necessitating factor is the global oil crash market and pandemics virus (Covid-19) ravaging the human race. That has conjointly led to the decline in the GDP growth per capital of a country; which forces degradation in the performances of economic sectors, retrenchment of staff and wrapping-up of industries. It is a lot worse than a recession, with GDP falling significantly, and lasts for periods of time. Pen ultimately, Nigeria has been in deteriorating financial state for years; her economy in the last few years has been going through some turbulence. A country that had recorded an average GDP growth of 6.5 per cent, one of the highest in the world less than a decade ago, is now projected to grow at about 2.3 per cent in 2016. It is no longer news that Nigeria's economy is experiencing total collapse and if nothing is done to put the peg in the right spot something worse than what we are witnessing may soon be on sight. Based on some of all these issues and other, Nigeria was said to be technically recess.In this paper, efforts were made to explore the state of the Nigeria economy in the last 36 years (1981-2017) and correlate it with the recent phenomena that conjointly constitute to its dwindling economy. Our comprehensive and elusive literary survey and extemporariness suggested way forwards to rescue the raveling situation of Nigeria dwindling economics, if not providing lasting solution but temporarys’ one that could stand test of time.

The major aim of this study was to investigate and explores the linkage between economic growth, electricity access, energy use and population growth in Pakistan. To check the variables stationarity, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron unit root test was applied and an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to co-integration was applied to investigate the dynamic causality link among the study variables. These tests shed light on the long-run connection among the variables; further, the results revealed that electricity access to population, electricity access to urban population, energy usage, population growth, and urban population growth had a significant impact on economic growth, while the electricity access to rural population and rural population growth has a negative impact on the economic growth in Pakistan. According to these findings, study commends that government of Pakistan pay further attention to increase its electricity production from different sources including, hydroelectric, solar, oil and gas and nuclear in order to fulfill the country’s demands. By using ARDL bounds testing approach, this study filled the literature gap regarding economic growth, electricity access, energy use and population growth in Pakistan.

The Nordic countries are practically always well positioned in the main international economic, social and sustainability indices and recommending the scientific literature that the variables that these indices intend to measure translate into sustainable economic growth, with this unprecedented empirical study we intend to verify through the ARDL methodology for space temporal 2004 -2018 if the maintenance of high scores in these indexes translates into effective economic growth. The ARDL methodology has the advantage of giving us short- and long-term coefficients. Using four of the main international indices, we conclude that for Nordic countries for economic growth, economic freedom is of no significance and business-friendly regulation is the most important variable. A fundamental discovery in our study (in which Granger's Causality complements the ARDL methodology) is that these countries have been able to adapt perfectly to the globalization process and that entrepreneurship has worked as an important contribution to the continued economic and social success of these countries, allowing them to continue to enjoy their “Nordic Welfare States” in these uncertain and troubled times. These variables have contributed to its economic and social sustainability.

The current study is to examine the disparities in physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), and stress levels in Korean adolescents concerning changes in their perception of family socio-economic status (SES) during COVID-19. Among a total of 6144 Korean adolescents aged 12 to 18, the participants were categorized into two groups based on their responses regarding changes in their family SES during COVID-19: Lower SES (n = 3072) and Non-changed SES (n = 3072), with matching in terms of age, gender, and BMI. All variables were assessed using the 16th year (2020) of the Korean Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 version, employing independent t-tests to examine anthropometrics’ differences and multinominal logistic regression to predict the impact of perception of family SES on PA, SB, and stress while comparing the two groups. The significance level was set at α = 0.05. Adolescents in the Lower SES group were less likely to engage in vigorous-intensity PA (VPA) and muscular strength activities compared to those in the Non-changed SES group (p < 0.001) and were 2.3 times more likely to experience a very-severe stress level than the Non-changed SES group (p < 0.001). These results shed light on the importance of promoting VPA and muscular strength activities in adolescents for their physical and mental well-being, particularly during potential future pandemics. Understanding the impact of perceived SES changes on health behaviors can inform targeted interventions and support strategies to improve the health outcomes of adolescents during challenging times.

Single parenting is a social phenomenon that has always been in existence and is as old as mankind, and today the number of single-parent families has been rampantly increasing. As a result, the researcher conducted a study in the Gambella region of Ethiopia to investigate the economic and educational implications of single parenting on female adolescent students. The study employed a qualitative research approach with a case study research design. The researchers used the purposive sampling technique to select the research area and research participants for in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, and eleven interviewees, seventeen participants in focus group discussions within two groups, and seven key informants participated. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, translated, and thematically analyzed. Interviews with research participants revealed that adolescent girl students from single-parent homes experience financial difficulties. The study also explored that students with single parents are more likely to be absent from school, to come late to school, to score low marks, and to drop out of school. Therefore, having an understanding of the benefits of having intact parents for the well-being of adolescents and raising children together should be advocated.

This paper investigates the critical factors for balancing environmental sustainability and economic development through the lens of New Structural Economics. Specifically, we utilize the congruence index to access the alignment between local factor endowment structure and firm production input structure. Using a comprehensive manufacturing firm-level pollutant emissions dataset from the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB) region in China, we find that firms demonstrating higher congruence exhibit improved economic performance and alignment with comparative advantages. This not only contributes to increased economic efficiency for these firms but also leads to a reduction in pollutant emissions, including wastewater discharge and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) emissions. Our study provides valuable insights into achieving mutually beneficial environmental and economic outcomes.

The study provide insights into the technological characteristics of green practices adoption and the potential benefits they offer in terms of socio-economic development, environmental and public health. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect quantitative data from the participants. The questionnaire include closed-ended questions, Likert scale items, and demographic questions. Both stratified and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select the study participants (government officials, employees, managers, and community members). A total of 321 copies of questionnaires were duly filled and returned. The collected data were analyze using descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation, were used to summarize the data and provide an overview of the key variables related to green practices adoption. The findings indicate that the manufacturing company in Ogun State, Nigeria, has shown moderate commitment to adopting green practices. While there is room for improvement in certain areas, such as waste-to-energy technologies and green building practices. Additionally, green practices have positively influenced employee well-being and community health, while aligning with the company's commitment to safeguarding the environment and public health.

The Metropolitan Economic Freedom Index (MEFI) ranks cities based on their support of free market enterprise. In its current state, MEFI purports to measure three constructs (government spending, taxation, and labor market freedom) with three equally weighted variables for each one, assuming perfect substitutability of variables. This study investigates the statistical consistency of MEFI through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Multiple models investigate current variable selection by providing a potentially better indicator of labor market freedom, aggregation assumptions by removing the requirements for fixed and equal weights, and statistical consistency by evaluating the fit between the data and models. Results indicate that the current MEFI model is not statistically consistent with the data, that weighting of variables should not be equal, that variable selection should be investigated, and that constructs should be re-imagined. The models investigated provide an initial starting point for redefining MEFI.

“Sustainable development” (SD) is a term that has gained prominence in the international dia-logue around development. Many, however, continue to misunderstand the concept, its principles, its development, and its operationalization. The wide variety of definitions and interpretations of SD lean toward institutional and social prerogatives rather than unifying the essence of the con-cept, which is rooted in conventional ideas and values. By delving deeper into the paradigm, its history, and its potential, this research sought to contribute to ongoing discussions about sus-tainable development. The literature was thoroughly analyzed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020. This historical and conceptual analysis sought to update the body of knowledge on sustainability and sustainable development by examining the metaphorical and epistemological underpinnings of SD’s various definitions, evolutions, and principles. The research concludes and argues that intergenerational justice, based on the environment, economy, and society, is the central tenet of the entire sustainable develop-ment argument. The focus and consideration of interested parties are moving from the protection of the environment to social sustainability. The future of SD is likely to continue to focus much more on the social pillar and integrate digitalization in implementing the SD concept, especially in the fourth industrial revolution. To promote ethical human behavior and activities worldwide, at national and local levels, decision-makers must be continuously cognizant of the interdepend-encies, direct interactions, and balance between the three core constructs of SD.

Poultry eggs are a critical source of protein, vitamins, and minerals for people worldwide; facing the current global egg shortage is a significant concern. The shortage results from various factors, including avian flu outbreaks, changes in consumer demand, and supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic crisis caused by the pandemic has also impacted the availability and affordability of eggs, particularly in low-income countries. The global egg shortage has implications for public health, particularly for vulnerable populations who rely on eggs for essential nutrients. One Health, an approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, provides a useful framework for understanding and addressing the egg shortage. One Health approaches to the egg shortage involve collaboration between agriculture and environmental sectors to address the root causes of the lack and ensure the sustainable production and distribution of eggs. Addressing the global egg shortage requires a multifaceted approach considering the complex social, economic, and environmental factors. One Health perspectives offer a way to understand and address the interconnected factors contributing to the shortage to ensure access to affordable, nutritious eggs for all in a healthy way

Institutional quarantine was one of the key public health measures used to control the spread of the COVID-19. Institutional quarantine has been associated with several psychosocial and economic risks to affected individuals. However, little is known about the psychosocial and economic risks it poses to affected persons in low-resource countries, since it is a relatively new strategy for controlling disease spread in these settings. This article provides insights into the economic and psychosocial risks encountered by affected persons in a low-resource context. We conducted narrative interviews with 20 adults placed under institutional quarantine to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda. Institutional quarantine exposed affected persons to an intricate range of economic and psychosocial risks including loss of livelihoods and/or income, financial distress, fear, worry, anger, loneliness and stigma. The experience of specific risks was shaped by an intersection of individual and contextual factors. However, disregard for economic and social issues and shortcomings in the implementation of institutional quarantine contributed profoundly to the occurrence of risks. Integration of measures for identification and continuous management of the broad range of potential risks to individuals and bridging gaps in the implementation of institutional quarantine, may help to minimise associated economic and psychosocial risks.

The COVID-19 outbreak has severely affected the social and economic conditions across this globe. Little is known about the relationship of COVID-19 with countries’ economic and socio-demographic status. Publicly available data on COVID-19 test rate, attack rate, case fatality rate, and recovery rate were analyzed in relation to country’s economic status, population density, median age, and urban population ratio. We also conducted multinomial logistic regression analysis to predict the influence of countries’ social and economic factors on COVID-19. The results revealed that the median age had significant positive correlation with attack rate (r=0.2389, p=0.003), case fatality rate (r=0.3207, p=0.000) and recovery rate (r=0.4847, p=0.000). The urbanization has positive significant correlation with recovery rate (r=0.1957, p= 0.016). The multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed low-income countries are less likely to have an increased recovery rate (p=0.000) and attack rate (p=0.016) compare to high-income countries. The lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income countries are less likely to have an increased recovery rate (p=0.000 and p=0.001, respectively) compared to high-income countries. Based on the result of this study, these economic and socio-demographic factors should consider in designing appropriate preventive measures as a next step. The low and lower-middle-income countries should invest more in health care services to lower the case fatality rate and increase test and recovery rates as part of pandemic preparation like COVID-19. As the number of COVID-19 attacks, death and recovery rates are constantly changing; however, the intensive study is required to obtain a clear picture.

Viral pathogens pose a substantial threat to public health and necessitate the development of effective remediation and antiviral strategies. This short communication aimed to investigate the antiviral efficacy of disinfectants on the surface proteins of human pathogenic viruses. Using in silico modeling, ligand binding energies (LBEs) of selected disinfectants were predicted and combined with their environmental impacts and costs through eco-pharmaco-economic analysis (EPEA). Results revealed the binding affinities of chemical disinfectants to viral proteins varied significantly (p

The potency and challenges of sorghum development in tidal swamplands in Indonesia have yet to be well studied. Our research was the first to evaluate land suitability, economic performance, and strategies for developing sorghum in tidal swamplands in Central Kalimantan. The assessment methods for the potency and utilization of sorghum used the land suitability evaluation method, gross margin and profit analysis, break-even, and competitive analysis. As a tool for decision-making, we used SWOT followed by the quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM) analysis. The results showed that the potency of arable land suitable for sorghum development was 578,511 ha. Economically, sorghum farming can generate an IDR 12,894,000 per ha with a revenue-cost ratio of 1.72; the break-even price was IDR 2,447 per kg, around 42% lower than the current market price. Sorghum was also more competitive than cassava, sweet potato, and soybeans (Q values of 0.76, 0.58, and 0.61, respectively) and less competitive than maize (Q = 1.33). Based on the QSPM, there were five alternative strategies for developing sorghum in tidal swamplands, i.e., (1) Optimization of productivity, (2) Improving the quality of human resources of farmers, (3) Facilitation of partnership cooperation, (4) Application of site-specific technology, and (5) Optimization of waste utilization. Those strategies show the potential expansion of sorghum planting in the tidal swamplands and the economic value enhancement for the community.

The relationship between economic growth, growth volatility and financial sector development continues to attract attention in the theoretical and empirical literature. Over time, some studies hypothesize that finance has a causal linear relationship with growth. Recently several other authors contradict this claim and argue that the relationship that exists between finance and growth is nonlinear. We investigate these claims for Nigeria for the period between 1970 and 2015, using semi-parametric econometric methods, Hansen sample splitting techniques and threshold estimator. We observed no evidence of ‘Too much finance’ as claimed by many researchers in recent times. We show that the relationship between financial development and economic growth is U-shaped. This is equally true for the relationship between financial development and growth volatility. We also discuss policy implications of our findings and recommend financial innovations and decentralization of stock exchanges to boost access to financial services, in addition, improved regulation to enhance financial market efficiency.

This study attempts to assess the impact of corruption on economic growth in the Mediterranean countries, during the period from 1998 to 2007. Econometric analysis using panel regression has been adopted to test this effect. Individual effects models such as random effects model and fixed effects model were applied to the study sample of 160 observations, and to choose the suitable model, we implemented several tests. For our analysis, we used a basic model that includes the dependent variable GDP per capita as a factor of economic growth and the corruption perception index as the independent variable concerned. Then we completed the model with several standardized macroeconomic control variables mentioned above and applied the individual effects models. The outcomes illustrate that corruption has a negative impact on the selected Mediterranean countries’ economic growth.

Price markups and firm Tobin’s Q ratios are widely believed to have been increasing in the past several decades. Various models for the calculation of price markups have been developed, but each have methodological drawbacks and some results are poorly reflective of the near past wider macroeconomic experience. This paper defines an approach for the definition and measurement of markup pricing using the measure of Economic Rent and The Capital Asset Pricing Model. The results show limited markup pricing for The UK’s FTSE 100 companies (2018-2023), but that that certain Real Estate, Technology/Media and Financial Services/Equity Investment firms have enjoyed higher price markup levels. An analysis of the business models of these firms is used to qualitatively propose explanations for such markups. Finally, this work offers a formal proof that that expected price markup is equal to Tobin’s Q and finds that the empiric market level of markup is near equivalent to the market Tobin’s Q; differences between the markup and Tobin’s Q at the level of the firm are equally assessed.

This paper aims to research whether there is link between FDI inflows and Economic growth in the Republic of Seychelles Island. The ordinary least square results obtained shows that in the impact of FDI inflows on economic growth is low. Small Island Developing States attracts less FDI inflow because they are limited to few resources that attracts overseas firms which results in retarded development. The research lighted that impact of foreign direct investment on host countries does not only depend on the quality and quantity of the FDI inflows but some other variables such as the internal policies and the management skills, market structures, economic trends among others.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health concern worldwide, and it poses a significant threat to human, animal, and environmental health. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics have contributed significantly to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance, which may lead to significant economic consequences like reduced productivity and increased healthcare costs. Nanotechnology offers a promising platform for addressing this challenge. Nanoparticles have unique properties that make them highly effective in combating bacterial infections by inhibiting the growth and survival of multidrug-resistant bacteria in three areas of health: human, animal, and environmental. To conduct an economic evaluation of surveillance in this context, it is crucial to have a comprehension of the connections to be addressed by several nations by implementing national action policies based on the One Health strategy. This review provides an overview of the progress made thus far and presents potential future directions to optimize the impact of nanobiotics on AMR.

The purpose of this paper is to test the Kuznets Environmental Curve (KEC) hypothesis for 10 MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries during the period 1987-2017. To do this, the translogical functional form has been adopted to estimate the relationship between Toxic Gases (TG) emissions, energy consumption and GDP per capita. The results confirm the presence of KEC, GDP per capita and energy consumption have a positive influence on TG emissions, and the presence of a feedback relationship between GDP per capita and energy consumption. As a result, the environmental framework of the selected countries improves as their level of growth has become more advanced. In addition, to reduce TG emissions, MENA countries are expected to significantly increase the use of renewable energy and a more efficient energy policy.

In this study, the objective is to analyze the economic viability of municipal household solid waste (organic matter + paper) for the production of gas, coke and biofuel through the pyrolysis and distillation process. The waste was collected in the city of Belém do Pará-Brazil and pre-treated at UFPA. The analyzed fraction (organic matter + paper) was subjected to pre-treatment of drying, crushing, sieving and was subsequently subjected to proximate characterization and finally pyrolysis of the organic fraction (organic matter + paper) in a fixed bed reactor. Initially, it was necessary to review the literature and with the yields obtained by pyrolysis of the frac-tion, economic feasibility analyzes were carried out. The economic indicators for evaluating the most viable pyrolysis process were: simple payback, discounted payback, net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and profitability index (IL). The analysis of the indicators showed the economic viability considering an analysis horizon of 10 years, of materials based on organic material and paper. The break-even point obtained was 0.96 US$/L and the minimum biofuel sales price (MFSP – “Minimum Fuel Sale Price”) obtained in this work was 1.30 US$/L. The sensitivity analysis demonstrated that material costs (organic matter + paper), bio-oil yield, total project investment and electricity, respectively, are the variables that most affect the mini-mum biofuel sales price (MFSP).

This work aims to investigate systematically the tecno-economic feasibility of ther-mos-catalytic cracking process for two solid waste materials, a lipid-base material (re-sidual fat/scum from retention box of the University Restaurant of UFPA) and a lig-nin-cellulosic material Açaí seed (Euterpe oleracea. Mart). The thermo-catalytic process-es were carried out in pilot scale (THERMTEK/LEQ/UFPA/IME/RJ), and their economic feasibility analyzed. The yields of biofuels produced by fractional distillation were al-so studied. The physicochemical characteristics of the raw materials, the organic liquid product (bio-oil) and the chemical composition of kerosene, light-diesel and heavy-diesel from the lipid-base material, as well as those of kerosene and light-diesel from the Açaí seed were also determined. The economic indicators for the evaluation of the most viable cracking (pyrolysis) and distillation process of bio-oils were: a) the sim-ple payback criterion, b) discounted payback, c) net present value (NPV), d) internal rate of return (IRR), and e) index of profitability (IP). The analysis of the indicators showed the economic viability of crude palm oil (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq) and unfeasibil-ity for the palm oil neutralization. The minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) obtained is this work for the biofuels was of 1.34 US$/L) and the breakeven point obtained was of 1.28 US$/L. The sensibility analysis demonstrated that the pyrolysis and distillation yields are the most important variables to affect the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP).

Agricultural land conversion (ALC) is an incentive–driven process. In this paper we further investigate the inter–relationship between land economic value (LEV) and ALC. To achieve this goal, we calculated LEV for agricultural and non-agricultural (housing) uses in two areas in East Java, Indonesia. The first area represents suburban agriculture, facing rapid urbanization and experiencing high rate of ALC. The second area represents rural agriculture with zero ALC. Furthermore, we identified factors affecting LEV in both areas for both uses. The resut of this study show that agricultural land yielded higher economic benefit in rural area. Conversely, comparing to agricultural land, housing creates 7 times higher value in urban area. Moreover, agricultural land shown to create higher profit after converted. Ironically, the similar comparison doesn’t exists in rural area. Agricultural land only yielded 19% more value, indicate that agricultural land can be easily converted. It is also proven by the growing number of new urban core in the periphery area. There are several factors affecting land economic value, for agricultural use, soil fertility, accessibility, and cropping pattern are important variables. While accessibility and location in urban area increases land value for housing.

Global economy, financial markets and technology are on the verge of moving to a new stage of development – information society. Three major world countries the US, Russia and China will play a leading role in this process. However, the specific development path will depend on many factors, including the stability of legal systems, security of computer and financial technologies, the effectiveness of legislation. The focus of this article is to assess the current condition of the economy the major countries, to identify trends and methods of stabilization of legal systems on the basis of balance of rights and obligations of the business, suggest some methods of objective evaluation of the impact factors of the total taxes, fixed costs and the legal system dynamics on financial indicators.

This study analyzes the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (hereinafter EPU) and corporate value, and verifies the differential effects of EPU on corporate value according to corporate social responsibility (hereinafter CSR) activities. The study period was from 2010 to 2020, and the EPU indexes measured by Baker et al. (2016)'s method and Hexun's CSR scores for companies listed on the Chinese stock market were used. Hexun is one of the three major evaluation agencies in China, and the CSR scores evaluated by this agency have been widely used in previous studies as a representative indicator of Chinese companies' CSR performance. The results of this study are as follows. First, EPU and corporate value were found to have a negative (-) relationship. Second, active CSR activities relieved the negative (-) relationship between EPU and corporate value. Finally, companies were divided into groups according to CSR activity scores to analyze the relationship and according to the result, the negative (-) relationship between EPU and corporate value was greater in the groups with low CSR activity scores than in the groups with high CSR activity scores. A lag model was applied to control endogeneity, and the results were consistent with the main results above. Previous studies have mainly focused on microscopic factors to investigate factors affecting corporate value. This study focused on macroeconomic policies and paid attention to the effects of changes in the macroenvironment caused by economic policy uncertainty on corporate value. In addition, this study is meaningful in that it expanded previous studies related to CSR activities by confirming that active CSR activities can be an advantageous tool for overcoming EPU.

The Power Theory of Exchange and Money (PTEM) refines the economic neoclassical two-equation model of exchange. PTEM replaces the statistical average condition of exchange, which represents the equality of supply and demand for all transactions in the market, with a more specific equation of the equality of the generalized power of the parties in relation to their objects of exchange. The purpose of the article is to show the application of PTEM for the study of various social phenomena. Along with a brief summary of the main statements of this theory, its integration into the existing corpus of theories and ideas in economics and sociology is considered. The conclusions of power theory are then applied to consider the following topics: the objective motivation of exchange by the desire to increase power, the power nature of market equilibrium, the power nature of money, the accumulation of power through profit, the creation of money as a power act, the role of the state in the creation of money, the measure of power as a possible tool for social and political research.

With the rapid development of the economy and the transformation of social contradictions, the economic development model in China has also changed, and a high-quality economic development model has been proposed. This paper uses the entropy method to measure the level of innovation and high-quality economic development in nine prefecture-level cities in Fujian Province from 2011 to 2020, and finds that the overall level shows an increasing trend year by year, but there are obvious regional differences. By constructing a grey correlation degree model, it is found that the innovation subsystem and the high-quality economic development are strongly correlated, the development level of innovation and the subsystem of high-quality economic development are both strongly correlated, the grey correlation degree from high to low is green, coordinated, shared, and livelihood, indicating that innovation has a significant impact on high-quality economic development. Based on the research results, countermeasures and suggestions are proposed to promote the coordinated development of innovation and high-quality economy.

This study used a two-stage network data envelopment analysis model to measure the water use efficiency of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in the initial water use and wastewater treatment phases from 2009 to 2019. We used the Dagum Gini coefficient to decompose the urban water use efficiency of six major urban clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. We also used σ convergence and β convergence types to test the convergence characteristics of urban water use efficiency of six major urban clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. This study found that the overall low level of water use efficiency in cities in the Yangtze River Economic Zone mainly stems from the low level of water use efficiency in the wastewater treatment stage. The 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Zone are divided into four types based on the average values of water use efficiency in the initial use and wastewater treatment phases; the highest number of cities are in the double-low category, with low average values of water use efficiency in the initial use and wastewater treatment phases. During the study period, spatial differences in urban water use efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Zone narrowed, with the differences stemming mainly from hyperdensity, followed by intra- and inter-regional differences. Meanwhile, there is convergence in urban water use efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt; significant β convergence in the urban agglomerations of the Yangtze River Delta, Jianghuai, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu–Chongqing, and Central Yunnan; and insignificant β convergence in the Central Qian urban agglomeration. After considering control factors, such as industrial structure, financial development level, environmental regulation, economic development level, and science and education development level, the water use efficiency of the six major urban clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt converges faster, but the influence of these control factors on the water use efficiency of each urban cluster is heterogeneous. Research results have reference value for the development of improvement strategies on differentiated urban water use efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Sustainability means that the current use of resources does not compromise the well-being of future generations. Ever since Malthus (1798) forecast that population tends to grow faster than the growth of resources to support the population, people have claimed that current resource use is unsustainable, so future generations will be materially worse off than those in the present, yet for more than two centuries this has not been the case. The reason is that markets, and market prices, act to conserve scarce resources, and in market economies, entrepreneurs have an incentive to discover more efficient ways to use resources. The claim that twenty-first century market economies are not sustainable is not supported by the evidence. This paper explains why entrepreneurship in market economies produces sustainable economic progress.

This research is aimed at determining the characteristics of the current level of entrepreneurial potential of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) countries, the ability to overcome the consequences of extraordinary events, such as COVID-19 and prospects for the return to an accelerated development once the destabiliser of the economic system, the coronavirus pandemic, has ceased. Eurostat, World Bank and the World Economic Forum data for 2015-2019 were used for the purpose of the research. The research was divided into three stages, i.e. assessment of economic development on the basis of a synthetic ratio of economic anchor development, for which a relative benchmark method based on spatial median (so-called L1 median or Weber point) was used, identification of conditions for the development of entrepreneurial capacity and statistical analysis showing the correlation between economic anchor measures and selected factors of the 3SI countries economic development. Our study found that the entrepreneurial capacity of the 3SI countries in 2015-2019 was determined by nine characteristics, belonging to six areas, i.e. local economy, demographic situation, social situation, trade exchange, innovation and tourism economy. The entrepreneurial potential of the 3SI countries was spatially diversified, and its development was determined, among others, by the entrepreneurial activity of residents (entrepreneurship index) and the conditions for running a business.

Considering the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, onshore wind energy is certain to play a major role in future energy systems. This topic has received significant attention from the research community, producing many estimations of Europe's onshore wind potential for capacity and generation. Despite this focus, previous estimates have relied on distribution assumptions and simulation schemes that summarily under predict both the amount of available future wind capacity as well as its performance. Foremost in this regard is the common use of contemporary, or at least near-future, turbine designs which are not fitting for a far-future context. To fulfill this role, an improved, transparent, and fully reproducible work flow is presented for determining European onshore wind potential. Within a scenario of turbine cost and design in 2050, 13.5 TWof capacity is found to be available, allowing for 34.4 PWh of generation. By sorting the explicitly-placed potential generation locations by their expected generation cost, national relations between turbine cost and performance versus a desired capacity are exposed. In this way, it is shown that all countries possess some potential for onshore wind energy generation below 4 €_ct kWh^-1. and, furthermore, that it is unlikely for these costs to exceed 6 €_ct kWh^-1.

The brick manufacturing sector in Bangladesh is experiencing rapid growth, leading to notable environmental and health concerns. The primary objective of this research is to examine the Savar Upazila, a region of significant economic significance owing to its favorable brick manufacturing conditions and proximity to Dhaka city. Brick kilns, among other sources, constitute significant contributors to air pollution. The study utilized primary and secondary data to examine brick kiln emissions' effects on the surrounding area's environment and public health. The collection of primary data was conducted in multiple zones within Savar Upazila, which is home to a significant number of brick kilns. The utilization of secondary data provided valuable insights regarding the toxic pollutants discharged by these kilns and the corresponding health risks they pose. The participants provided accounts of various health ailments, such as dermatological conditions, optical difficulty, and respiratory complications, further aggravated by brick kilns' incidents. The prevalence of crop losses, soil degradation, and reduced agricultural yields was confirmed by 74% of the respondents. The trees and crops in the surrounding area experienced adverse effects due to the deposition of dust particles. During periods of inactivity, the concentrations of sulfur oxide (SOx) were between 6 and 9 times lower compared to periods of operation. Similarly, nitrogen oxide (NOx) levels were observed to be 4 to 6 times lower during non-operational phases. The degradation of water quality in adjacent bodies has been attributed to the deposition of dust and ash originating from brickfields, resulting in substantial repercussions on aquaculture. A significant proportion of participants indicated experiencing diverse health issues, notwithstanding the employment prospects generated by brick kilns, thereby underscoring the adverse consequences on both the environment and the local economy.

Globalization and digitalization have been associated with a number of challenges and opportunities. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the impact of globalization and digitization on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide recommendations for achieving sustainable development. The study used a multidisciplinary approach that combined diverse research methods. This included a literature review, case studies, and empirical research findings. The findings suggest that while globalization has had both positive and negative impacts on the SDGs, it also poses challenges to social and environmental sustainability. Globalization's impact on sustainable development goals is complex and multifaceted, requiring policymakers to implement diverse measures to mitigate negative effects and promote sustainable development, particularly in less developed regions and marginalized communities. In conclusion, this chapter highlights the need for a coordinated and holistic approach to sustainable development that prioritizes the Sustainable Design Goals in policy and decision-making.

Mental health issues can have significant impacts on individuals and communities and hence on social sustainability. There are several challenges facing mental health treatment, however, more important is to remove the root causes of mental illnesses because doing so can help prevent mental health problems from occurring or recurring. This requires a holistic approach to understanding mental health issues that are missing from the existing research. Mental health should be understood in the context of social and environmental factors. More research and awareness are needed, as well as interventions to address root causes. The effectiveness and risks of medications should also be studied. This paper proposes a big data and machine learning-based approach for the automatic discovery of parameters related to mental health from Twitter data. The parameters are discovered from three different perspectives, Drugs & Treatments, Causes & Effects, and Drug Abuse. We used Twitter to gather 1,048,575 tweets in Arabic about psychological health in Saudi Arabia. We built a big data machine learning software tool for this work. A total of 52 parameters were discovered for all three perspectives. We defined 6 macro-parameters (Diseases & Disorders, Individual Factors, Social & Economic Factors, Treatment Options, Treatment Limitations, and Drug Abuse) to aggregate related parameters. We provide a comprehensive account of mental health, causes, medicines and treatments, mental health and drug effects, and drug abuse, as seen on Twitter, discussed by the public and health professionals. Moreover, we identify their associations with different drugs. The work will open new directions for social media-based identification of drug use and abuse for mental health, as well as other micro and macro factors related to mental health. The methodology can be extended to other diseases and provides a potential for discovering evidence for forensics toxicology from social and digital media.

This work aims to investigate systematically the tecno-economic feasibility of ther-mos-catalytic cracking process for two solid waste materials, a lipid-base material (re-sidual fat/scum from retention box of the University Restaurant of UFPA) and a lig-nin-cellulosic material Açaí seed (Euterpe oleracea. Mart). The thermo-catalytic process-es were carried out in pilot scale (THERMTEK/LEQ/UFPA/IME/RJ), and their economic feasibility analyzed. The yields of biofuels produced by fractional distillation were al-so studied. The physicochemical characteristics of the raw materials, the organic liquid product (bio-oil) and the chemical composition of kerosene, light-diesel and heavy-diesel from the lipid-base material, as well as those of kerosene and light-diesel from the Açaí seed were also determined. The economic indicators for the evaluation of the most viable cracking (pyrolysis) and distillation process of bio-oils were: a) the sim-ple payback criterion, b) discounted payback, c) net present value (NPV), d) internal rate of return (IRR), and e) index of profitability (IP). The analysis of the indicators showed the economic viability of crude palm oil (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq) and unfeasibil-ity for the palm oil neutralization. The minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) obtained is this work for the biofuels was of 1.34 US$/L) and the breakeven point obtained was of 1.28 US$/L. The sensibility analysis demonstrated that the pyrolysis and distillation yields are the most important variables to affect the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP).

The COVID-19 outbreak and its economic, social and financial fallouts have generated a renewed interest in finding adequate policies and means to strengthen economic resilience to future shocks, particularly in developing countries. The latter are usually disproportionately affected by adverse shocks (compared to developed countries) and lack the adequate resources to weather these shocks. Strengthening economic resilience is now at the heart of the policy discussion both at the national and international levels. The present paper aims to contribute to this debate by investigating the effect of productive capacities on economic resilience in a panel dataset of 118 developing countries over the period 2000-2018. It constructs a regression-based economic resilience indicator, and makes use of the indicator of productive capacities recently developed by the UNCTAD. Results are quite interesting, including from a policy perspective. The development of productive capacities is associated with greater economic resilience. This is particularly the case for countries with greater trade openness, greater capital account openness, and those that promote a stable macroeconomic environment. Interestingly, development aid appears to matter for the effect of productive capacities on economic resilience. On the one hand, the magnitude of the positive economic resilience effect of productive capacities increases as countries receive higher Aid for Trade (AfT) flows. On the other hand, NonAfT flows (i.e., other development aid flows that AfT flows) hinder the possible positive contribution of productive capacities to economic resilience. These findings have important policy implications that are discussed in the paper.

: In this article, the authors propose an algorithmic approach to building a model of the dynamics of economic and, in particular, innovation processes. The approach under consideration is based on a complex algorithm that includes (1) decomposition of the time series into components using singular spectrum analysis; (2) recognition of the optimal component model based on fuzzy rules, and (3) creation of statistical models of individual components with their combination. It is shown that this approach corresponds to the high uncertainty characteristic of the tasks of the dynamics of innovation processes. The proposed algorithm makes it possible to create effective models that can be used both for analysis and for predicting the future states of the processes under study. The advantage of this algorithm is the possibility to expand the base of rules and components used for modeling. This is an important condition for improving the algorithm and its applicability for solving a wide range of problems.

In rural Zimbabwe, selling of cattle has for a long time been one of the most dependable sources of income that has sustained livelihoods for decades. Informal cattle marketing which involves door to door or gate sales has been the most predominant system for the last three decades. However, the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic followed by the imposition of lockdowns has exposed the vulnerability of rural communities that are regressing into poverty due to a lack of alternative sources of income. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to delineate how formal cattle markets could be used as a sustainable source of income for rural communities’ livelihoods during and post the COVID-19 pandemic era. This qualitative research study relied on secondary data from published journal articles, online publications, and reports to understand the COVID-19 pandemic and also understand how it has impacted the livelihoods of people in rural Zimbabwe. The findings show that the current informal cattle marketing system is no longer suitable for rural communities as it exposes them to infections due to the challenges in ensuring compliance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) precautionary measures. It is recommended that formal (public) cattle markets be reintroduced in all rural areas as there is the certainty that WHO health guidelines will be enforced since they are organised by local and central government institutions. Since formal cattle markets offer competitive market-related prices this will then guarantee the flow of regular income thereby reducing the vulnerability of rural communities to poverty and inequalities.

This study investigates the country level determinants of liquidity synchronization and degrees of liquidity synchronization during economic growth volatility. As a non-diversifiable risk factor, liquidity co-movement shock spreads market wide and thus disrupts the overall functioning of the financial market. Firms in Asian markets operate in legal and regulatory environments distinct from those of firms analyzed in the previous literature. Comprehensive analyses of liquidity synchronicity in emerging markets are limited. A major knowledge gap pertaining to Asian emerging markets serves as the primary motivation for this study. Seven Asian emerging economies are selected from the MSCI emerging market index: Bangladesh, China, India, Indo-nesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines for analysis from 2010 to 2019. The empirical findings show high levels of liquidity synchronicity in weaker economic and financial environments with low GDP growth, high inflation and interest rates and underdeveloped financial systems taking the form of low levels of private credit. Liquidity synchronicity is also affected by poor investor protection, political instability, weak rule of law and government ineffectiveness. Moreover, levels of liquidity synchronicity are higher in period of economic growth volatility.

This paper examines the indirect effect of democracy on economic growth using a dataset of 17 MENA countries from 1990 to 2015. Democracy is assumed to affect growth through a series of channels: education, health, physical capital accumulation per labor, government consumption, and trade openness. A system of six simultaneous equations, 3SLS, is used to estimate the effect of democracy on growth through these channels. For further analysis, the countries are classified into groups according to the democratic status on the one side, and the level of income on the other. The results indicate that democracy enhances growth through its positive effect on health in all classifications of countries within the MENA region. However, the effect of democracy on growth through education and physical capital/labor is non-monotonic. Democracy always hinders growth through government size and trade openness. Once all of these indirect effects are accounted for, the overall effect of democracy on growth is negative in less democratic countries and poor countries, but positive in more democratic countries and rich countries.

Taking Shanxi Province, a typical energy region in China, as the research object, data on economic development quality and environmental pollution intensity from 2001 to 2021 were selected. Linear regression, numerical simulation, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the evolution characteristics of economic development quality and environmental pollution intensity in Shanxi Province in the past 20 years, and to explore the relationship between economic development and environmental pollution. The results indicate that since 2001, Shanxi Province has made long-term progress in economic development, with GDP increasing by nearly 10 times and an average annual growth rate of around 7%. In the past 20 years, the main pollutants have shown a trend of increasing first and then decreasing steadily, with a turning point occurring during the "12th Five Year Plan" period. This shows that the environmental policies and investments of the Chinese and Shanxi provincial governments in the past 10 years have been effective in the new era. The numerical simulation curve results show that the per capita GDP exhibits a classic inverted "U" curve relationship with wastewater and SO2 emissions, with a turning point occurring at around 20000 yuan per capita GDP; However, there is a monotonic decreasing trend with Chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions, and a monotonic increasing trend with solid waste generation. There is no turning point yet. The correlation analysis results further support the fitting curve conclusion.

This study examined the link between tax revenue components and economic growth in South Africa, utilizing time series data for the period of 22 years. The stationarity of the variables was established using the Phillips-Perron (PP) unit root test, and the existence of long-run and short-run equilibrium conditions was tested using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. As a proxy for economic growth, the study used the real GDP growth rate as the dependent variable, with company income tax, personal income tax, taxes on international trade and transactions, taxes on income, profits, and capital gains tax, foreign direct investment, inflation, and gross savings as the independent variables. According to the PP findings, none of the variables are integrated at a higher order than one, i.e. (1). All variables are found to be cointegrated, and all explanatory variables have a long-run link with economic growth. According to the ARDL findings, company income tax, personal income tax, and taxes on international trade and transactions all have a positive long-run and short-run link with economic growth, whereas capital gain tax, foreign direct investment, and gross savings all have a negative long-run and short-run link with economic growth. The long-run coefficient is negatively related to RGDP, while the short-run coefficient revealed a positive link between inflation and economic growth, among other findings. Heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation are not present in our model, according to diagnostic tests. The CUSUM and CUSUMSQ values indicate that the model is structurally sound.

This paper discusses the metonymic uses of the greek deictic adverbs εδώ [here] and εκεί [there] in the language of politics. The paper draws examples from political speeches which taken place in the Hellenic Parliament during 2011 and discussed the financial situation of Greece during that time. The paper discusses the multiple senses of these deictic adverbs and suggests that the temporal and spatial denotations of εδώ and εκεί are subject to image schemas. It is argued that the image schemas in which εδώ and εκεί are rooted have a metonymic basis. The paper also suggests that the spatio-temporal senses of εδώ and εκεί go beyond their deictic function due to their metonymic basis.

The sustainable development of mines has been the focus of attention in recent years, in China, there are a large number of untreated mined-out areas, and a series of disasters caused by instability of the goaf will bring heavy blows to people’s safety and financial resources. Mined-out areas management is an important part that cannot be ignored in mine sustainable development, and filling management is one of the most effective ways to solve the hidden danger of mined-out areas. Among them, cemented filling with tailings and the ultra-high-water backfilling are commonly used in mining enterprises. However, filling treatment will lead to increasing cost and the decreasing profits, which seriously depresses the motivation of mining enterprises and even leads to mor-al hazard. Therefore, the analysis of the economic benefits of goaf control plays a vital role in the sustainable construction and long-term development of mines. This paper proposed the mine-out area treatment economic model, the proposed method employs the guiding philosophy of news-boy model to create a mathematical economy model that provides the basis of goaf management mode for mine. The following research results are achieved: (1) The economic model of mined-out area backfilling treatment is constructed, and which is classified three different modes. (2) Com-bined with mathematical derivation and simulation, the influence of relevant variable parameters on each type of filling mode is discussed. (3) Various types of goaf filling treatment mode are com-pared with non-filling scheme (benchmark mode), so as to provide theoretical support for mining enterprises to choose the appropriate filling scheme. The results shows that the economic model of mined-out area management provides the optimal mode for mined-out area filling, the balance of tailings and ultra-high water filling materials procurement is realized, to making maximum profits. In this paper, the use of economic thinking has an important impact on the sustainable development of safety goaf management. To evaluate the sustainable development of goaf management by building economic models. It has important theoretical basis and practical guiding significance for the development and exploration of mined-out area management by combining economy with sustainable development.

This article aims to create the nexus between sustainable development and the quality of the political regime. The current social and political context is characterized by a series of crises generated by COVID-19 pandemic, economic imbalances and regional conflicts. In this context, sustainable development is affected by the economic dynamics and the “democratic recession”. The study aims to respond to the following research questions: “how could influence the quality of the democracy the dynamics of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 17)?” and “what are the premises for sustainable development in the new political context, characterized by democratic recession?” The purpose of the study is to underline the fact that democratic regimes are inclined to create both participative and deliberative frames for achieving the SDGs in accordance with UN 2030 Agenda. The research methodology used in this study is based on descriptive and inferential statistics. The research data are collected from secondary sources in the years between 2015 and 2021, from 193 countries covering all the geographical areas. The empirical results suggest two models of development: the Asian model of sustainable development characterized by economic growth and the Western democratic model based on democratic institutions, fair justice and mechanisms for preserving peace. We noticed that the key-variables for explaining the dynamics of sustainability in correlation with democratic index are represented by the functioning of the governments and the political participation. Through civic engagement and political ac-countability, democracy could be seen as a pre-requisite for achieving an optimal level of the SDGs. All these empirical results could prove valuable for the scholars interested in the relation between democracy and sustainability and for the political decision makers involved in shaping strategies for social, economic and environmental development.

In order to realize the sustainable utilization of water resources and the sustainable development of economy, the evaluation index system of water use efficiency system and economic development system was constructed. Entropy weight method and comprehensive evaluation method were adopted to determine the index weights and conduct comprehensive evaluation for the two systems. The coupling coordination model was used to calculate the coupling degree, coordination degree and coupling coordination degree of the two systems. The annual coupling stage and coupling coordination intensity of the two systems were analyzed and determined. The results showed that the comprehensive evaluation values of both water use efficiency system and economic development system in Jinan City increased greatly from 2008 to 2017, and showed a changing trend of ups and downs. The two systems were in the antagonistic stage, and were gradually approaching the running-in stage, indicating that they were in the state of common development. The coupling coordination degree of the two systems gradually increased in waves, progressed from the moderately to the highly coordinated coupling. In the future, if the water control path appropriate to Jinan City can be explored actively, the water-saving kinetic energy of economic development can be increased constantly, and the linkage effect between economic development and water resources utilization can be given full play to, the two systems will be in the orbit with the benign interaction and healthy harmonious development.

The concept of green energy is now at the forefront of development discourse, with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 11, and 12 all aimed at promoting green energy consumption to combat the three planetary crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Similarly, issues regarding Africa’s natural resource curse have caused a stir in the growth and development literature for some time now and there is no sign that it will die out. This study, the first of its kind, simultaneously assesses the impact of green energy consumption and Africa’s natural resources rents on economic growth by applying the Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) estimator and the dynamic panel models of the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Mean Group (MG) estimators on data from 1990 to 2020 for 24 selected African countries. The results show that green energy consumption has a short-run growth-limiting effect and a long-run growth-enhancing effect in Africa. The study also found evidence of the natural resource curse phenomenon in Africa. The study, therefore, calls for the advancement and usage of green energy for both domestic and industrial production in Africa. The study further calls for a revamp in the global tax policy to curb illicit financial activities and strengthening institutional quality for transparency and accountability in the entire value chain of natural resource management in Africa.

Poverty alleviation must be carried out in a planned and sustainable manner by the central government and regional governments, the private sector, and the entire community to achieve a prosperous society by getting special attention from the government. This study aims to analyze the impact of the non-cash food assistance program on poverty alleviation, stunting and economic problems using a public private partnership (PPP) approach that involves the role of the government, the private sector and the community. This study uses a qualitative-explorative research method to examine Indonesia's non-cash food assistance program as a national initiative to fight poverty in the form of food. Data were collected from interviews, field observations, and relevant literature, then Nvivo 12 Pro was used to analyze the results. The location of this research is in Indonesia, namely Takalar Regency. The results of the study show that the implementation of the non-cash basic food assistance program has been effective. The involvement of the government, the private sector, and the community shows this. The success factors for the basic food assistance program are alleviating poverty in Indonesia, reducing stunting rates, and increasing economic growth because people are given a place to be part of small businesses. From the results of this analysis it was concluded that the non-cash basic food assistance program is a special program that can overcome various social problems in society. So that poverty alleviation programs are expected to be sustainable and improved to provide benefits for people's welfare. The implementation of the food aid program also involved several cross-sectoral efforts to channel government assistance.

In an attempt to improve free-range beef cattle herds and explore the economic viability of utilizing Opuntia ficus-indica (spineless cactus) cladodes as supplementary feed, we investigated the impact of cactus diets on animal growth performance and carcass characteristics of Nguni cattle heifers. Four dietary treatments were randomly assigned to 32 heifers aged 24-months, weighing on average 172.2±27.1 kg, with each dietary treatment replicated to 8 individually penned heifers for 90 days. The dietary treatments were control diet (pasture-based energy + protein sources), 10% cactus diet, 20% cactus diet and commercial diet (crop-based energy and commercial protein source). The heifers fed commercial and control diets attained significantly (P < 0.05) higher dry matter intake, average daily gains, fat thickness, carcass conformation scores and lower feed conversion ratio than those fed cactus diets. However, the final body weight gains, slaughter and carcass weights, rib-eye muscle area and meat pH45 min and 24h were comparable (P > 0.05) between heifers fed cactus diets and those fed commercial and control diets. The 10 and 20% cactus diets had greater gross margins (P < 0.05) of R278.6 and R296.9, respectively than the other diets, due largely to reduced total variable costs. The comparability of carcass traits of heifers fed cactus diets and those fed non-cactus diets as well as higher economic returns from cactus inclusion warrants the use of cactus diets, particularly during drought when commercial feed prices rise.

Changing climate conditions and rapidly increasing carbon dioxide emissions have severely affected the global ecosystem and world economy. Governments around the world have paid attention to these resulting challenges and enacted many policies to reduce environmental pollution and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study aimed to determine and understand the relationship between innovation, foreign direct investment, economic growth, renewable consumption and CO2 emission in Vietnam. Information was collected annually based on the annual data of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam and World Bank from 2000 to 2022. Data processing was conducted using the STATA 17.0 software. The innovation affects Vietnam’s environmental pollution. Innovation positively affect environmental pollution in Vietnam; if Vietnam’s innovation were to increase by 1%, CO2 emissions would increase by 0.68%. The empirical research results of this study also show that renewable energy consumption has a negative effect on environmental pollution in Vietnam; if renewable energy were consumed at a 1% increase, CO2 emission would decrease by 0.51%. In addition, FDI inflows and economic growth have strongly positive affecting to environmental pollution; if Vietnam’s FDI inflows were to increase 1%, CO2 emissions would increase 1.39%; if Vietnam’s GDP increase 1% then CO2 emission would increase 1.26%. This paper also provides some recommendations that can assist Vietnam in developing a green and sustainable economy in the technology revolution 4.0 to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over a long-term period.

Achieving universal access to water and sanitation services in developing countries requires a coherent legal, political, and institutional environment, along with a clear financial strategy. Regionalizing utilities may be crucial for addressing disparities, economic inequalities, and governance challenges. Regionalization offers economies of scale, resource efficiency, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. The cornerstone will be ensuring the financial-economic viability of regional utilities, considering their social impacts in terms of affordability. The State of Santa Catarina case study is assessed. In the case of Santa Catarina, only four regional utilities currently generate sufficient revenue, without factoring in necessary investments, indicating the need to review design parameters to improve operational efficiency and increase revenues. Additional financial support may be required to ensure universal access. Tariff adjustments must strike a balance between cost-effectiveness and affordability for families.

Growth benefits of high speed rail (HSR) for enterprises are not automatic, but require a buoyant local economy and a robust strategy. Against above background, main objectives of ex-ante case study have been to investigate local socio-economic and spatial impacts of proposed HSR project around Ahmedabad station area on Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR corridor, analyze the opportunities and challenges of HSR development and draw policy implications. Qualitative research methodology has been used to elicit the perceptions and perspectives of randomly selected 43 small, medium and large enterprises. Data has been analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study reveals that HSR induced greater human interaction will activate local economy, improve business efficiency and generate employment. Frequent travels on business trips can influence enterprises decision to settle near HSR station for easy access and likely to promote realty development. The proposed HSR project should be developed in synergy with urban dynamics of cities in transition and metropolitan service cities. Poor public transport connectivity is likely to be a major challenge in improving HSR accessibility and enhancing overall impacts of HSR, which can be improved by developing an integrated urban transport system, for which cooperation of all stakeholders and coherence with firms’ strategies is essential.

The severity of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak demand from countries to adopt extreme measurements of social isolation to stop the spread and flatten the curve of contamination. Although social isolation measures may have negative impacts on economy, historically it has been showed to be more effective in saving lives and less damaging to economy than not adopting these measurements during a viral pandemic. In Brazil, despite the positioning of the president against social isolation due to the consequent economic recession, the rapid spread of the virus has worried the governors of the Brazilian states, which are thus managing stringent social isolation measurements to avoid the advance of the virus. Since one of the main strategies to guarantee progress and economic growth in Brazil has been the exploitation of natural resources from the Amazonia biome, here we discuss the importance of this biome to Brazilian economy during the post-pandemic recession and highlights potential strategies to burst the economy without promoting Amazonia destruction. We show that, together with the REDD+ and the Amazon Fund, the Forest bonds represents good strategies to burst Brazilian economy in a sustainable way, showing that it is possible to improve the commodities without increasing Amazonia deforestation or the greenhouse gases emissions. Amazonia is a biome of global importance for the avoidance of another global crisis, which will occur if we reach the climatic tipping point of 1.5°C. Thus, governmental actions should go towards its preservation, not exploitation and depletion. The commitment of the government with environmental conservation is paramount so that these economic strategies have positive results, especially in a post-pandemic scenario, where the economy will be extremely weakened. The COVID-19 brings us a lesson regarding how our attitudes can impact the world, and what we can expect from a global crisis. Perhaps we can apply these lessons and focus on change our economy towards a sustainable direction to avoid another global crisis in the years to come.

Transforming Small-Scale LNG Business, Enhancing Efficiency and Resilience in an Evolving Supply Chain In various industries, innovative systems have proven their value due to their efficiency and adaptability. A prime example of this lies in the rapid growth of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market. LNG, a fuel derived from natural gas, has gained significant traction in recent years. In light of this, we aim to explore optimal strategies for small-scale LNG businesses, with a focus on revolutionizing their supply chain to ensure adaptability and sustainability. Our objective is to enhance efficiency and sturdiness in this evolving sector. By devising innovative methods and implementing cutting-edge technologies, we aim to revolutionize the small-scale LNG market, paving the way for a more optimized and resilient supply chain. Through this transformation, we strive to create a sustainable and adaptable framework that will drive the growth and success of a small-scale LNG businesses.LNG' ability to be transported and stored more cost-effectively in its reduced volume compared to natural gas in its original state is a significant advantage. The distribution network for LNG starts at numerous supply terminals and extends to a diverse range of consumption centers, each with varying tank capacities. In the broader economic context, the establishment of efficient routes for LNG Truck tank plays a critical role.To tackle the challenge of selecting a pickup location and determining optimal destinations with specific unloading volumes for liquefied natural gas (LNG), this research presents an innovative solution utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. The proposed approach combines the power of reinforcement learning, recurrent neural networks, online learning, and graph theory. By leveraging these cutting-edge techniques, we aim to develop an intelligent system that can effectively determine the most efficient pickup location and sequence of destinations for LNG delivery. This system will take into account various factors such as transportation costs tank capacity, and demand fluctuations. Through the integration of reinforcement learning, the system will continuously learn and improve its decision-making process in real-time. The recurrent neural networks will allow for the analysis of historical aim to model and optimize the complex network of pickup and delivery routes, considering factors such as distance, capacity constraints, and operational efficiencies. With this innovative approach, we strive to revolutionize the selection and planning process for LNG pickup and delivery, ultimately enhancing efficiency and reducing cost within the LNG supply chain.Improving the distribution network offers several financial benefits, including cost reduction, faster delivery times, more affordable distribution, and enhanced efficiency in the utilization of tanker trucks for LNG transportation. By optimizing the distribution network, transit costs associated with LNG transportation can be significantly lowered. This can be achieved through intelligent route planning, taking into account factors such as distance, traffic conditions, and fuel consumption. Minimizing transit costs contributes to overall savings for businesses operating in the LNG market. Faster delivery times are another advantage of an enhanced distribution network. By designing efficient routes and eliminating unnecessary detours or delays, the time taken for LNG to reach its intended destinations can be reduced. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also allows for more frequent deliveries and better coordination of supply and demand. Cheaper distribution is a direct outcome of an optimized distribution network. By strategically planning pickup locations, destinations, and intermediate stops, the costs associated with transferring LNG between terminals and consumption centres can be minimized. This leads to savings in transportation expenses, ultimately benefiting both businesses and end-users. Efficient utilization of tanker trucks is crucial for maximizing profitability in the LNG industry. An improved distribution network enables better allocation of resources, ensuring that tanker trucks are utilized optimally. This includes reducing empty or underutilized trips, maximizing load capacities, and minimizing idle time. Such efficiency improvements translate to cost savings and increased revenue for businesses involved in LNG transportation. Overall, the financial gains from improving the distribution network are substantial. Lower transit costs, faster delivery times, cheaper distribution, and more efficient use of tanker trucks contribute to increased profitability, competitiveness, and sustainability in the LNG market.

Space tourism began in 2001 and became popular in 2021 because of commercial operations. With the development of space technology and commercialization, like re-launchable rockets to travel to space in recent years, it has gradually entered the era of space. However, the space industry causes massive emissions, inducing some opposition to its development. It is essential to investigate the attitude of residents toward space tourism and balance the pros and cons of sustainability. Quantitative analysis was adapted to test two models based on duality theory. The data were obtained from 284 samples from various regions of China and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that the two-factor model of economic development conflicted with environmental protection. However, study two indicates that educational interventions can facilitate sustainable space tourism because they mediate the relationship between economic and environmental factors.

This study investigates the impact of the economic downturn induced by the COVID-19 pandemic on nutritional health disparities among women. The research aimed to understand how economic challenges have influenced dietary choices, access to nutritious food, and overall nutritional well-being in different socioeconomic groups of women.Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study combined quantitative data from national health and economic databases with qualitative insights from interviews conducted with a diverse group of women. The quantitative analysis focused on trends in nutritional health indicators and economic variables pre- and post-pandemic. Simultaneously, the qualitative component explored personal experiences and perceptions related to nutrition and economic hardships during the pandemic.The findings revealed a significant correlation between the economic downturn and worsening nutritional health among women, especially in low-income and marginalized communities. Women in these groups reported reduced access to healthy food options, increased reliance on less nutritious food due to budget constraints, and a general decline in dietary quality. This decline was less pronounced in higher-income groups, highlighting a clear disparity.Moreover, the study observed that the pandemic exacerbated pre-existing nutritional inequalities, with vulnerable groups experiencing a more pronounced impact. The research also noted that community support systems and public health interventions played a crucial role in mitigating some of these effects.In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has not only posed a direct health challenge but has also indirectly affected women's nutritional health through economic strain. The study underscores the need for targeted nutritional support and economic policies that prioritize the health of women, particularly those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Nighttime lights (NTL) are a popular type of data for evaluating economic performance of regions and economic impacts of various shocks and interventions. Several validation studies use traditional statistics on economic activity like national or regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a benchmark to evaluate the usefulness of NTL data. Many of these studies rely on dated and imprecise Defence Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) data and use aggregated units such as nation-states or the first sub-national level. Yet applied researchers who draw support from validation studies to justify their use of NTL data as a proxy for economic activity increasingly focus on smaller and lower level spatial units. This study uses a 2001-19 time-series of GDP for over 3100 US counties as a benchmark to examine the usefulness of the recently released version 2 VIIRS nighttime lights (V.2 VNL) products as proxies for local economic activity. Contrasts are made between cross-sectional predictions for GDP differences between areas and time-series predictions of GDP changes within areas. Disaggregated GDP data for various industries are used to examine what types of economic activity are best proxied by NTL data and comparisons are also made with the predictive performance of earlier NTL data products.

Economists have long been interested in examining inflation-growth nexus. Nevertheless, the nature of their relationship and the optimal level of inflation threshold for economic growth have still remained controversial in both theoretical and empirical works. Accordingly, this study investigates the existence of threshold effects of inflation on economic growth in Ethiopia over the period 1975-2018 using a Two-regime Threshold Auto-regressive (TAR) model. The study mainly departs from previous works since it estimates sector-specific inflation threshold level in food and non-food sectors. Our preliminary analyses clearly reveal that inflation in food sector has become more volatile, less-persistent and key contributor to the general inflation as compared to its non-food counterpart. Further, The TAR model results and robustness checks indicate the existence of inflation threshold in a range of 9-10%. In particular, the threshold level for food inflation is 10% and 8% for non-food inflation. In all cases, our results robustly confirm growth-detrimental effects of inflation after the threshold levels. After all, this study suggests the need for considering specific behaviors of food and non-food prices, and implementing appropriate fiscal and monetary policies to bring inflation down to a single-digit level.

Irrigation and fertilization are indispensable links in the jujube planting industry in southern Xinjiang, China. However, the water and fertilizer integration effects on jujube growth and fruit quality remain unclear. A two-year water and fertilizer optimization coupling test was conducted to determine the optimal water- and nutrient-supply scheme. The three-factor randomized block experiment included water (W), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). According to the principal component analysis of each index, each treatment’s comprehensive score was obtained. Using yield and economic regression models, the theoretical value and yield value of the optimal economic benefit are inferred. When W, N, and P were applied together, the fruit quality and yield of each treatment significantly differed, and the vitamin C, soluble sugar, and sugar–acid ratio increased significantly with an increase in nitrogen fertilizer. However, the titratable acid decreased. An increase in irrigation and nitrogen application significantly increased fruit yield. The comprehensive score was the highest in the N3P3W2 treatment, which improved fruit quality, and the lowest in the N4P3W2 treatment. When the amounts of N, P, and W were 275.56 kg·hm-2, 413.66 kg·hm-2, and 7278.19 m3·hm-2, respectively, the theoretical economic benefit was the best. The N4P3W2 treatment is the optimal treatment.

BACKGROUND: diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) represent the main cause of major amputations and hospitalizations in diabetic patients. Aim of this study was to assess safety and cost-efficacy of intramuscular injection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs), in diabetic patients with no-option chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) and small artery disease (SAD). METHODS: a retrospective study was carried out on a series of types 2 diabetic patients with DFU grade Texas 3 and no-option CLTI and SAD. All patients had undergone at least a previous revascularization and were allocated in a surgery waiting-list for major amputation. The principal endpoint evaluated at 90 days was a composite of TcPO2 values at the first toe ≥30 mmHg and/or TcPO2 increase of at least 50% from baseline and/or ulcer healing. Secondary endpoint were individual components of the primary endpoint, any serious and non-serious adverse events, direct costs at one year. RESULTS: the composite endpoint was achieved in 9 patients (60.0 %); one patient (6.7%) healed within 90 days and 26.7% and 46.7% showed TcPO2 ≥30 mmHg and a TcPO2 increase of at least 50% at 90 days, respectively. At 1-year, three (20.0%) patients underwent a major amputation (all diagnosed SAD grade III). One patient died after seven months, and seven patients (46.7%) healed. The overall median and mean cost per patient were 8,238±7,798€ and 4,426[3,798;8,262]€, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: the use of PBMNCs implants in no-option CLTI diabetic patients with SAD seems to be of help in reducing the risk of major amputation.

Glacial meltwater has been lifeline of agriculture in Gilgit-Baltistan for centuries which is being effected by the climatic changes and associated challenges. The government line institutions and development agencies have been investing to sustain and further extend the cultivated areas by leveraging the available glacial meltwater source. However, approximately 13% arable land, laying mainly along river banks, has limited access to glacial meltwater. Moreover, already cultivated areas also need alternate and sustainable irrigation water supplies to insurefood security. Hence, there is need to explore more potential options to address these challenges and bringing arable land under irrigation for regional prosperity and environmental gains. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and its partners piloted solutions for aforementioned issues in Gojal, District Hunza. These solutions included river water lifting through solar and Hydraulic Ram Pumps, uphill water storages and application through drip irrigation systems. In order to assess the technical and economical viabilities of these piloted systems, a semi-structured questionnaire survey, field observation visits to collect data and economic assessment studies were carried out in Morkhun and Khyber. Both piloted systems have been proven as climate resilient, adaptable, environment friendly and economically viable. The cost to benefit ratio for solar powered drip irrigation and Hydraulic Ram Pump drip irrigation systems are 2.96 and 4.21 respectively, with payback period of 9.21 and 8.25 years respectively. The drip irrigation systems at Khyber and Morkhun sites have exhibited excellent hydraulic performance with Coefficient of Uniformity 92.61 and 93 % respectively. However, the field application efficiency of drip irrigation systems estimated for Khyber and Morkhun sites are 85.24 and 88.88% which are lower than the optimal value mainly due to lesser water holding capacity. The Hydraulic Ram Pump can lift four times more water to greater height, while comparing to solar pump of approximately similar capacity and higher capital costs. Both water lifting systems have some limitations and requires local customization for sustainable use.

This observational study aims to depict the impact of gender and socio-economic issues on the health status of Italian Orthopaedic patients during the COVID-19 lockdown. An Ad Hoc ques-tionnaire was developed and online administered. The following data were extracted from the questionnaire: age, body mass index (BMI), education level, distance from hospital, orthopaedic disease, concomitant medical comorbidities, living status (with/without cohabitants) and physical activity level (according to Tegner Activity Scale). The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown was studied analyzing differences related to the above-mentioned parameters. A significant increase of the call number to general practitioner and to the orthopaedic surgeon was observed during the COVID-lockdown, especially in patients with higher education level. Nonetheless, a reduced compliance in drugs assumption was observed in patients with higher education level during lockdown (p=0.007). Almost all the analyzed items were significantly in-fluenced by the distance between patient’s domicile and the nearest hospital. However, no sig-nificant differences were observed comparing pre-COVID to COVID lockdown. In the present study patients’ gender and education level revealed a significant impact on the social behavior during the COVID lockdown, compared with the pre-COVID period.

The electrification of process industries is one of the main challenges when building a low-carbon society since they consume huge amounts of fossil fuel generating different emissions. Heat pumps are one of the instruments to perform industrial sector of carbon-neutral market players. This paper proposes an approach to improve the economic feasibility of heat pumps within the process plants. Initial energy targeting with Grand Composite Curves was used and supplemented with the detailed design of the evaporator and compressor for different condensation and evaporation pressures. The trade-off between the capital cost of the heat pump and the electricity cost was investigated and optimal configurations were selected. The case study investigates the gas fractioning unit of a polymer plant where three heat pumps were integrated into distillation columns. The results demonstrated that the heat recovery is 174 MW and requires an additional 37.9 MW of electricity to reduce hot utility by 212 MW. The selection of evaporation and condensation pressure of heat pumps allows saving of 21.5 M€/y for 7 years of plant operation.

This work aims to investigate systematically the tecno-economic feasibility of ther-mos-catalytic cracking process for two solid waste materials, a lipid-base material (re-sidual fat/scum from retention box of the University Restaurant of UFPA) and a lig-nin-cellulosic material Açaí seed (Euterpe oleracea. Mart). The thermo-catalytic process-es were carried out in pilot scale (THERMTEK/LEQ/UFPA/IME/RJ), and their economic feasibility analyzed. The yields of biofuels produced by fractional distillation were al-so studied. The physicochemical characteristics of the raw materials, the organic liquid product (bio-oil) and the chemical composition of kerosene, light-diesel and heavy-diesel from the lipid-base material, as well as those of kerosene and light-diesel from the Açaí seed were also determined. The economic indicators for the evaluation of the most viable cracking (pyrolysis) and distillation process of bio-oils were: a) the sim-ple payback criterion, b) discounted payback, c) net present value (NPV), d) internal rate of return (IRR), and e) index of profitability (IP). The analysis of the indicators showed the economic viability of crude palm oil (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq) and unfeasibil-ity for the palm oil neutralization. The minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) obtained is this work for the biofuels was of 1.34 US$/L) and the breakeven point obtained was of 1.28 US$/L. The sensibility analysis demonstrated that the pyrolysis and distillation yields are the most important variables to affect the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP).

The Circular Economy of plastics is a promising concept that has the potential to reduce pollution and close the loop on plastic waste. However, further research is needed to develop more efficient and environmentally friendly methods of recycling plastic. This review article discusses the Circular Economy of plastics, its potential benefits and drawbacks, and the challenges that need to be addressed to make it a reality. Some case studies are also examined to explore how the Circular Economy of plastics has been implemented across the globe.

The present reality about the Nigerian economy calls for investment and development in the non-oil sector. This becomes necessary as a result of fall in the oil price in the global market. This paper examined the Bayesian Vector Autoregression (BVAR) modeling and forecasting of the dynamic interrelationship between Economic growth and revenue from the oil and non-oil sectors in Nigeria. To achieve this, annual data on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), revenue from oil and non-oil sectors were collected from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) bulletin, the sample from 1981 to 2008 was used for analysis, while sample from 2009 to 2014 was used for model validation. Six (6) versions of Sims-Zha BVAR models were compared for out-of-sample forecast, the result revealed the superiority of the BVAR6 model over the other BVAR models. Lastly, evidence from the decomposition forecast errors revealed that revenue of oil sector contributed 7.69% to GDP while revenue from non-oil sector contributed 0.12% to GDP in Nigeria. This paper therefore recommended that the present government should encourage investment that is geared toward development in the non-oil sector, of which it has the capacity to improve the Economic growth of the Nigerian economy.

Background: Alopecia areata is a skin disease that affects patients’ quality of life and social participation. Objective: To quantify the economic burden of alopecia areata and to map health services utilization among patients with alopecia areata.Materials and methods: Prospective and retrospective data sources, using both top-down and bottom-up approaches to estimate direct and indirect costs and to map health service utilization associated with alopecia areata in Romania in 2022.Results: In our study, the total cost of alopecia areata in Romania for 2022 was estimated at 46.289 million EUR for adult patients and 1.89 million EUR for pediatric patients, encompassing both mild and severe cases. The breakdown reveals that both mild and severe cases incurred the highest costs due to associated expenses, medical services, and treatment. As for children, the highest alopecia-related expenses were represented by associated expenses and treatment costs (for both severity levels).Conclusion: This is the first study to quantify the burden of alopecia areata in Romania. Additional studies are needed due to a low sample size. However, considering our estimations based on external data sources, alopecia areata should be considered when planning health service distribution.

The overexploitation of forest resources in the charcoal production basin of the city of Lubum-bashi (DR Congo) is reducing the resilience of miombo woodlands and threatening the survival of the riparian as well as urban human populations that depend on it. We assessed the socio-economic value and availability of plant-based non-timber forest products NTFPs in the rural area of Lubumbashi through ethnobotanical (100 respondents) and socio-economic (90 respondents) interviews, supplemented with floristic inventories, in two village areas selected on the basis of the level of forest degradation. The results show that 60 woody species, including 46 in the degraded forest (Maksem) and 53 in the intact forest (Mwawa), belonging to 22 families are used as sources of NTFPs in both villages. Among these species, 25 are considered priority species. NTFPs are collected for various purposes, including handcrafting, hut building, and traditional medicine. Moreover, the ethnobotanical lists reveal a similarity of almost 75%, indicating that both local communities surveyed use the same species for collecting plant-based NTFPs, despite differences in the level of degradation of the miombo woodlands in the two corresponding study areas. However, the plant-based NTFPs that are collected from miombo woodlands and traded in the urban markets have significant economic value, which ranges from 0.5 to 14.58 USD per kg depending on the species and uses. NTFPs used for handicraft purposes have a higher economic value than those used for other purposes. However, the sustainability of this activity is threatened due to unsustainable harvesting practices that include stem slashing, root digging, and bark peeling of woody species. Consequently, there is a low availability of plant-based NTFPs, particularly in the village area where forest degradation is more advanced. It is imperative that policies for monitoring and regulation of harvesting, and promoting sustainable management of communities’ plant-based NTFPs priority, be undertaken to maintain their resilience.

Background: Telemedicine (interconsultation between primary and hospital care teams) has been operating in the counties of Central Catalonia Bages, Moianès and Berguedà since 2011 in the specialties of teledermatology, teleulcers, teleeyelids and teleaudiometries. For the period until the end of 2019, a total of 52,198 visits have been recorded. Objective: To analyse the differential costs between telemedicine and usual care in a semi-urban environment. Methodology: A cost-minimization evaluation, including direct and indirect costs from a societal perspective, distinguishing healthcare and user’s costs, within a three-month period. Results: Telemedicine saved € 780,397 over the period analysed. A differential cost favourable to telemedicine of about € 15/visit has been observed, the patient being the largest beneficiary of this saving (by 85%) in terms of shorter waiting times and travel costs. From the healthcare system perspective, moving the time spent in a hospital care consultation to primary care is efficient in terms of the total time devoted per patient. In social terms and in this context, telemedicine is more efficient than usual care. Conclusion: Users’ saving of time in terms of consultation and travel is the main driver of interconsultation between primary and hospital care savings in a semi-urban context. The telemedicine service is also economically favourable for the healthcare system, enabling it to provide a more agile service, which also benefits the healthcare professionals.