ABSTRATC: In contrast to the increasing aquaculture production of mussels worldwide, production in the European Union (EU) has shown a decreasing trend over the last two decades. Aquaculture production of mussels in the EU peaked in the late 1990s at more than 600 000 tonnes; by 2016, production volume had dropped by 20% to 480 000 tonnes. As mussel production represents more than 1/3 of EU aquaculture production, this decrease is an important contributor to the stagnation of EU aquaculture. Previous studies have suggested diseases, lack of mussel seed (spat), and low profitability as the main causes of the EU mussel production decrease. In this study, we investigate how economic and environmental factors have contributed. Moreover, we examine if the different mussel production techniques (raft, longline, on-bottom, and "bouchot") have been differently affected, by analysing the economic performance and cost structure evolution for the period 2010-2016. We complement these results with a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the EU mussel sector based on expert knowledge.
Unlike almost most other studies of neoliberal universities and academic capitalism this book ethnographically explores and interprets those transformations and their contradictions empirically in the everyday practices of students, faculty members, and administrators at two public universities: NTNU in Norway and UCLA in California.Differently situated in global political economies, both are ambitious, prosperous campuses. The book refl exively examines their disturbing disputes about quality, competition, and innovation. It argues that some academic, bureaucratic, and corporate university governance practices are both unsustainable and undermining what some university students and faculty already do well: circulate interdisciplinary knowledge and its making globally across the diasporic domains of academia, society, industry, and government while addressing the world's immediate challenges: power, inequities, and sustainability.It shows the important, strategic work of domesticating, co- morphing, and meshworking at the faultlines of emerging knowledge. This book is for students, faculty, society members, and policy makers who want to engage more effectively with contemporary universities that increasingly serve as busy crossroads for sharing ideas and how to make them. It will be of interest to workers and scholars in the interdisciplinary fi elds of higher education studies, critical university studies, and critical public infrastructure studies, plus science, technology, and society studies.
ABSTRACT Objectives: this theoretical essay aims to present classic and contemporary fundamentals of the optimal tax theory (OTT) and to problematize its presence and possibilities in the scenario of tax policy in Brazil. Context: such objectives are located in the contemporary context that discusses tax reforms aimed at efficient and socially responsible public management. Methods: after surveying the state of knowledge of optimal taxation in Brazil, and from the perspective of economics and political law, we sought to identify secondary data on tax distribution in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in relational analysis with data from Brazil. Results: the text draws attention to the fact that OTT is able to bring social issues to the discussion of public tax management policies in a structured way, with the perspective of inclusion and social responsibility, based on the importance of different treatment of economic agents, physical and legal, based on their needs and possibilities. Conclusion: it is concluded that, like in other countries, OTT is present in the Brazilian debate expressing as possible and necessary to advance in a tax policy that responds to the needs of public collection articulated and reconciled to social well-being through responsible management, modern and transparent.
This work assesses the capacity of a microalgae-based system to remove three highly to medium polar pesticides typically found in freshwater: acetamiprid, bentazone, and propanil. Degradation of the pesticides was firstly studied individually at batch lab-scale reactors and abiotic and heated-killed controls were employed to clarify their removal pathways. At lab-scale, propanil and acetamiprid were completely removed after 7 days whereas bentazone was not removed. Four and two transformation products (TPs) were generated in the biodegradation process for acetamiprid and propanil, respectively. Then, the simultaneous removal of the pesticides was assessed in an outdoor pilot photobioreactor, operated with a hydraulic residence time of 8 days. During the steady-state, high removal efficiencies were observed for propanil (99%) and acetamiprid (71%). The results from batch experiments suggest that removal is mainly caused by algal-mediated biodegradation. Acetamiprid TPs raised throughout the operational time in the photobioreactor, while no propanil TP was detected at the pilot-scale. This suggests complete mineralization of propanil or residual formation of its TPs at concentrations below the analytical method detection limit. Aiming at biomass valorization, diverse microalgae harvesting methods were investigated for biomass concentration, and the effect of residual pesticides on the biogas yield was determined by biochemical methane potential tests. Anaerobic digestion was not inhibited by the pesticides as verified by the digestion performance. The results highlight the potential of microalgae-based systems to couple nutrient removal, biomass production, micropollutant biodegradation, and biofuel production. ; This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness State Research Agency (CTM2016-75587-C2-1-R and CTM2016-75587-C2-2-R) and co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Horizon 2020 research and innovation WATERPROTECT project (727450). This work was also partly supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Consolidate Research Groups 2017-SGR-01404 and 2017-SGR-014) and the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project CEX2018-000794-S). ; Peer reviewed
The incorporation of nanostructures in optoelectronic devices for enhancing their optical performance is widely studied. However, several problems related to the processing complexity and the low performance of the nanostructures have hindered such actions in real-life devices. Herein, a novel way of introducing gold nanoparticles in a solar cell structure is proposed in which the nanostructures are encapsulated with a dielectric layer, shielding them from high temperatures and harsh growth processing conditions of the remaining device. Through optical simulations, an enhancement of the effective optical path length of approximately four times the nominal thickness of the absorber layer is verified with the new architecture. Furthermore, the proposed concept in a Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell device is demonstrated, where the short-circuit current density is increased by 17.4%. The novel structure presented in this work is achieved by combining a bottom-up chemical approach of depositing the nanostructures with a top-down photolithographic process, which allows for an electrical contact. ; This work was funded in part by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under Grants IF/00133/2015, PD/BD/142780/2018 and SFRH/BD/ 146776/2019. The authors also want to acknowledge the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme through the ARCIGS-M project under Grant 720887, the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Hasselt University, the FCT through the project NovaCell (PTDC/CTM-CTM/28075/ 2017), and InovSolarCells (PTDC/FISMAC/29696/2017) co-funded by FCT and the ERDF through COMPETE2020. The authors also want to acknowledge Sandra Maya for the production of images used in this work. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
This study provides new knowledge on the mobility, behavior, and partitioning of 17 perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the water-sediment-plant system along the Dongzhulong and Xiaoqing Rivers. The fate of PFASs in these rivers is also discussed. The study area is affected by the industrial production of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The ∑PFASs in water and sediments close to the industrial discharge were 84,000 ± 2000 ng/L and 2300 ± 200 ng/g dw, respectively, with the concentrations decreasing along the river due to dilution. PFOA was the dominant compound (74–97% of the ∑PFASs), although other PFASs were identified close to urban areas. Principal component analysis and solid-liquid distribution coefficients revealed that long-chain PFASs accumulated in the sediment whereas short-chain PFASs remained in the water all along the river. PFASs were taken up by plants and remobilized to different plant compartments according to shoot concentration factors (SCFs), root concentration factors (RCF), and transfer factors (TFs). Among the four plant species studied, floating plants absorbed high levels of PFASs, while rooted species translocated short-chain PFASs from the roots to the shoots. Therefore, floating species, due to their high uptake capacity and large proliferation rate, could eventually be used for phytoremediation. ; Pere Colomer Vidal acknowledges the funding from the European Union Europe Aid 'SEW-REAP' project [ECRIP ICI+/2014/348–010]. The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the grant PID2019–105732GB-C21 and the Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of the Guangdong Pearl River Talents Program (2017BT01Z134) provided financial support. Dr. Chunling Luo would like to thank the support from the Ten Thousand Talent Program of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC. This work was carried out at the facilities of the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry. ; Peer reviewed
The needs of the Milk Producers' Organization are achieved by strengthening the scattered and poorly organized Indian milk producers, who lack access to resources and services. In fact, the Milk Producers' Organization has emerged as an interface between the business environment and individual milk producers through forward and backward linkages, while facilitating the strength of collective action, bargaining power and economies of scale. It has thus responded appropriately to the economic and socio-cultural needs of producer members and surrounding entities. The National Accounts Statistics (2020) of India estimates that the contribution of livestock in total agriculture and allied sectors Gross Value Added (at Constant Prices) has reached to 28.63 per cent (2018-19) which again shows the importance of the Milk Producers' Organization in a populous country such as India. The Organization extends its assistance in the form of financial support, technical inputs, milk productivity, quality produce, managing value chains, access to market actors and handling environmental and business regulation. This review paper outlines the key viewpoints and aims to explore how the Milk Producers' Organization has built capabilities and optimized capacities in the existing scope and challenges of the Indian dairy sector. The livestock sector supports the livelihood of approximately 20.5 million people in India. India's milk production is at 4.8% CAGR as opposed to 1.8% CAGR of global milk production. However, the Organization faces conflicting areas of interest, such as social concern and business demands and this ambivalence necessitates enabling policy and professionalism to steer organizational growth and sustainability. In view of the globalized business environment, the Milk Producers' Organization has taken on the responsibility to compete both on the domestic and global markets. In view of emerging international trade practices, further study is required to establish mechanisms to deal with Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures. A co-operative business model can be further explored with additional utilization of bovine manure and unproductive bovines to re-establish a more cost efficient model to deal with global price levels of milk and dairy products. ; Potreba za osnivanjem Organizacije proizvođača mlijeka temeljena je na nužnosti za ojačanjem raštrkanih i neorganiziranih, siromašnih indijskih proizvođača mlijeka koji nemaju pristup resursima i uslugama. Organizacija proizvođača mlijeka nastala je na sučeljavanju poslovnog okruženja i pojedinačnih proizvođača mlijeka kroz veze unaprijed i unatrag (forward i backward linkages), istovremeno omogućujući osnaživanje kolektivnog djelovanja, pregovaračke moći i ekonomskih razmjera. Time je prikladno odgovoreno na ekonomske i socijalno-kulturalne potrebe članova proizvođača i subjekata koji ih okružuju. Prema procjeni Statistike nacionalnih računa (2020.) Indije, doprinos stočarstva ukupnoj bruto dodanoj vrijednosti (pri stalnim cijenama) poljoprivrede i srodnog sektora dosegnuo je 28,63 % (2018.- 2019.) što ukazuje na važnost Organizacije proizvođača mlijeka u mnogoljudnoj zemlji poput Indije. Organizacija proizvođača mlijeka pruža svoju pomoć s aranžmanima financijskog kredita, tehničkim ulaznim informacijama, produktivnošću mlijeka, kvalitetnim proizvodima, upravljanjem vrijednosnim lancima, pristupom dionicima na tržištu i bavljenjem ekološkim i poslovnim regulativama. U ovom preglednom članku opisana su ključna gledišta i pokušalo se istražiti kako je Organizacija proizvođača mlijeka izgradila sposobnost i optimizirala kapacitet u postojećem opsegu i izazovima indijskog mljekarskog sektora. Stočarski sektor pomaže izdržavati oko 20,5 milijuna stanovnika Indije. Složena godišnja stopa rasta (CAGR) proizvodnje mlijeka u Indiji iznosi 4,8 % u odnosu na 1,8 % CAGR globalne proizvodnje mlijeka. Međutim, Organizacija proizvođača mlijeka suočava se sa sukobljenim područjima interesa: poput socijalnih pitanja, kao i poslovnih zahtjeva i ta ambivalentnost iziskuje poticajne politike i profesionalizam za upravljanje rastom i održivošću Organizacije. S obzirom na globalizirano poslovno okruženje, Organizacija proizvođača mlijeka preuzela je odgovornost natjecanja na domaćem i globalnom tržištu. S obzirom na nove prakse međunarodnog trgovanja, potrebna je dodatna studija za uspostavljanje mehanizma koji će se baviti sanitarnim i fitosanitarnim (SPS) mjerama. Suradnički se poslovni model može dalje istražiti dodatnom uporabom gnojiva goveda i neproduktivnih goveda za ponovnu uspostavu ekonomičnijeg modela kako bi se moglo nositi s globalnim razinama cijene mlijeka i mliječnih proizvoda.
