Springer Science and Business Media LLC

This study aims to produce a significant quantity of fermentable sugars from tubers sourced from northern Thailand to boost bioethanol production. Bioethanol production from Amorphophallus spp. tubers was compared using biological and chemical approaches. The tubers were sliced into small pieces (1–2 cm), dried in a solar oven, and powdered before hydrolyzing with cellulase enzymes. The results revealed the fermentable sugar content of Amorphophallus spp. tuber increased from 2.6 g/L–19.01 g/L after enzymatic hydrolysis. Furthermore, under the ideal condition, the total sugar concentration was 33.22 g/L. Enzymes help to speed up the hydrolysis process, and biological methods are also less expensive and more ecologically friendly than chemical equivalents. After the alcoholic fermentation, the highest ethanol content was obtained, 8.68 ± 0.91 g/L, using S. cerevisiae for 48 h. Konjac receives little attention in the biofuel industry due to its irritating nature to the mouth and throat when swallowed, implying that competition between the fuel and food sectors is lower than for other feedstocks such as cassava and corn. Improved fermentable sugars may be used in the near future for bioethanol production to address the worldwide issue of declining fossil fuel consumption.

Efficient use of energy helps to achieve increased production and productivity and contributes to the economy, profitability, and competitiveness of agricultural sustainability of rural communities. Evaluation of wheat and barley production systems in view of energy balance was conducted in Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran. Data were collected by using a face-to-face questionnaire from wheat and barley fields in 2011. Results revealed that total energy input for wheat was 51,040 MJ ha−1 and for barley 44,866; in wheat and barley systems, renewable energy was consumed by 25.43 and 23.53 %, while non-renewable energy was consumed by 74.57 and 76.47 %, respectively. Energy use efficiency, energy productivity, and net energy were 1.7 kg MJ−1, 0.088 kg MJ−1, and 35,987 MJ ha−1 in wheat system and 1.83 kg MJ−1, 0.092 kg MJ−1, and 33,833 MJ ha−1 in barley system, respectively. Energy intensiveness in wheat fields (61.84 MJ $−1) was higher than in barley fields (58.71 MJ $−1). Also, benefit-to-cost ratio in wheat system (1.59) was higher than in barley system (1.35). In general, production in barley fields was more sustainable than wheat production because, in view of ecological indices such as amount of energy use and renewable energy consumption, it was more environment-friendly production.

Chính phủ Trung Quốc rất chú trọng đến ngành công nghiệp pin điện và đã ban hành một loạt các chính sách liên quan. Để tiến hành phân tích đặc điểm chính sách, chúng tôi đã phân tích 188 văn bản chính sách về ngành pin điện của Trung Quốc được ban hành ở cấp quốc gia từ năm 1999 đến 2020. Chúng tôi đã áp dụng một góc nhìn về vòng đời sản phẩm kết hợp với bốn khía cạnh: số lượng chính sách, cơ quan phát hành chính sách, nội dung chính sách và công cụ chính sách. Kết quả cho thấy: (1) Chính phủ Trung Quốc đã dần dần tăng cường sự chú ý đến ngành công nghiệp pin điện, tập trung vào R&D và sản xuất trong những năm đầu và tái chế trong những năm sau; (2) sự hợp tác giữa các cơ quan chính phủ đã dần trở nên chặt chẽ hơn; (3) các chủ đề nội dung chính sách khác nhau tùy thuộc vào giai đoạn vòng đời sản phẩm, và có những vấn đề không chính xác và điểm gãy trong việc xây dựng nội dung chính sách; (4) chính phủ sử dụng các công cụ chính sách khác nhau ở mỗi giai đoạn của toàn bộ vòng đời sản phẩm, nhưng trọng tâm thường nằm ở các công cụ liên quan đến môi trường, trong khi việc sử dụng các công cụ chính sách về phía cầu còn hạn chế. Cuối cùng, một số đề xuất được đưa ra để cải thiện các chính sách hiện tại. Nghiên cứu này có thể cung cấp một tài liệu tham khảo lý thuyết cho việc cải thiện và chỉnh sửa các chính sách ngành liên quan.

The Paris Agreement stands as a landmark in global economies’ commitment to accelerate their sustainable transition and promote food security. Efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change are high on the agenda of both policymakers and researchers who increasingly acknowledge the criticality of innovative measures to support those efforts. However, it is still unclear how climate change factors and innovative capabilities affect food production in the long run, especially for developing countries, which are most threatened by climate change. Using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration approach, this study evaluates the long-run effects of climate change and innovative capabilities on food production in Algeria over the period 1970–2019. To do so, food production is posited as a function of a set of climate change variables (CO2 emissions, mean temperatures, and mean precipitations) and innovative capabilities (human and physical capital). The novelty of this approach helps to tease out the distinct effects of these factors on food production, both in the long run and the short run. The results not only support the presence of long-run relationships between the variables but also show that, while precipitations, human capital, and physical capital positively affect food production, temperatures have a negative relationship with food production. Moreover, CO2 emissions do not appear to have a long-run effect on food production, at least not directly. In the short run, results confirm that food production is positively related to precipitation and stock of physical capital. Results from this study thus suggest that mitigating climate change impacts and ensuring food security, especially in developing countries, will require investments in agricultural innovation.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of environmental responsibility on green consumption intention, the mediating role of environmental concern and the moderator role of price sensitivity in this relationship. Much research has focused mainly on the determinants of green consumption in recent years. An online questionnaire was prepared through Google Forms to collect data and a total of 418 responses were received. The data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows 25.0 and 23.0. Path analysis, mediation role and moderator effect were analyzed in line with the model. Results suggest that environmental responsibility has been an important factor affecting both green consumption intention and environmental concern. Environmental concern does not have a mediating role in the relationship between environmental responsibility and green consumption intention. Lastly, price sensitivity plays a moderator role both in the relationship between environmental responsibility and green consumption intention and between environmental concern and green consumption intention.

The Green Supplier’s Selection (GSS) approach was used in this paper. This approach is focused on environmental and economic criteria when selecting suppliers. This enables the growing demands of different stakeholders to be met. The GSS approach was conducted on the example of the Ghetaldus Brčko Polyclinic with the application of expert decision-making. During the GSS, it is crucial for Ghetaldus Brčko Polyclinic to obtain materials and services that are not harmful to the environment, thus reducing the environmental pollution. The experts assessed the importance of the criteria used and the importance of the observed suppliers. The fuzzy PIPRECIA (Pivot Pairwise Relative Criteria Importance Assessment) method was used to determine the importance of the criteria, while the fuzzy ARAS (Additive Ratio Assessment) method was used to rank suppliers. The results have shown that the most important sub-criteria for experts is the green product and quality when choosing a supplier, and supplier A4 best meets the goals set by the Ghetaldus Brčko Polyclinic. These results were confirmed through the evaluation of the results and by the application of sensitivity analysis. The contribution and importance of this study to provide the methodology that will enable the selection of green suppliers who will provide equipment and materials that are not environmentally harmful and thus the environment is protected because the green supplier cares about environmental protection. The research approach has shown great flexibility because it is adapted to human thinking; thus, it should be used in future studies.

There is a growing wealth of data capturing the direct-use values of the environment and recognition of forests and wild resources as representing “the poor manȁ9s overcoat”. This focus has however resulted in an emphasis on the utilitarian values of wild resources for rural livelihoods and has for the most part overlooked their cultural values. In tangent to these developments within the field of anthropology there has been increased attention directed towards the relationship between biodiversity and human diversity over the past decade. This has resulted in the recognition of what the Declaration of Belem calls an ȁ8inextricable linkȁ9 between biological and cultural diversity. The term bio-cultural diversity has been introduced as a concept denoting this link. Consequently there is a need for more elaborate assessments of the various ways in which different groups of people find value in biodiversity. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the cultural significance of wild harvested plant resources for the maintenance of two gender specific cultural artefacts for amaXhosa people in South Africa, to assess the persistence of these practices in rapidly modernizing communities. We demonstrate the endurance of these ancient cultural artefacts in present-day peri-urban communities and suggest that they point to the need for improved understanding of the significance of bio-cultural diversity. The findings of the study should not be interpreted as illustrating stagnation in the traditional past, but rather as pointing at the need for improved understanding of the significance of bio-cultural diversity in a dynamic sense.

Agritourism is one of the strategies that has been proposed in recent decades for the sustainable development of rural areas and the diversification of the rural economy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sustainability of Charqoli village in Iran by examining and identifying the role of agritourism in entrepreneurship and paying attention to the role of conservation, cultural, social, and vernacular values of this type of tourism. Therefore, using a qualitative research method, that of grounded theory, different dimensions of agritourism for sustainable rural development in line with research objectives were investigated. The results showed that agritourism is related to six general dimensions: socio-cultural, economic, agricultural, environmental, physical and planning, which results in two perspectives: first, the entrepreneurial role of agritourism as a new strategy in rural development, and second, agritourism with a protectionist perspective with an “environment-oriented preservation” view. Based on the achieved findings, it was shown that agritourism emphasizes on the preserving vernacular architecture of the village in order to conserve the environmental values of the region, which is one of the goals of sustainable development, and finally, a model was proposed for the sustainable development of agritourism, which declares that “educating local individuals” should be the first priority in rural developmental planning.

Despite multiple decades of research on sustainable development, a need persists to adequately address the local contexts within which development is implemented. Nationally based development measures often overlook important local and regional variation. This paper, guided by a localization framework, seeks to provide a model for leveraging existing development data to address this issue by responding to the following research questions: (1) What is the regional variation in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the municipal level in the state of Yucatán, México? (2) How does that variation relate to state and national-level data? and (3) What are some potential local factors contributing to that variation? Descriptive statistics for each available MDG indicator were carried out across time and at different geopolitical scales. Then an MDG Index for each goal was calculated from those indicators, followed by a global Composite MDG Index, which combined the MDG Indices. Despite the poor availability of indicators associated with the MDGs at the municipal level, considerable scalar, temporal, and spatial variation was detected. The potential local level factors contributing to this variation were explored. International policies must be informed by and implemented using a localization framework if governments aim to achieve sustainable development across all scales.

The world has experienced perceptible climate change for the past 100 years. Global warming enhances the rapid spread of mosquito-borne diseases resulting in unknown consequences in the future. The global economic development, increased urbanization, and climate change have significantly increased the mosquito-borne disease transmission pattern and dynamics. In India, mosquito-borne diseases have been a core public issue for decades. Hence, mosquito control is primordial for preventing the transmission of malaria, lymphatic filariasis, dengue fever, Yellow fever, Zika virus infection, West Nile fever, and chikungunya virus infection in the human population. The mosquito control strategies based on ecology have received much more attention during the 1960s, as chemical pesticides induce negative impacts on human health and the ecosystem. Most of the current approaches in mosquito control have several limitations related to the development of insecticide resistance, lack of long-term sustainability, and negative impacts on the ecosystem and the environment. This review offers invaluable insights into severe mosquito-borne diseases, various vector control strategies, and the influence of climate change in mosquito-borne disease transmission.