Gabriel de Oliveira Quintana, Renata Fragoso Potenza, Sofia Lasmar Lima Oliveira
Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest methane emitter, with methane accounting for 24% of national greenhouse gas emissions and the agricultural sector responsible for 75.6% of these methane emissions, mainly from livestock. Under a business-as-usual scenario, agricultural emissions are projected to rise in line with intrinsic emissions associated with production growth, challenging Brazil’s commitments to the Global Methane Pledge and the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Based on the methodology for calculating emissions from the Brazilian National GHG Inventory and the mitigation potential of different mitigation strategies aimed at the agricultural sector, such as those addressed by the ABC+ Plan. This brief compares a trend scenario against a mitigation scenario based on the adoption of proven low-emission practices and technologies in livestock and crops productions systems. The implementation of methane reduction strategies for livestock and agricultural production can reduce sectoral methane emissions by 28% by 2035 compared to 2020 levels. Policymakers must prioritize scaling of these technologies, replacing the more methane-emitting analogues and establish robust Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems to ensure impact.
Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Food processing and manufacture
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to discover what attributes of casino buffet restaurants are the most important for customers’ willingness to pay (WTP). Design/methodology/approach – Choice-based conjoint analysis was used in this study to test seven attributes: food, price/value, real price, service, atmosphere, the number of reviews and user-generated star ratings. Sawtooth Software was used to do the conjoint analysis, and a series of significance t-tests were run to determine the significance of each attribute on WTP with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings – Based on a survey of 483 respondents who had visited a buffet at a casino within the last two years, this study found that food is ranked as the most significant attribute of a casino buffet restaurant, followed by real price and service quality. Originality/value – Theoretically, this work is the first to the authors’ knowledge to apply the antecedents of behavioral intention to willingness-to-pay for niche restaurants. Practically, the results of this study will help casino buffet operators as they re-open after COVID-19. Future studies could collect data in the post-pandemic environment and examine WTP at casino buffets in different geographic locations.
Andalas University has a business incubator unit called the Technology Business Incubator (InBisTek) Andalas University. This study aims to formulate Key Performance Indicators and measure the performance of Inbistek Andalas University in assisting tenants. Performance measurement is carried out using the Balanced Scorecard method which consists of: on four perspectives namely internal business process perspective, growth and learning perspective, financial perspective, and tenants perspective. Performance measurement is carried out using data obtained from direct observation, questionnaires, and interview directly with the Andalas University Inbistek. KPI formulation is followed by a validation step,so that 31 selected KPIs were obtained. Furthermore, the selected KPIs are continued with weighting to determine the level interest in each KPI through a pairwise comparison questionnaire with the Analytical Hierarchy Process method. Then the performance measurement is carried out according to the perspective on the Balanced Scorecard. Obtained results of performance measurement Andalas University Institute of Technology as a whole is 3.4 which is included in the good category. Based on the results performance measurement, there are 5 KPIs with poor performance category, 5 KPIs with fairly good performance category, 12 KPIs withgood performance category, and 9 KPIs with very good performance category.
This study examines whether Islamic gold-backed cryptocurrencies (Onegram and X8X) provide any diversification benefits to the Islamic investors of Indonesia. We study the co-movements between return and volatility of cryptocurrencies and Indonesian Islamic equity indices during the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. We employ Multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic-Dynamic Conditional Correlation (M-GARCH-DCC) and Continuous Wavelet Transforms (CWT) for this study. We find that the COVID-19 crisis enhanced the spillover effect among the Islamic gold-backed cryptocurrencies and Islamic equities. We also provide evidence that Indonesian investors may invest in cryptocurrencies to minimize the equity sector risks during the pandemic. Our results bear significant implications for portfolio diversification strategies for Indonesian investors.
Francisco Reyes-Santias, Isabel Barrachina-Martinez, David Vivas-Consuelo
Application of the Flusurge 2.0 methodology to predict the needs of conventional hospital treatment, intensive care, and respiratory support resources as a consequence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in several countries. Different countries of the following continents have been selected: Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania. Variables: Total population and age distribution; Number of COVID19 infections; Number of deaths from COVID19; Number of non-ICU hospital beds; Number of ICU beds; Number of ventilators. Method: The proposed possible scenario planning is based on the application of FluSurge 2.0 Software, developed by The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (CHS/CDC). Saturation of conventional hospitalization is expected in India, Uganda, Nepal, and Haiti; there is a forecast of saturation for ICU beds in all sample countries except Turkey. Ventilator saturation is expected in all countries of the sample except Argentina, Austria, Brazil, France, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Poland, Turkey and the USA. The model shows, for a percentage greater than 50% of the countries, difficulties related to the saturation of their ICU units, and the use of ventilators.
Considering the coexistence of cold chain agro-products and ordinary agro-products in the market, the research object is the cold chain logistics subsidy. It is designed that a supply chain system consisting of duopoly upstream agro-products suppliers and a downstream agro-products retailer for research. The mechanism of cold chain logistics subsidy is studied by analyzing the influence of cold chain subsidy on pricing behavior and cold chain decision-making of cold chain agro-products and ordinary agro-products. Based on the decentralized decision-making model without government subsidy, a differential pricing model for cold chain agro-products and ordinary agro-products with government subsidy is established in order to reduce the cost of cold chain agro-products. The optimal pricing strategy of two agro-products suppliers and their downstream retailer can be obtained by solving this problem. The research finds that differential pricing caused by government subsidy can achieve profit Pareto improvement of suppliers, retailer, and supply chain system of cold chain agro-products, but cannot achieve the optimal profit of the whole supply chain. Therefore, in view of the loss of supply chain efficiency caused by decentralized decision-making, the Shapley value method is used to make coordination, and the contract coordination mechanism is designed. Finally, the sensitivity of parameters is analyzed by a numerical example.
This paper examines how initial inequality and poverty rate are related to subsequent economic growth in the provincial level of Vietnam. The results show a robust negative relationship between initial poverty rate and subsequent economic growth. However, there is no link between initial inequality and subsequent economic growth. The results also show that lower inequality leads to lower poverty rate and poverty reduction could help to reduce inequality. Other determinants of inequality and poverty reduction include human capital, investment, gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate and trade openness. The main policy implication that emerges from this paper is that concentrating on poverty elimination will help us build a more equitable society without sacrificing economic growth.
Studying the systematic risk of the banking industry, as a measure of the financial stability, is one of the options to evaluate how strong is the overall industry’s standings against the systematic risk itself. There are number of studies in related areas for both developed and developing markets. This study is the part of the overall examination of the banking industry performance for the developing transitional economies. With the help of the risk evaluation through the measure of Z-score, we are trying to evaluate the financial health of the institutions and as a whole the industry. This will let us explore the financial standings and the performance of the particular market. The other point is that the examination covers the post-financial crisis period with the certain macroeconomic fluctuations of the endogenous to the industry problems such as devaluation in-between the study coverage timeframe. These impacting fac-tors help us understand the effect of both external and internal shocks affecting the banking industry. The relationship between the financial stability and the overall profitability, as a risk and return relation-ship with the effects of external factors like crisis and internal macroeconomic shocks as devaluation is the core point of the interest of this particular study. The findings suggest that the size of the bank plays important but negative role in the way bank behaves. It negatively affects the financial health of the bank industry. Overall, the financial stability is very unstable; as the fluctuations of the Z-score over the period of examination is significant, stating only that the transitional economy is very much vulnerable towards both internal and external risks.
Economics as a science, Marketing. Distribution of products
Budget users are entrusted with financial assets for doing successful business activity. The aforementioned financial assets are owned by the Republic of Serbia, and the proper budget appropriation is distributed to the users. The entry into the 21st century started with the reform of the public finance system, with the aim of joining the European Union. Following international standards, there was a reform in the presentation of balance sheet positions, and increased transparency in the work of state institutions. The paper deals with the basics on which the balance of the financial assets of the budget users begins, thus gaining insight into their specificity of business. In carrying out their activities, state institutions or budget users come into business relations with business entities. In such cash-flows, while respecting the principles of orderly balancing, financial results that is true and, therefore, of importance for the state apparatus can be shown.
Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini Rostami, Arun Kumar Sangaiah, Jin Wang
et al.
Abstract In this paper, state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) method-based optimal control technique is applied to a robot. In recent years, issues associated with the robotics have become one of the developing fields of research. Accordingly, intelligent robots have been embraced greatly; however, control and navigation of those robots are not easy tasks as collision avoidance of stationary obstacles to doing a safe routing has to be taken care of. A moving robot in a certain time has to reach the specified goals. The robot in each time step needs to identify criteria such as velocity, safety, environment, and distance in respect to defined goals and then calculate the proper control strategy. Moreover, getting information associated with the environment to avoid obstacles, do the optimal routing, and identify the environment is necessary. The robot must intelligently perceive and act using adequate algorithms to manage required control and navigation issues. In this paper, smart navigation of a mobile robot in an environment with certain stationary obstacles (known to the robot) and optimal routing through Riccati equation depending on SDRE is considered. This approach enables the robot to do the optimal path planning in static environments. In the end, the answer SDRE controller with the answer linear quadratic controller will be compared. The results show that the proposed SDRE strategy leads to an efficient control law by which the robot avoids obstacles and moves from an arbitrary initial point × 0 to a target point. The robust performance of SDRE method for a robot to avoid obstacles and reach the target is demonstrated via simulations and experiments. Simulations are done using MATLAB software.
Since the first years of the new millennium, the entertainment industry has often dealt with teenage stardom. Proposing original but serialized icons, a large number of young female performers invaded the show business taking a moralist shape and making use of candid representation. Seeking an idea of fashion constructed on their identity, this work analyzes modern teenage star power focusing on the evolution from Disney to the adult entertainment business. Studying the television and cinema productions, the appearances on the red carpet and their presence on the social networks, the essay focuses on three emblematic stars who embody this transformation: Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. The first analysis concerns their debut in the Disney universe; though following different paths, in the past these starlets sold their lifestyles to the rules of the major. At first, Miley Cyrus used to wear childish clothes, such as bizarre costumes totally inappropriate to her young age. Selena Gomez respected the canon of the company, trying to experiment more elegant and mature dresses too. Demi Lovato chose glitzy arrays, corresponding to the Disney code. The second focus investigates the latter stylistic choices made by the actresses, after the Disney departure. Miley Cyrus voluntarily became a victim of the fashion fail by exasperating the sexual elements. Contrarily, Selena Gomez tried to imitate the Golden Age of Hollywood recreating the old fashion styles of the 50s divas, such as Rita Hayworth and Greta Garbo. Demi Lovato never completed her evolution from the Disney canon, failing to create a mature and coherent self-representation. Starting from this particular case study, this essay tries to analyze the transformation of the young idols, seeking to research recurring elements of the relation between fashion and teenage stardom.
Algal bloom is a typical phenomenon of the eutrophication of rivers and lakes and makes the water dirty and smelly. It is a serious threat to water security and public health. Most scholars studying solutions for this pollution have studied the principles of remediation approaches, but few have studied the decision-making and selection of the approaches. Existing research uses simplex decision-making information which is highly subjective and uses little of the data from water quality sensors. To utilize these data and solve the rational decision-making problem, a novel group decision-making method is proposed using the sensor data with fuzzy evaluation information. Firstly, the optimal similarity aggregation model of group opinions is built based on the modified similarity measurement of Vague values. Secondly, the approaches’ ability to improve the water quality indexes is expressed using Vague evaluation methods. Thirdly, the water quality sensor data are analyzed to match the features of the alternative approaches with grey relational degrees. This allows the best remediation approach to be selected to meet the current water status. Finally, the selection model is applied to the remediation of algal bloom in lakes. The results show this method’s rationality and feasibility when using different data from different sources.
Thepaper deals with the issues concerning evaluating the quality of a destination in the context of tourism. A destination has to be looked on as a complex product of tourism consisting of products, services, natural resources, artificially created attractions and information being connected. The satisfaction of visitors to a destination is dependent on the quality of their overall experience that is created on the basis of the cooperation of all participants working in tourism in the given area - these are local inhabitants, service providers, public administration workers and destination management workers. The paper shows possible approaches towards the complex evaluation of the destination quality. The first of the models is based on the European Consumer Satisfaction Index methodology and modifies it for evaluating the satisfaction of a visitor to a destination (in the researched destination, the values of the total ECSI indexes were calculated at 70% level in the case of home as well as foreign visitors). The second model - so-called Four-dimensional model of the destination quality - is based on the integrated approach to quality management when - with the support of the principal component analysis - a new methodology for evaluating the quality of a destination was suggested; it is based on four topically defined quality dimensions: attractions, services, marketing management, cooperation and sustainability. In the case of the suggested models, we also see their potential for increasing the quality of services in rural areas, which is the subject of the authors' further research.