1,720,961 research outputs found
CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN THE AGRI-FOOD SECTOR DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC: Paths for sustainable and innovative valorization of agri-food waste and by-products for the Marche Region
No full textUno dei problemi principali della filiera agroalimentare, quindi dell'industria alimentare, è la produzione di notevoli quantità di rifiuti e sottoprodotti. Tale produzione ha impatti sostanziali sulla sostenibilità della filiera, concorrendo a ridurne la redditività e la resilienza. A tale proposito, il modello di economia circolare potrebbe rappresentare una soluzione vincente. L'obiettivo di questa tesi è, quindi, quello di promuovere il modello di economia circolare nella regione Marche attraverso la gestione sostenibile, il recupero e la valorizzazione dei rifiuti e dei sottoprodotti delle filiere agroalimentari. Questo Dottorato di Ricerca è stato svolto nell’ambito dei “Dottorati Innovativi con caratterizzazione industriale (POR Marche FSE 2014/2020 Progetto “Dottorato Innovativo” - Borse di studio per dottorato di ricerca per l’innovazione del sistema regionale Edizione Anno 2020) finanziato dalla Regione Marche.
Dopo la definizione del background introduttivo, l’elaborato è composto da sei capitoli, ovvero dai sei articoli prodotti nel corso del triennio e pubblicati o sottomessi a riviste internazionali o convegni. Il primo capitolo presenta una review della letteratura relativa all’applicazione del modello circolare nel settore agroalimentare, con particolare riferimento alla valorizzazione degli scarti. Nel secondo capitolo, viene delineata una panoramica della politica attuale sull’economia circolare in Europa ed Italia. Nel terzo capitolo viene proposto uno studio su alcune filiere produttive (pasta, ortofrutta, olio, vino, caffè) per definire l’applicabilità del modello circolare nella regione Marche. A tal fine, si è svolta un’indagine a questionario per identificare le necessità e le problematiche percepite dagli operatori del settore. In aggiunta, data la scarsità di dati affidabili sui quantitativi di scarti prodotti, si è proceduto mediante l’adozione della metodologia del bilancio di massa a definire tipologie e quantità di rifiuti prodotti annualmente da ciascuno dei casi di studio selezionati. Sulla base di questa analisi, il capitolo quattro propone l’adozione di un modello di business circolare dedicato alla produzione di energia da scarti di filiera (ortaggi surgelati), concentrando l’attenzione su un impianto di biogas convertito a biometano e studiandone la redditività mediante il metodo dei flussi di cassa attualizzati. Sempre nell’ambito energetico, è stata effettuata un'analisi comparativa tra un caso studio in Brasile e uno in Italia, per valutare i progressi della politica dell'economia circolare nei due Paesi e della produzione di bioenergia. Tale studio è consultabile al capitolo cinque. Infine, considerato che l’economia circolare è sia un modello di produzione che di consumo, nel capitolo sei si è indagata la percezione del consumatore dell’economia circolare e l’intenzione ad acquistare e pagare un prodotto parzialmente ottenuto da scarti di lavorazione agroalimentari. I dati sono stati raccolti mediante un
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questionario online ed elaborati con un modello logit, per ricavare i fattori che influenzano significativamente l’intenzione all’acquisto e per stimare la disponibilità a pagare. Il lavoro di tesi si conclude con alcune osservazioni, strategie, suggerimenti e idee per il futuro della ricerca in questo ambito.One of the main problems of the agri-food supply chain, therefore of the food industry, is the production of large quantities of waste and by-products. This production has substantial impacts on the sustainability of the supply chain, contributing to reduce its profitability and resilience. In this respect, the circular economy model could be a successful solution. The aim of this thesis is, therefore, to promote the model of circular economy in the Marche region through the sustainable management, recovery and valorization of waste and by-products of agri-food chains. This PhD has been carried out within the framework of the "Innovative PhDs with industrial characterization (POR Marche FSE 2014/2020 Project "Innovative PhD" - Scholarships for PhD for innovation of the regional system Edition 2020), funded by the Marche Region.
After the background and introduction, the paper is composed of six chapters, that are the six articles produced over the three-year period and published in or submitted to international journals or conferences. Chapter 1 presents a literature review on the application of the circular model in the agri-food sector, referring to the recovery and valorization of waste. In the second Chapter, an overview of the current circular economy policy in Europe and Italy is outlined. In the third Chapter, a study is proposed on selected production chains (pasta, vegetable processing, oil, wine, coffee) to define the applicability of the circular model in the Marche region. A questionnaire was therefore carried out to identify the needs and problems perceived by the operators in the sector. In addition, due to the lack of reliable data on the quantities of waste produced, the mass balance methodology was adopted to define the types and quantities of waste produced annually from each of the selected case study. Based on this analysis, Chapter 4 proposes the adoption of a circular business model dedicated to the production of energy from waste in the supply chain (frozen vegetables), focusing on a biogas plant converted to biomethane producing one and studying its profitability through the discounted cash flow method. Still considering the energy sector, a comparative analysis between a case study in Brazil and one Italy was carried out, to assess the progress of the circular economy policy in the countries and the production of bioenergy. This study is available in Chapter 5. Finally, given that the circular economy is both a production and consumption model, in Chapter 6 the consumer’s perception of the circular economy and the intention to buy and pay for a product partially obtained from food processing waste were investigated. Data were collected through an online questionnaire and processed with a logit model, to derive the
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factors that significantly influence the intention to purchase and to estimate the willingness to pay. The thesis concludes with some conclusive remarks and future directions
Water stress as a critical issue for Mediterranean viticulture: economic evidence from the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo PDO grape based on a case study in central Italy
Full text linkClimate change has impacted viticulture in almost all of the Mediterranean area, mainly because of temperature rises and changes in precipitation patterns, thus influencing yield, quality, and the management of grape production. One of the measures to mitigate these effects is the adoption of irrigation strategies. This has environmental and economic implications. Thus, it seems essential to evaluate if irrigation is economically and environmentally justified to ensure the sustainability of the vineyard by preserving the water resource. The aim of this research is to compute water-use indicators such as Water Productivity and Economic Water Productivity using field data obtained and to assess the economic impact of supplemental irrigation expenses through the analysis of a single case study. Since the results are heavily influenced by pedoclimatic conditions, vineyard structure, and economic decisions, the generalizability of our findings is not conceivable. However, our findings are valuable in determining when supplemental irrigation is or is not viable. Nonetheless, the findings might shed light on how water is managed in an Italian vineyard. Future supplemental irrigation plans ought to be developed using precision viticulture technologies to monitor the intricate soil-plant-environment syste
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Exploring the role of blockchain technology in modern high-value food supply chains: global trends and future research directions
Full text linkAbstract Trust, safety, and quality are among the most important factors in the agri-food supply chains. Traceability is a powerful tool to ensure them, but implementing a transparent and effective system is a complex operation. As a result, innovative systems, like blockchain, could be introduced. Although research on its impacts in the agri-food is recent, the literature appears fragmented. The objective is to investigate the studied aspects of the blockchain adoption in agri-food, with the purpose of retrieving meaningful considerations about the current state of the art about strategic high-value supply chains, such as wine and olive oil, particularly subjected to fraudulent behaviors. A productivity measurement was applied to retrieve the evolution of the number of documents through the years, the most productive countries, the sources, the research areas, and the most significant papers in terms of number of citations received. To understand the research trends, a co-occurrence analysis was employed. Results show that most of the existing studies focus on the role of blockchain in the resolution of some critical issues as food safety and frauds. While wine is currently an emerging sector in which this approach can be implemented, olive oil still needs more attention. In both cases, blockchain could potentially help to support the profitability and sustainability of the production. The research underlines the importance of focusing on the environmental and social dimension of the blockchain phenomenon and the use of technology to improve the efficiency of agri-food chains and reduce waste and resource use
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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