1,720,967 research outputs found
Findings from a streamlined life cycle assessment of PET-bottles for beverage-packaging applications, in the context of circular economy
No full textEconomic activity, especially production, is based upon the use of natural resources. This is a fact that affects the growing pressure of the need to implement a sustainable approach to the design, manufacture, and disposal of products, as waste management and disposal have a significant impact on the environment. Therefore, the EU waste management policy aims to reduce the impact of waste on the environment and health and improve the efficient use of resources in the EU. The long-term goal of this policy is to reduce the amount of waste generated and, if generation is unavoidable, to promote its use as a resource, increase recycling and ensure safe waste disposal. These and related solutions are critical, given the growing amount of plastic waste. Under this perspective, the aim of the article was to assess the relevant environmental issues in the production of PET bottles for packaging applications, which can enable a significant improvement in the life cycle environmental profile not only of the analysed material but, also, of the downstream systems in which they are used as such or processed for finished, more complex goods. Results highlighted that, due to the largest contribution (nearly 84 %) to the environmental profile of the bottles' life cycle, a substantial improvement could be achieved by replacing 50 % of the total amount of virgin PET used with recycled PET
The digitalization in EMAS-registered organizations: evidences from Italy and Poland
No full textPurpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate the scope of digitalization in the EMAS-registered organizations for better understanding its extent in environmental committed firms' activities. Design/methodology/approach: A content analysis was employed to examine the environmental statements of the EMAS-registered organizations. About 60 Italian and Polish entities were selected from the EMAS database using simple random sampling method. Findings: The article fills the gap in the theory of managing change in an environmental context, suggesting that the action plan for sustainable development does not meet the objectives of digitalization. Organizations registered in EMAS do not express a strong tendency to introduce ICT in the pursuit of environmental goals, which is contrary to the assumptions about the benefits of digitalization for sustainable development. Research limitations/implications: The first limitation refers to the small size of the sample. Since environmental statements are always published in national languages, only two countries – Italy and Poland – were chosen for investigation. The use of national language hinders comparison, but the inclusion of more registered organizations could give additional explanations. Secondly, the content analysis would have benefited from the collection of additional source of information (webpages and company documentations), since many firms do not refer to digitalization in the environmental statements. Gathering primary data from managers explaining the motives behind their strategic environmental decisions could be also useful. Practical implications: Giving the agreement about the environmental advantages of digitalization, this study offers to the practitioners the chance to catch new opportunities within the field of environmental sustainability by the employment of more integrated approach to digitalization. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine two dynamically developing areas, namely digitalization and environmental sustainability. This study enriches current knowledge about both areas, examining the level of digitalization of European high-environmental performing firms. In doing this, it reports lack of important use of digitalization in the action plans for environmental commitments in Polish and Italian EMAS-registered organizations
How sustainable are biopolymers? Findings from a Life cycle assessment of polyhydroxyalkanoate production from rapeseed-oil derivatives
No full textThe main purpose of the article was to compare different scenarios of biopolymer production and their impacts on
the environment using Life Cycle Assessment. Three alternative polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA: amorphous PHA and
poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), P(3HB)) production scenarios were considered to assess its environmental impact: Scenario
A - Production ofmcl-PHA/P(3HB) fromcrude vegetable oil; Scenario B - Production of P(3HB)with biodiesel
by-product; Scenario C - Production of mcl-PHA/P(3HB) from used vegetable oil. Subject to the scenario considered,
it was shown that the environmental efficiency of PHA production is highly dependent on carbon sources used, and
it is strongly supporting production ofmcl-PHA instead of P(3HB). As LCA study shows, due to lowyield of P(3HB) in
comparison to mcl-PHA production in considered processes, all the P(3HB) production scenarios have higher impacts
than the production of mcl-PHA. Production processes based on bacterial fermentation had its impacts related
mostly to the raw materials used and to its separation phase. Additionally, using secondarymaterials instead of raw
ones, namely used oil instead of virgin oil, gives significant improvementwith regard to environmental impact. The
resource efficiency is also the identified as the key factor with sensitivity analysis that indicates the possible increase
of biopolymer yield as the most beneficial factor. Biobased polymers have big environmental potential but still need
significant improvement with regard to their manufacturing processes in order to become more economically benign.
Preferably production of these microbial polymers should be integrated into biorefinery blocks, where such
waste stream arises (e.g. biodiesel production plant)
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
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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