Future Market Prospects Research Articles

Exploring the Future of Polyhydroxyalkanoate Composites with Organic Fillers: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities.

Biopolymers from renewable materials are promising alternatives to the traditional petroleum-based plastics used today, although they face limitations in terms of performance and processability. Natural fillers have been identified as a strategic route to create sustainable composites, and natural fillers in the form of waste by-products have received particular attention. Consequently, the primary focus of this article is to offer a broad overview of recent breakthroughs in environmentally friendly Polhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polymers and their composites. PHAs are aliphatic polyesters obtained by bacterial fermentation of sugars and fatty acids and are considered to play a key role in addressing sustainability challenges to replace traditional plastics in various industrial sectors. Moreover, the article examines the potential of biodegradable polymers and polymer composites, with a specific emphasis on natural composite materials, current trends, and future market prospects. Increased environmental concerns are driving discussions on the importance of integrating biodegradable materials with natural fillers in our daily use, emphasizing the need for clear frameworks and economic incentives to support the use of these materials. Finally, it highlights the indispensable need for ongoing research and development efforts to address environmental challenges in the polymer sector, reflecting a growing interest in sustainable materials across all industries.

A REVIEW OF EPOXY-NANOCOMPOSITE PROPERTIES

Epoxy resins have been the subject of many studies as a consequence of their extensive usage in recent years. The brittleness and low resistance to propagation and crack initiation of epoxy resins are well-recognized characteristics. Therefore, in recent years, experts have concentrated on increasing epoxy resin's fracture resistance. Adding inorganic nanoparticles like titanium dioxide (TiO2) TiO2, silica (SiO2), carbon black, alumina (Al2O3), and others to the polymer matrix is one of the most investigated techniques in polymer science. Despite having a modest nanofiller content, the resulting nanocomposites may enhance their thermal, mechanical, rheological, electrical, and optical characteristics. These nanocomposites are an alternative to metal-based materials. They have great promise as multifunctional materials in a range of applications, including optoelectronic devices, semiconductor devices, civil engineering, automotive, and aerospace. To show potential future directions and market prospects for polymer nanocomposites reinforced with TiO2 nanoparticles, current results, and trends have been examined and highlighted. In addition, the current review surveys many studies that highlighted using nanoparticles as reinforcement, their different structure, the interface, and the geometry and structure of the resulting nano-materials reinforced resin.

P‐13.14: Comparison between AMOLED and Traditional Display Technology and Application of AMOLED

The market demand for AMOLED panels is currently dominated by smartphones. Starting from 2017, iPhoneX has entered a period of rapid outbreak. At present, AMOLED panels have basically become the basic configuration of high‐end mobile phones of various brands. At the same time, due to the emergence of new mobile phone forms such as folding screens and flexible screens, the flexible AMOLED panel market has seen new rapid growth points. Driven by consumer demand, the output of AMOLED terminal products has shown explosive growth. Therefore, AMOLED has gradually become the OLED display Mainstream technology. The most fundamental difference between LCD and OLED is that OLED is self‐luminous, while LCD needs to be illuminated by a backlight to display. But whether it is an AMOLED screen based on OLED material or an improved IPS screen of LCD, they have their own advantages due to different working principles. It is foreseeable that a new generation of display technology is emerging rapidly, and the future AMOLED market prospects can be expected. This article will compare AMOLED and traditional display technology through multiple aspects, highlighting the advantages and prospects of AMOLED. And emphatically introduces the current application of AMOLED and the future application scenarios

Durable Disadvantage: Gender and the Mark of Unauthorized Status in Immigrants' Occupational Trajectories.

Adverse life course events associated with unemployment can negatively affect individuals' future labor market prospects. Unauthorized status, and subsequent unauthorized employment, may operate similarly, marring immigrants' labor market prospects even after they change legal status. However, it is unclear how and why any durable disadvantage associated with prior unauthorized status operates differently by gender. This is an important shortcoming given that legal status and gender overlap to influence both migration and stratification. Using longitudinal data from a nationally-representative sample of lawful permanent residents, we find durable disadvantage associated with prior exposure to unauthorized status, especially among women. Men with prior exposure to unauthorized status experience persistent occupational disadvantage over time relative to men who were never unauthorized. However, women with exposure to unauthorized status experience widening occupational disadvantage over time relative to women who were never unauthorized. Human capital and legal processes help to explain this pattern.

자율주행 자동차 산업의 미래 시나리오 예측 연구

In recent years, the autonomous vehicle industry has changed drastically. So the needs and interests in predicting future technologies and market prospects of the autonomous vehicle field have been very increased. However, considering the characteristics of the automotive industry, which has various factors, complex correlation of them and big influence on each other, the study of systematic future forecasting methodologies are urgent and necessary which are applicable to autonomous vehicle industry. In this research, the two methods such as “Field Anomaly Relaxation” and “Multiple Perspective Concept” were analyzed and chosen, which are suitable to automotive industry. By the combination of two methods this research developed and examined the three future scenarios related to core technologies and industry trends. And these scenarios feasibility was verified by experts and evaluation checklist. This research has a contribution that this future scenario forecasting approach can be applied to the industries which have various volatility like the autonomous vehicle industry.

Recycling of lithium iron phosphate batteries: Status, technologies, challenges, and prospects

The limited fossil fuel supply toward carbon neutrality has driven tremendous efforts to replace fuel vehicles by electric ones. The recycling of retired power batteries, a core energy supply component of electric vehicles (EVs), is necessary for developing a sustainable EV industry. Here, we comprehensively review the current status and technical challenges of recycling lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. The review focuses on: 1) environmental risks of LFP batteries, 2) cascade utilization, 3) separation of cathode material and aluminium foil, 4) lithium (Li) extraction technologies, and 5) regeneration and transformation of cathode materials. Detailed analyses are elaborated with case examples and technical challenges. Our critical analysis demonstrates that compared with retired lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) batteries, LFP batteries do not contain the high-value elements such as Co and Ni, so the economic drive for LFP recycling is compromised although future market prospects are substantial. It is of great practical significance to develop low-carbon and cost-effective Li extraction technologies and regeneration processes for cathode materials to ensure a sustainable and stable development of the LFP battery and EV industry.

IMPLICATIONS OF PENTAGON THEORY OF CONTEXTUALIZED MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES (CMIs) FOR FUTURE JOB PROSPECTS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The Purpose of the study was to test the Pentagon theory of Contextualized Multiple Intelligences (CMIs) in the context of fourth industrial revolution. It also explored the awareness of students regarding the trends and challenges of future job market. Lastly, skills and competences required by graduate to meet the complexities of future job market were also investigated. This study followed the critical paradigm, therefore sequential explanatory mixed method research design was used. All the masters’ level students, heads of departments/ senior faculty members and experts of social sciences were considered as population for this study. Multistage sampling techniques was employed to select the sample size for quantitative phase (n=786). For qualitative phase, purposive sampling technique was used and 12 experts of social sciences were selected. Self-developed questionnaires were used to collect data from respondents. Contextualized Multiple Intelligences questionnaire has 32 statements under 6 factors with Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.92. Similarly, Future Job Market Prospects questionnaire has 20 statements under 4 factors with Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.91. Semi-structured Interview protocol was developed and used during the qualitative phase. Study revealed positive and strong correlation between the contextualized multiple intelligences and future job market prospects. However, the public universities students showed relatively larger correlation (r=.631, p=.000) as compared to private universities students (r=.556, p=.000). Furthermore, male and female students have differences in their contextualized multiple intelligences. Besides, students exhibited high level of understanding regarding the need of market driven content and importance of employability skills. Experts (Qualitative data analysis) highlighted the need for active role of universities in re-skilling students with contextualized multiple intelligences to make them more desirable for employability.

Costly children: the motivations for parental investment in children in a low fertility context

While the literature has documented a general increase in parental investment in children, both in terms of financial and time investment, the motives for this increase remain unclear. This paper aims at shedding light on these motives by examining parents’ own narratives of their parenting experiences from the vantage point of three theoretical perspectives. In doing so, the paper brings side-by-side the goal of providing children with human and social capital to improve their future labour market prospects, the pressures on parents to conform to new societal standards of good and intensive parenting, and the experience of parenting as part of self-development. The data come from a qualitative study of middle-income parents in Canada and the USA. The results provide some support for each of these perspectives, while also revealing how they jointly help explain parents’ large investment in their children as well as the tensions and contradictions that come with it.

From Liminal Labor to Decent Work: A Human-Centered Perspective on Sustainable Tourism Employment

In its sustainable tourism agenda for 2030, the UN World Tourism Organization has embraced three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One of these, specifically SDG 8, highlights the need to pursue decent work and growth. Nevertheless, despite the growing recognition of this target and although there is a growing number of writings lamenting the precarity characterizing many tourism-related jobs, the topic of tourism-related work continues to receive sparse attention in the considerable volume of academic literature on tourism and sustainability. This paper attempts to redress this neglect. First, by providing a review of extant studies on tourism labor, we seek to explain why this research lacuna continues to exist. We then examine organizational and technological aspects of tourism governance, which hinder attempts to establish decent work and improve dignity in the tourism industry worldwide. By acknowledging the volatile and liminal status of tourism work and future labor market prospects, we arrive at the following question: what should sustainable tourism work look like? This leads us to suggest that the development of a human-centered research agenda, which focuses on workers’ agency and resources, offers a promising research avenue for expanding on the tourism and sustainability research agenda.

Analysis of the Current Situation of Human Resources and Analysis of Future Planning Countermeasures

With the further deepening of the reform and opening up process, our country's economic level has continued to improve. Especially since the 21st century, science and technology have been constantly innovating and developing. In different industries and fields, science and technology have been integrated. Traditional methods that do not adapt to the development of the times have been abandoned. In this context, there is an urgent need for talents in all fields of life to make the development of the industry more integrated and professional. This article analyzes the current situation of human resources and future planning countermeasures, summarizes the main problems in the talent market at this stage based on some literature data, and puts forward several important roles of talent planning on the basis, and finally investigates the current situation of human resources. It is mainly to sort out and analyze the overall cultural level of human resources and the distribution of technical personnel, to provide a basis for future talent market forecasts and prospects. Data analysis shows that only 17% have a university degree or above. This shows the city's human resources the level of education is obviously low, and the overall quality of human resources cannot meet the needs of economic development, and is eager to further improve.

On current and future economics of electricity storage

AbstractIncreasing electricity generation from variable renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, has led to interest in additional short‐term and long‐term storage capacities. The core objective of this paper is to investigate the costs and the future market prospects of different electricity storage options, such as short‐term battery storage and long‐term storage as pumped hydro storage, as well as hydrogen and methane from power‐to‐gas conversion technologies. The method of approach is based on a formal economic framework with a dynamic component to derive scenarios up to 2040.The major conclusion is that the economic prospects of storage are not very bright. For all market‐based storage technologies it will become hard to compete in the wholesale electricity markets and for decentralized (battery) systems it will be hard to compete with the end users’ electricity price. The core problem of virtually all categories of storage are low full‐load hours (for market‐based systems) and low full charge/discharge cycles (for decentralized batteries). However, any new storage capacity should be constructed only in a coordinated way and if there is a clear sign for new excess production, in this case from variable renewables. In addition, for hydrogen and methane there could be better economic prospects in the transport sector due to both, higher energy price levels as well as a general lack of low carbon fuel alternatives. © 2020 The Authors. Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessing Dutch housing cycle and near-term market prospects

PurposeThis study is a practice undertaking examining three main concerns that currently dominate Dutch housing market debate: how long is the cycle, will the current house price inflation continue and is housing market in a bubble. With national house prices reaching record highs across all major cities, future market prospects became a topic of significant debate among policymakers, investors and the populace.Design/methodology/approachA triangulation of well-established academic methods is used to perform investigation. The models include Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter, volatility autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH approximation) and right tail augmented Dickey–Fuller (Rtadf) test (bubble screening technique).FindingsInterestingly, over the years from 1985 to 2019 research period, filtering extracts only one Dutch national housing cycle. This is a somewhat distinct characteristic compared to other advanced Western economies (inter alia the UK and the USA) where markets tend to experience 8- to 10-year gyrations. Volatility and Rtadf test suggest that current house prices in most Dutch cities are in excess of historical averages and statistical thresholds. House price levels in Almere, Amsterdam, The Hague, Groningen, Rotterdam and Utrecht are of particular concern.Originality/valueRetail investors should therefore be cautious as they are entering the market at the time of elevated housing values. For institutional investors, those investing in long-term, housing in key Dutch metropolitan areas, even if values decline, is still an attractive investment conduit.

STEM CAREERS IN THE BREXIT ERA.

The UK's exit from the EU has had a mixed effect on scientists' assessment of their international mobility and future job market prospects, according to the 2020 STEM Survey

Altria-Juul Labs deal: why did it occur and what does it mean for the US nicotine delivery product market

On 19 December 2018, Altria announced an offer of US$12.8 billion for a 35% share of Juul Labs.1 2 The deal combines Altria (formerly Philip Morris),3 the company with the...

How much does others’ protection matter? Employment protection, future labour market prospects and well-being

Abstract Employment protection legislation (EPL) is an important determinant of workers’ perceived labour market prospects and also their subjective well-being. Recent studies indicate that it is not only a worker’s own level of protection that matters for individual prospects and well-being, but also that of others. We examine how such cross-effects on well-being are mediated by workers’ perceived risk of job loss and future employability. We apply a structural model to data from the European Quality of Life Survey and the OECD Employment Protection Database. Our results indicate that both permanent and fixed-term workers’ perceived employability is affected by EPL, positively for fixed-term workers and negatively for permanent workers. Stricter protection for permanent workers is positively related to fixed-term workers’ perceived risk of job loss. EPL has significant indirect (cross-)effects on life satisfaction via the mediators. There are no indications for direct, non-mediated effects.

Institutional and policy frameworks shaping the wooden multi-storey construction markets: a comparative case study on Austria and Finland

ABSTRACTIn the urbanizing society faced with the climate change challenge, wood has major potential as a low-carbon and renewable construction material. Yet, Wooden Multi-storey Construction (WMC) remains a niche even in countries with rich forest resources. This paper compares the institutional and policy setting and assesses the WMC growth prospects in Austria and Finland, based on expert interviews, Delphi surveys, and the review of secondary materials. Clear differences were detected in the policy frameworks and institutional settings between the two countries. The Austrian fairly informal and largely private sector driven approaches to promote the growth of the WMC sector seem to have had a rather similar effect on the markets, as the formal policy measures, typically driven by the public sector in Finland. In both countries, the interviewed experts suggested additional, but partly different, policy measures and institutional changes to accelerate WMC market diffusion. In spite of the increase in WMC activity within the past ten years, the WMC market share is likely to remain rather low by 2030 in both countries, as the institutional frameworks are not expected to change abruptly. However, the future market prospects appear to be somewhat more positive in Finland compared with Austria.

Electric vehicles: Problems or solutions

This paper discusses the current directions of vehicle developments, as well as the barriers and opportunities for using electric vehicles instead of conventional vehicles. There is also mentioned a problem of the battery charging system. Compared to refueling gasoline powered vehicles, charging of battery electric vehicles takes considerably more time, which renders a single-purpose charging infrastructure inconvenient. However, an objective of this article is also to investigate the future market prospects of various types of EVs, with the economics of EVs in comparison to conventional cars. Only if the final driving costs can be considerably reduced will EVs gain significant market shares.

Hydropower Operation in a Changing Market Environment A Swiss Case Study

Hydropower (HP) is expected to play an important role in the European energy transition by providing back-up and storage capacity as well as flexibility for intermittent renewable energies. However, due to low electricity market prices the profitability of HP decreased in recent years. In this paper, we analyze historic revenue potentials and future market prospects for HP taking into account different development paths. Using a short-term HP operation model to capture market opportunities as well as technical and natural constraints of HP plants, we model three representative Swiss HP plants. The results indicate that in the last years, balancing markets could have provided significant additional revenues for HP plants. However, accounting for uncertainties and market characteristics, the potential of balancing markets is reduced but cross-market optimization is still beneficial. Looking into the future, market price prospects for the coming decade are low to modest. Global fuel markets and the European Union Emissions Trading System (ETS) will be the main drivers for decisions for Swiss HP. The revenue potential from balancing markets will be reduced significantly in the future if all Swiss HP operators aim for balancing. While optimized operation across markets helps Swiss HP to increase its revenues, it is limited in scale.

How Much Does Others' Protection Matter? Employment Protection, Future Labour Market Prospects and Well-Being

Employment protection legislation (EPL) is an important determinant of workers’ perceived future labour market prospects as well as their subjective well-being. Recent studies indicate that it is not only a worker’s own level of protection, but also the employment protection of other workers that matters for individual prospects and well-being. We contribute to this literature by examining how such cross-effects on well-being are mediated by a workers’ perceived risk of job loss and future employability. We apply a structural model to data from the Third Wave of the European Quality of Life Survey, combined with summary indices from the OECD Employment Protection Database. Our results are indicative of cross-effects. Stricter protection for permanent workers (stricter regulation on the length and number of renewals of fixed-term contracts) is associated with lower (higher) perceived employability for both permanent workers and fixed-term workers. In addition, stricter protection for permanent workers is positively related to fixed-term workers’ perceived risk of job loss. We do find some evidence that EPL has significant indirect (cross-)effects on life satisfaction via the mediators. There are no indications for direct, non-mediated effects.

The Unemployed Workers’ Perceptions of Stress and Employment Prospects in Macedonia: The Role of Alternative Adjustment Mechanisms

Abstract Depressed labour market conditions in Macedonia manifested by high and persistent unemployment rate, strong segmentation and prevailing long-term unemployment is considered as a heritage of more than two decades long period of transition. Unemployment has a number of negative consequences such a decreased income which is assumed to influence the subjective experience of unemployment. The negative macroeconomic shocks in Macedonia have been mitigated due to the strengthened role of alternative labour market adjustment mechanisms such as: employment in the informal sector, emigration and inactivity. However, their impact on the unemployed workers’ perceptions of stress and future labour market prospects is less clear-cut. In this paper we use results from a survey carried out on a sample of unemployed workers in Macedonia in order to identify the psychological implications of unemployment by assessing the perceived stress and employment prospects with particular reference to the role of alternative labour market adjustment mechanisms.