Importance Of Different Resources Research Articles

Will carbon neutrality alleviate China's energy security concerns? – The strategic importance of critical metals in batteries

How carbon neutrality may reshape energy security concerns weighs greatly for all major energy-importing countries, including China. Large-scale electrification and energy transition as a crucial pathway will potentially alter the strategic importance of different resources. This study examines three key battery-related metals – lithium, cobalt, and nickel – in China's carbon-neutral future by calculating their foreign dependency ratios and import costs and then comparing them with those of oil and natural gas. Scenario analysis shows that China's foreign dependency ratios of the metals could exceed 80% in many scenarios in 2030 and 2050 with import costs possibly reaching USD 135 billion in 2030 and USD 265 billion in 2050. Their strategic importance in 2050, as represented by import costs, can be equivalent to the average level during 2016–2020 for oil and natural gas if unfavorable conditions happen simultaneously, specifically high metal intensity, low recycling rates, and high metal prices. Hence for China, carbon neutrality might swap conventional energy security concerns with new ones, especially considering the much higher geographic concentration of metal imports. Nevertheless, their foreign dependency could also be substantially reduced or even completely avoided in low-demand scenarios with optimistic recycling rates.

Interaction between energy incumbents and solar entrants: Relationship status complicated

This paper contributes to the conceptualization of niche-regime interaction through a retrospective study of the evolution of business relationships between new entrant solar firms and incumbent municipal electric utilities in Sweden. We analyse how activity links, resource ties and actor bonds evolve over time and discuss the resulting interactions. We find that the relationships initially created mutual benefits, combining utilities’ brands and sales channels with solar firms’ technology competences. Most collaborations later turned into conflict due to the solar firms’ strengthened network positions and the clash between their private sector logic and the utilities’ public sector logic. Conceptually, we emphasize (1) changes in the relative importance of different resources (technology-related interactions), (2) decreased alignment of goals, strategies, and values (institution-related interactions), and (3) shifts in the relative power of new entrants vis-à-vis incumbents (network-related interactions). This leads us to question the common association of niches with new entrants and regimes with incumbents.

Summertime resource selection and reproductive effects on survival of Ruffed Grouse

ABSTRACT Theory suggests that animals should select resources on the basis of perceived fitness benefits, and avoid other available resources that may result in fitness costs. However, resource selection is both a scale- and a life-stage-specific process, in which the importance of different resources may vary among spatial scales of selection and phases of species' life cycles. We investigated multilevel resource selection and summer survival of Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) in Maine, USA, to understand life-stage-specific resource selection and the cost of brood rearing. At the landscape level, male Ruffed Grouse selected areas with greater densities of woody stems taller than breast height, while females avoided these areas and selected areas with greater ground coverage by Rubus. Males further selected areas with greater stem densities at the local level, while females again avoided areas with greater stem densities and selected locally available areas with greater ground coverage by Rubus. Weekly s...

Global Resource Indicator for life cycle impact assessment: Applied in wind turbine case study

Different methodological approaches under Life Cycle Assessment framework are used so far to address the impact of resource depletion. However, they provide partial visions, based on limited available data, and do not reflect resource related aspects. The aim of this article is to go beyond the current Life Cycle Impact Assessment methodologies to complete the existing indicators, by adding important parameters (e.g. recycling), not yet covered by Life Cycle Assessment resource impact assessment indicators.New Characterization Factors are developed, considering different criteria which affect the availability of resources through different life cycles. Global Resource Indicator integrates resource assessment aspects to better characterize the Resource. Both recyclability and criticality of resources are part of the multi-criteria indicator complementing scarcity.Results illustrate that the importance of different resources are influenced by introduction of recyclability and criticality. The new indicator assesses all types of resources including renewables and non-renewables using regeneration rates. The sensitivity of the Characterization Factors with regard to different input parameters is tested and discussed. The results are compared with Abiotic Depletion Potentials indicator and assessment is made on the differences.The newly developed factors provide a more exhaustive vision of the availability of resources and may be used in Life Cycle Assessment or circular economy approaches. Characterization Factors, derived from the new method are tested in a wind turbine case study and their applicability is validated.

Disrupting motivational sequences in chicks: Are there affective consequences?

The ‘reward cycle’ conceptualises reward acquisition as a cyclic phenomenon divided into three motivational stages with related emotional or affective states. For feeding behaviour such a cycle consists of an appetitive stage characterised by foraging and exploration linked to emotions such as wanting and anticipation, a consummatory stage with eating behaviour linked to liking and pleasure, and a post-consummatory stage linked to satiety and relaxation with behaviour like resting and preening. In this study we investigated whether disturbing the feed reward cycle in laying hen chicks, by denying access to parts of a pen designed to accommodate the stages of the cycle (litter area ‘appetitive’; feed area ‘consummatory’; perches and dark area ‘post-consummatory’), resulted in a more negative affective state. To test this, we used a spatial cognitive bias task in which a bowl in one location in the test arena was associated with a positive outcome (mealworm), and in a different location with a negative outcome (unpalatable puffed rice soaked in quinine sulphate). Three ambiguous probe locations were presented during the test. Chicks (n=22) discriminated between the positive and negative location as evidenced by a significant difference in times to reach these locations (mean difference variable-feed treatment 22.1±8.8s; closed-litter treatment 23.3±6.5s; closed-dark treatment 24.4±4.9s and baseline mean difference 22.3±6.4s). Chicks denied access to the litter area was significantly quicker to reach the probe near the negative location than when denied access to the feed area (mean 8.9±1.7 vs. 18.6±1.7) – an ‘optimistic’ judgement of ambiguity indicative of a less negative affective state when denied litter compared to when denied feed. Relative to the initial baseline cognitive bias tests, all treatments resulted in slower times to reach the negative location (closed-dark: 14.9±1.9; variable-feed: 12.6±1.9; closed-litter: 13.7±1.9) and shorter times to the positive location (closed-dark: −7.3±1.7; variable-feed: −7.2±1.7; closed-litter: −7.3±1.7). Continuing improvement in learning of the positive versus negative location discrimination following baseline tests, or a change in perception of the incentive value of the positive and negative outcomes, may explain this finding. There was no evidence that variations in fearfulness or sociality (measured in tonic immobility and social reinstatement tests) affected the outcome of the cognitive bias tests. There seems to be different reactions to disrupting different parts of a reward cycle and further investigations into the links between affect and motivational sequences may provide a better understanding of the affective importance of different resources.

Assessing the Relative Importance of Tangible and Intangible Resources: Empirical Results from the Forest Industry

Abstract The importance of a diverse resource base to competitiveness of firms has been emphasized in resource-based view (RBV) literature and empirical studies done on various industries. Despite this emphasis, resource assessment methodologies within the RBV framework have been seldom approached, and the relative importance of different resources for business operations is not well understood. The data of the study were collected among large- and medium-sized sawmills within the Finnish forest industry. The objective of this study was to assess within the RBV framework the importance of tangible and intangible resources in business operations of sawmills. This was accomplished by introducing a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) method suitable for practical resource assessment. According to the results, personnel, managerial, raw material, and financial resources were the most crucial for sawmills. In the future, applying the MCDA to resource assessments could be combined, e.g., with a financial statement analysis to evaluate the effects of resource usage decisions on business performance.

Sources of knowledge in clinical practice in postgraduate medical students and faculty members: a conceptual map

To determine the most important knowledge sources that can influence clinical practice and to cluster them in conceptual groups based on their relative importance. Faculty members, fellows and residents of a large teaching tertiary care hospital were asked to rate the importance of different resources in their daily clinical practice and their understanding of some common terms from evidence-based medicine. The knowledge sources were distributed in a two-dimensional map using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. A total of 250 of 320 recruited hospital staff returned the questionnaires. The most important resources in daily practice were English journals, text books and literature searching for faculty members, experience, text books and English journals for fellows and text books, experience and peers for residents. Regional journals were the least important resources for all study groups. About 62.7% of residents did not know the meaning of 'number needed to treat', 36.8%'confidence interval', 54.9%'confounding factor' and 44.6%'meta-analysis'. The percentages for faculty members were 41.3%, 37%, 42.2% and 39.1%. The knowledge sources were placed in four clusters in a point map derived from the multidimensional scaling process. The dominance of the traditional information resources and experience-based medicine debate which is the consequence of traditional approaches to medical education may be one of the considerable barriers to the dissemination of evidence-based medicine in developing countries. The evidence-based clinical practice guidelines could be used as a useful passive-predigested source for busy clinicians to make informed decisions. A considerable Western bias may undermine the local research in developing world.