Net Value Research Articles

The short-range and remote analysis of virtual water trade in China

The pattern of virtual water trade within a region or region has a certain complexity. This paper uses multi-regional input-output models, local and tele-coupling theory, and geographical detectors to analyze the short-range and remote spatial pattern, change trends, and influencing factors of China's virtual water trade, which has essential research significance for the sustainable development and utilization of water resources. The results are as follows: (1) The water footprint and virtual water trade of each province in China are more likely to occur between the provinces close to each other, the local distance average distance is below 500 km, and the remote average distance is between 1100 km and 2000 km; (2) China's short-range inflow and outflow water footprint has always been the main dependent part of China's consumption and production end water resources, especially the local water footprint. The contribution of the remote water footprint has gradually been "replaced" by the short-range water footprint, and water resources only form a "small cycle" between the local and surrounding areas, becoming the main pattern of sustainable utilization of water resources in China; (3) The flow pattern of water resources in China still has a spatial imbalance and agglomeration effects. Regions with abundant water resources are net inflow and net import regions in both short-range and remote, and the net inflow and net outflow values in remote are higher than those in short-range; (4) The virtual water trade in all provinces of China tends to be close to each other. The "flow" in the trade network is mainly concentrated in the link path below 800 km. The interaction of various "flows" in short-range and remote virtual water trade results in fewer "flows" on one side and more on the other side in the industrial link path. Local virtual water trade has become an important guarantee and foundation for the utilization of water resources in all provinces and an important auxiliary to the total import virtual water trade; (5) The correlation of socio-economic factors to China's short-range and remote virtual water trade is higher than that of natural factors and scientific and technological factors. The interaction of factors contribution of a single factor more thoroughly and even far exceeds the sum of the contribution of two single factors, which can better explain the formation and change of near and long-distance virtual water trade patterns and flow on the link path.

Environmental Disclosure Practices in Publicly Traded Companies of Bangladesh

This study strives to identify the level of corporate environmental disclosures and their relationship with various corporate attributes using secondary data sources. The data for this study were collected under the dichotomous procedure through content analysis of the annual reports of 190 companies. The statistical results depict that the practice of the Environmental Disclosure Index (EDI) is poor, with the banking sector securing the highest and the IT sector unveils the lowest EDI observed under the study. The regression model implies that company category, company nature, profit after tax, dividend nature, ISO 14001 certification, company age, capital employed, and total revenue are statistically significant. However, net assets value per share and multi-nationality are statistically insignificant. The research will provide valuable guidance to policymakers in formulating appropriate policies for safeguarding society through the protection and reduction of environmental degradation. It will improve the livability of the Earth for future generations. Additionally, it will aid the corporate sector in implementing measures to reduce environmental pollution resulting from their activities. This research investigates the intensity of environmental consciousness among corporations in Bangladesh and reveals the link between corporate attributes and environmental disclosure.

PREMIUMS CALCULATION OF TERMINAL ILLNESS INSURANCE

One related type of critical illness insurance is Long Term Care (LTC) Insurance. This study discusses the calculation of LTC insurance premiums with an annuity as a rider benefit. The benefit is included the cost of insurance care when diagnosed with a critical illness with a terminal condition or death because of any reason. The types of critical illnesses used in this study are cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes mellitus. The data used are in the form of Indonesia's mortality table, and data on the prevalence of critical illness patients with terminal illness conditions. The net annual premium value in this study was obtained through the results of the multiple-state model determination of the transition probabilities of 10 states. The transition probability of an insured candidate is obtained from the prevalence of critical illness patients and the prevalence of mortality. Based on the case study, the amount of net annual premium that must be paid by an insured female aged years in good health is for the protection period and the payment period is years. The cost of insurance premiums for the male insured is greater than for the female insured. The higher the interest rate used, the smaller the net single premium that must be paid. The younger the age when registering the policy, the smaller the premium that must be paid. The longer the coverage period, the greater the premium that must be paid. This result is expected to be a recommendation for the prospective insured to adjust the suitable premium.

Prediction of Turkish mutual funds’ net asset value using the fund portfolio distribution

Prediction of Turkish mutual funds’ net asset value using the fund portfolio distribution

Study on the initial pyrolysis kinetics of strained polycyclic hydrocarbons

Strained polycyclic hydrocarbons are one of the most important classes of high-energy density fuels. In this work, the thermodynamics and initial pyrolysis kinetics of five strained polycyclic hydrocarbons, which are isomers of JP-10 and are linearly aggregates of two cyclopropyl rings and one cyclobutyl ring, were investigated using quantum chemical computations. The initial pyrolysis reactions include ring bond breaking and bridge bond breaking. The ring bond breaking reactions include a diradical pathway which is the direct C-C bond breaking to produce a diradical and an isomerization pathway involving concert bond breaking and H-atom transfer, and the bridge bond breaking reactions lead to two radicals. Our potential energy calculation shows that the ring bond breaking reactions are much more energetically favorable than the bridge bond breaking reactions, which can be neglected in the initial pyrolysis process of strained polycyclic hydrocarbons. The rate constants of the ring bond breaking reactions were computed using variational transition state theory (VTST) or transition state theory (TST). Our calculated results demonstrated that ring bond breaking reactions of the three-membered ring are competitive with that of the four-membered ring. The studied reactions are divided into classes depending on the size of the rings (three- or four-membered ring) and the types of the carbon atoms of the breaking C-C bond (Cs-Cs, Cs-Ct, Ct-Ct and Cq-Cs). Reaction rate rules are established for each class, which are useful for the mechanism generation for analogous strained polycyclic hydrocarbons. Thermodynamic properties including net calorific values per mole, gravimetric net heat of combustion and impulse time of our studied strained polycyclic hydrocarbons are higher than those of JP-10. A comparison of the initial pyrolysis kinetics of our studied strained polycyclic hydrocarbons with the isomer JP-10 indicates that these compounds may be easier to pyrolyze.

Research on the evaluation of the employment effect of Jiangsu artificial intelligence based on neural network on colleges and universities

Abstract Under the wave of digitization of big data information, the development of artificial intelligence technology continues to deepen the information technology revolution, which has a profound impact on human society and will also revolutionize the employment of different industries and groups. In this paper, we study the evaluation of employment effects of universities based on the neural network Jiangsu artificial intelligence. Since a neural network model needs to be built for training and there is a certain requirement for sample size, Jiangsu AI is selected for the study on the evaluation of employment effects in colleges and universities. The results show that the Dense Net model (C2) has better overall performance than the Vgg Net model, with weight and efficiency values of 89 and 88%, respectively, under the index of the educational level of college employment. Analyzing the impact of AI on college employment and unemployment in Jiangsu for the eight years from 2015 to 2022, it is concluded that with the development of time, the employment rate of college graduates reaches 87%, and the unemployment rate is 13% in 2022. This study has a guiding value for the employment of college graduates, and colleges and universities should focus on the future talent demand, guide students to cope with the possible impact of AI technology actively, cultivate students to acquire core competencies and literacy that AI does not easily replace, and promote high-quality employment of college students.

A Data Valuation Model to Estimate the Investment Value of Platform Companies: Based on Discounted Cash Flow

As both investment attraction and mergers and acquisitions targeting information technology and platform companies are becoming more important in the digital-centric economic environment, interest in valuing corporate data assets is increasing. Accordingly, among the income approaches used in business valuation, this study presents a data valuation model based on discounted cash flow. This model is expected to be useful for corporate investment decision-making. The assumptions used in this study for the estimation of data income include intangible asset value, exclude net asset value, and data attribution is centered on technology, human resources, and market factors. In particular, data attribution accounts comprise ordinary data research and development, data labor costs, and data advertising expenses. Data costs were divided into those incurred during collection, storage, curation, analysis, and utilization. Financial statements and related data from a real estate information platform operator over three years were collected and used to simulate the data valuation model. The simulation reveals that the operator possesses KRW 472.6 billion in data assets. Ultimately, the data valuation model developed in this study can contribute to strengthening platform operators’ investment attraction, guaranteeing financial sustainability, and transparency and data assetization.

Price discovery or overreaction? A study on the reaction of Asia Pacific country ETFs to the US stock market

ABSTRACT Despite the presence of arbitrage mechanisms, large premiums (or discounts) for Asia Pacific country ETFs in the US market could still exist in the short run due to the time gap between trading hours of the US and Asia Pacific markets. The price of a country ETF is not solely determined by net asset value but is also affected by information released during US trading hours. In this study, I examine six Asia Pacific country ETFs from 2006 to 2020, using linear regression as well as tree-based ensemble methods to predict the next-day return of the net asset value by analysing information from country ETFs and the S&P 500 Index. The results indicate that the trading hours of local markets significantly influence the predictive power of country ETFs and the S&P 500 Index. The findings suggest that the returns of these ETFs do not necessarily overreact to the US market but instead reflect short-term expectations of the performance of underlying indices. Furthermore, I extend the model to analyse overnight and daytime returns and identify the price correction that occurs during daytime trading hours.

Analysis of Resource Potential of Emergent Aquatic Vegetation in the Curonian Lagoon of the Baltic Sea

This paper presents results of an aquatic vegetation resource potential assessment. The study is aimed at assessing the perspective of biotechnological approaches to reducing the biogenic pollution of water bodies by the removal of aquatic vegetation. The article analyzes the dominant species of aquatic vegetation in the Curonian Lagoon, and their productivity and resource potential. It was established that the concentrations of protein and fat in the biomass of four dominant plants are extremely low, making it impossible to speak of their values in terms of biomass processing. Based on elemental composition, we can conclude that the biomass of Phragmites australis should have a high calorie content because it has a high carbon and hydrogen content (49.6% and 7.1%, respectively), resulting in a high energy value. Synchronous thermal analysis revealed that the maximum energy values of biomasses of Phragmites australis and Scirpus lacustris have a net calorific value of 12.62 and 12.55 MJ/kg, respectively. At the same time, the biomass of these plants has a low ash content (around 6.6–7.6%) and a low sulfur content (less than 0.41%). An analysis of the composition of aquatic vegetation biomass samples allowed us to establish that, given the permissible collection time (no earlier than September), the search for directions in the utilization of aquatic vegetation should focus on processing cellulose with the production of crystalline cellulose, biochar, or biofuel via anaerobic digestion. The removal of the excess biomass of aquatic vegetation (Phragmites australis) will allow the reduction of the nitrogen and phosphorus load in the water body by 140 kg/ha and 14 kg/ha, respectively.

Network pharmacology-based screening of active constituents of Avicennia marina and their clinical biochemistry related mechanism against breast cancer

Breast cancer is the second major cause of cancer death in women globally. Avicennia marina is a medicinal plant that belongs to the family Acanthaceae and is known as grey or white mangrove. It has antioxidant, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial activity in the treatment of various diseases including cancer. The goal of the study is to use a network pharmacology method to identify the potential phenomena of bioactive compounds of A. marina in the treatment of breast cancer and explore clinical biochemistry related aspects. A total of 74 active compounds of A. marina were retrieved from various databases as well as a literature review and collectively 429 targets of these compounds were identified by STITCH and Swiss Target Prediction databases. Breast cancer related 15606 potential targets were retrieved from the GeneCards database. A Venn diagram was drawn to find common key targets. To check the biological functions, the GO enrichment and KEGG pathways analysis of 171 key targets were performed through the DAVID database. To understand the interactions among key targets, Protein-protein interaction (PPI) studies were completed using the STRING database, and the Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network, as well as the compound-target-pathway network, was constructed using Cytoscape 3.9.0. Finally, molecular docking analysis of 5 hub genes named tumor protein 53 (TP53), catenin beta 1 (CTNNB1), interleukin 6 (IL6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and RAC-alpha serine/threonine protein kinases 1 (AKT1) with the active constituent of A. marina against breast cancer were performed. Additionally, a molecular docking study demonstrates that active drugs have a higher affinity for the target that may be used to decrease breast cancer. The molecular dynamic simulation analysis predicted the very stable behavior of docked complexes with no global structure deviations seen. The MMGBSA further supported strong intermolecular interactions with net energy values as; AKT1_Betulinic_acid (−20.97 kcal/mol), AKT1_Stigmasterol (−44.56 kcal/mol), TNF_Betulinic_acid (−28.68 kcal/mol) and TNF_Stigmastero (−29.47 kcal/mol). Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Techno-economic analysis of the water, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions impacts from the adoption of water efficiency practices in the U.S. manufacturing sector

Water is a critical resource for all of manufacturing. As such, mitigating risks to the supply of water to manufacturing plants facilitates maintaining a vital manufacturing sector. Reductions in water use through water efficiency is one method for mitigating risk, however little is known about its potential in the United States (U.S.) manufacturing sector. Herein, we address this gap and calculate the water reduction potential in U.S. manufacturing from commercially available water efficiency opportunities specific to the manufacturing sector. A list of water efficiency measures specific to the manufacturing sector is compiled and applied to estimates of U.S. manufacturing water withdrawals. The energy and carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emission impacts from implementation of these measures are also quantified to better inform the resource, environmental, and economic trade-offs from implementation of these measures. We find that the water savings potential from the evaluated measures is up to 60 percent of U.S. manufacturing water withdrawal for certain subsectors, with the energy and emissions impact dependent on the measure. Further, we calculate the levelized cost of conserved water for several water efficiency measures (-$4,000 to $85/thousand m3, where negative values indicate net cost savings and positive values indicate net cost expenditures) and compare them to the levelized cost of alternative water sources ($600 to $3,400/thousand m3). The results show significant opportunities for water and energy use reductions at levelized costs at least one order of magnitude lower than alternative water supplies, with some being revenue-generating.

Comparative demographics, population projections and egg maturation patterns of four eupelmid egg parasitoids on the factitious host Antherae pernyi.

The genera Anastatus and Mesocomys (both Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae) are important solitary egg endoparasitoids as biological control agents for lepidopterous and hemipterous pests worldwide. Here, we comparatively evaluated the demographic parameters of four important eupelmid egg parasitoids (Anastatus fulloi, A. japonicus, Mesocomys albitarsis and M. trabalae) reared on the factitious host eggs of the Chinese oak silkworm Antheraea pernyi, using age-stage two-sex life tables, their population projections as well as egg maturation patterns. Both the age-specific net reproductive rate (lx mx ) and reproductive value (vxj ) increased initially and then gradually decreased with increasing age in all four parasitoid species. Overall, the two Mesocomys species had higher survival rates at stable age-stage distribution, peak reproductive values, and intrinsic rates of increase than the two Anastatus species. Mesocomys albitarsis had the longest longevity while A. japonicus had the longest oviposition days and mean generation time. The two Mesocomys species are thus projected to have faster population increase than the two Anastatus species. Adult females of all four parasitoid species emerged with only a few mature eggs (< 6 eggs) and most of their eggs were matured post-emergence (i.e., strict synovigeny). The estimated 90% of lifetime complement of reproduction (offspring) and realized days were 374 and 32 for A. japonicus, 337 and 22 for M. trabalae, 330 and 19 for M. albitarsis and 147 and 28 for A. fulloi. Our results indicated that the two Mesocomys species have higher control capacity than the two Anastatus species. Provision of adult food for these strictly synovigenic parasitoids would be essential to prolong their lifespan and continuously produce eggs for parasitizing their hosts for mass rearing or augmentative biological control programs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Farklı Sulama Aralıkları ve Düzeylerinin Salçalık Domatesin Verim ve Kalite Bileşenlerine Etkileri ve Ekonomik Analizi

This study was carried out to determine the effects of different irrigation intervals (II) and irrigation levels (IL) on yield, quality and net income values of processing tomato cultivation in a sub-humid climatic zone in 2019. A split-plot randomized complete block design with three replicates was used for the field experiments. The II4-days (A) and 8-days (B) were determined as main-plot factor and different IL were established according to 100% (T1), 80% (T2) and 60% (T3) of the cumulative evaporation occurring in the Class A pan were determined as the sub-plot factor. Seasonal crop evapotranspiration (ET) values varied between 419 and 527 mm. The effects of different irrigation strategies on fruit yield, average fruit weight, brix and water productivity values of processing tomato were significant at the p&amp;lt;0.01 level. The greatest fruit yield was obtained in AT1 treatment with 111.65 t ha-1. The highest water and irrigation water productivity values were obtained from AT2 as 22.4 kg m-3 and 31.4 kg m-3 and the lowest values from BT3 treatment as 16.1 kg m-3 and 26.0 kg m-3 respectively. The yield response factor (ky) was determined as 1.7 for the growing season. The net income values of different treatments ranged from 213.49 to 5557.54 $ ha-1 and the net income increased with the augmentation inthe irrigation water applied. Based on the study results, AT1 treatment was recommended to obtain maximum fruit yield and net income. However, in locations with limited water resources, AT2 treatment which provides a reasonable balance between quality components and water requirements can also be evaluated.

Associations between Net Gastrointestinal Alkali Absorption, 24-Hour Urine Lithogenic Factors, and Kidney Stones.

It is not clear whether kidney stone formers have an abnormal handling of alkali and acid precursors in the gut, which might affect urine composition and ultimately stone formation. In this study, we aimed to investigate the determinants of net gastrointestinal alkali absorption and its associations with key urinary parameters in a large group of stone formers and non-stone formers. Data were collected from three independent cohorts with at least one 24-hour urine collection. We explored potential determinants of net gastrointestinal alkali absorption and the association between net gastrointestinal alkali absorption, urinary parameters, and stone former status. Finally, we estimated the proportion of the association between urine parameters and stone former status explained by differences in net gastrointestinal alkali absorption. The analysis included 6067 participants (1102 men and 4965 women; 698 and 1804 of whom were stone formers, respectively). Average net gastrointestinal alkali absorption values were consistently lower in stone formers across the three cohorts (from -15.0 to -4.9 mEq/d). Age was directly associated with net gastrointestinal alkali absorption, whereas body mass index and net endogenous acid production were inversely associated. Net gastrointestinal alkali absorption was inversely associated with supersaturation for calcium oxalate, uric acid, and renal net acid excretion and directly associated with supersaturation for calcium phosphate, urine pH, and citrate. The odds of being a stone former was 15% (13%-17%) lower per 10 mEq/24 hours higher net gastrointestinal alkali absorption. Differences in net gastrointestinal alkali absorption explained a modest amount of the differences between stone formers and non-stone formers for supersaturation for calcium oxalate (6.3%) and a sizable amount for supersaturation for uric acid (15.2%), urine pH (38.3%), citrate (26.2%), and renal net acid excretion (63.4%). Kidney stone formers have lower net gastrointestinal alkali absorption, and this explains differences in urine composition and the likelihood of stone formation.

A system dynamics model for end-of-life management of electric vehicle batteries in the US: Comparing the cost, carbon, and material requirements of remanufacturing and recycling

End-of-life (EOL) electric vehicle (EV) batteries can be remanufactured into second-life batteries (SLBs) for residential and utility-level stationary storage applications. However, it is important from a sustainability perspective to assess that there is no increase in material requirement, cost, or carbon footprint of lithium-ion batteries by adding a remanufacturing stage before recycling. A system dynamics model is developed to evaluate the changing EOL battery availability, the change in virgin raw material demand, net present economic value, and carbon footprint of EV batteries with the added remanufacturing stage in the US from 2020 to 2050 depending on the battery state-of-health and battery chemistry over time. We find that compared to recycling, remanufacturing can reduce the life-cycle carbon footprint of the EV battery by 2–17%, by reducing the virgin raw material mined for new batteries. Extended abstractEnd-of-life (EOL) electric vehicle (EV) batteries can either be recycled or remanufactured into second-life batteries (SLBs) for residential and utility-level stationary storage applications. There is a lot of research and policy efforts to support SLB for storage application based on the assumption that using the remaining battery capacity after the in-vehicle use will be environmentally beneficial. However, remanufacturing could negatively impact new EV battery manufacturing by reducing recycled material availability, thereby increasing mining. It is important from a sustainability perspective to ensure that there is no increase in material requirement, cost, or carbon footprint of lithium-ion batteries by adding a remanufacturing stage before recycling. A system dynamics model is developed to evaluate the changing EOL battery availability, the change in virgin raw material demand, net present economic value, and carbon footprint of EV batteries with the added remanufacturing stage in the US from 2020 to 2050 depending on the battery state-of-health and battery chemistry over time. We find that compared to recycling, remanufacturing can reduce the life-cycle carbon footprint of the EV battery by 2–17%, by reducing the virgin raw material mined for new batteries. However, as new battery prices decrease in the long term, the net present economic value of remanufacturing decreases, reducing the overall EOL economic value of the recycling with added remanufacturing stage. This reduction can be compensated for by providing subsidies and incentives for SLBs, which can increase profit.

Physiological Basis of High Nighttime Temperature-Induced Chalkiness Formation during Early Grain-Filling Stage in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Heat stress during the grain-filling stage seriously affects grain quality in rice. However, very limited information is available regarding the effects of short-term high nighttime temperature (HNT) on grain chalkiness formation in rice. In this paper, the effects of HNT at the early grain-filling stage (7 days after ear emergence) on rice chalkiness formation and the potential causes were investigated by using two rice varieties that differed in susceptibility to high temperature. Although the HNT treatment at night dramatically increased the grain chalkiness in Jiuxiangzhan (JXZ) and Huanghuazhan (HHZ), the increase was greater in JXZ compared to HHZ. The net photosynthetic rate and SPAD value were significantly reduced by HNT treatment in the flag leaves of JXZ, while no significant differences were observed in HHZ. Furthermore, HNT treatment reduced the antioxidant enzyme activity in the flag leaves of JXZ, while the opposite was observed in HHZ, exhibiting increased antioxidant enzyme activity. Moreover, HNT treatment altered the endogenous hormone levels, enhanced the enzymatic activities related to starch biosynthesis, and accelerated the filling rate in grains of JXZ when compared to HHZ. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation exhibited that the starch granules in the endosperm of JXZ were loosely packed together and more starch granules with small pits were produced after HNT treatment. Based on these data, we inferred that HNT stress during the early stage of rice grain filling accelerated the grain-filling rate but shortened the grain-filling duration by changing the endogenous hormone levels and enhancing the enzymatic activities responsible for starch biosynthesis, resulting in significant changes in the morphological structure and arrangement of starch granules and eventually causing the occurrence of grain chalkiness.

Low-emission Gas-to-Wire with thermodynamic efficiency: Monetization of carbon dioxide rich natural gas from offshore fields

Natural gas is important during fossil-to-renewable energy transition and its production in remote offshore oil-&-gas fields – even at high %CO2 – is increasing. The prime Research-Question addressed here is: Given the existence of expressive CO2-rich NG reserves at remotely located offshore oil-&-gas field at deep-waters, are there recognizable differences on technical, economic, thermodynamic and sustainability grounds between Offshore Gas-to-Wire-CCS (on floating rig) or onshore (with pipeline tiebacks to field)? Post-combustion capture is assumed in both solutions generating enhanced oil recovery revenues from CO2 utilization. Gas-turbines firing CO2-rich gas with low air-excess provides economic leverage in terms of greater power generation and carbon capture benefits since air-compression power and flue-gas flowrate are reduced lowering post-combustion capture costs. Offshore and Onshore Gas-to-Wire-CCS were evaluated to evince the best global solution: subsea electricity transmission for offshore generation versus subsea gas/CO2 pipelines for onshore generation. Both have positive net values after 11 years of payback-time, in which the Offshore Gas-to-Wire-CCS was deemed as more sustainable. Thermodynamic analysis unveils 35.5% and 36.2% thermodynamic efficiencies of Offshore and Onshore Gas-to-Wire-CCS indicating thermodynamic superiority of the latter. Lost-work results identified the greatest equivalent-power destruction sinks as the gas-combined-cycle (85%) and post-combustion capture (10%). Offshore Gas-to-Wire-CCS is better at medium-capacity around 600 MW and medium-terms, but Onshore Gas-to-Wire-CCS is unbeatable at high-capacity and long-terms since onshore investment is cheaper, more durable, much less footprint-dependent, and much inferior per MWh.

Effects of Nitrogen on Photosynthetic Productivity and Yield Quality of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

This study aims to understand the influence of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters on the yield of winter wheat in some areas of China. Nitrogen (N) application is believed to improve photosynthesis in flag leaf, which ultimately increases the final yield. The experiment was conducted in the wheat experimental base of Shanxi Agricultural University in Taigu, Shanxi Province, China; before sowing, four N application rates were set—N0, N120, N150, and N210 kg ha–1 of the Yunhan-20410 variety from 2019 to 2022. The results from different parameters of research showed that the organic manure partial substitution for chemical fertilizer increased post-anthesis N uptake by 16.4 and 81.4%, thus increasing the post-anthesis photosynthetic capacity and delaying leaf senescence. N150 treatment can improve dry matter (DM) accumulation, thus promoting the increase of the yield. The maximum net photosynthesis PN value of the booting stage and flowering stage indicated that nitrogen application could significantly improve the photosynthetic rate of wheat leaves, among which medium nitrogen treatment had the most significant promoting effect. The single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) value of the leaf of wheat in each treatment increased rapidly in a small range from the jointing stage to the booting stage, respectively. The grain yield under N fertilizer partial substitution for N fertilizer treatment increased by 23%. According to the different significance test, the effects of nitrogen application rate on net photosynthesis PN of winter wheat were extremely significant at all growth stages, indicating that changing the population distribution mode and nitrogen level could effectively improve leaf photosynthetic performance and that N150 level was the best.

Macroeconomic impacts of energy communities and individual prosumers: an assessment of transformation pathways

BackgroundActive citizen participation, especially as collective prosumers in energy communities or as individual prosumers, is vital for a sustainable energy transition. As such, it is explicitly supported by European Union policy. It is the aim of policy-makers that a large proportion of the residential energy demand will be met in this way. At present, there is limited analysis on the macroeconomic impacts of such an increase in prosumers. In this study, we develop and apply an approach for assessing the macroeconomic impacts of transformation pathways, which depict potential developments of individual and collective prosumers.ResultsThe paper methodologically demonstrates how to macroeconomically assess scenarios and transformation pathways originating from cross-impact balance analyses by means of an input–output analysis. In particular, it is shown how qualitative data on future developments can be transformed into financial flows so as to enable an input–output analysis. Based on the assessment of two transformation pathways, our main findings suggest that there might be positive regional and national effects on net value added and employment as well as reductions in CO2 emissions. We find that the scale of the effects strongly depends on the spatial distribution of heterogeneous households and the underlying economic structure.ConclusionsOur study represents a methodological advancement by showing how scenarios and transformation pathways can be assessed in terms of their macroeconomic consequences. This study shows that energy communities and individual prosumers might generate positive effects on value added and on employment. Given that households fix their energy supply options for decades, political decisions to support the energy transition in the residential sector should be taken as soon as possible.

Study of the Briquetting Process of Walnut Shells for Pyrolysis and Combustion

Walnut shells can be used as fuels in power plants directly or as biochars obtained by pyrolysis or torrefaction. They are an example of clean waste biomass which shows a low ash content and a high Net Calorific Value, making them excellent for energy recovery in industrial and non-industrial applications, such as in bakeries, restaurants, and homes. Their main inconvenience is their low bulk density. Densification is a possible solution that reduces the costs of transportation, handling, and storage. In this work, after the characterization of the walnut shells, briquettes were obtained using a hydraulic piston press briquette machine under different conditions to find the best quality without the need for previous grinding for pelletizing. This method features easy operation and maintenance, and the briquette shape could be adapted as desired. The quality of the briquettes was measured through their density and durability. After fixing a compaction pressure to obtain acceptable briquettes, the factors affecting their quality were studied: operating temperature, moisture content, and the presence of small amounts of walnuts. Good quality briquettes were obtained with a compaction pressure of 66 MPa, with densities around 1040 kg/m3, and durabilities higher than 94% when the process was carried at 140 °C. The greatest increase in durability was observed between briquettes obtained at room temperature and those obtained at 80 °C. The presence of small amounts of walnuts, common after the shelling process, improved the durability. Although water is necessary, briquettes obtained from biomass with only 1% of moisture showed better durabilities. Therefore, walnut shells are suitable for obtaining good quality briquettes according to the specifications of solid biofuels established in the standards, without the need for any pretreatment.