Rapid Productivity Growth Research Articles

Soy Without Borders: The Transnational Dynamics of Commodity Frontiers In South America (1971-2019)

Abstract The rapid growth of soybean production and exports over the past five decades has transformed vast regions in South America. Five countries in particular - Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay - are amongst the ten largest soy producers in the world. Taken together, they have been called the United Republic of Soy or Soylandia due to similarities in the socio-environmental drivers and consequences of soy production between their territories. This article analyses the nature of soy production and exports in Soylandia as a window into the nature of transnational commodity frontiers. We draw on data from FAOSTAT and the Observatory of Economic Complexity to show how the commodity frontier of soy has expanded over time within and between these five countries, as well as the importance of ecoregions in shaping that expansion. We argue that more attention should be paid to the socio-environmental drivers and consequences of agricultural commodity frontiers that transcend traditional understandings of national borders.

Spatiotemporal Correlation Analysis of Hydraulic Fracturing and Stroke in the United States.

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking has led to a rapid growth of oil and gas production in the United States, but the impact of fracking on public health is an important but underresearched topic. We designed a methodology to study spatiotemporal correlations between the risk of fracking and stroke mortality. An annualized loss expectancy (ALE) model is applied to quantify the risk of fracking. The geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model is used to analyze spatiotemporal correlations of stroke mortality, fracking ALE, and nine other socioeconomic- and health-related factors. The analysis shows that fracking ALE is moderately correlated with stroke mortality at ages over 65 in most states of fracking, in addition to cardiovascular disease and drug overdose being positively correlated with stroke mortality. Furthermore, the correlations between fracking ALE and stroke mortality in men appear to be higher than in women near the Marcellus Shale, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia, while stroke mortality among women is concentrated in the Great Plains, including Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Lastly, within two kilometers of the fracking mining activity, the level of benzene in the air was found to be significantly correlated with the fracking activity in Colorado.

R&D, Industrial Policy and Growth

An issue with estimating the impact of industrial support is that the firms that receive support may be politically connected, introducing omitted variable bias. Applying fixed-effects regressions on Vietnamese panel data containing several proxies for political connectedness to correct this bias, we find that firms that receive industrial support in the form of tax holidays experience more rapid productivity growth, particularly in R&D-intensive industries, and less so among politically connected firms. These findings do not appear to be due to the presence of financing constraints. We then develop a second-generation Schumpeterian growth model with many industries, and show that tax holidays disproportionately raise productivity growth in R&D-intensive industries. These results are significant and important for governments, especially those in transition and developing countries, in better targeting their industrial policy to facilitate higher productivity growth.

New strategies for a sustainable 99mTc supply to meet increasing medical demands: Promising solutions for current problems.

The continuing rapid expansion of 99mTc diagnostic agents always calls for scaling up 99mTc production to cover increasing clinical demand. Nevertheless, 99mTc availability depends mainly on the fission-produced 99Mo supply. This supply is seriously influenced during renewed emergency periods, such as the past 99Mo production crisis or the current COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, these interruptions have promoted the need for 99mTc production through alternative strategies capable of providing clinical-grade 99mTc with high purity. In the light of this context, this review illustrates diverse production routes that either have commercially been used or new strategies that offer potential solutions to promote a rapid production growth of 99mTc. These techniques have been selected, highlighted, and evaluated to imply their impact on developing 99mTc production. Furthermore, their advantages and limitations, current situation, and long-term perspective were also discussed. It appears that, on the one hand, careful attention needs to be devoted to enhancing the 99Mo economy. It can be achieved by utilizing 98Mo neutron activation in commercial nuclear power reactors and using accelerator-based 99Mo production, especially the photonuclear transmutation strategy. On the other hand, more research efforts should be devoted to widening the utility of 99Mo/99mTc generators, which incorporate nanomaterial-based sorbents and promote their development, validation, and full automization in the near future. These strategies are expected to play a vital role in providing sufficient clinical-grade 99mTc, resulting in a reasonable cost per patient dose.

Thallium Pollution in Europe Over the Twentieth Century Recorded in Alpine Ice: Contributions From Coal Burning and Cement Production

AbstractEmission inventories indicate that thallium, a highly toxic metal, is emitted during coal burning and cement production. These estimates have been established only for the 1980s and 1990s but up to now they have not been compared to long‐term observations. Here we used alpine ice cores to document thallium pollution over Europe since ∼1850. Ice‐core thallium concentrations increased from 1890 to 1910, and decreased after 1965 to concentrations that were half 1890 levels. Comparison of ice‐core trends, estimated past emissions, and state‐of‐the‐art atmospheric aerosol transport modeling suggest that coal burning was responsible for thallium pollution in Europe, particularly from 1920 to 1965 because of high coal consumption at that time. The subsequent decline resulted from decreased coal consumption and reduced emissions following technological improvements. The ice‐core data suggest that the rapid growth of cement production that took place in Europe after 1950 had a limited impact on thallium pollution.

Changes in Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions of the Agricultural Sector in Poland from 2000 to 2019

This paper analyzes the changes in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions related to energy consumption in the Polish agricultural sector between 2000 and 2019. Based on the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI), the changes in agricultural CO2 emissions are viewed in the context of changes in six factors, i.e., CO2 emission intensity, substitution of fossil fuels, penetration of renewable energies, energy intensity, labor productivity and number of employees. The analysis demonstrated that total energy consumption declined over the study period; this was related to a reduction in the intake of energy derived from solid fossil fuels (−1.05%), crude oil (−1.01%), electricity (−4.89%), and heat (−1.37%), and to an increased consumption of natural gas (5.78%) and biofuels (0.82%). Furthermore, it follows from the analysis that changes in CO2 emissions witnessed in that period were consistent with changes in energy consumption levels; this resulted from a negligible transformation of the energy mix (largely determined by fossil fuels). Generally, CO2 emissions declined over the study period at a rate comparable (−0.9%) to that of the reduction in energy consumption (−1.03%). In light of the LMDI method, the reduction in CO2 emissions from fuel consumption in the Polish agricultural sector was mainly driven by a reduction in energy intensity and in employment. Conversely, rapid growth in labor productivity was the key factor in increasing carbon dioxide emissions. Compared to these impacts, changes in other factors (i.e., emission intensity, energy mix and penetration of renewable energies) had an extremely small or marginal effect on the variation in CO2 emissions.

Impact of agriculture on water quality: a brief review

The rapid growth of Brazilian agricultural production is only possible through the use of agricultural inputs, both mechanical (agricultural machinery and tractors) and chemical (pesticides and fertilizers). Unfortunately, agricultural intensification is accompanied by several potential sources of degradation of aquatic ecosystems. Thus, this work aims to present, in the form of a bibliographic review, the impacts that Brazilian aquatic ecosystems have been suffering in recent years, being extremely important to assist river basin managers in decision-making processes, and producers in the best choice of management, thus preserving the quality of Brazilian waters.

Transforming the Plastic Production System Presents Opportunities to Tackle the Climate Crisis

Due to the rapid growth in global plastic production, in short-term applications, and negative impacts on natural ecosystems, plastics have received much attention. Additionally, the entire plastic value chain generates a significant amount of GHGs, and plastic use reductions should be considered as interventions addressing the climate crisis. This work investigates the life cycle of plastics in non-durable goods holistically. It identifies interventions to improve the sustainability and circularity of the system of production and analyzes the potential benefit of these interventions as climate change solutions. A baseline global market for plastics is defined and forecast to 2050, to which four interventions are applied: (1) plastic reduction through elimination and reuse; (2) replacement with paper; (3) replacement with recycled feedstock, (4) replacement with bioplastics. The highest potential in GHG emissions reduction lies in plastic reduction, followed by replacement with recycled plastics, paper, and, finally, bioplastics. Together the integrated system can reduce between 9.5 and 14.9 Gt CO2-eq from 2020 to 2050. The environmental and social impact of applying all these interventions in parallel is significant, as plastics are at the intersection of many challenges, including waste production, energy use, ocean pollution, and land disruption from fossil extraction.

Structural change in Africa: role of agriculture

ABSTRACT This paper argues that rapid agricultural productivity growth is necessary for the expansion of manufacturing employment as a share of total employment. This hypothesis is tested utilizing data from 15 African nations. The estimation technique utilized is dynamic ordinary least squares and represents the first use of this technique to study the hypothesis that agricultural productivity growth is an important factor in the growth of manufacturing employment. The results indicate that agricultural productivity growth is a significant positive factor in the expansion of manufacturing employment. This is important in that productivity growth in agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa has until recently been very sluggish. Thus, if manufacturing is to play an important role in this region, then significant investment in raising agricultural productivity needs to occur.

Manufacturing and service‐sector productivity in Turkey: A perspective from firm‐level data

AbstractSince 2003, productivity growth in Turkey has disappointed. We provide a new analysis of the issue, measuring labour productivity at the firm level. Previous accounts distinguish a period of rapid productivity growth before 2007–2008 from one of slower productivity growth thereafter. In contrast, we show that productivity growth in manufacturing was faster after 2007–2008 than before, while productivity in services declined through 2010, after which it stabilised. The slump in service‐sector productivity was compounded by a shift in employment towards activities with relatively low, slowly growing labour productivity such as construction, hospitality and business services. These trends were attributable to policy. Our findings thus upend the conventional picture of successful policy reform prior to the Global Financial Crisis followed by a period of regression.

Assessment of semi-organic electrolytes for redox flow battery: Life cycle assessment as a tool to steer industry toward green chemistry

The world is facing the crucial energy transition and it will require a rapid growth of renewable energy production. Given the intermittency of renewable energy sources, though, the ambitious decarbonization goals cannot be achieved without the implementation of energy storage systems. In this scenario, redox flow batteries (RFBs) stand as promising candidates, where vanadium RFBs have been established as the technological standard. Nevertheless, RFB systems based on metals pose environmental, socio-political and ethical problems; therefore, research is seeking new safer and more sustainable redox materials, shifting attention from metal-based to organic-based electrolytes. To our knowledge, up to now, a complete environmental assessment of an organic or semi-organic electrolyte RFB has not been carried out. In this study, an organic/halogen RFB, based on anthraquinone disulfonic acid (AQDS) and hydrobromic acid (HBr), is analyzed via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Influence of materials production on environmental performance of the energy storage system is evaluated via two synthesis scenarios. Organic/halogen battery is compared with an equivalent vanadium-based battery, taken as a standard reference for RFB technology. The analysis shows that the production of a semi-organic RFB may represent a valid environmental alternative to full vanadium RFB, as smaller effects in several impact categories (ReCiPe 2016) are determined. Nevertheless, LCA analysis showed that the results are strongly dependent on the synthetic route adopted to produce AQDS. As a result of such work a greener chemical pathway is open toward the benefits of switching from metal to organic RFBs.

Reducing the environmental impacts of the production of melamine etherified resin fibre

Conventional plastic products present a serious burden to the environment, especially during their end-of-life phase. To tackle the rapid growth in plastic production, use and pollution, it is desirable to produce plastic materials more sustainably. Amongst these plastic materials which could be produced sustainably are Melamine Etherified Resin (MER) fibres, which have a wide range of potential uses, such as in mobility, filtrations, for thermal protective clothing and other applications. This paper explores the potential for sustainable MER fibre production, where all the required feedstocks could be from either renewable or waste origin. To investigate more sustainable pathways, the conventional process is compared to two alternatives processes which utilize waste CO 2 and wood-based methanol for formalin production. A comparative environmental impact assessment is conducted, where selected environmental footprints, potential environmental impacts and eco-costs are analysed based on 1 kg of produced MER fibres. Results show that greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint could be reduced by over 68% and human toxicity potential by over 75%, while eco-costs could be reduced by up to 44%. Moreover, the results present the first step towards producing MER fibres in a sustainable way, contributing to the circular economy.

Androgenic hormones in crustacean aquaculture: a review

Increased demands of the seafood market have led to the rapid growth in crustacean aquaculture production in various parts of the world. Therefore, an expansion in the knowledge of the reproductive biology of crustaceans has become more important. Hormones released from the androgenic gland (AG) in crustaceans are liable for both the separation of primary and secondary sexual features and reproductive behavior. AG removal in male crustaceans causes a transformation of the intersex animals towards the females and a degeneration of spermatids and reproductive organs. AG implantation and injection of AG extracts are common approaches for crustacean masculinization. In this review, the importance of AG and its implication in crustacean aquaculture are reiterated, while the discovery, identification, chemical nature, and isolation of insulin-like androgenic gland hormone are also overviewed.

A transcriptomic perspective on the effect of UV irradiation on vitamin C content in pea sprouts

Pea sprouts are derived from sprouted peas and are popular for their high vitamin C and flavonoid content, as well as their rapid growth and ease of production. Enhancing its nutritional value with simple treatments is worth exploring, In the present study, we applied supplemental UV irradiation to pea sprouts and examined various components such as vitamin C and flavonoid substances in the treated pea sprouts. Meanwhile, to investigate the mechanism of action of UV irradiation on pea sprouts, we performed high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis to probe the genome-wide expression profile of pea sprouts under UV irradiation, generating 41.90 Gb of Clean Data, the results were also validated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and the raw data of sequencing were submitted to the SRA repository. Further transcriptome analysis showed that UV irradiation significantly affected the expression of genes in metabolic pathways, especially those of some key enzymes that affect substance metabolism.

An inquiry into intersectoral linkages of agriculture through social accounting matrix

As India followed a mixed economy model after its independence, both public and private sectors coexisted. In the agricultural sector, production decisions were highly taken by private producers with government’s role limited to infrastructure development such as irrigation, extension services and trade in some major commodities. In the manufacturing and service sectors, state played a commanding role by owning and operating many industries. The post-reform period had witnessed significant decline in capital formation in the agriculture sector, especially in the public sector. The trade liberalization had led to shifts in cropping patterns towards cash crops such as cotton, oilseeds, sugarcane, fruits and vegetables for increasing the volatility of agricultural incomes. Besides, as a part of the structural change within the industrial sector, the importance of agrobased industries had come down in the post-reform period. Despite various development planning efforts, poverty, unemployment, and inequality still exist to a greater extent in Indian economy. An important factor responsible for this is the strategy of extension of macro level plan methodology to the development of micro regions (regional level). Initially sector’s relationship with the rest of the economy through its direct and indirect intermediate purchases and sales should be known. The sectors with the highest linkages are likely to stimulate rapid growth of production, income and employment. In the present study linkage between agriculture and other industry was studied by constructing Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and for that the study was undertaken in Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu.

IMPACT OF CROP PRODUCTIVITY ON POVERTY AMONG FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN GHANA

Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy I & II sought to increase crop productivity to reduce high poverty incidence in farm sector, but the magnitude of impact of the productivity on poverty is not present in all agro-ecological zones in Ghana. The aim of the study is to estimate poverty headcount ratio, poverty gap and poverty severity, and link crop productivity to poverty according to agroecology subject to a two-step instrumental variable regression technique using Pseudo Panel data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS rounds 5 & 6). Farmers’ poverty headcount ratio, poverty gap, and poverty severity reduced from 57%, 25%, and 14% in 2005 to 37%, 14%, and 7% in 2013 respectively. The result further indicates that 1% growth in crop productivity reduces the probability of poverty headcount ratio, poverty gap and poverty severity by 0.28%, 0.38% and 0.75% respectively in all agro-ecological zones. Additionally, the paper shows that education, livestock and remittance income reduces poverty, while household size and great distance to access water increase poverty differently from agro-ecology. The study recommends rapid crop productivity growth by prioritizing technology adoption and institutional coordination to suit agro-ecological conditions among the poor, illiterate and non-partisan.

Overview of Solar Energy for Aquaculture: The Potential and Future Trends

The rapid growth of aquaculture production has required a huge power demand, which is estimated to be about 40% of the total energy cost. However, it is possible to reduce this expense using alternatives such as renewable energy (i.e., solar energy) instead of non-renewable energy. Solar energy is one of the cleanest energy sources and is touted as a potential renewable energy source for the world with benefits such as reducing CO2 emissions, reversing global warming by being eco-friendly, and bringing innovation to sustainable aquaculture and potential cost-efficiency for manufacturing. In this review, we present an overview of using non-renewable and renewable energy sources for aquaculture by reviewing several articles and applications of solar energy at many companies in the world. Moreover, this review shows potential and future trends using solar energy for aquaculture.

Regenerative agriculture and integrative permaculture for sustainable and technology driven global food production and security

AbstractA growing world population and increases in food and energy consumption have placed production agriculture in a difficult situation. The rapid growth in food production through specialized operations such as monoculture cropping systems has aligned to satisfy increases in demand for food and fiber. However, its adverse impacts on natural resources pose huge challenges for the sustainability of food production. The situation is direr for developing countries or rural regions of the world due to the limited resources available to farming communities in these regions. To avoid production agriculture being at the proverbial crossroads we suggest an alternate approach. One that involves the sustainable use of natural resources without adverse environmental impacts by relying less on production inputs whether it be agrochemicals or machineries. We examined the extent to which regenerative agriculture, permaculture, and smart technology have evolved in response to sustainable agricultural production, agricultural decision support system, and overall global food security. Collectively, regenerative agriculture and permaculture are semi‐closed holistic systems approach designed to reduce or eliminate dependence on external inputs (e.g., chemicals) which restores and maintains natural systems (e.g., soil quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem services). We suggest that fully embracing modern regenerative agriculture as well as integrated permaculture will improve soil health, ecosystem biodiversity, land and resource conservation, agricultural sustainability, and food security. Identifying and implementing practices towards regenerative agriculture, integrated permaculture, digital agriculture, and sustainable agricultural management utilizing modern agricultural technologies infused with data science (artificial intelligence [AI] or machine learning [ML]) is critical.

IMPLEMENTATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SMART CITY SYSTEM

Today, more than 3.9 billion people live in urban areas, that is, more than 54% of the world population. According to scientists from New York State University, urbanization will continue in the coming years, increasing the urban population to 6.0 billion. people by 2045 A significant increase in the urban population increases the demand for energy, mobility, water and other urban services in cities. Therefore, cities should become smarter in providing urban services. In addition, cities are the largest environmental pollutants responsible for more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, 75% of waste generation and 70% of global energy consumption. Due to global awareness of the negative impacts of such pollution on the environment, cities are under greater pressure to improve environmental performance while improving the level of services. All these trends converge at the moment when a new trend is being formed: digitalization. The growing demand for sustainable, comprehensive, reliable and efficient urban service puts enormous pressure on our urban infrastructure, but digitalization provides a powerful tool for solving these issues and creates a paradigm shift in our concept of cities – creating the Smart City concept. The use of information technologies in the management of a modern city has long been relevant. Since the 2000s, progressive companies have mentioned Smart City as an effective way to manage urban resources and recommended it for use by officials. However, then it is only possible to talk about it, and today every city that considers itself modern wants to be Smart City. It is also worth introducing smart technologies in the public administration sector, and not only in the field of infrastructure, security and tourism. This is due to both the globalization processes, the increase in the population in cities and the growing role of the cities themselves and the systematic growth of urbanization, and the change in the role of the city itself – their transformation into modern information centres using information and communication technologies in many spheres of life of residents. Modern cities face constant contradictions every day: the combination of social attractiveness of the city and the comfort of residents' living, the rapid growth of production and environmental norms and the growth of industrial waste, transport and production infrastructure and modern information technologies. At the same time, it is worth noting that cities are the driving engines of the economy, platforms for creating and implementing social innovations, technological innovations, centres of education and culture. Smart cities today become the basis of social progress and economic growth, as information technologies help transform traditional functions in the classical sense through the use of smart technologies. These technologies make it possible to solve the problems that arise and qualitatively change the system of the city administration. As a result, conditions for the development of each resident of the community and the city as a whole are ensured. Smart decisions of the city authorities produce an increase in the value of the city itself due to additional emerging opportunities, as well as increasing the investment attractiveness of the city itself. The growth of modern solutions using the latest technologies, primarily in the field of municipal management, increases the efficiency of resource use, ensures the development of economic potential, the launch of new individual business areas, and also improves the quality and comfort of citizens' living in the city. At the same time, modern city development and management systems should include smart technologies and information systems for the transformation of life in urban processes, better management and improvement of life in the city. It is also worth noting that today with the spread of infections, such as covid-19 infection, which has become a global pandemic, the role of Smart City smart technologies is not so much in demand in the world and Ukraine in particular. The role of such technologies will increase from year to year. Also, taking into account globalization and integration processes in the world, the Smart City system has long begun to gain popularity among leading countries with developed economies and the European Union. Smart City affects both everyday life in the city and the sphere of state and local administration, public safety, industry, transport, ecology, medicine, energy, mobility and other spheres of life of citizens, both at the national and local levels. Keywords: globalization, smart technologies, digitalization, digitalization, development, Smart City.

Artificial intelligence as a general-purpose technology: an historical perspective

AbstractThis paper looks at the impact on productivity of general-purpose technologies such as steam, electricity, and ICT. It finds they had big effects but only with a lag which was substantial in the first two cases. The experience of the First Industrial Revolution is explored and it is found that this is not a template for a general-purpose technology having a major adverse effect on workers’ living standards. The essence of that industrial revolution was not rapid productivity growth in the short run, but the ‘invention of a new method of invention’ which increased technological progress in the long run. Since artificial intelligence is potentially a general-purpose technology that raises the productivity of research and development, it may be the basis for a Fourth Industrial Revolution.