Level Of Technological Development Research Articles

Impact of the Digitalization Level on the Assessment of Virtual Reality in Higher Education

This paper conducts quantitative research on the assessment made by university professors of the didactic use of virtual reality technologies according to the level of technological development and digitization of their country. For this purpose, a survey was used, the responses to which were statistically analyzed, and the level of digitalization was differentiated through the country's global innovation index. The results show that the valuations of virtual reality as a teaching tool are high, but the competence for its use of university professors is intermediate. On the other hand, it was found that the higher the country's level of digital development, the more pronounced the gender gap in this study. Similarly, the higher the country's level of digital development, the smaller the age gap.

Economic Efficiency of the Implementation of Digital Technologies in Energy Power

The present research prioritized the most important direction of energy power transformation—energy sector digitalization—and its contribution to the achievement of the sustainable development goals focused on climate change mitigation and responsible consumption and production. The authors evaluated the economic efficiency of the implementation of digital tools due to the decrease in energy production costs. The evaluation was performed using the energy cost calculation method before and after the implementation of digital technology, and the digital technology cost calculation method based on the technology readiness level, introduced for the first time. The study demonstrates the advantages of energy power digitalization worldwide, including the achievement of the declared goals of sustainable development and the transition to low-carbon energy. The scientific results obtained are valuable for scholars who carry out research in the area of the efficiency of economic digitalization, since they hold for all countries and types of energy generation. The directions of further research include the development of an analytical notation to show that the digital technology cost also depends on the speed and volume of its distribution, as well as the level of technological development of material and technical resources in the industry and in the country, and also the labor and capital availability.

Research of application of low-resource cryptography algorithms in decentralized environments

The purpose of this material is to analysis of the application of low-resource cryptography algorithms for Internet of Things (IoT) systems and the possibility of their implementation in decentralized systems. Over the past few years, the Internet of Things has become one of the most important technologies of the century. Modern IT developments has reached a high level of technological development, which allows you to customize the interaction between IoT devices and provide connection between people. With the appearance of 5G technologies, the IoT has become the center of development, for almost to all modern industries. Devices in this architecture are significantly smaller and have low power consumption. Conventional encryption algorithms tend to be computationally expensive due to their complexity and require many processing rounds. Low-resource cryptography is a compromise between implementation cost, speed, security, performance, and power consumption on IoT devices. The motivation for lightweight cryptography is to use less memory, less computing resources, and less power consumption to provide a security solution that can run on resource-constrained devices. Block ciphers have a fixed length (of bits) and special transformation stages, which are determined by a symmetric key. Block ciphers are quite versatile, which is very useful from an IoT perspective. Another advantage is that block ciphers has nearly proportional encryption and decryption methods. Therefore, it can be implemented with fewer resources.

Formation of the ecological infrastructure of the Lviv city

A modern city is a complex, dynamically changing natural and anthropogenic system that must provide its residents with a comfortable and safe living environment. Along with the traditional elements of the city's infrastructure: the transport system, sewerage, water supply, heat and electricity supply, and elements of the social infrastructure (schools, hospitals, etc.), the role of the city's ecological infrastructure is growing. The latter includes both artificial and natural objects that provide environmental services and reduce the negative anthropogenic impact of the urban environment on nature and living organisms. Such components are the city's green space and communal systems that neutralize the most pronounced manifestations of anthropogenic influence, such as ensuring waste disposal. The state of the urban ecosystem depends on a complex combination of structure, activity, risks, and intentions of its inhabitants, the state of the economic and financial and economic system, the stability of the natural base expressed in the landscape, and the city's visibility, the intensity of industrial activity and the level of environmental education. The prerequisite for developing the city as a dynamic system is ensuring its sustainability. According to the modern vision, a sustainable city is based on three pillars: economic, ecological, and social, which must develop harmoniously. Therefore, the ecological infrastructure of the city should be based on the appropriate level of technology and economic development. Lviv is a large city in Ukraine and the largest city in the territory of the western regions, a logistical and cultural center. At the same time, the ecological infrastructure of the city is mainly at the formation stage. A meaningful sign of its puberty is the lack of an effective waste management system and an imperfect air quality monitoring system. Municipal sewage treatment facilities and the city's transport system need improvement. The city's green infrastructure as a subsystem of the ecological infrastructure causes relatively few comments. However, it should be noted that its main structure has been updated for decades, and new microdistricts with active construction may need more green space. In order to improve the environment of Lviv, it is necessary to improve the elements of its ecological infrastructure with the involvement of best practices of well-known cities of the world.

Has servitization reduced the embodied carbon emissions of manufacturing export trade? Evidence from 38 countries

Manufacturing servitization, which introduces elements of the service industry to enhance the manufacturing structure, is increasingly being proposed as a carbon-reduction solution. However, the impact of rising service inputs on the embodied carbon emissions (ECE) of exports from the manufacturing sector has not been sufficiently investigated. This study departs from existing work by empirically examining the effect of manufacturing servitization on ECE in exports using a multi-way fixed-effect model and three-dimensional panel data from 18 manufacturing industries in 38 countries from 2000 to 2014. The results show that input servitization significantly reduces the carbon emissions embodied in manufacturing export trade. Furthermore, manufacturing servitization has a greater effect on reducing ECE in exports in developed countries (pollution-intensive industries) than in developing countries (non-pollution-intensive industries). While using the mediating effect model, the mechanism analysis shows that input servitization reduces ECE in manufacturing exports primarily through productivity improvement, energy substitution, and global value chain effects. Finally, we find that input servitization and the ECE from manufacturing exports exhibits nonlinear characteristics with changes in technological and economic development levels. The study’s findings highlight the importance of promoting deeper integration of service elements and manufacturing production processes in achieving the goal of global sustainable development. • Explore the impact of Servitization on CO 2 emissions embodied in export worldwide. • Calculating the degree of servitization using the complete consumption coefficient. • Using the Multi-way fixed-effect model and three-dimensional panel data. • Productivity improvement, energy substitution, and GVC effect are main mechanisms. • The impact of input servitization on ECE in exports has nonlinear characteristic.

Software Security Hardening Pada Virtual Private Server Berdasarkan NIST SP 800-123 di Universitas XYZ

The current level of technological development is very rapid. The most prominent example is the use of websites in industry and government environments. The website provides convenience in supporting ongoing business processes and can assist work in solving problems that occur in an organization. In using the website, of course, a server is needed to process data requests or provide information to users. The XYZ Faculty at XYZ University has a virtualxyz server which contains a website that is used to support academic and administrative activities. However, the development of technology will of course be accompanied by the development of vulnerabilities or attacks against these applications. Therefore, on the virtualxyz server, it is necessary to carry out a Security Hardening process based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-123. This is done because the virtualxyz server has never done a security check based on certain standards on the server software. The purpose of this research is to analyze the security of the virtualxyz software server to minimize attacks that occur. The results of this study can be used as a reference to strengthen the security of the server software on the virtualxyz server. The results obtained from the analysis on the server software based on NIST SP 800-123 found 6 procedures that have not been implemented on the virtualxyz server.

County Urbanization and Industrial Reconstruction under the Background of Rural Revitalization

With the change of the main social contradictions in our country, the development between urban and rural areas has gradually become an important issue to be solved urgently. Since the reform and opening up, China has always attached great importance to rural development, and has always regarded how to deal with the "three rural issues" as the focus of the work of the party and the state. In the long run, the new urbanization, together with it, will accomplish the integration of urban and rural development, relying not only on the central city, but also on the town as the link between urban and rural areas. It points out the direction and path for the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, and makes it clear that the general requirements of rural revitalization strategy are industrial prosperity, ecological livability, civilized rural style, effective governance and rich life, among which industrial prosperity is the foundation and key of rural revitalization. Therefore, it is of great value to explore the coupling and coordination between rural revitalization and new urbanization. This paper uses national data to build a comprehensive FGLS model. The panel regression results show that: the level of technological development, the level of regional transportation, the level of non-agricultural industry development, income driven, consumption driven, and the equalization of public services have a positive impact on the coordination of rural revitalization and new urbanization in China. Through the above research, this paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions for the coordinated development of rural revitalization and new urbanization in China.

Технологические и культурные традиции гончарства в среднем неолите Байкало-­Енисейской Сибири

Introduction. The lack of known Middle Neolithic burial complexes in Baikal-Yenisei Siberia makes pottery finds from archaeological sites a key source to explore the cultural and historical situation in the region. According to AMS 14C-dates in the range of ~6,8–6,3 ka cal BP in the territory of Baikal-Yenisei Siberia, two types of ceramics are widespread — Posolsk and Ust-Belaya types. Goals. The study seeks to identify technological and cultural traditions of Middle Neolithic pottery. Materials and methods. The work examines Ust-Belaya and Posolsk type pottery samples from fifteen excavated sites of Baikal-Yenisei Siberia. The paper describes morphological and decorative patterns inherent thereto, provides technical and technological analyses following the methodology of A. Bobrinsky. The molding masses of eighteen Ust-Belaya type vessels and sixteen Posolsk type vessels have been studied with the aid of a binocular microscope. Results. In all cases, ferruginous sandy clay containing quartz sand had served as initial plastic raw material. Molding masses are characterized mainly by an unmixed one-component composition without artificial additives. In two cases, quartz grus has been identified, in another there are traces of organic matter (possibly added intentionally). Vessels of the Posolsk type have closed paraboloid forms with a weak profiling of the upper part and a sharpened bottom. The ornament is localized in the upper part of the vessel and is represented by horizontal ‘receding stick’ rows or drawn lines. The composition below ends with separate shapes, such as triangles or short vertical lines. The rim is decorated with prints of a comb stamp and has a line of round holes which is located over the line made by stick through drawing or receding techniques. The study of molding masses of sixteen Posolsk vessels demonstrates an unmixed one-component composition. In all cases, ferruginous sandy clay had been used as initial plastic raw material. The analysis of the modeling features of Middle Neolithic ceramics makes it possible to formulate hypothetical production programs of theirs. To check the latter, experiments were carried out to model the Ust-Belaya and Posolsk types of vessels. Technical and technological analyses, experiments conducted, and comparisons of models with archaeological vessels reveal technological traditions generally characteristic of Middle Neolithic pottery, such as the method of zonal patchwork modeling in combination with walls knocking out techniques, as well as the use of other vessels as base forms. So, Ust-Belaya vessels could have been completely made on such base forms, while upper parts of Posolsk vessels were profiled after removal from such forms. Knocking out tools for Posolsk ceramics included cord and carved shovels, and for Ust-Belaya type — smooth shovels sometimes wrapped with a woven net. Design patterns of the rim are also different. Conclusions. For the preparatory stage of Middle Neolithic ceramics production, there was a stable tradition of using local sandy clays without additives. The modeling principles common for the two types, along with the absence of flat-bottomed forms, reflect the same level of technological development and similar ideas about the making and functions of vessels, which does not necessarily indicate any ethnocultural closeness of culture bearers. Different traditions of morphology, techniques and decoration indicate that the pottery types belong to different populations. In Posolsk ceramics, there are autochthonous features bringing it closer to the Early Neolithic Khaita pottery. Ceramics of the Ust-Belaya type has no visible origins in the Early Neolithic of the region, which indicates its non-local origin. In addition, the materials of the campsites indicate that the bearers of these traditions had tended to choose different habitats.

Spatial-temporal evolution of the allometric growth between economic scale and carbon emissions in China's cities and its driving mechanism.

Exploring the relationship between economic development and carbon emissions is a hot issue of concern to academia. Taking Chinese cities as the research object, this study constructed an allometric growth model of economic scale and carbon emissions to analyze the spatial–temporal evolution of their allometric growth from 2000 to 2017. Additionally, the geographical detector model was used to reveal the driving mechanism of allometric growth. The findings were as follows. (1) The spatial–temporal patterns of economic scale and carbon emissions were dominated by hot spots. Additionally, their size distribution was in an equilibrium stage. (2) The gap between the economic growth rate of Chinese cities and the growth rate of carbon emissions grew, reflecting the remarkable achievements in carbon emission reduction in Chinese cities as a whole. The scaling exponent declined from east to the west during 2000–2008, but showed the opposite trend during 2009–2017. The proportion of cities with negative allometric growth in the sample cities increased from 76.49 to 97.86%. (3) The influence of city investment intensity, energy utilization efficiency, technological development level, social consumption level, fiscal investment level and economic development level on allometric growth gradually decreases. These factors were also the main factors affecting the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of allometric growth. (4) The impact of various factors had a synergetic enhancement effect. These factors can be classified as economic factors, environmental factors and a combination of them. Under the nonlinear coupling of multiple factors, a spatially differentiated pattern of allometric growth was formed.

Технологические и культурные традиции гончарства в среднем неолите Байкало-­Енисейской Сибири

Introduction. The lack of known Middle Neolithic burial complexes in Baikal-Yenisei Siberia makes pottery finds from archaeological sites a key source to explore the cultural and historical situation in the region. According to AMS 14C-dates in the range of ~6,8–6,3 ka cal BP in the territory of Baikal-Yenisei Siberia, two types of ceramics are widespread — Posolsk and Ust-Belaya types. Goals. The study seeks to identify technological and cultural traditions of Middle Neolithic pottery. Materials and methods. The work examines Ust-Belaya and Posolsk type pottery samples from fifteen excavated sites of Baikal-Yenisei Siberia. The paper describes morphological and decorative patterns inherent thereto, provides technical and technological analyses following the methodology of A. Bobrinsky. The molding masses of eighteen Ust-Belaya type vessels and sixteen Posolsk type vessels have been studied with the aid of a binocular microscope. Results. In all cases, ferruginous sandy clay containing quartz sand had served as initial plastic raw material. Molding masses are characterized mainly by an unmixed one-component composition without artificial additives. In two cases, quartz grus has been identified, in another there are traces of organic matter (possibly added intentionally). Vessels of the Posolsk type have closed paraboloid forms with a weak profiling of the upper part and a sharpened bottom. The ornament is localized in the upper part of the vessel and is represented by horizontal ‘receding stick’ rows or drawn lines. The composition below ends with separate shapes, such as triangles or short vertical lines. The rim is decorated with prints of a comb stamp and has a line of round holes which is located over the line made by stick through drawing or receding techniques. The study of molding masses of sixteen Posolsk vessels demonstrates an unmixed one-component composition. In all cases, ferruginous sandy clay had been used as initial plastic raw material. The analysis of the modeling features of Middle Neolithic ceramics makes it possible to formulate hypothetical production programs of theirs. To check the latter, experiments were carried out to model the Ust-Belaya and Posolsk types of vessels. Technical and technological analyses, experiments conducted, and comparisons of models with archaeological vessels reveal technological traditions generally characteristic of Middle Neolithic pottery, such as the method of zonal patchwork modeling in combination with walls knocking out techniques, as well as the use of other vessels as base forms. So, Ust-Belaya vessels could have been completely made on such base forms, while upper parts of Posolsk vessels were profiled after removal from such forms. Knocking out tools for Posolsk ceramics included cord and carved shovels, and for Ust-Belaya type — smooth shovels sometimes wrapped with a woven net. Design patterns of the rim are also different. Conclusions. For the preparatory stage of Middle Neolithic ceramics production, there was a stable tradition of using local sandy clays without additives. The modeling principles common for the two types, along with the absence of flat-bottomed forms, reflect the same level of technological development and similar ideas about the making and functions of vessels, which does not necessarily indicate any ethnocultural closeness of culture bearers. Different traditions of morphology, techniques and decoration indicate that the pottery types belong to different populations. In Posolsk ceramics, there are autochthonous features bringing it closer to the Early Neolithic Khaita pottery. Ceramics of the Ust-Belaya type has no visible origins in the Early Neolithic of the region, which indicates its non-local origin. In addition, the materials of the campsites indicate that the bearers of these traditions had tended to choose different habitats.

Electrified steam cracking for a carbon neutral ethylene production process: Techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment, and analytic hierarchy process

Electrification is regarded as one of the solutions for decarbonization. To reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide from the steam cracking which is a conventional ethylene production process, the electrical heating furnace can be applied to the steam cracking called the electrified furnace. Here, to determine whether the electrified steam cracking is proper for carbon neutrality, the techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment, and the analytic hierarchy process were implemented. The analysis was proceeded by the fourteen cases divided according to steam cracking, electrified steam cracking, and seven electricity generation methods. As a result, considering the technology development level, economic feasibility, and environmental impact, the best case was the steam cracking with hydropower, and the electrified steam cracking with hydropower, solar power, and wind power had high potential. As improving the technology development of the electrified furnace, the electrified steam cracking can be expected to become the proper ethylene production process to achieve carbon neutrality.

The Story of the Starets Tsar as a Mental Phenomenon of Society in the 19th century

The legend of the Starets Tsar, known as Fyodor Kuzmich, is a unique fact of the folk mentality. Formed in the period of socio-political foreshadowing of social changes, it underwent a radical transformation in the process of existence. This story reflected the change of social priorities, characteristic of the period of social transformation. This determines the relevance of reference to the tale of the Starets Tsar, as every stage of transition to a new level of technological and social development of society generates similar phenomena in the mental public sphere. The study of the story of the Starets Tsar is not only a continuation of the research of Russian scholars on the topic of folk representations within the framework of new methodological concepts, but also an attempt to more clearly define the place of this story in the general classification of legends about the “returning savior”. In addition, historical science has long needed to provide its own analysis of this complex phenomenon of mentality and socio-cultural history, which has previously been purposefully studied only by literary scholars and theologians. The purpose of this study is to reveal the reflection of the mentality of the transition period in the story of the Starets Tsar Alexander I. Materials for the article included the sources belonging to different types, among which are clerical documentation, materials from printed publications of regional and all-Russian level, memoirs of contemporaries. Such methods of historical science as textual analysis and content analysis were used as well. As a result of the application of these methods the signs of the transitional mentality reflected in the story about the Starets Tsar were formulated. We made a conclusion that the development of the plot reflected the change of people’s mentality of the second half of the 19th century during the period of modernization transition. The story about the Starets Tsar began to form as a typical story about the “returning deliverer”, but in the process of its design it changed into a story about the “savior”. This fact reflects the change in the folk mentality of the period of the modernization transition in the second half of the XIXth century. The perspective of the study is the continuation of research in the field of changing mentalities in the XIXth century, in their relationship.

On Using the Concept of "Artificial Intelligence" in Forensic Science

The article considers the issues of making a conceptual framework for artificial intelligence in forensic sciences. There are significant differences and a significant variety of opinions regarding the basic concept of "artificial intelligence" and other concepts and ideas related, many unresolved and debatable issues still exist. Based on critical analysis of existing opinions, legislative and doctrinal sources, the opinion is expressed that for forensic theory and, to an even greater extent, practice, the use of the concept of "artificial intelligence" is somewhat premature. The concept of so-called "enhanced intelligence" seems to be more correct and adequate to the existing level of information technology development. One of the examples of its implementation is modern computer methods of machine learning. Attention is drawn to the employment of essentially new means of committing high-tech crimes, which apply techniques and methods developed for enhanced intelligence technologies. Here are discussed some cases of enhanced social danger arising from the rapidly expanding adoption of artificial intelligence technologies by high-tech crime. The effect of building quantum computers in the coming decades is discussed with regard to criminology. The negative trends linked to the use of artificial intelligence for criminal purposes have been identified as they can significantly complicate the formation of a forensic methodology for investigating high-tech crimes, complicate the implementation of criminal proceedings for their disclosure, investigation and prevention. The article shows that current issues of of making a conceptual framework are pressing and require interdisciplinary approach of legal, social, natural and technical sciences. Here are described promising trends in the development of forensic theory, as well as forensic techniques and tactics, where methods and technologies of enhanced intelligence can be successfully used. The importance and prospects of the introduction of these technologies into work of law enforcement agencies are indicated.

Product and process innovation patterns in Polish low and high technology systems

Research background: While the Sectoral Innovation System (SSI) anticipates technology-related similarities in innovation patterns in the same sectors across countries, the distance to the frontier suggests that there are important differences with respect to the level of national technological development. Most contemporary analyses of sectoral innovation systems are focused on well-developed economies. In contrast, the evidence from developing countries including new EU members are scared and lack dynamics. Purpose of the article: The purpose of this paper is to identify and compare product and process innovation patterns in Polish low and high technology systems. The main assumption is that divergence and convergence in innovation patterns of low- and medium-low technology (LMT) and high technology (HT) systems evolve over time and are strongly influenced by the characteristics of firms, their linkages with other system participants, existing demand, and institutional conditions. Methods: According to the third edition of the Oslo Manual (OECD, 2005), we employ a harmonized questionnaire and methodology to collect unique micro data on innovation. The survey concerns 5252 firms including 873 firms from HT sector. The scope of the research relates to product and process innovation at least new to the firm. Findings & value added: Our results show that although the intensity of product and process innovation is higher in HT system, both business support institutions and public financial instruments better support firms in LMT sectors. On the other hand, existing demand and market structure favor the emergence of new innovations at the firm level (imitations), but with more emphasis on LMT. The key source of innovation is suppliers, with foreign suppliers in HT and national ones in LMT. In contrast to leading economies, LMT plays a key role in long term economic growth in Poland.

Analysis of urban carbon emission efficiency and influencing factors in the Yellow River Basin.

The Yellow River Basin is an energy-rich area. The low-carbon development of the Yellow River Basin is one of the ways to achieve ecological protection and high-quality development. Based on panel data from 2007 to 2019, the dynamic and static carbon emission efficiencies of 98 cities in the Yellow River Basin were calculated using the Undesirable Super Slacks-based model and the Global Malmquist-Luengerber index method, respectively, and the spatial effects of influencing factors were analyzed using the spatial Dubin model. Main conclusions are as follows: (1) The carbon emission efficiency of cities in the Yellow River Basin is different, and only a small numbers of cities have reached the effective state. (2) The main factor for the increase in the overall carbon emission efficiency of the whole Basin is technological progress, and the main factors for the improvement of carbon emission efficiency of different cities are various. (3) The direct effects of economic development level and industrial structure upgrading are significantly positive, the direct effects of technological development level, energy intensity, and opening up are significantly negative, and the indirect effects of population density are positive. The conclusions are of great significance for promoting low-carbon development, ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin.

Test on the Policy Effect of Natural Forest Protection Project Using Double Difference Model from the Perspective of Forestry Total Factor Productivity

As one of the largest forestry ecological protection projects in China, the natural forest protection project has been implemented for 20 years, and great changes have taken place in the natural resources and social appearance of the forest area. This article regards the implementation of the natural forest protection project as a policy impact and makes an objective evaluation of the implementation effect of the policy through measurement and accounting. Based on the panel data of forestry total factor productivity (TFP) in 31 provinces in China from 1997 to 2018, this article uses the double difference model to investigate the impact of the policy impact of natural forest protection projects on the implementation of provincial forestry TFP from the perspective of quasinatural experiment. The results show that the natural forest protection project significantly improves the TFP of forestry in the province where the policy is implemented, and the higher the forest resource coverage, the more significant the provincial impact of policy implementation. From other influencing factors, the reduction of human investment, the rationalization of industrial structure, and the improvement of the level of scientific, technological, and economic development can also effectively mend the TFP of forestry in the region.

Impacts of export diversification on energy intensity, renewable energy, and waste energy in 121 countries: Do environmental regulations matter?

Recent body of energy research has focused on environmental regulations, but a few studies have investigated the environmental regulations on the nexus between export diversification, renewable and waste energy. This research explores export diversification's influence on energy intensity, renewable energy, and waste energy in a sample of 121 countries. Our finding shows strong evidence that export diversification leads to more energy intensity, but less consumed renewable and waste energy. This study also finds that countries with stringent environmental regulations and diversified exports are beneficial to waste energy. Moreover, heterogeneity analysis shows that diversified exports contribute to declines in renewable energy, particularly in higher technological or economic development levels, and in European countries. The estimation renders implications for policy makers and future researchers—there is still the need for strategies dedicated to the deployment of renewable and waste energy in general or in European countries.

Consistency Principle: Theory and Empirical Evidence

he article verifies one of the principles of the general theory of social development, which is called the principle of consistency. According to this principle, the economic growth rate positively depends not only upon the level of technological development, institutions, and culture, but also upon the degree of consistency between these factors. This hypothesis was tested by constructing econometric models on a sample of 154 countries. The output variable is the rate of GDP growth, and the explanatory factors are technology, institutions, and culture. To quantify the latter, the corresponding proxy variables were used: labor productivity, the Doing Business index, and the Corruption Perceptions Index. The constructed models are fixed-effect models, and the coefficients of the explanatory variables are determined by adjusting the variance-covariance matrices. Empirical evidence has confirmed the validity of the principle of consistency for the group of “rich” countries with upper middle income, and have not been confirmed for the group of “poor” countries with lower middle income. The obtained result was interpreted in terms of the concept of a narrow corridor called Acemoglu–Robinson, the concept of structural competition and the theory of self-organization. It is shown that the consistency principle acts as a necessary condition for the appearance of the Red Queen effect in the Acemoglu–Robinson concept.

Research on the evolution of spatial network structure of tourism eco-efficiency and its influencing factors in China's provinces based on carbon emission accounting.

In the context of global warming, although the coordinated development of tourism has led to regional economic growth, the high energy consumption-driven effects of such development have also led to environmental degradation. This research combines the undesired output of the Super-SBM model and social network analysis methods to determine the eco-efficiency of provincial tourism in China from 2010–2019 and analyzes its spatial correlation characteristics as well as its influencing factors. The aim of the project is to improve China’s regional tourism eco-efficiency and promote cross-regional tourism correlation. The results show that (1) the mean value of provincial tourism eco-efficiency in China is maintained at 0.405~0.612, with an overall fluctuating upward trend. The tourism eco-efficiency of eastern China is higher than that of central, western and northeastern China, but the latter three regions have not formed a stable spatial distribution pattern. (2) The spatial network of provincial tourism eco-efficiency in China is multithreaded, dense and diversified. Throughout the network, affiliations are becoming closer, and network structure robustness is gradually improving, although the “hierarchical” spatial network structure remains. In individual networks, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shandong provinces in eastern China have higher centrality degrees, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality than other provinces, which means they are dominant in the network. Hainan Province, also located in eastern China, has not yet built a "bridge" for tourism factor circulation. In the core-periphery model, the core-periphery areas of China’s provincial tourism eco-efficiency are distributed in clusters, and the number of "core members" has increased. (3) The economic development level, information technology development level, and tourism technology level collectively drive the development and evolution of China’s provincial tourism eco-efficiency spatial network.

Efforts and Barriers Shifting a City Region Towards Circular Transition – Lessons from a Living Lab from Pécs, Hungary

A Circular Economy is usually seen as achieving ‘zero waste’ and closing the material flow loops. However, multiple governance, economic, legal, socio-spatial, cultural, and behavioural barriers may easily hamper the transition. This study summarises the lessons learned from the waste flow analysis and living lab (LL) of a case study from the H2020 REPAiR project. It shows how the results of a waste flow analysis created for an urban area can help decision-makers to co-create new place-based eco-innovative solutions and hence shift the city towards circularity. At the same time, during the living lab process, it became clear that the decision support method alone is not enough to co-create or co-design new innovations, in addition the regulatory environment and the peculiarities of governance may also present multiple obstacles. The centralised governance in Hungary and the centralisation tendency in waste management and secondary resource use hamper efficient local resource management. The work in the LL showed that a centralised governance structure hinders not only the co-creation of new solutions but also the transfer of good practices from other peri-urban areas. This is important because a society that is generally less innovative and less developed at the beginning of sustainability transition is innovating for the first time via the transfer of eco-innovative solutions. Our paper shows that the governance structure of a given spatial unit (i.e. a city region) may be a significant factor in the successful or unsuccessful adoption of good practices and for the circular transition, as may system adaptability, the level of local technological development, the level of integration of actors, strategies, interests, and policy interventions.