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Found 6327 publications

Biologia Futura: potential of different forms of microalgae for soil improvement

Zoltán Molnár Tibor Janda Lamnganbi Mutum Vince Ördög

Publication Name: Biologia Futura

Publication Date: 2022-03-01

Volume: 73

Issue: 1

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Products derived from microalgae have great potential in diverse field. As a part of the enhancing agriculture application, various forms of microalgae applications have been developed so far. They are known to influence soil properties. The various forms of application may enhance soil in more or less similar manner. They can help improve soil health, nitrogen, and phosphorus content, and even carbon sequestration. Thus, overall, it can enhance fertility of the soil.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/s42977-021-00103-2

The Impact of the Multicultural Education on Students’ Attitudes in Business Higher Education Institutions

P. Karácsony Péter Huszka Mikhail V. Vinichenko Vivien Pásztóová

Publication Name: Education Sciences

Publication Date: 2022-03-01

Volume: 12

Issue: 3

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The research aims to assess the cultural diversity of international students studying in higher education institutions. The results of the research provide an overview of the attitude of students studying in institutions of higher education to learning, the factors influencing their studies, and their expectations for their studies abroad. One type of quantitative research method, the questionnaire, was chosen for the primary research. The research results reflect the perspectives of students from different cultural backgrounds in institutions of higher education and focus on the phenomena and situations they experience. Following the hypothesis test results, an outcome can be seen that students believe that their studies in higher education provide a good foundation for their personal development. The results also confirmed that learning in a multicultural environment could positively affect students’ working abilities.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/educsci12030173

Barriers to Blockchain Adoption in the Circular Economy: A Fuzzy Delphi and Best-Worst Approach

Suhaiza Zailani John G. Keogh Abderahman Rejeb Karim Rejeb

Publication Name: Sustainability Switzerland

Publication Date: 2022-03-01

Volume: 14

Issue: 6

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Blockchain can help to fundamentally alter aspects of circular economy (CE) activities and overcome pressing sustainability issues. Nevertheless, limited studies have investigated the barriers to blockchain adoption in the CE. This study aims to close the knowledge gap by providing a comprehensive review of the barriers hampering the adoption and integration of blockchain technology in the CE. An integrated approach based on fuzzy Delphi and best-worst methods has been applied to analyze and rank the barriers. Sixteen barriers to blockchain adoption in the CE were identified from the academic literature and validated by a panel of experts. The findings from the fuzzy Delphi technique identified ten significant barriers for further analysis. Then, using the best-worst method, the optimal weights were determined based on the experts’ judgment to recognize the importance of each barrier. The findings from this method showed that a lack of knowledge and management support, reluctance to change and technological immaturity are the most significant barriers. In contrast, the least significant barriers are investment costs, security risks, and scalability issues. Theoretically, this study is the first to apply an integrated approach combining fuzzy Delphi and best-worst techniques to prioritze the barriers to blockchain adoption in the CE. It also provides valuable insights for managers and decision-makers that can be used to optimize blockchain implementations in the CE.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/su14063611

Big data in the food supply chain: a literature review

John G. Keogh Abderahman Rejeb Karim Rejeb

Publication Name: Journal of Data Information and Management

Publication Date: 2022-03-01

Volume: 4

Issue: 1

Page Range: 33-47

Description:

The emergence of big data (BD) offers new opportunities for food businesses to address emerging risks and operational challenges. BD denotes the integration and analysis of multiple data sets, which are inherently complex, voluminous and are often of inadequate quality and structure. While BD is a well-established method in supply chain management, academic research on its application in the food ecosystem is still lagging. To fill this knowledge gap and capture the latest developments in this field, a systematic literature review was performed. Forty-one papers were selected and thoroughly examined and analysed to identify the enablers of BD in the food supply chain. The review primarily attempted to obtain an answer to the following research question: “What are the possibilities of leveraging big data in the food supply chain?“ Six significant benefits of applying BD in the food industry were identified, namely, the extraction of valuable knowledge and insights, decision-making support, improvement of food chain efficiencies, reliable forecasting, waste minimization, and food safety. Finally, some challenges and future research directions were outlined.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/s42488-021-00064-0

Application of the Linear Programming Method in the Construction of a Mathematical Model of Optimization Distributed Energy

Laszlo Vasa Yuriy Bilan Marcin Rabe Katarzyna Widera

Publication Name: Energies

Publication Date: 2022-03-01

Volume: 15

Issue: 5

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The Polish economy is facing a huge challenge regarding the future of energy in Poland. The current energy system is very inefficient, it consumes huge resources that, like countries with high energy efficiency, could be allocated to the development of low-carbon and renewable energy networks. At the moment, the Polish energy sector, related to the coal monoculture, lacks electricity and the entire transmission system is obsolete. The solution may be distributed energy, which can ultimately satisfy energy supplies in less urbanized areas and in rural areas, while guaranteeing the sustainable development of these areas. In order to take up the challenge of better understanding and explaining such a complex reality, it was decided that the research framework of this article will be distributed energy in the region. The aim of the article is to ensure energy security in the conditions of innovative, ecological and open to competition regional energy using local energy resources. Currently, it is believed that distributed energy can be an effective solution to the problem of conventional energy operation.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/en15051872

The interplay between the physical internet and logistics: A literature review and future research directions

Abderahman Rejeb Péter Németh Safwen Ben Neila

Publication Name: Acta Technica Jaurinensis

Publication Date: 2022-02-23

Volume: 15

Issue: 1

Page Range: 22-35

Description:

In recent years, there is a need for new methods and frameworks for planning transport systems, improving their efficiency, and addressing globalisation and sustainability challenges. In addition, the use of existing capacities and infrastructure has raised significant issues in the transport sector. To achieve an economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable logistics ecosystem, Benoit Montreuil introduces the concept of “Physical Internet” (PI) to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of logistics networks. As a ground-breaking transportation philosophy, the PI aims to revolutionise freight and logistics transport. Moreover, the PI can enhance logistics productivity through the organisation of large-scale pooling. Similar to Digital Internet that conveys data, the PI strives to connect, synchronise, and ship regular modular containers from the point of origin to an exact destination, thereby creating robust and collaborative logistics networks. While the literature on the PI is relatively growing, there is still a lack of reviews that synthesise this knowledge body, identify current trends and gaps, and advance the research more broadly. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the potentials of the PI for the development of sustainable logistics networks. Overall, 59 studies are selected from leading academic databases and further analysed. The review findings reveal that most scholars focus on the optimisation of transport at the tactical and organisational stage while devoting little attention to the contribution of the PI to the social sustainability of logistics compared to the economic and environmental aspects.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.14513/actatechjaur.00638

THE EFFECTS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE LABOUR MARKET: HOW TO PREPARE?

Bettina Boncz Zsolt Roland Szabó

Publication Name: Vezetestudomany

Publication Date: 2022-02-15

Volume: 53

Issue: 2

Page Range: 68-80

Description:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly transforming the labour market, but this has gone almost unnoticed. Business consulting and technology firms together have encouraged the proliferation of AI solutions, based on their indisputable benefits. However, few are aware of the concept of AI itself, nor are the effects on the labour market clear. This systematic literature review fills this research gap and lays the groundwork for further research. The results detail the causes of technological unemployment and the mechanisms that can counteract it automatically or through conscious intervention. It is essential to prepare for the effects of AI at the individual, corporate and governmental levels now, and this article will help.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.14267/VEZTUD.2022.02.06

Central and Eastern European regional centers in the focus of urban rankings and urban indexes

Szabolcs Ramhap Petra Kinga Kézai

Publication Name: Economic Annals Xxi

Publication Date: 2022-02-09

Volume: 195

Issue: 1-2

Page Range: 26-35

Description:

The relevance of the paper is predetermined by the fact that nearly 75% of the population in the European Union live in cities, so the European Union is committed to making cities more sustainable. Thus, recent years have seen an increasing need for studies on urban indexes measuring European cities as well as those on the evaluation of the indexes. The purpose of this paper is to prove that Central and Eastern European medium-sized cities as regional centers are an under-researched area in social science research. While one typical trend of this research is ranking based on various aspects as well as the determination of leading cities, the regional centers of Central and Eastern European countries are only tangentially included in this research. The research objectives: The analysis examines 94 regional centers in ten Central and Eastern European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia) with regional functions at NUTS2 level based on a total of 41 different economic indexes and rankings. The research was based on the Eurostat Urban Audit database and the keyword search engine of scientific search engines such as Web of Science, Science direct, and Google Scholar. The research question: Which Central and Eastern European regional centers are examined by the different city rankings and indexes? The research results and conclusions are the following: 1) As a result of the research, it was found that out of the 94 regional centers, the most examined cities are Krakow, Wroclaw and Brno. A randomly selected city is included in only 11% of the studied rankings and indexes. 2) However, half of the Central and Eastern European capitals are considered areas for city rankings and indexes. The most studied capitals are, ranked in order of focus; Budapest and Prague, Vienna, Ljubljana, Bratislava, Sofia, Warsaw and Zagreb. 3) Based on the correlation analysis, we found a strong relationship between two indicators (Cultural Creative Cities Index and Smart Cities Index) which suggests that it would make sense to explore further relationships for which it is indispensable to have the right quality and quantity of data. All in all, it would be worthwhile creating an economic index measuring the performance of Central and Eastern European regional centers which could help regional and city governments as well as potential investors get an up-to-date and comprehensive picture of regional centers in the region.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.21003/ea.V195-03

NONLINEAR SPILLOVER EFFECT OF US MONETARY POLICY UNCERTAINTY ON CHINA’S SYSTEMATIC FINANCIAL RISKS

Laszlo Vasa Zhigang Ouyang Zhenjiang Dou Lei Wei

Publication Name: Journal of Business Economics and Management

Publication Date: 2022-02-08

Volume: 23

Issue: 2

Page Range: 364-381

Description:

Monetary policy uncertainty (MPU) not only imposes a great impact on the systematic financial risks of a country but also generates a significant spillover effect on countries having close economic exchanges with the former under the background of global economic integration. With the daily return rates of 64 listed financial companies in China from February 2006 to September 2020 used as the samples, China’s systematic financial risks were measured in this research by using long-run marginal expected shortfall (LRMES). On this basis, an FAVAR model with time-varying parameters was constructed to empirically investigate the spillover effect of US MPU on China’s systematic financial risks and its main transmission channels. Results showed that within the sample period (February 2006 – September 2020), US MPU generated a significant positive spillover effect on China’s systematic financial risks, namely, China’s systematic financial risks would be aggravated if the level of US MPU was elevated. From different time intervals, the spillover level was particularly high during global financial crises and global COVID-19 pandemic, indicating that the spillover effect of MPU is nonlinear and closely related to global major sudden risk events. Through the further research, it is found that this effect is mainly transmitted through short-term capital flow, interest rate, and economic uncertainty-induced channels, among which the short-term capital flow is the most important.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3846/jbem.2022.16065