Current and Expected Trends for the Marine Chitin/Chitosan and Collagen Value Chains.

Chitin/chitosan and collagen are two of the most important bioactive compounds, with applications in the pharmaceutical, veterinary, nutraceutical, cosmetic, biomaterials, and other industries. When extracted from non-edible parts of fish and shellfish, by-catches, and invasive species, their use contributes to a more sustainable and circular economy. The present article reviews the scientific knowledge and publication trends along the marine chitin/chitosan and collagen value chains and assesses how researchers, industry players, and end-users can bridge the gap between scientific understanding and industrial applications. Overall, research on chitin/chitosan remains focused on the compound itself rather than its market applications. Still, chitin/chitosan use is expected to increase in food and biomedical applications, while that of collagen is expected to increase in biomedical, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and nutritional applications. Sustainable practices, such as the reuse of waste materials, contribute to strengthen both value chains; the identified weaknesses include the lack of studies considering market trends, social sustainability, and profitability, as well as insufficient examination of intellectual property rights. Government regulations, market demand, consumer preferences, technological advancements, environmental challenges, and legal frameworks play significant roles in shaping both value chains. Addressing these factors is crucial for seizing opportunities, fostering sustainability, complying with regulations, and maintaining competitiveness in these constantly evolving value chains.

The role of ICT in energy consumption and environment: an empirical investigation of Asian economies with cluster analysis.

The development of societies has led information and communication technology (ICT) to play a gradually important role in people's lives, transforming the way societies and economies function. ICTs are often associated with the path to reducing CO2 emissions; however, do they lead to that path? Or are they themselves a growing source of energy consumption and emissions? The current study estimates the effect of ICT, trade, economic growth, financial development, and energy consumption on carbon emissions in South and Southeast Asian (SSEA) region for the period of 1990-2014. Moreover, the study also tried to validate the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis between GDP per capita and CO2 emissions. Cluster analysis was used to identify two groups (potential and advanced countries) based on their social development score. The long-run connection between the variables was examined and the long-run elasticities of ICT, financial development, energy consumption, trade, and economic growth with respect to CO2 emissions were estimated. Besides, individual country-wise long-run coefficients were found. Results show that financial development and ICT deteriorated the environment quality in the SSEA region, suggesting ICT goods and services are not energy-efficient in both potential and advanced countries and that most of the financial investment was made in non-friendly environmental projects, in potential countries. On the contrary, in advanced countries, financial development mitigates CO2 emissions. In addition, results also confirmed an inverted U-shaped relationship for all the considered three panels such as potential, advance, and full-countries panels, confirming EKC. Causality findings showed a bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions and energy consumption as well as unidirectional causality from trade, economic growth, financial development, and ICT to CO2 emissions. Policymakers should be aware of the ICT impact on energy consumption and strengthen the regulation of their manufacture to facilitate the integration of energy efficiency into user routines. Due to the increasing use of standby mode and Wi-Fi assistive devices, the rapid implementation of legislation regulating these technologies to make them more efficient is recommended.

Overestimation of health urgency as a cause for emergency services inappropriate use: Insights from an exploratory economics experiment in Portugal.

Increasing visits to emergency departments add strain to public healthcare systems. The misperception of symptoms' severity can partly explain inappropriate use of hospitals' emergency departments by non-urgent patients. This paper focuses on the misperception of symptoms' severity as a cause for the inappropriate use of emergency departments. It explores the role that informing potential patients of the correct severity level can play in correcting this inefficiency. We implement in an incentivised manner an exploratory economic experiment to elicit the degree of severity of five sets of symptoms, corresponding to frequent causes of emergency department visits. The study was setup in Braga, Northern Portugal, recruiting voluntary participants through civic local organisations. We ask participants to indicate the more suitable health service, before and after revealing the true degree of severity. Results show that there is an overestimation of the degree of severity of some clinical profiles, and when confronted with the real severity, in only half of the cases are choices changed to other health services. Although exploratory, this study provides insights into the potential role of health education policies concerning symptoms' severity but it also highlights the limits of such policies. Furthermore, the use of economic experiments can provide meaningful insights for the design of policies addressing demand-side healthcare inefficiencies.

Inference Procedures to Quantify the Efficiency-Equality Trade-Off in Health from Stated Preferences: A Case Study in Portugal.

OBJECTIVES: This article develops two inference procedures to calculate the inequality aversion and alpha parameters of a health-related social welfare function with constant elasticity (CES-HRSWF) using stated preferences. Based on the relative concept of inequality, a range of values were proposed for the trade-offs between improving total population health and reducing health inequalities. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 422 college students in Portugal. Respondents faced three hypothetical allocation scenarios where they needed to decide between two health programmes that assign different health gains to two anonymous sub-groups of the population and to two sub-groups identified by socioeconomic class. Combinations of the median response to these three questions were used to estimate the parameters of the CES-HRSWF. RESULTS: Findings suggest that the quantification of the efficiency-equality trade-off is not independent of the inference procedure used. Plausible values for the inequality aversion and for the alpha parameters were obtained ranging from 2.24 to 4.85 and from 0.5 to 0.58, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Respondents revealed some aversion to health inequality. However, the extent of this aversion seems to be sensitive to (1) the identification of the groups by occupation status, (2) the size of the health gain, and (3) the inference procedure used.

The market of electrical and electronic equipment waste in Portugal: Analysis of take-back consumers' decisions.

This paper aims to ascertain the efficacy and acceptability of five incentive schemes for the take-back of waste electrical and electronic equipment in Portugal, focusing in consumers' perspectives. It assesses users' perception of these items, evaluating the motivations and interests they have concerning the market of waste electrical and electronic equipment. Results indicate, on one hand, a lack of awareness by consumers about the process of take-back of their equipment. On the other hand, results show that information conditions and socio-demographic factors affect consumers' motivations for returning the electrical and electronic equipment at the end of life. In this context, it can be concluded that, in Portugal, the market for the recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment is still in its infancy.