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Given the global economic issues and environmental pollution, there is a growing interest in research addressing the use of biomasses resulting from agricultural production. One main category of biomass components is lignin, the use of plant waste in the pulp industry being one of the ways in avoiding additional deforestation by suppling inputs for the paper industry. The implementation of a strategy for capitalizing the potential of renewable sources, as, but not limited to, paper production, provides the appropriate framework for decision on renewable alternatives and inclusion in the acquis domains in Romania. The present study analyzed the potential use of waste obtained from field crops, mainly annual, as wheat, sunflower, maize, soy, rape, rye, barley, sorghum, rice, to produce paper. Biomass/waste from field crops is a promising source for paper, primarily because it is renewable and has the potential to exploit over 7 million hectares of arable land, with annual use. The diversity of pedoclimatic conditions in Romania makes possible the cultivation of a wider range of species and, within them, a multitude of varieties and hybrids, with variable amounts of lignocellulosic agricultural waste. In addition, accidental years as 2022, the year with the worst drought in Europe in the last 500 years, reshaped the need of valorizing any available biomass, regardless of the production of the main crop. Our calculations show that for a paper containing 28% of renewable cellulose, with the wheat straws collected from Romania in 2019, 9633.31 thousand tons of paper would have been obtained, with an average per hectare of 2786.62 kg of paper. Our analysis shows the opportunity of using lignocellulosic agricultural waste for use as a raw material for paper production. A throughout analysis is needed in the context of extreme droughts experienced recently, to show which valorization of by-products is the most economically justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important step in the conservation of old paper documents is the analysis of both the medium and the ink, in an attempt first to determine the extent of deterioration and degradation and then to choose the best preservation and restoration solutions. Our paper focuses on the analysis of three old documents displayed at the 'Poni-Cernătescu' Museum in Iaşi City, Romania by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), micro-FTIR spectroscopy and FT-Raman. Thus, the morphology and chemical composition of the paper media and the type of ink, as well as the cellulose crystallinity index were determined. PCA (Principal Component Analysis) was also used while relying on spectra collected by FTIR spectroscopy. We were able to determine the extent of degradation of the documents by corroborating all these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to examine the agile supply chain management practices adopted by UK clothing retailers in order to effectively manage the supply of innovative, high-margin, high-fashion content product offerings in a complex global environment. Design/methodology/approach — A case study approach was adopted examining the whole of the global retail fashion supply chain, from typical UK-based retailers through to their main production and logistics suppliers based in two low-cost locations, China and Romania. The cases of the UK retailers were followed by a study tour of China and Romania, where ten cases of fabric and finishing manufacturers, intermediaries and logistic providers were carried out. Findings — Many aspects of accepted risk management and agile practice, such as market sensitivity, postponement activities and collaborative information-sharing partnerships were apparent in the early product definition and the later product delivery stages of the supply chain. However, the responsibility for supply, including the key aspect of managing the complex supply network, was almost exclusively left to intermediaries located in low-cost countries. These intermediaries in the main could best achieve agile supply from a significantly underutilized low-cost country supply network through a traditional adversarial price and lead time auction sourcing process. Research limitations/implications — While the cases considered reflected what seemed to be a typical and widely adopted approach to managing such a supply chain, this may not, of course, be the only approach taken by organisations in the clothing industry. Originality/value — By examining a whole supply chain associated with agile supply in an important sector, the paper identifies the relative importance of some existing practices and brings into sharper focus those most relevant to this type of supply. The paper also identifies key elements of contemporary supply chain management practice, namely the growing use of global supply for innovative products and the essential and valuable role played by intermediaries in such supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]