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Around 10.5 million tonnes of sheep milk are produced worldwide, and around 3.1 million tonnes in Europe. In Europe, sheep milk production has stagnated slightly in recent years and currently accounts for around 1/3 of the global production. Due to its high content of dry matter, milk fat, total protein and casein, sheep milk is an excellent raw material for cheese production. Milk processing and cheese making are not only economically important, but also part of the cultural heritage based on a long tradition, often taking place in rural and less developed areas. Milk production and quality are very complex and are influenced by numerous factors, the most important of which are breed, feeding and body condition, parity and stage of lactation, milking and udder health, and environmental factors. In addition, different types of stress such as heat stress, nutritional stress, weaning stress, shearing stress, stress of regrouping, etc. have a significant impact on the welfare and health of the sheep as well as on the quantity of milk produced, its chemical composition, processing characteristics and the economic efficiency of the flock. In recent years, due to climate change, there has been an increasing number of studies on the effects of heat stress on the reproductive and production characteristics of sheep, as well as on their welfare and health. In addition, heat stress is often associated to the feed and the lack of water. The effects of stress are particularly pronounced in extensive sheep farming and milk production, which are prevalent in sheep farming. The aim of this paper is to describe the effects of the main types of stress on the quantity and chemical composition of sheep milk and on animal welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries of Emerging and Developing Europe (EDE) significantly transformed their agri-food sector in the last decades, and it has specific implications for agricultural tendencies and the economy of these countries. This research focuses on the sources of growth of agricultural production in countries belonging to EDE, as the former communist countries classified by the International Monetary Fund. This group of countries is particularly interesting because there is room for further growth in agricultural production, which can be crucial in times of crisis. This article's main objective is to estimate agriculture's production function and analyze the relationship between agricultural output and used inputs. Based on data for the period 2008 to 2019, results showed that the increase in the use of mineral fertilizers is a key source of production growth among production factors. Due to the economic importance of fertilizer use and its environmental effect, it can be concluded that agricultural policy must be created carefully in these countries to achieve a balance between economic, social, and environmental goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fishponds form substantial part of standing water ecosystems in the landscape of the Central Europe. We studied the effects of fish production and environmental parameters on phytoplankton in fifteen fishponds of various size, fish production and situated at different altitudes. Water and plankton samples were collected from April to October 2018 and 2019. Phytoplankton abundance, zooplankton biovolume, total phosphorus, total nitrogen, ammonia-nitrogen, nitrites, nitrates, phosphates, and total iron concentration were determined. Based on average values of total nitrogen (8.53 mg.l-1), total phosphorus (0.399 mg.l-1), and chl-a (180 µg.l-1) all fishponds were classified as hypertrophic. Fish production was significantly correlated only with altitude. With increasing altitude, fishponds have a lower nutrient content, lower temperature, and hence lower production. The direct effect of fish production on phytoplankton was not observed. Two environmental parameters significantly explained the variability in phytoplankton – altitude and total iron concentration. Our results indicate that besides traditionally monitored parameters like nitrogen and phosphorus concentration, the attention should also be focused on other factors potentially affecting studied ecosystems, hypertrophic fishponds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Following a growing mistrust in a certain number of ingredients used by the cosmetic industry, it has become popular in recent years for consumers to make their own products at home. This trend now touches on all areas of the industry, but is especially found in the hygiene sector, with shampoos and toothpaste, and the care sector, with moisturizers and sunscreen, products. Objectives: The objective of this study is to analyze sunscreen recipes found on the Internet and to assess their level of photoprotective efficacy. Materials and Methods: Fifteen Internet recipes were chosen, and then, the products were made in the laboratory following the protocols described. Using an in vitro method, the following efficacy indicators were determined for the preparations made: the Sun Protection Factor (SPF), the Production Factor in the UVA domain (PF‐UVA), and the critical wavelength (λc). Results: Three of the 15 recipes studied do not contain any sunscreen and therefore constitute a major risk for users in case of exposure to the sun. The other 12 cannot be considered as sun protection products since all of them have an SPF under 6, the threshold value required in Europe. Conclusion: The recipes that we collected on the Internet are very dangerous since some of them have no photoprotective effect whatsoever and most of them do not ensure a sufficient level of photoprotection for the persons using them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-production was developed by several European countries to revive their film industries and has become increasingly popular, spreading across the region and beyond. However, this scheme should be carefully examined as to whether it is truly beneficial to the film industry. In response, this paper proposes two new concepts, "corporation-led" and "state-led" co-productions by distinguishing them from the prevailing notion of "(international) co-production." Corporation-led coproduction is to achieve the best outcome through the optimal utilization of production (or creative) factors and business activities. By contrast, state-led co-production has been used to enhance the national image and has been supported by financial incentives. As such, this type of co-production becomes a hindrance for the optimal utilization of production factors. All of these aspects can be found throughout the history of Europe's co-production efforts. In the future, such an instrument should be redesigned in order to promote the film industry more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cotton Textile Technology is the property of Cotton Textile Technology Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Tourism is clearly a place-based activity, while in many advanced economies it is increasingly becoming a knowledge-based activity, with a high potential for the development of practice- and place-based innovation strategies. This study analyses whether and how regional systems of innovation influence the competiveness of tourism destinations in Europe. Impacts of both traditional production factors (physical and human capital), productivity, specialization and other contextual variables – related to the territorial capital of each region – on regional tourism performance of 237 European regions (NUTS 2) are analysed over a period of 8 years, using advanced techniques for spatial econometric analysis. The results reveal lower levels of productivity in those regions where tourism services are more labour intensive, while regions where education, innovation and productivity demonstrate higher levels are those where gross value added in tourism is less important for the regional economy. Policy implications are discussed, taking into consideration the principles for smart specialisation strategies in European regions and the possibility for cross-border regional cooperation. This work also confirms the research potential of spatial econometric analysis – and in particular spatial autocorrelation techniques – for tourism studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Flanders (Belgium), as throughout other parts of Europe, a decrease in the total number of full-time farms and a concentration of production in fewer and larger full-time farms can be recorded. Meanwhile, developments in other sectors in the economy, such as higher incomes, more free time and greater mobility, have increased demand for wildlife, landscape, leisure and outdoor recreation as an integral part of the countryside. These trends have major impacts on the countryside in general. These profound changes within both the agricultural sector and society are not simple and distinct processes, but are often complex and reciprocal. In this research we try to unravel this complex and reciprocal relationship by focussing on the production factor land and the bond that the individual farmer as well as the farming community has with it. More specifically, we want to provide insight in the way changes in land use and transformations of the countryside are acknowledged and evaluated among the farming community. In order to do this we propose a methodology which combines in-depth interviews with focus group discussions centred around visualized spatial data. This method allows us to get a better understanding of the perception farmers have of land and the value they attach to it. It also provides us with a better insight into the less visible changes in the social fabric of the countryside (such as the apparent tensions between retired and active farmers, tensions between part-time and fulltime farmers and the suspicion of traditional farmers towards multifunctional farmers). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central and Eastern Europe is a region with widely divergent development paths. Until World War II, these countries experienced comparable growth patterns. Whereas Austria and West Germany remained part of the capitalist West and underwent periods of rapid growth, other countries, under state socialist regimes, experienced, on average, far lower growth rates. The lack of data, however, often limits the possibilities of a detailed, quantitative analysis. In this paper, we use a new data set on physical and human capital in seven Central and East European countries for the period 1920-2006 to calculate their effect on economic growth. In addition, we analyze the effect of including the quality of education in human capital. This allows us to perform a growth accounting analysis with the several production factors for Central Europe between 1920 and the present. The difference in growth path across countries is partly explained by differences in technical efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Standard economic growth models generally consider different factors of production such as land, capital, labour, technology and human capital. These are common in theoretical models and empirical applications but more evidence is still needed for their long-term regional evolution. Therefore, this paper traces the evolution of specific aspects of these factors in the European regions and cities by means of different proxies. The data have been collected and calculated from a wide range of diverse historical and spatial data bases. A particular feature is the definition of the European regions according to the NUTS classification by the European Union. Thus, the paper gives a rough outline of some of the most important long-term regional tendencies that should be taken into account in research directed to past and recent time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue d'Économie Régionale & urbaine is the property of Librairie Armand Colin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

I relate hours worked with taxes on consumption and labor for Portugal, France, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. From 1986 to 2001, hours per worker in Portugal decreased from 35.1 to 32.6. With the parameters for Portugal, the model predicts hours worked in 2001 with an error of only 12 min from the actual hours. Across countries, most predictions differ from the data by 1 h or less. The model is not sensible to special assumptions on the parameters. I calculate the long run effects of taxes on consumption, hours, capital and welfare for Portugal. I extend the model to discuss implications for Social Security. I discuss the steady state and the transition from a pay-as-you-go to a fully funded system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article returns to the debate about the relative importance of the productive forces and the relations of production in the feudal mode of production. It argues, using western medieval evidence, that this relation is an empirical one and varies between modes, maybe also inside modes; and that, in the specific case of feudalism, not only were the relations of production the driving force, but developments in the productive forces actually depended upon them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When linkages between industries are studied from the perspective of production chains, sequencing is important. In this respect, both the strength of the linkages and the distance between industries are relevant. Distance is measured by the average propagation length, defined as the average number of steps it takes a stimulus in one industry to propagate and affect another industry. Using the 1985 intercountry input-output table for six European countries, we present three applications—visualizing the production structure by graphing its production chains, analyzing intercountry linkages between industries, and determining the role that each country plays within the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural areas in Europe have increasingly become cast as places of nature, and so consideration of sustainable rural development is preoccupied with the management and protection of environmental and natural resources. Yet rural areas are also places of business, commerce and living. This paper examines the character and treatment of rural economies in England over the past decade. It sets out some of the challenges for the socio-economic development of rural areas, and explains how concerns about sustainable rural economies have come to be eclipsed within central government by those of ‘greening farming’ on the one hand and urban policy on the other. The paper concludes by discussing how the role of rural areas and rural economies might be creatively rethought in the context of regional and sub-regional territorial development strategies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of materials and the generation of waste are linked to economic activities and in many projections these are assumed to be a constant ratio of the economic activities. This may be the case considering detailed economic activities and unchanged technology. However, the assumption of constant coefficients is questionable when linking material use and waste generation to aggregated economic activities. Therefore, in this paper, econometrics is used to test the assumption of constant waste coefficients empirically. The analyses show that an assumption of constant waste coefficients is not supported, generally, and a model allowing for trendwise changing coefficients is developed and used for projections of waste and material flows in 25 European countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Research among European countries had confirmed variance in productivity rates ascribed by construction planning engineers for identical operations. Similar differences in planned construction resource/method factors also had been identified. It is hypothesized that such variance may be due to differences in contractor preference, resulting from socio-economic and corporate objective impacts. Analysis of variance and correlation tests are used to examine this hypothesis on data obtained from French, German and UK contractors. Numerous construction resource/method factors are tested for their impact on mean productivity rates for principal high rise in situ concrete construction operations. Significant productivity rate variations are identified for reinforcement fixing and formwork erection, while variance in concrete placing productivity rates are not found to be dependent upon construction resource/method factors. Contractors seeking to improve productivity might wish to consider solutions for construction resource/method decisions that have been found herein to be related to higher productivity rates and (in some cases) lower costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The price and substitution elasticities for factor inputs -- capital, labor, fuels and electricity -- are estimated for total manufacturing industry on the basis of a pooled cross-country time-series analysis for nine West European countries. The impact of the economic disturbances in the 1970s on the price sensitivity of demand is analyzed by estimating a translog cost function for two separate periods, 1960-72 and 1973-80. Hicks-neutral technical change is rejected for both periods. The results indicate some quite significant changes in the elasticities over the two periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article informs that the most striking difference between the outlooks of Europeans and Americans lies in their orientation toward time. It is as if they were standing back to back, with the European inclined to look at the past and present and the American seeing the present and future. The American's more futuristic outlook leads him to respect vitality, mobility, quantity, and organization. In Europe the moderating influence of wisdom has admittedly prevented many production and clerical jobs from being mechanized a long time ago. But at the middle-management and top-management levels, understaffing rather than overstaffing seems to be the rule. Important decisions are still made by single individuals or at least by a much smaller group of top executives than in the United States. The relative lack of natural resources in Europe and their abundance in the U.S. has not been without profound impact on the management philosophies of our two continents. Overorganization, the European believes, is a particularly threatening consequence.

The article presents information on the market trend analysis for the global production of industrial yarns. The global production of industrial yarns in 2006 is estimated 2.6 million tons. It informed about the percentage change in overall growth rate of industrial yarns in Europe, the U.S., Brazil, and others. It informed about the development of the market for polyester industrial yarns in Asia from its market share of 40% in 2000 to over 55% in 2006. It also discussed other issues concerning polyester yarn trade in Europe, Argentina, and others.