Restorative and regenerative: Exploring the concepts in the circular economy

The most recognized definition of the circular economy is that it is a restorative and regenerative economy. Despite the wide use and importance attributed to the concepts of “restoration” and “regeneration,” they are rarely defined or explained in the circular economy literature. In this context, this study critically examines the two terms, while providing guidance on their future utilization and development. Specifically, the study investigates the origin of the concepts, their adoption in frameworks that anticipated the idea of the circular economy, and their connotations in the circular economy literature. The examination supports the need for clear and distinct definitions, combined with precision in usage. From a review of the literature, restoration is a better‐defined concept than regeneration, although it needs conceptual re‐enforcement relative to the biological/ecological aspects of the circular economy. This study suggests looking in the direction of restoration ecology, a well‐established branch of ecological research. Conversely, regeneration is a symbolic/evocative term with little practical application in the context of circular systems except in the case of certain agricultural practices. Until new conceptual developments intervene, regeneration does not seem to be applicable to the economy as a whole and because of this, might be abandoned as a guiding principle of the circular economy. Unlike regeneration, restoration can be considered a core principle because it has widespread application and can be a point of reference for circular applications. This does not preclude the possibility that other concepts may be needed to augment restoration.     

Efforts for a Circular Economy in China: A Comprehensive Review of Policies

Circular economy concepts, practices, and policies are increasingly drawing attention as important means for the pursuit of sustainable development. This article uses a conceptual framework to catalogue and investigate policy efforts for the circular economy in China. Based on the framework, policy prototypes and specific examples are identified: resource‐oriented, production‐oriented, waste, and use‐oriented and life cycle policies. A comprehensive review of 280 related policies shows that China has a long history of resource‐oriented policies and implemented production‐oriented policies very quickly after the year 2000. China's policies toward the circular economy became more comprehensive through time, with a broad engagement of government agencies, an extensive and progressive coverage of recycling opportunities, production initiatives across multiple scales, and use of different policy instruments. The continuous progress has been driven by proactive state actors and their learning from the international society. The current policy framework, however, is concerned more with the means rather than the ends of the circular economy, and relies too much on direct subsidies and other financial incentives. Policy making can be improved by more explicit consideration of the whole production life cycle and use of market‐based policy design.     

Exploiting the Potential of Public Procurement: Opportunities for Circular Economy

The objective of a circular economy (CE) is to maintain the value of products, materials, and resources in the economy by closing material loops and minimizing waste generation. In recent years, the role of public procurement has been recognized as an important, but as yet not fully exploited, opportunity by cities and municipalities in their transition toward circular societies. This study analyzed public procurement opportunities to promote CE. Different approaches and examples of circular public procurement were identified using case studies. In addition, opportunities to promote CE through sustainable and green public procurement policy were identified analyzing predefined sustainable or green public procurement criteria. The study concludes that public procurement can promote CE and related business models by setting criteria and requirements for the extension of product life spans, efficiency and/or intensity of use, and efficient cycling of biological or technical materials, as well as for the securing of clean and nonrisky cycles. Circular procurement can occur through the procurement of better‐quality products in circular terms, the procurement of new circular products, the use of business concepts that support the CE, and investments in circular ecosystems. Several sectors and product groups were identified as having potential for circular procurement, such as construction, waste, and wastewater management, transportation, food, and catering, furniture, and textiles. The study also suggests that the use of certain tools, such as performance‐based procurement, life cycle approach, and life cycle costing, as well as criteria concerning reuse and recycling of materials, could promote circular procurement. Market dialogue and cooperation between procurers and actors in the supply chains are important for the future development of circular procurement.     

基于高性能服务器及网格技术的生物科研服务平台研究

为了解决生物科学方面的研究人员在使用生物研究软件工具中存在的“不知道、选不出、难学习和用不起”等问题,同时也为了能为生物类院校的师生提供教学辅助,利用网格技术在高性能服务器上,建立了一款服务于生物研究和教学的网上生物科研服务平台（Biological study service platform,BSP）。该平台包含“工具大全、工具论坛和web工作台”等三部分,拟分别从“找,学,用”三个方面彻底解决生物研究人员在使用生物研究软件工具中存在的问题,同时也为生物类的教师和学生提供了教与学平台。访问地址如下：http：//218．57．145．30：9999／biosp／。此外,该研究小组还将不断地更新和改进该平台,开发更多的自主应用软件,更好地服务生物科研工作。     

A guide to the Proteomics Identifications Database proteomics data repository

The Proteomics Identifications Database (PRIDE, www.ebi.ac.uk/pride ) is one of the main repositories of MS derived proteomics data. Here, we point out the main functionalities of PRIDE both as a submission repository and as a source for proteomics data. We describe the main features for data retrieval and visualization available through the PRIDE web and BioMart interfaces. We also highlight the mechanism by which tailored queries in the BioMart can join PRIDE to other resources such as Reactome, Ensembl or UniProt to execute extremely powerful across‐domain queries. We then present the latest improvements in the PRIDE submission process, using the new easy‐to‐use, platform‐independent graphical user interface submission tool PRIDE Converter. Finally, we speak about future plans and the role of PRIDE in the ProteomExchange consortium.     

Towards a Circular Economy in Australian Agri‐food Industry: An Application of Input‐Output Oriented Approaches for Analyzing Resource Efficiency and Competitiveness Potential

The food industry in Australia (agriculture and manufacturing) plays a fundamental role in contributing to socioeconomic sectors nationally. However, alongside the benefits, the industry also produces environmental burdens associated with the production of food. Sectorally, agriculture is the largest consumer of water. Additionally, land degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and waste generation are considered the main environmental impacts caused by the industry. The research project aims to evaluate the eco‐efficiency performance of various subsectors in the Australian agri‐food systems through the use of input‐output–oriented approaches of data envelopment analysis and material flow analysis. This helps in establishing environmental and economic indicators for the industry. The results have shown inefficiencies during the life cycle of food production in Australia. Following the principles of industrial ecology, the study recommends the implementation of sustainable processes to increase efficiency, diminish undesirable outputs, and decrease the use of nonrenewable inputs within the production cycle. Broadly, the research outcomes are useful to inform decision makers about the advantages of moving from a traditional linear system to a circular production system, where a sustainable and efficient circular economy could be created in the Australian food industry.     

Molstack: A platform for interactive presentations of electron density and cryo‐EM maps and their interpretations

In the Special Issue on Tools for Protein Science in 2018, we presented Molstack: a concept of a cloud‐based platform for sharing electron density maps and their interpretations. Molstack is a web platform that allows the interactive visualization of density maps through the simultaneous presentation of multiple datasets and models in a way that allows for easy pairwise comparison. We anticipated that the users of this conceptually simple platform would find many different uses for their projects, and we were not mistaken. We have observed researchers use Molstack to present experimental evidence for their models in the form of electron density maps, omit maps, and anomalous difference density maps. Users also employed Molstack to present alternative interpretations of densities, including rerefinements and speculative interpretations. While we anticipated these types of projects to be the main use cases, we were pleased to see Molstack used to display superpositions of different models, as a tool for story‐driven presentations, and for collaboration as well. Here, we present developments in the platform that were driven by user feedback, highlight several cases that used Molstack to enhance the publication, and discuss possible directions for the platform.     

Modeling copper demand in China up to 2050: A business‐as‐usual scenario based on dynamic stock and flow analysis

In this paper, we develop a dynamic stock model and scenario analysis involving a bottom‐up approach to analyze copper demand in China from 2005 to 2050 based on government and related sectoral policies. The results show that in the short‐term, China's copper industry cannot achieve a completely circular economy without additional measures. Aggregate and per capita copper demand are both set to increase substantially, especially in infrastructure, transportation, and buildings. Between 2016 and 2050, total copper demand will increase almost threefold. Copper use in buildings will stabilize before 2050, but the copper stock in infrastructure and transportation will not yet have reached saturation in 2050. The continuous growth of copper stock implies that secondary copper will be able to cover just over 50% of demand in 2050, at best, even with an assumed recycling rate of 90%. Finally, future copper demand depends largely on the lifetime of applications. There is therefore an urgent need to prolong the service life of end‐use products to reduce the amount of materials used, especially in large‐scale applications in buildings and infrastructure.     

Kmasker plants – a tool for assessing complex sequence space in plant species

Many plant genomes display high levels of repetitive sequences. The assembly of these complex genomes using short high‐throughput sequence reads is still a challenging task. Underestimation or disregard of repeat complexity in these datasets can easily misguide downstream analysis. Detection of repetitive regions by k‐mer counting methods has proved to be reliable. Easy‐to‐use applications utilizing k‐mer counting are in high demand, especially in the domain of plants. We present Kmasker plants, a tool that uses k‐mer count information as an assistant throughout the analytical workflow of genome data that is provided as a command‐line and web‐based solution. Beside its core competence to screen and mask repetitive sequences, we have integrated features that enable comparative studies between different cultivars or closely related species and methods that estimate target specificity of guide RNAs for application of site‐directed mutagenesis using Cas9 endonuclease. In addition, we have set up a web service for Kmasker plants that maintains pre‐computed indices for 10 of the economically most important cultivated plants. Source code for Kmasker plants has been made publically available at https://github.com/tschmutzer/kmasker . The web service is accessible at https://kmasker.ipk-gatersleben.de .     

工业园区循环经济关联与生态效率评价——以福建省蛟洋循环经济示范园区为例

工业园区因物质能量的高度集聚,生产-消费过程的网络关联,以及区域示范带动效应,在循环经济发展中受到持续关注。本研究以福建省蛟洋循环经济示范园区为例,应用物质流、生态网络和生态效率等测度分析方法,综合评估了2012—2016年间园区循环经济的网络关联和生态效率。研究结果表明:(1)园区物质流结构单一,关联度和稳定度明显较弱;(2)园区网络的韧性不足,关键节点的级联效应显著,尤其对中下游企业的影响程度大;(3)生态效率指数分析发现,园区关键节点企业在循环经济效益方面带动能力不足,影响园区循环经济的前景。为此,从园区网络关联稳定度和企业生态经济效率优化提升的角度,探讨园区未来的循环经济发展策略。可为处于起步阶段的专一化工业园区探索可行的循环经济模式提供借鉴。     

widgetcon: A website and program for quick conversion among common population genetic data formats

One of the most tedious steps in genetic data analyses is the reformatting data generated with one program for use with other applications. This conversion is necessary because comprehensive evaluation of the data may be based on different algorithms included in diverse software, each requiring a distinct input format. A platform‐independent and freely available program or a web‐based tool dedicated to such reformatting can save time and efforts in data processing. Here, we report widgetcon , a website and a program which has been developed to quickly and easily convert among various molecular data formats commonly used in phylogenetic analysis, population genetics, and other fields. The web‐based service is available at https://www.widgetcon.net . The program and the website convert the major data formats in four basic steps in less than a minute. The resource will be a useful tool for the research community and can be updated to include more formats and features in the future.     

Optimizing Circular Economy Planning and Risk Analysis Using System Dynamics

This article develops a systems dynamics and multi-objective programming model (SDMOP) for planning a regional circular economy. Various risk analyses are conducted using the technique of sensitivity analysis. This SDMOP model includes two modules: the MOP module used to derive optimized parameters as inputs to the systems dynamics model, and the systems dynamics module used to plan the regional circular economy. We demonstrate the application of this SDMOP model to a problem of planning the circular economy of a county in the Sichuan Province of China.     

Taxonomic identification of Amazonian tree crowns from aerial photography

Question: To what extent can aerial photography be used for taxonomic identification of Amazonian tree crowns? Objective: To investigate whether a combination of dichotomous keys and a web‐based interface is a suitable approach to identify tree crowns. Location: The fieldwork was conducted at Tiputini Biodiversity Station located in the Amazon, eastern Ecuador. Methods: High‐resolution imagery was taken from an airplane flying at a low altitude (600 m) above the ground. Imagery of the observable upper layer of the tree crowns was used for the analysis. Dichotomous identification keys for different types of crowns were produced and tested. The identification keys were designed to be web‐based interactive, using Google Earth as the main online platform. The taxa analysed were Iriartea, Astrocaryum, Inga, Parkia, Cecropia, Pourouma, Guarea, Otoba, Lauraceae and Pouteria. Results: This paper demonstrates that a combination of photo‐imagery, dichotomous keys and a web‐based interface can be useful for the taxonomic identification of Amazonian trees based on their crown characteristics. The keys tested with an overall identification accuracy of over 50% for five of the ten taxa with three of them showing accuracy greater than 70% (Iriartea, Astrocaryum and Cecropia). Conclusions: The application of dichotomous keys and a web‐based interface provides a new methodological approach for taxonomic identification of various Amazonian tree crowns. Overall, the study showed that crowns with a medium‐rough texture are less reliably identified than crowns with smoother or well‐defined surfaces.     

Exploring the temporal variability of a food web using long‐term biomonitoring data

Ecological communities are constantly being reshaped in the face of environmental change and anthropogenic pressures. Yet, how food webs change over time remains poorly understood. Food web science is characterized by a trade‐off between complexity (in terms of the number of species and feeding links) and dynamics. Topological analysis can use complex, highly resolved empirical food web models to explore the architecture of feeding interactions but is limited to a static view, whereas ecosystem models can be dynamic but use highly aggregated food webs. Here, we explore the temporal dynamics of a highly resolved empirical food web over a time period of 18 years, using the German Bight fish and benthic epifauna community as our case study. We relied on long‐term monitoring ecosystem surveys (from 1998 to 2015) to build a metaweb, i.e. the meta food web containing all species recorded over the time span of our study. We then combined time series of species abundances with topological network analysis to construct annual food web snapshots. We developed a new approach, ‘node‐weighted’ food web metrics by including species abundances to represent the temporal dynamics of food web structure, focusing on generality and vulnerability. Our results suggest that structural food web properties change through time; however, binary food web structural properties may not be as temporally variable as the underlying changes in species composition. Further, the node‐weighted metrics enabled us to detect that food web structure was influenced by changes in species composition during the first half of the time series and more strongly by changes in species dominance during the second half. Our results demonstrate how ecosystem surveys can be used to monitor temporal changes in food web structure, which are important ecosystem indicators for building marine management and conservation plans.     

Sigpep: calculating unique peptide signature transition sets in a complete proteome background

We have created a new software platform called sigpep that analyzes transition redundancy in selected reaction monitoring assays. Building on this platform, we also created a web application to generate transition sets with unique signatures for targeted peptides. The platform has been made available under the permissive Apache 2.0 open-source license, and the web application can be accessed from http://iomics.ugent.be/sigpep.     

Progress Toward a Circular Economy in China

Eco‐industrial initiatives, which close industrial loops by turning wastes at one point in a value chain into inputs at another point, are attracting growing interest as a solution to the problem of sustainability of industrial systems. Although Germany and Japan have made important advances in building recycling incentives into their industrial systems and sought competitive advantage from doing so, China is arguably taking the issue even further (in principle) through its pursuit of a circular economy, now enshrined in law as an official national development goal. In this article, we review a number of the eco‐industrial initiatives taken in China and compare them using a common graphical representation with comparable initiatives taken in the West and elsewhere in East Asia. Our aim is to demonstrate some common themes across the case studies, such as the transformation from the former linear economy to a circular economy and the evolutionary processes in which dynamic linkages are gradually established over time. We discuss the drivers of these eco‐industrial initiatives as well as the inhibitors, setting the initiatives in an evolutionary framework and introducing a notion of Pareto eco‐efficiency to evaluate them. We make the argument that China might be capturing latecomer advantages through its systematic promotion of eco‐industrial initiatives within a circular economy framework.     

Highly Stretchable,Sparse, Metallized Nanofiber Webs as Thin,Transferrable Transparent Conductors

The need for transparent conductors (TCs) that are capable of withstanding high mechanical deformation in comparison to the brittle indium tin oxide (ITO) films is paramount for roll‐to‐roll production of flexible and stretchable displays, signage systems, lighting devices and solar panels with stringent weatherability requirements. This paper reports a highly stretchable TC comprising of a web of core‐shell nanofibers, which mimics the fibrous structure of natural systems such as veins of a leaf or nerve systems. The TC web demonstrates high transparency, low sheet resistance, and unprecedented stretchability and stability over repeated stretching. The nanofiber TC web can be transferred to different substrates, which is manifested by the transfer onto an organic solar cell, demonstrating a photovoltaic performance comparable to that of a device with an ITO electrode. This work presents a technological platform, scalable for the manufacturing of large area transparent conductors for flexible and stretchable displays, electronics and solar cells on unconventional substrates such as rubber, fabric and paper.     

Measuring Progress towards a Circular Economy: A Monitoring Framework for Economy‐wide Material Loop Closing in the EU28

The concept of a circular economy (CE) is gaining increasing attention from policy makers, industry, and academia. There is a rapidly evolving debate on definitions, limitations, the contribution to a wider sustainability agenda, and a need for indicators to assess the effectiveness of circular economy measures at larger scales. Herein, we present a framework for a comprehensive and economy‐wide biophysical assessment of a CE, utilizing and systematically linking official statistics on resource extraction and use and waste flows in a mass‐balanced approach. This framework builds on the widely applied framework of economy‐wide material flow accounting and expands it by integrating waste flows, recycling, and downcycled materials. We propose a comprehensive set of indicators that measure the scale and circularity of total material and waste flows and their socioeconomic and ecological loop closing. We applied this framework in the context of monitoring efforts for a CE in the European Union (EU28) for the year 2014. We found that 7.4 gigatons (Gt) of materials were processed in the EU and only 0.71 Gt of them were secondary materials. The derived input socioeconomic cycling rate of materials was therefore 9.6%. Further, of the 4.8 Gt of interim output flows, 14.8% were recycled or downcycled. Based on these findings and our first efforts in assessing sensitivity of the framework, a number of improvements are deemed necessary: improved reporting of wastes, explicit modeling of societal in‐use stocks, introduction of criteria for ecological cycling, and disaggregated mass‐based indicators to evaluate environmental impacts of different materials and circularity initiatives. This article met the requirements for a gold – gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges .     

CartograTree: connecting tree genomes,phenotypes and environment

Today, researchers spend a tremendous amount of time gathering, formatting, filtering and visualizing data collected from disparate sources. Under the umbrella of forest tree biology, we seek to provide a platform and leverage modern technologies to connect biotic and abiotic data. Our goal is to provide an integrated web‐based workspace that connects environmental, genomic and phenotypic data via geo‐referenced coordinates. Here, we connect the genomic query web‐based workspace, DiversiTree and a novel geographical interface called CartograTree to data housed on the TreeGenes database. To accomplish this goal, we implemented Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol to enable the primary genomics database, TreeGenes, to communicate with semantic web services regardless of platform or back‐end technologies. The novelty of CartograTree lies in the interactive workspace that allows for geographical visualization and engagement of high performance computing (HPC) resources. The application provides a unique tool set to facilitate research on the ecology, physiology and evolution of forest tree species. CartograTree can be accessed at: http://dendrome.ucdavis.edu/cartogratree .