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AbstractElevated CO2 concentration has been reported to decrease grain nutrient concentrations and thus worsen nutritional deficiency and hidden hunger. One nutritional aspect is mineral content, yet mineral bioavailability can be limited by the presence of phytic acid. Given that future climate scenarios predict elevated global temperature driven by elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, we used Temperature by Free‐Air CO2 Enrichment (T‐FACE) field experiments to investigate whether elevated temperature alters the effects of elevated CO2 on grain mineral concentrations, grain mineral yields, and their bioavailability in a range of wheat and rice genotypes. We found that the negative effects of elevated CO2 were compensated for by positive effects of elevated temperature. As a result, the combined elevated CO2 and elevated temperature increased concentrations of some minerals by up to ~15% in both rice and wheat relative to control conditions. Moreover, the combined elevated CO2 and elevated temperature did not significantly change total yields of some minerals despite lower grain yields. The combined CO2 and temperature elevation increased phytic acid concentration in rice by 18.1% but decreased it in wheat by 3.5%. The mineral bioavailability, estimated as the mole ratio of phytic acid to minerals in rice and wheat grains, was limited by the combined CO2 and temperature elevation in only a few cases. Our results indicate that under future climate conditions of elevated temperature and CO2, the nutritional quality of rice and wheat with respect to minerals may remain unchanged.

Abstract In this work, energy analysis is carried out to account for inputs and outputs of energy and GHG emissions associated with the biodiesel production system. Jojoba oil is obtained by cultivation of the jojoba plant, harvesting of seeds followed by extraction of oil, which is then converted to biodiesel by the process of transesterification. Energy efficiency is expressed in terms of the net energy balance (NEB) and the net energy ratio (NER). The use of the byproducts (husk, cake or meal, waste residues and glycerin) are also included as a part of the system boundary. The results show that the NEB and NER values are calculated at 46724.1 MJ/ha (28.9 MJ/L biodiesel produced) and 2.16, respectively. At the same time, the total amount of GHG emissions are estimated at 2.28 kg-CO2eq/L biodiesel produced (66.0 g CO2eq/MJ biodiesel produced). Nevertheless, if manure is used as fertilizer for jojoba plant cultivation, the primary energy input will fall by 9.52% (to 22.49 MJ/L of biodiesel).

Large amounts of CO2 from human socioeconomic activities threaten environmental sustainability. Moreover, uncontrolled resource use and lack of relevant technology exacerbate this issue. For this reason, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology has gained worldwide attention. Many scholars have researched CCUS, but few have used CCUS patent bibliometric analysis from a unified perspective. This article aims to provide a conclusive analysis for CCUS researchers and policymakers, as well as summarize the innovation trends, technological distribution, and topic evolution. Based on 11,915 pieces of patent data from the Derwent Innovations Index, we used bibliometric analysis and data mining methods to conduct research on four dimensions: overall trend, geographical distribution, patentees, and patent content. The results of this article are as follows. CCUS has entered a rapid development stage since 2013. Patents are mainly distributed geographically in China, the US, and Japan, especially in heavy industries such as energy and electricity. Large enterprises hold patents with a relatively stable network of cooperators and attach great importance to international patent protection. A total of 12 topics were identified through clustering, and these topics gradually shifted from technicalities to commercialization, and from industrial production to all aspects of people’s daily lives.

Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security.

Consumer interest in food products, including fresh vegetables, with health promoting properties is rising. In fresh vegetables, these properties include vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and secondary compounds, which collectively impart a large portion of the dietary, nutritional or health value associated with vegetable intake. Many, including farmers, aim to increase the health-promoting properties of fresh vegetables on the whole but they face at least three obstacles. First, describing crop composition in terms of its nutrition-based impact on human health is complex and there are few, if any, accepted processes and associated metrics for assessing and managing vegetable composition on-farm, at the origin of supply. Second, data suggest that primary and secondary metabolism can be 'in conflict' when establishing the abundance versus composition of a crop. Third, fresh vegetable farmers are rarely compensated for the phytochemical composition of their product. The development and implementation of a fresh vegetable 'nutritional yield' index could be instrumental in overcoming these obstacles. Nutritional yield is a function of crop biomass and tissue levels of health-related metabolites, including bioavailable antioxidant potential. Data from a multi-factor study of leaf lettuce primary and secondary metabolism and the literature suggest that antioxidant yield is sensitive to genetic and environmental production factors, and that changes in crop production and valuation will be required for fresh vegetable production systems to become more focused and purposeful instruments of public health.

Scarcity of water resources in the entire country is more serious in the northern provinces like Golestan. Therefore, farmers have to use saline water or waste waters. One way to adapt to this condition is to use unconventional water such as Caspian Sea water, with lower salinity as compared with water from free seas, for common crops like soybean. Thus feasibility of using Caspian Sea water that has integrated with narrow common water and the calibration of Aquacrop model under the effect of salinity and water stress for soybean crop in Golestan province are more important. The Aquacrop model assumes a linear relationship between the biomass yield (BY) and crop transpiration one one hand and water productivity (WP) value on the other (Steduto and Albrizio, 2005). This model, as compared to other crop models, requires minimal input data and its new version 4.0 (June, 2012) has a salinity module which was used in this research to simulate the grain yield (GY) and WP of soybean under deficit and saline water irrigation. Furthermore, the AquaCrop model has not often been tested to simulate the yield of soybean under saline conditions in the semi-arid climate of Golestan province. This study aims at evaluating the efficiency of AquaCrop model in soybean yield simulation. The results are to be used for optimizing water consumption under water and saline stress. To this end, an experiment was carried out at the research farm of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

The oil industry is extremely important to China's overall economic growth, fiscal stability and international trade. But oil industry reforms have been undertaken slowly and gradually. In 1994 the government reimposed central control over its oil industry by fixing the price of crude and petroleum products, and channelling virtually all sales through state agencies. This move marks a temporary retreat from the ongoing experiment with oil deregulation, which picked up speed since 1992. For as long as it lasts, this renewed central recontrol over oil prices and distribution will create increased uncertainty for foreign participation.