Circular economy advances with artificial intelligence and digital twin: Multiple-case study of Chinese industries in agriculture

The population growth is drastically surging in demand for food and water and uplifting consumption and waste resulting in overburden of society and the environment. Urgent actions are required to address these emerging global issues. Therefore, adopting a circular economy (CE) is essential to sustain the consumption rate and accommodate the ever-increasing demand. Moreover, the CE practices accelerate the progress on sustainable development. From this perspective, digital technologies are playing driving roles in the successful implementations of CE practices and achievements of the United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). Among various emerging digital technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital twin ((DT) are the promising ones. This paper aims to understand and explore how both technologies facilitate the CE transitions and attain SDGs in the agriculture domain. To this end, we provide insights into the concepts of CE, AI, and DT with preliminary and current research status. This research evaluates the contributions of global organizations for CE transitions. We elaborate on the significant contributions of AI and DT in the transition towards CE and identify some challenges that hinder the adoption of these technologies. Besides expanding knowledge, concise multiple case studies are also presented as evidence to depict how companies in China are deploying these technologies to digitize various operations and create solutions for waste management, sustainable resource consumption, renewal energy, water conservation, etc. Findings reveal that these companies successfully attain many SDGs of 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17. This paper enormously contributes to the emerging research domain of integrating CE, AI, DT, and agriculture

Reconfiguring genre, style, and idiolect: investigating progressive rock’s meta-genre and affordances

In this article, the relationship between the classificatory terms of genre, style, and idiolect is examined. Focusing on progressive rock – noted for its heterogenous nature – I propose that we should adapt our current understanding of idiolect to encompass both the collective idiolects associated with particular bands, and the personal idiolects of musicians that perform in them. Allan F. Moore has previously argued that for some progressive rock bands, their idiolect may transcend the notion of style. In this article, I suggest that the collective idiolect of a band may also transcend genre, and that we should think of progressive rock not only as a set of sub-genres or a network of styles, but also as an assemblage of collective idiolects. Moreover, I contend that greater attention should be paid to the classificatory activities of progressive rock fans whose “lay discourses” forge connections between the different bands