Sustainable BECCS Pathways Evaluated by an Integrated Assessment Model

Negative emissions technologies, particularly Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), are key components of mitigation strategies in future socio-economic scenarios that aim to keep mean global temperature rise below 2°C above pre-industrial, which would require net negative carbon emissions in the end of the 21st century (IPCC, 2013; Fuss et al., 2014). Also, in the context of Paris agreement from COP21, which denotes “a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century”, RD&D of the negative emissions technologies in this decade has a crucial role for the early deployment of them. Because of the requirement of potentially extensive use for land and water for producing the bioenergy feedstock to get the anticipated level of negative emissions, researches on how to develop sustainable scenarios of BECCS is crucial. Here, we present BECCS deployment scenarios that consider interaction of economically viable flow of bioenergy system including power generation and conversion to liquid and gaseous fuels for transportation and heat, their carbon balances, biophysical limit of bioenergy productivity, and food security. In the modelling process, detailed bioenergy representations, i.e. various feedstock and conversion technologies with and without CCS, are implemented in an integrated assessment (IA) model GRAPE (Global Relationship Assessment to Protect the Environment). Also, to overcome a general discrepancy about assumed future agricultural yield between \u27top-down\u27 IA models and \u27bottom-up\u27 estimates, which would crucially affect the land-use pattern, we applied yields change of food and energy crops consistent with process-based biophysical crop models in consideration of changing climate conditions. Using the framework, economically viable strategy for implementing sustainable bioenergy and BECCS flow are evaluated in the emission scenarios targeting to keep global average temperature rise below 2°C and/or 1.5°C above pre-industrial

地域情報化に向けたNPO法人のミッションとマネジメント : 事業報告書にもとづく経営分析

　本研究の論点は「草の根情報化」にあたるNPO 法人について，(1)一般に活動成果と経営実態にはどんな状況か，(2)環境変化に直面したNPO 法人は環境適合がうまくいっているのか，(3)どのような環境適合戦略を進めているのか，ということである。そこで筆者は，各法人が提出している事業報告書等を用いてNPO 法人の活動成果を「ミッション達成度」並びに「マネジメント成熟度」という2 つの視座から検証するとともに，組織の環境適応理論にもとづき，環境変化に直面したNPO 法人の環境適合戦略についての事例研究を実施した。　その結果，「ミッション達成度」と「マネジメント成熟度」がともに満足すべき水準である法人は全体の4割程度であること，環境変化に直面したNPO 法人の活動成果指標が特に劣ることはないことが明らかになった。また，環境適合を進めるにあたり地域などの外部リソースを適切に活用することの重要性を確認した。In Japan, around 600 nonprofits have been founded to promote effective information and communication technology(ICT)utilization in local communities. Indeed their activities are important but there are few researches on their performances. The researcher makes a study of their annual reports and evaluates the “mission accomplishment” and the “management maturity” of each organization. The evaluations with 152 organizations and the three case studies have shown some performance issues and the adaptation strategies of Japanese nonprofits.論

Effect of Threats to Property Rights on Economic Performance of the Manufacturing Sector of Indian States

We examine the effect of threats to property rights on the economic performance of the manufacturing sector of Indian states. We construct indices of the threats from data on crime against property rights. Our estimation results show that not only threats to private property, but also threats to contracts adversely affect the performance of India's manufacturing sector.Property right, Contract, Gross value added, Capital labor ratio, TFP

Cross Shareholding and Initiative Effects

Cross shareholding that makes takeovers difficult is not necessarily harmful to shareholders due to initiative effects. As long as manager's private benefits are to some extent in line with shareholders' benefits, cross shareholding may benefit shareholders. Cross shareholding is more likely to occur as the congruence of interests between managers and shareholders rises, the manager's private benefits becomes greater, the manager's reservation utility gets lower, and shareholders' pie in the case of a takeover becomes smaller. Due to a lack of monitoring, the corporate value of a firm tends to be smaller in cross shareholding. However, if we include managers' private benefits in social welfare function, it is possible that the social welfare is higher in cross shareholding.

Institutional and Social Issues Surrounding Genetic Counselors in Japan : Current Challenges and Implications for the Global Community

Aizawa Y, Watanabe A and Kato K (2021) Institutional and Social Issues Surrounding Genetic Counselors in Japan: Current Challenges and Implications for the Global Community. Front. Genet. 12:646177. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.646177

How Can Teacher Wellbeing Be Enhanced?

Japanese teachers do not have a good work-life balance, and do not have sufficient opportunities for their professional development. Because of this, they are unable to secure time for self-study, leading to a decline in self-efficacy and feelings of exhaustion, or in other words, a decline in wellbeing. In Japan, various measures have been taken of teachers’ work-life balance, professional development opportunities, self-study, and wellbeing. Measures have also been taken in the international context. In all locates, the findings have yet to be effective at improving these features. Another key to this research is that teacher wellbeing is closely related to self-efficacy ,and which is closely related to job professional development. Since this study requires an in-depth investigation of specific case studies, qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers will be analyzed using M-GTA. The study will provide a strategic model for relationship between teacher wellbeing and their professional development. This will not only contribute to the improvement of education both in Japan and in the US, with particular regards to enhancing intercultural learning and pedagogical approaches