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The purpose of this paper is to focus on global energy consumption using the economic growth nexus, the prevalent energy hypothesis at a global level and the impact of the main historical events assessed for the period from 1965 to 2015.

Given the confirmed presence of endogeneity and cointegration between energy consumption and economic growth, a vector error correction with structural dummies model was used. Furthermore, the impulse-response functions and variance decomposition were computed to evaluate the variables’ dynamics.

Bi-directional causality running from energy consumption to economic growth was found, both in the short and long-run, supporting the feedback hypothesis. It is proved that the 2008 crisis impacted on the global energy–growth nexus. Furthermore, there is evidence of the impact of the 1990s oil price shock on the nexus. Innovations in energy consumption have a positive impact on economic growth; however, this impact tends to be null in the long run.

The results suggest that at a global level, any energy policy should be carefully designed in order not to hamper economic growth. Countries should not remain indifferent to the policies that other countries might follow. Very few historical crises impacted on the global energy–growth nexus.

This paper offers a different approach to the study of the energy–growth nexus. The energy–growth nexus is analysed in the major macroeconomic aggregate. Global variables reveal their relevance as a benchmark in the energy–growth nexus. Furthermore, this paper arrives at some conclusions about how historical crises impact on global relationships.

The oil-growth nexus is studied in a panel of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPECs), for a long time span (1960-2011), controlling for the specific context of oil production. Their membership in the cartel put them under a common guidance, which originates phenomena of cross-section dependence/contemporaneous correlation in the panel.

Recent panel data estimators and co-integration analyses are both pursued and discussed, namely, dealing with the heterogeneity of panels and the countries’ specific effects. The Driscoll–Kraay estimator proves to be appropriate in handling the panel properties.

Full understanding of the oil-growth nexus requires the short- and long-run effects to be broken down. The growth hypothesis was found only in the short run. The results suggest the presence of the resource curse phenomenon and prove that the cartel’s long-run growth goal could not being fully accomplished. Actually, both oil production and prices are not promoting economic growth in OPEC countries.

The focus is on a group of countries which, besides being oil exporters, have an institutional connection between them, i.e. the OPEC cartel. The paper also contributes by framing the relationship between oil consumption and economic growth within a context of countries that are primary energy producers. Additionally, the paper uses a novel econometric approach and a long time span (52 years) not tested.

Australia is one of the ten largest emitters of greenhouse gases but stands out from the others due to its economic growth without recession for 26 consecutive years. This paper aims to focus on the energy-growth nexus and the effects of energy consumption on the environment in Australia.

This analysis is performed using annual data from 1965 to 2015 and the autoregressive distributed lag model.

The paper finds empirical evidence of a trade-off between economic growth and carbon dioxide (CO₂) intensity. The results show that increased gross domestic product (GDP) in Australia increased investment in renewable energy sources (RESs), although the renewable technology is limited and has no impact on reducing CO₂ intensity in the long run. In contrast to investment in RES, fossil fuels, coal and oil, are decreased by GDP. However, oil consumption increased renewable energy consumption, and this reflects the pervading effect of the growing economy.

Overall, this paper contributes to the literature by analysing the behaviour of both energy consumption and the environment on the growing Australian economy. In addition, this paper goes further by studying the impact of economic growth on renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, as well as on CO₂ emissions. The study is conducted on a single country for which literature is scarce, using a recent approach and a long time period.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

This chapter examines the professional identities of Brazilian journalists. It does so through an analysis of the growing professional autonomy of journalism from 1950 to 1990 through the life stories of 10 intellectual-journalists, individuals whose journalistic activities have crossed over into other intellectual fields.

This study applies a symbolic interactionist framework to understand how these actors managed their reputations and careers within the intellectual world. The narratives were taken from qualitative semi-structured interviews, and supported by additional research such as interviews, biographies, and articles which have been published about their lives.

The life stories were compared to the extensive structural changes affecting the world of journalism and the world of intellectuals in Brazil. This comparison revealed gaps between these two spheres of practice, within which the ambivalent form of journalists’ identities have been constructed.

This chapter offers two contributions to the study of Brazilian journalists. From a theoretical and methodological viewpoint, it advances beyond other studies that focus more on the prevailing representations of journalists’ professional identities and their role in society. From an empirical standpoint, it describes the complex negotiations between the worlds of journalism, culture and politics. This chapter also reexamines the current dominant explanation for the changes in Brazilian journalism. It shows that building careers and new levels of interpersonal cooperation for intellectuals and journalists has been a slow process. Ultimately, this development has left some behind, especially those actors stretched between multiple professional identities such as those who self-identify as intellectual-journalists.

In the reliability assessment of composite laminate structures with multiple components, the uncertainty space defined around design solutions easily becomes over-dimensioned, and not all of the random variables are relevant. The purpose of this study is to implement the importance analysis theory of Sobol’ to reduce the dimension of the uncertainty space, improving the efficiency toward global convergence of evolutionary-based reliability assessment.

Sobol’ indices are formulated analytically for implicit structural response functions, following the theory of propagation of moments and without violating the fundamental principles presented by Sobol’. An evolutionary algorithm capable of global convergence in reliability assessment is instrumented with the Sobol’ indices. A threshold parameter is introduced to identify the important variables. A set of optimal designs of a multi-laminate composite structure is evaluated.

Importance analysis shows that uncertainty is concentrated in the laminate where the critical stress state is found. Still, it may also be reasonable in other points of the structure. An accurate and controlled reduction of the uncertainty space significantly improves the convergence rate, while maintaining the quality of the reliability assessment.

The theoretical developments assume independent random variables.

Applying Sobol’ indices as an analytical dimension reduction technique is a novelty. The proposed formulation only requires one adjoint system of equilibrium equations to be solved once. Although a local estimate of a global measure, this analytical formulation still holds because, in structural design, uncertainty is concentrated around the mean-values.

In order to understand interactions a_w vs equilibrium moisture content (EMC) in fortified coconut powder, moisture sorption isotherms were constructed under different storage conditions in order to predict the changes in their physical, chemical and microbiological properties that occur during storage and processing, which are unique to each food.

For which the moisture sorption isotherms were determined at three different temperatures (15, 25 and 35 °C), in a range of water activity from 0.1 to 0.90. Nine models, namely, the GAB, BET, Oswin, Smith, Halsey, Henderson, Chung and Pfost, Peleg and Caurie equations, were fitted to the sorption data. Various statistical tests were adopted as criteria to evaluate the fit performance of the models.

Of the models tested, the Peleg model gave the best fit to experimental data (R² = 0.997; R_MSE = 0.276), across the full range of water activities and at different temperatures. Humidity of the monolayer (m_o) was found between 2.54 and 2.34%, a fundamental parameter to define the storage and control conditions, given that it is considered the value at which the product is more stable. The net sorption isosteric heat (Q_st) increased to maximum and then diminished with increased moisture content (X_w); maximum values were obtained in the X_w interval between 0.48 and 2.87% (db), being between 35.72 and 99.26 kJ/mol, where the maximum value indicates coverage of the strongest bond sites and higher adsorbate-adsorbent interaction.

These results provide reliable experimental data on water absorption isotherms of the CP + FAC important to determine optimal processing, storing and packaging conditions.

The main purpose of this paper was to evaluate the influence of the zein coating containing essential oils on the sensory characteristics of sodium-reduced mozzarellas.

Mozzarellas were prepared by dipping in brine containing 5, 10, 15 or 20% of NaCl (w/v) that correspond, respectively, to 25, 50, 75 and 100% of NaCl content used in industry. These salted mozzarellas and another one, unsalted, were coated by an edible zein film added with 3% of a mixture of thyme and garlic essential oils (1:1). They were subjected to sensory analysis in relation to salty taste and overall impression. The mozzarella without salt reduction (20% NaCl w/v), coated or uncoated with the edible film, was also subjected to the analysis of water loss and microbiological quality, in order to evaluate the impact of this film on product quality.

The zein coating added with oils did not compromise the sensory acceptance of the mozzarella prepared with up to 50% of salt reduction. Water loss and microbial growth were lower in zein-coated mozzarella than in uncoated mozzarella. These results showed that this film could be applied as natural additive, contributing to the microbiological and sensory characteristics of the mozzarella.

This paper contributes to reducing the lack of studies in relation to new technologies for food preservation and sodium reduction. In addition, the zein coating containing essential oils can be tested on other food categories.

The study aims to analyze the composition and mineral profile of oyster shell powder (OSP) and assess its potential as a sustainable source of calcium.

A total of two batches of OSP with different particle sizes had been evaluated for centesimal and mineral composition and microbiological quality. OSP with smaller particles (0.85 mm) was used in the production of bread: standard bread (SB) (0%), fortified bread (FB1) (3%) and FB2 (4%). Centesimal and mineral composition and sensory acceptance had been performed. The internal preference map had been constructed using principal component analysis. The Just About Right data and the influence of sensory attributes on bread acceptance had been assessed by a penalty analysis test.

OSP-0.85 mm had calcium content (478.47 ± 2.37 mg.g-1) lower than OSP-1.00 mm (521.15 ± 0.99 mg.g-1) due to retention of particles. In both batches, heavy metals such as chromium, nickel and copper had not detected. FB1 and FB2 had the best nutritional content compared to SB, with higher calcium content (mg.g-1) 0.69 ± 0.07; 13.76 ± 0.72 and 19.47 ± 1.99 for SB, FB1 and FB2, respectively. The internal preference map showed better acceptance of FB1 compared to FB2. The penalty test showed that this acceptance was penalized (p < 0.05) due to the sandy texture.

The large number of shells generated in the processing of oysters is an environmental problem and generates waste of a natural source of calcium. It has been demonstrated that oyster shell powder can be used as a natural and sustainable source of calcium in bread, requiring further studies to assess the bioavailability of calcium.