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AbstractTrade in oil has undergone significant changes in the last 20 years: technical progress has allowed the exploitation of new and previously untapped fields; the emergence of new large oil importers, such as China, has shifted the traditional patterns of demand and supply, while the desire to diversify energy sources has favored the emergence of new suppliers. This paper compares the topological properties of the network of crude oil trade over the period 1995–2014. The analysis covers both aggregate measures (such as network density and centralization) and node-specific indicators (e.g. centrality) that allow to uncover the rise (demise) of new (old) important players. Accounting for the position of each country within the network provides valuable information above and beyond traditional measures such as market shares. To investigate whether oil trade has experienced a process of globalization or, rather, regionalization, we look at the community structure of the network: the number of communities increases in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, but then goes back to its historical values. Something similar happens to the average geographic distance within each community, showing that along a regional component there are also strategic/political considerations at play. Econometric analysis suggests that high oil prices increase the likelihood that high-production-cost exporters play a more central role in the network, thus reducing the power of traditional suppliers.

This research examines the relation between government economic policy uncertainty and firm cash holdings. We find evidence that policy uncertainty is positively related to firm cash holdings due to firms' precautionary motives and, to a lesser extent, investment delays. The relation between policy uncertainty and cash holdings is more pronounced for firms dependent on government spending and extends beyond business cyclicality. Further analysis indicates that the effects of policy uncertainty on corporate cash holdings are distinct from those of political, market, or other macroeconomic uncertainty.

The Vietnamese government has advocated developing an export-based economy. In fact, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 2471/QD-TTg dated December 28, 2011, approving the strategy of import and export of goods for the period 2011 to 2020, with a vision to 2030 formulating policies on development of logistics services, credit, and investment to develop export production, and customs clearance places for import and export goods. That fact prompted us to conduct the research investigating the impact of export support policies on export performance of firms locating in Ho Chi Minh City. The combination of qualitative and quantitative research method was applied. The netnography method and in-depth interview were used to explore support policies influencing export performance, and found Tax Incentives, Credit Incentives, Trade Promotion Support, and Custom Procedures Reform are four policies significantly explaining firms' export performance. To measure the impact of these policies on export performance, we surveyed 141 firms in HCMC. The quantitative study confirmed that four policies impact positively significantly on export performance. The best explanatory factor is Trade Promotion Support, the second is Customs Procedure Reforms, followed by Tax Incentives. Credit incentives have the lowest effect on export performance. The findings asserted the positive effectiveness of policies promoting export performance implementing in Vietnam, and provided empirical evidence to support institutional theory.

Benzene is myelotoxic and leukemogenic in humans exposed at high doses (>1 ppm, more definitely above 10 ppm) for extended periods. However, leukemia risks at lower exposures are uncertain. Benzene occurs widely in the work environment and also indoor air, but mostly below 1 ppm, so assessing the leukemia risks at these low concentrations is important. Here, we describe a human physiologically‐based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model that quantifies tissue doses of benzene and its key metabolites, benzene oxide, phenol, and hydroquinone after inhalation and oral exposures. The model was integrated into a statistical framework that acknowledges sources of variation due to inherent intra‐ and interindividual variation, measurement error, and other data collection issues. A primary contribution of this work is the estimation of population distributions of key PBPK model parameters. We hypothesized that observed interindividual variability in the dosimetry of benzene and its metabolites resulted primarily from known or estimated variability in key metabolic parameters and that a statistical PBPK model that explicitly included variability in only those metabolic parameters would sufficiently describe the observed variability. We then identified parameter distributions for the PBPK model to characterize observed variability through the use of Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis applied to two data sets. The identified parameter distributions described most of the observed variability, but variability in physiological parameters such as organ weights may also be helpful to faithfully predict the observed human‐population variability in benzene dosimetry.

This paper investigates the relationship between heteronormativity, queerness, and neoliberal capitalism. By reinterpreting the 1997 Recognition-Redistribution debate between Nancy Fraser and Judith Butler through a social reproduction lens, I show that Butler's position is broadly consistent with a social reproduction analysis of heteronormativity. Through stabilizing the gender division of labor, promoting the normative heterosexual family, and contributing to the internal stratification within the working class, heteronormativity fulfills critical social-reproductive roles. Queer emancipation, therefore, cannot be realized without an overhaul of the political economic structure. As relations of reproduction change under neoliberal capitalism, what is constituted as queer is also altered in ways that incorporate queerness into capitalist value production. Mainstream narratives of LGBT progress obscure the emerging division between queers with capital and queers without, a division undergirded by familiar contradictions of racialized, heteronormative, reproductive capitalism. JEL Classification: B51, B54, P16

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Multiple anthropogenic challenges threaten nature's contributions to human well-being. Agricultural expansion and conventional intensification are degrading biodiversity and ecosystem functions, thereby undermining the natural foundations on which agriculture is itself built. Averting the worst effects of global environmental change and assuring ecosystem benefits, requires a transformation of agriculture. Alternative agricultural systems to conventional intensification exist, ranging from adjustments to efficiency (e.g. sustainable intensification) to a redesign (e.g. ecological intensification, climate-smart agriculture) of the farm management system. These alternatives vary in their reliance on nature or technology, the level of systemic change required to operate, and impacts on biodiversity, landscapes and agricultural production. Different socio-economic, ecological and political settings mean there is no universal solution, instead there are a suite of interoperable practices that can be adapted to different contexts to maximise efficiency, sustainability and resilience. Social, economic, technological and demographic issues will influence the form of sustainable agriculture and effects on landscapes and biodiversity. These include: (1) the socio-technical-ecological architecture of agricultural and food systems and trends such as urbanisation in affecting the mode of production, diets, lifestyles and attitudes; (2) emerging technologies, such as gene editing, synthetic biology and 3D bioprinting of meat; and (3) the scale or state of the existing farm system, especially pertinent for smallholder agriculture. Agricultural transformation will require multifunctional landscape planning with cross-sectoral and participatory management to avoid unintended consequences and ultimately depends on people's capacity to accept new ways of operating in response to the current environmental crisis.

Service quality is the highest requirement from users, especially for the service in electronic government. During the past decades, it has become a major area of academic investigation. Considering this issue, there are many researches that evaluated the dimensions and e-service contexts. This study also identified the dimensions of service quality but focused on a new conceptual and provides a new methodological in developing measurement scales of e-service quality such as information quality, service quality and organization quality. Finally, the study will suggest a key factor to evaluate e-government service quality better.