This project analyzes the evolution of the manufacturing sector in Portugal from 2009 to 2021, focusing on the variations in the number of active companies across various subcategories, such as food, textiles, and metal product industries. The goal of this analysis is to understand the dynamics of growth and contraction within each sector, providing insights for companies to adjust their market and operational strategies. Key objectives include analyzing the overall evolution in the number of companies, identifying subcategories with notable changes, and providing a comprehensive analysis of observed trends and patterns. The study is based on data from PORDATA 2024, and the research employs temporal trend analysis, linear and quadratic regression, and the Pareto representation to identify patterns of growth and decline. By comparing annual data, the project uncovers periods of growth and decline, allowing for a deeper understanding of the sector’s dynamics. The findings also highlight variations in periods of economic crises and during the Covid-19 pandemic, and recommendations for action are presented to support businesses resilience and continuity. These results are valuable for companies within the manufacturing sectors analyzed and policy makers, guiding strategic decisions to navigate the complexities of the market dynamics and to ensuring long-term organizational sustainable success.

The proportion of national logistics costs to Gross Domestic Product (NLC/GDP) serve as a valuable indicator for estimating a country’s overall macro-level logistics costs. In some developing nations, policies aimed at reducing the NLC/GDP ratio have been elevated to the national agenda. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research examining the variables that can determine this ratio. The purpose of this paper is to offer a scientific approach for investigating the primary determinants of the NLC/GDP and to advice policy for the reduction of macro-level logistics costs. This paper presents a systematic framework for identifying the essential criteria for lowering the NLC/GDP score and employs co-integration analysis and error correction models to evaluate the impact of industrial structure, logistics commodity value, and logistics supply scale on NLC/GDP using time series data from 1991 to 2022 in China. The findings suggest that the industrial structure is the primary factor influencing logistics demand and a significant determinant of the value of NLC/GDP. Whether assessing long-term or short-term effects, the industrial structure has a substantial impact on NLC/GDP compared to logistics supply scale and logistics commodity value. The research offers two policy implications: firstly, the goals of reducing NLC/GDP and boosting the logistics industry’s GDP are inherently incompatible; it is not feasible to simultaneously enhance the logistics industry’s GDP and decrease the macro logistics cost. Secondly, if China aims to lower its macro-level logistics costs, it must make corresponding adjustments to its industrial structure.

Floods have always been an unavoidable natural disaster globally. Due to that, many efforts have been taken in order to alleviate the effect, especially in protecting the victims from losing their lives as well as their belongings. This study focuses on ensuring a smooth allocation process for flood victims to the relief centres considering the nature of their location, near the river, inland, and coastal. The finding indicated that a few implications have been highlighted for disaster management, such as changes in flood victim allocation patterns, classification of prone areas based on three areas, identification of most disaster areas, and others. Thus, to enhance the efficiency of allocation and to avoid any bad incidents happening during the flood occurrence, the allocation of flood victims is proposed to be started at a more critical area like the river area and followed by other areas. The finding also indicated that the proposed allocation procedure yielded a slightly lower average travel distance than the existing practice. These findings could also provide valuable information for disaster management in implementing a more efficient allocation procedure during a disaster.

Soundscape tourism has become one type of tourism, and its trend is emerging in most areas with hilly, forested, and natural landscapes, such as Bantul Indonesia, becoming a mainstay for region development and its community. This article explores four human manufactured soundscape tourism destinations in Bantul, Indonesia, examining the interrelationships between each tourism stakeholder and pinpointed development from a socio-economic perspective. We adopt a cross-case study approach, drawing main sources from government statistics, regulations, social media narratives, and online news. Using the NVivo 12 Plus software, we coded and annotated the research source. Our research revealed that in four case studies, tourism soundscapes emerged as the primary tourist attractions, with other attractions only marginally contributed. Presenting music or acoustic stages enabled tourism industry to reap benefits, particularly for local community and regional income. However, it is important to emphasize sustainability issues, thus, the continuous increased in music soundscape in nature has led to the formation of collaborations among tourism actors, with local communities “Pokdarwis” posed as the principal driving force behind destination development. This study demonstrates that human-manufactured soundscapes have the potential to increase visitor numbers and outperform natural soundscapes in natural destinations.

Forest ecological benefit compensation plays a promoting role in improving the enthusiasm of forest ecological builders and maintainers, maintaining the legitimate economic interests of forest owners, and coordinating the fairness between the “clear water and green mountains” protectors and the “gold and silver mountains” beneficiaries. Comprehensive combed the domestic forest ecological benefit compensation mechanism, including the compensation scope, compensation subject, compensation object, the research progress of compensation standard, summarized the forest ecosystem benefits measurement, including physical appraisal method, the value evaluation method, energy analysis method and the characteristics and application research progress of ecological model method. This paper discusses the research status and existing problems of the calculation basis of compensation standard, the origin, research emphasis and progress of forest ecological service payment abroad in recent years, and the mechanism of forest ecological service payment in many countries. Finally, some suggestions are put forward to improve the compensation mechanism of forest ecological benefits in China. On the one hand, it is necessary to broaden the source of funds through various ways of marketization and scientifically evaluate the forest ecological benefits. On the other hand, the compensation standard should be established scientifically and reasonably to achieve different compensation levels or compensation intervals.

Homosexuality, as a sexual orientation, encompasses individuals who experience love and sexual desire exclusively towards individuals of the same sex. Those who identify with this sexual orientation are referred to as homosexuals. Recognizing that various sexual orientations are equally valid, it is important to understand that homosexuality is a complex phenomenon. This paper aims to shed light on the current state of homosexuality in China. It holds universal significance not only for promoting cultural diversity, protecting human rights, strengthening the legal framework, and advancing society, but also for the well-being and livelihood of this vulnerable group.