Building a circular future: Study reveals key organizational capabilities for sustainability

A recent study by Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Lithuania management scholars underscores the importance of organisations’ dynamic capabilities for greener business practices.

Kaunas University of Technology

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Dr Lina Dagilienė, the head of the KTU Circular Economy Research Group

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Credit: KTU

A recent study by Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Lithuania management scholars underscores the importance of organisations’ dynamic capabilities for greener business practices. Analysing data from 139 manufacturing companies, the research reveals that financial and technological expertise combined with adaptability to regulations and evolving consumer demands, are key to advancing the green transition.

A green transition poses complex, systemic challenges for how companies should develop capabilities and mobilise their resources. Generally, many systemic problems hinder the green transition. Secondary raw materials are often more expensive, countries need to invest in circularity infrastructure, such as the basic infrastructure for separate collection, sorting, preparation for reuse and recycling. Investment is needed in product design, research and innovation and circular economy business models.

According to researchers, analysing the green transition from a business actors’ perspective is crucial. In this complex and dynamic environment, companies need capabilities to combine competencies in new ways, engage different stakeholders, and co-create innovative solutions.

“Dynamic capabilities’ concept perfectly covers flexibility and adaptability, and how they can help to integrate sustainability into companies’ business-as-usual activities, such as sourcing, production, waste management and other endeavours,” says Dr Lina Dagilienė, the head of the KTU Circular Economy Research Group.

In the recently published study, that analyses the relationship between companies’ capabilities and circularity practices Dagilienė and her KTU colleagues Viktorija Varaniūtė and Kristina Šutienė analysed survey data from 139 incumbent companies in Lithuania.

“The companies, which have been on the market for a while, have their own established routines. For them, the biggest challenge lies in changing or disrupting existing activities and practices, rather than starting afresh. This is not easy,” says Dr Dagilienė.

For better results, companies need to invest more

The research findings revealed that Lithuanian manufacturing companies can apply circularity principles by integrating internal resources and collaborating with external partners, while financial resources are becoming a key element for implementing innovative solutions.

“Our results show that manufacturing companies that invest more than 10 per cent of their revenues in circularity actions achieve significantly better results. Such investments can be in new technologies, waste management processes and cleaner production. In addition, Lithuanian manufacturing companies are mostly exporters. This means that they must adapt to the requirements of foreign markets,” says Assoc Prof Viktorija Varaniūtė.

According to Dr Varaniūtė, investing in circular initiatives often brings long-term benefits such as waste reduction, resource efficiency and the ability to develop sustainable products. Although all the companies surveyed were manufacturing companies from Lithuania, she believes the study results can be adapted to different organisations and markets, at least in the EU context.

However, she highlights the fact that the survey was carried out with companies operating in traditional sectors, such as textiles, food production, and wood. This means that other markets or industries (for example, high-tech) will need to take into account different raw material flows, regulations and customer expectations.

“Also, the study looked at medium-sized and larger companies, so the findings may be less applicable to small companies or start-ups that lack resources and expertise,” adds a KTU researcher.

Strategies for circular success – zooming-in and zooming-out

In the study, KTU researchers applied zooming-in and zooming-out perspectives towards dynamic capabilities of the companies.

“Zooming-in and zooming-out are metaphors for strategic thinking that emphasise the dynamic nature of the environment and the fact that companies need to constantly monitor, strengthen and manage external and internal resources,” explains Dagilienė.

Zooming-out capabilities focus on monitoring the external environment and discovering opportunities, i.e. being able to engage in companies’ product supply chains and cross-sectoral networks, forms of (long-term) cooperation, anticipating and adapting in advance to future environmental regulations. Zooming-in capabilities include the organisation and management of internal business processes and the continuous improvement of competencies and knowledge.

The researchers claim that the “zooming-out” capabilities positively influence production design and the “zooming-in” ones positively influence waste management. This was revealed in the research, too.

“Most of the surveyed companies made production for other large European companies, zooming-out type capabilities (reacting to future changes, meeting focal companies’ expectations) therefore appeared to be an important dynamic characteristic. At the same time, specific knowledge and skills (zooming-in) are needed while implementing technological solutions, e.g. how to have more sustainable packaging solutions,” explains Dagilienė.

The capability to integrate financial resources depends on external financial support, green credit schemes, tax policies, etc. It is important that manufacturing companies are able to take advantage of the financial opportunities for a green economy transition. Overall, the paper develops the idea of turning disadvantages into opportunities, which is why the dynamic capabilities perspective is applied.

Although the study involved manufacturing companies, which often operate in a business-to-business context, the scientists emphasised the role of consumer acceptance of green/circular products. Zooming-out capability to dynamically assess consumer needs in the market is significant in the circular transformation.

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Journal

Business Strategy and the Environment

DOI

10.1002/bse.4044 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Impact of organisational capabilities on the implementation of circularity-oriented activities

 

Global internet grid could better detect earthquakes with new algorithm

Royal Astronomical Society

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The researchers’ Gornergletscher field site in the Swiss Alps. Left is the glacier and right is their field camp, where the fibre optic interrogator was housed in a tent.

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Credit: Dr Thomas Hudson

 

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Early detection of earthquakes could be vastly improved by tapping into the world's internet network with a groundbreaking new algorithm, researchers say.

Fibre optic cables used for cable television, telephone systems and the global web matrix now have the potential to help measure seismic rumblings thanks to recent technological advances, but harnessing this breakthrough has proved problematic.

A new paper published today in Geophysical Journal International seeks to address these challenges by adapting a simple physics-based algorithm to include fibre optic data that can then be used hand-in-hand with traditional seismometer measurements.

Not only could this "exciting" advancement be integrated into existing earthquake early warning systems, it may also help detect seismic activity associated with erupting volcanoes, geothermal boreholes and glacier icequakes.

"The ability to turn fibre optic cables into thousands of seismic sensors has inspired many approaches to use fibre for earthquake detection. However, fibre optic earthquake detection is not an easy challenge to solve," said lead researcher Dr Thomas Hudson, a senior research scientist at ETH Zurich.

"Here, we lean on combining the benefit of thousands of sensors with a simple physics-based approach to detect earthquakes using any fibre optic cable, anywhere.

"Excitingly, our method can combine fibre optic and traditional seismometer measurements, allowing fibre optic sensing to be included in existing earthquake early warning systems."

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a nascent technology that uses fibre optic cables to detect acoustic signals and vibrations. It can be used to monitor a variety of things, including pipelines, railways or the subsurface.

It therefore has the potential to turn fibre optic networks – which carry data super fast – into measurements of seismic activity that can be used to detect earthquakes.

This is tantalising because fibre optic networks are ubiquitous in populated regions and even cross oceans, providing the possibility of far more detailed and effective seismic monitoring networks than those that currently exist.

Turning this potential into reality, however, is a much trickier proposition.

Real-world fibre network geometries are often complex – and seismologists have no control over the geometry. On top of this, fibre optic cables are often located in noisy urban environments, making it difficult to differentiate between earthquake activity and other sources in the way traditional seismometers do.

Another challenge is that DAS measurements are only sensitive to strain in the axis of the fibre, whereas seismometers measure 3D ground motion. This makes surface fibre optic cables far more sensitive to slower S-waves (which travel only through solids and are the second waves to arrive during an earthquake) than faster P-waves (which travel through liquids and solids), meaning it is tougher to detect earthquakes and locate them.

One solution is to combine information from both traditional seismometers and fibre optic cables to detect earthquakes, but this isn't easy because of the different instrument sensitivities and measurement units.

The other issue is that turning a fibre optic cable into thousands of sensors generates a lot of data. Processing this data in real time is essential for earthquake monitoring, so efficient data processing algorithms are required.

The new algorithm works by taking the energy observed at receivers – either fibre optic cable channels and/or seismometers – and migrating that energy back through space and time to find a coherent peak in energy corresponding to a potential earthquake.

This approach was also found to be effective in detecting earthquakes at erupting volcanoes, geothermal boreholes and glacier icequakes.

"A key strength of this physics-based approach is that it works well even in noisy environments, since noise is generally less coherent than an earthquake signal," said Dr Hudson.

"It can also be applied out-of-the-box to any fibre network."

He added: "Although we don't claim to have completely solved the large data volume issue, we present pragmatic ways to deal with this and our algorithm runs in real time for the datasets tested.

"The method is provided open-source, so that the wider seismology community can immediately benefit."

 

ENDS

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Images and captions

 

Fibre optic cable

Caption: Fibre optic cables used for cable television, telephone systems and the global web matrix now have the potential to help measure seismic rumblings thanks to recent technological advances, but harnessing this breakthrough has proved problematic.

Credit: Compare Fibre on Unsplash

Seismograph

Caption: A seismograph detecting the ground shaking.

Credit: Z22 / Wikimedia Commons

Fibre optic research field site

Caption: The researchers’ Gornergletscher field site in the Swiss Alps. Left is the glacier and right is their field camp, where the fibre optic interrogator was housed in a tent.

Credit: Dr Thomas Hudson

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Further information

The paper ‘Towards a widely applicable earthquake detection algorithm for fibreoptic and hybrid fibreoptic-seismometer networks’ by Thomas Hudson et al. has been published in Geophysical Journal International. DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggae459

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Notes for editors

About the Royal Astronomical Society

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organises scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognises outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 4,000 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.The RAS accepts papers for its journals based on the principle of peer review, in which fellow experts on the editorial boards accept the paper as worth considering. The Society issues press releases based on a similar principle, but the organisations and scientists concerned have overall responsibility for their content.

Keep up with the RAS on X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky and YouTube.

Download the RAS Supermassive podcast

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Journal

Geophysical Journal International

DOI

10.1093/gji/ggae459 

Article Title

‘Towards a widely applicable earthquake detection algorithm for fibreoptic and hybrid fibreoptic-seismometer networks'

Article Publication Date

3-Feb-2025

 

Octopuses have some of the oldest known sex chromosomes

New research at the UO shows they’ve been using one that’s been around for 480 million years

University of Oregon

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The octopus just revealed another one of its secrets: what determines its sex. 

University of Oregon researchers have identified a sex chromosome in the California two-spot octopus. This chromosome has likely been around for 480 million years, since before octopuses split apart from the nautilus on the evolutionary tree. That makes it one of the oldest known animal sex chromosomes.  

The finding also is evidence that octopuses and other cephalopods, a class of sea animals that includes squid and nautiluses, do use chromosomes to determine their sex, answering a longstanding mystery among biologists.  

“Cephalopods are already such interesting creatures, and there are so many things we’re still learning about them, especially in neuroscience,” said Gabby Coffing, a doctoral student at the UO working in the lab of biologist Andrew Kern. “This is just showing one more interesting thing about them: They have really ancient sex chromosomes.” 

Coffing, Kern and their team described the findings Feb. 3 in the journal Current Biology. 

In humans and most mammals, sex is determined largely by chromosomes. But “there’s a tremendous amount of diversity” in how animals determine their sex, Kern said. So scientists couldn’t assume the same was true for octopuses. 

In turtles, for instance, sex is determined by the temperature at which the eggs are incubated. Some fish have a gene that determines sex, but not a whole chromosome. Even in humans, the X/Y sex chromosome system isn’t as clear-cut as it might look on paper; gene mutations or inheriting extra sex chromosomes can lead to development that doesn’t neatly fit in a male/female binary.  

Plus, because cephalopods aren’t standard lab animals, like mice or fruit flies, they haven’t been subject to nearly as much genetic exploration. Scientists have sequenced the genomes of a handful of octopus species, but they can’t link genes to specific traits the way they can in mice or even humans. 

When UO researchers recently sequenced the DNA of a female California two-spot octopus, they found something unexpected: a chromosome with only half the amount of genetic material. It looked different from all the others, and it hadn’t been found in male octopuses whose DNA was previously sequenced.  

“This particular chromosome had half the amount of sequencing data, which indicated there was only one copy,” said Coffing. “Then as we explored that more, we reached the conclusion that we must have stumbled upon a sex chromosome.”  

To confirm, the researchers sorted through other octopus genomic data previously collected by other researchers. Not all that data was clearly labeled as being from male or female octopuses. 

But they found another example of the half-sized chromosome in another species of octopus. They also found it in squid, which diverged evolutionarily from octopuses somewhere between 248 and 455 million years ago. And after more digging, they also found evidence for the chromosome in the nautilus, a mollusk that split apart from the octopus approximately 480 million years ago.  

The fact that these species share this unique chromosome suggests that it’s been around in some form for a very long time.  

“This indicates that their common ancestor had this similar sex determination system,” Coffing said. 

That’s somewhat unusual for sex chromosomes, Kern said. Because they directly impact reproductive capabilities, they’re subject to a lot of selective pressure and so tend to undergo rapid evolutionary change. But cephalopods seem to have found what works and have stuck with it. 

Other ancient sex chromosomes have been discovered in plant groups like mosses and liverworts, which were some of the first plants to evolve. And insect sex chromosomes might be 450 million years old, but they’ve also changed a lot over time.  

Kern and his colleagues initially thought octopuses might have a sex determination system similar to birds and butterflies, where males are ZZ and females are ZW. (Biologists have given sex determination systems where males have two copies of the same sex chromosome different letters, to avoid confusion with the XX/XY system where females have two copies of the same chromosome.)  

But the team hasn’t yet found a W chromosome in an octopus. Alternatively, octopuses could use a sex determination system that only involves the Z chromosome — males have a pair, and females just have one. That’s still to be determined, Coffing said. For now, the octopus keeps some of its secrets.  

— By Laurel Hamers, University Communications  

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Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.005 

Article Title

Cephalopod Sex Determination and its Ancient Evolutionary Origin

Article Publication Date

3-Feb-2025

 

High-yield rice breed emits up to 70% less methane

Cell Press

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Fumarate and ethanol are two major rice-orchestrated secretions that play a key role in regulating paddy methane emissions.

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Credit: Yunkai Jin and Kai Sun

Rice cultivation is responsible for around 12% of global methane emissions, and these emissions are expected to increase with global warming and as the human population continues to grow. Now, scientists have identified chemical compounds released by rice roots that determine how much methane the plants emit. On February 3 in the Cell Press journal Molecular Plant, they report that this information enabled them to breed a new strain of rice that emits up to 70% less methane. 

“This study shows that you can have low methane and still have a rice with high yields,” says senior author Anna Schnürer, a microbiologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “And you can do it using traditional breeding methods, without GMO, if you know what you’re looking for.” 

The methane emitted by rice paddies is produced by microbes that break down organic compounds released from rice plant roots. Rice and other plants release these compounds, known as “root exudates,” to feed soil microbes, which in turn aid plant growth by releasing nutrients that the plants can absorb. Though it’s been long understood that soil microbes and root exudates are involved in methane emissions, it was unclear which chemical compounds in root exudates were responsible. 

To identify which root exudate compounds are converted into methane, the researchers compared root exudates from two different rice varieties —SUSIBA2, a low-methane emitting GMO variety, and Nipponbare, a non-GMO cultivar with average methane emissions. They found that SUSIBA2 roots produced significantly less fumarate and noted a correlation between the amount of fumarate secreted and the abundance of methane-releasing archaea or “methanogens” in the surrounding soil.  

To confirm fumarate’s role, the researchers added fumarate to the soil of rice plants grown in containers, which resulted in increased methane emissions. They also demonstrated that applying oxantel, a chemical that inhibits the enzymatic breakdown of fumarate, effectively reduced methane emissions. However, since the SUSIBA2 plants still produced less methane than the Nipponbare plants, the researchers realized that fumarate isn’t the only piece to the puzzle. 

“It was almost like having a riddle,” says Schnürer. “We noticed that the soil itself contained something that reduced methane emissions, so we started thinking that there must be an inhibitor of some kind that is also causing the difference between the varieties.” 

When they re-analyzed the root exudates, the team noticed that SUSIBA2 plants also release significantly more ethanol. Adding ethanol to the soil surrounding rice plants reduced methane emissions. 

Next, the team investigated whether they could use traditional breeding methods to produce low methane-emitting rice with high yield. To do this, they crossbred a high yield or “elite” rice variety with a previously identified low-methane-emitting variety (the Heijing cultivar) whose root exudate was low in fumarate and high in ethanol.  

The rice plants from this crossbreeding consistently released root exudates with low fumarate and high ethanol (LFHE) profiles. When the researchers grew these LFHE rice varieties at various field sites throughout China, they showed that the LFHE rice produced 70% less methane on average compared with the elite variety from which it was bred. The LFHE crops also produced relatively high yields—8.96 tons/hectare on average, compared to the 2024 global average of 4.71 tons/hectare. 

The researchers also investigated whether ethanol and oxantel could be used to reduce methane emissions at a large scale. Based on a two-year field trial at two different sites in China, this treatment resulted in approximately 60% reduction in methane emissions without impacting crop yield. 

Now, the researchers are working to register the LFHE rice as a variety with the Chinese government and others, meaning that it could be marketed to farmers in the future. They’re also working with fertilizer companies to investigate whether oxantel could be added to commercial fertilizers.  

“To make these things happen, we’ll also need some encouragement from governments to motivate and support farmers to use these low-methane varieties,” says Schnürer. “It’s one thing to breed eco-friendly rice varieties, but then it’s critical to get them on the market and to get the farmers to accept them.”  

### 

This research was supported by Mr. Zheng Fang, Beijing Xianhe Transportation Technology Co. Ltd., Trees and Crops for the Future, the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning, NSFC Projects of International Cooperation and Exchanges, and the China Scholarship Council. 

Molecular Plant, Jin et al., “Reducing methane emissions by developing low-fumarate high-ethanol eco-friendly rice.” https://www.cell.com/molecular-plant/fulltext/S1674-2052(25)00029-2

Molecular Plant (@MPlantPCom), published by Cell Press for the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (Shanghai), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chinese Society of Plant Biology, is a monthly journal that focuses broadly on plant science, including cellular biology, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, development, plant-microbe interaction, genomics, bioinformatics, and molecular evolution. All contents are freely available starting 12 months after publication. Visit http://www.cell.com/molecular-plant. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.   

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Journal

Molecular Plant

DOI

10.1016/j.molp.2025.01.008 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

High-yield rice breed emits up to 70% less methane

Article Publication Date

3-Feb-2025

U$A/DEI

Intersection of race and rurality with health care–associated infections and subsequent outcomes

JAMA Network

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About The Study: 

This cohort study of hospitalized adults identified inequities related to race and rurality in health care–associated infections (HAIs) and adverse outcomes from HAIs. These findings suggest that factors such as structural racism and disinvestment in rural communities may be associated with individual HAI risk and post-HAI outcomes. Future work to further understand the reasons underpinning these disparities and methods to address structural factors through policy and process changes are critical to eliminate health inequities. 

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jennie H. Kwon, DO, MSCI, email j.kwon@wustl.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.53993)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time 

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.53993?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=020325

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

 

Adolescent smartphone use during school hours

JAMA Pediatrics

About The Study: 

Using passive sensing on a sample of U.S. adolescents, this study found half of adolescents use their smartphones during school for at least 66 minutes daily, primarily using messaging and social media. These findings extend a prior study limited to Android devices that found adolescents spent a median of 43 minutes on their phones during school.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lauren Hale, PhD, email Lauren.Hale@stonybrookmedicine.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.6627)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time

 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.6627?guestAccessKey=6431bed4-cdf0-4f68-b245-0d72f44225f5&utm_source=for_the_media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=020325

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Journal

JAMA Pediatrics