Thesis--Nederlandsche Economische Hoogeschool te Rotterdam. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Nederlandsche Economische Hoogeschool te Rotterdam. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Davis, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-179).

Inaug.-Diss.--Giessen. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-112).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 332-345).

Nanotechnology, the scientific study of manipulating matter on an atomic scale (1 to 100 nanometers) that provides new properties in materials and devices had received considerable research attention and public funding support during the last decade in the US. This emerging technology promises to improve the competitiveness of most of the US industrial sectors. Malerba (2004) an innovation system researcher has developed the theoretical framework "Sectoral System of Innovation (SSI)" to study the process by which new technologies and knowledge are produced and transferred to industrial sectors, where actors interact based on an institutional framework to generate innovation processes. In this dissertation I studied the agriculture and food processing sector, which is a key sector of the US economy that has provided with enough food for the US population, but in an unsustainable way that has harmed the environment, natural resources and human health. The US agrifood sector is facing new challenges of increasing food demand, which need to be addressed in a more sustainable way that takes consideration on economic, environment, and social aspects. The main questions that this dissertation research focuses on studying how much attention the public nanotechnology agrifood research agenda has paid to sustainability issues during the last decade in the US and what role has played the system's actors in influencing this research agenda. The analysis of the policy process in which system's actors try to influence the research agenda is framed in the Advocacy Coalition Framework (Sabatier 1993) that complemented the Sectoral System of Innovation approach in studying the formation of advocacy groups to achieve their coalition's policy goals. Three data sources were utilized to achieve my research goals, the CNS-ASU nanotechnology publications dataset 2000-2010(Porter A, Youtie J et al. 2007; De Bellis 2009)which was used to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the agrifood nanotechnology research publications in the US, semi-structured interviews with key actors and their interaction in advocacy coalition groups, and a literature review of several official documents and public hearing with respect to the US nanotechnology system to evaluate the influence of advocacy groups in the policy process. Utilizing Vantage point data mining and Nvivo qualitative analysis software I conducted the data analysis of my research. The results show increasing research attention toward environmental research and food safety issues that can indirectly impact positively on sustainability development, as well as increasing research attention in studying environmental, health and safety issues (EHS) that can reduce potential risks. The analysis of actors' interaction to influence the policy process, two advocacy coalitions was identified. On one side, a coalition that advocate for more research funding oriented to applied research to achieve the potential that this coalition members believe this technology has to revolutionize the way food is produced giving more competitiveness to the US agrifood sector, this coalition is composed by researchers, federal agency managers and industry representatives. On the other side, a rival coalition that raise concerns respect to potential risks associated to this technology that required to be addressed by the public research agenda. This coalition mainly composed by environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other social actors claim for a regulatory framework that guarantee a nanotechnology development environmental friendly that benefit the society. The influence of these two coalitions have succeed in allocating more federal funding resources to research nanotechnology in the agrifood sector, with particular emphasis in EHS research that show the right path to a sustainable development that guarantee enough resources for the future generations.

The industrialization of the milk in the Sergipe semi-arid presents, nowadays, several kinds of cheese as main product, despising as slips many components with high nutritious value, provoking, beyond the economical loss, an environmental aggression. This study presents two integrations focus: (1) the technological question, with the characterization of the milk agriculture-industry slips, with the purpose of identifying economical and technological possibilities of utilization of the components of rejected nutritious value; and (2) the environmental question of these slips utilization, with the purpose of decreasing the environmental impacts and then guaranteeing the region development. Considering the context of the Nossa Senhora da Glória county, characterized as farming subsistence, the possibility of adapting the industrialization process with the social-economicalenvironmental questions will allow a more including social scope, promoting the improvement of the region life quality, as long as the milk industrialization process presents, in the technological question, considerable losses and environment impacts proportional, needing urgently of consolidated development alternatives in the principles of sustentation. The slips characterization, in this study, is made by means of physicchemistry and microbiological assays. The economical losses are calculated in function of the load and average productions of the agriculture-industries, considering their slips production, with the purpose of characterizing the agriculture-industries inside the context and suggesting alternatives of development, reducing the environmental impacts and allowing the sustainable development of the Sergipe semi-arid. / A industrialização do leite no semi-árido de Sergipe apresenta, atualmente, como principal produto, diversos tipos de queijo, desprezando vários componentes de alto valor nutritivo, na forma de rejeitos, provocando, além da perda econômica, uma agressão ambiental. Este estudo apresenta dois focos integrados: (1) a questão tecnológica, com a caracterização dos rejeitos da agroindústria de leite, com o objetivo de identificar possibilidades econômicas e tecnológicas de aproveitamento dos constituintes de valor nutritivo descartados; e (2) a questão ambiental do aproveitamento desses rejeitos, com o objetivo de minimizar os impactos ambientais de forma a garantir o desenvolvimento sustentável da região. Considerando o contexto do Município de Nossa Senhora da Glória, caracterizado como de subsistência agropecuária, a possibilidade de compatibilizar o processo de industrialização com as questões sócio-econômico-ambientais permitirá um alcance social mais abrangente, promovendo a melhoria da qualidade de vida da região, uma vez que o processo de industrialização do leite apresenta, na questão tecnológica, perdas consideráveis e proporcionais impactos ambientais, necessitando, urgentemente, de alternativas de desenvolvimento alicerçadas nos princípios da sustentabilidade. A caracterização dos rejeitos, neste estudo, é efetuada através de análises fisico-químicas e microbiológicas. As perdas econômicas são calculadas em função do porte e da produção média das agroindústrias, considerando sua geração de rejeitos, com a finalidade de caracterizar as agroindústrias de forma contextualizada, sugerindo alternativas de desenvolvimento, reduzindo os impactos ambientais e permitindo o crescimento sustentável do semi-árido de Sergipe.