Search Results (6)

It is increasingly recognized that the twin transitions of digitalization and green transformation are pivotal to achieving sustainable development. This study examines how digital trade affects corporate green total factor productivity (GTFP), using panel data from Chinese A-share listed firms and 287 prefecture-level cities in Mainland China from 2012 to 2022. The results demonstrate that digital trade exerts a significant positive impact on GTFP, primarily through improvements in technical efficiency, with heterogeneous effects across different stages of the corporate life cycle. Endogeneity concerns are carefully addressed through instrumental variable estimation and quasi-experimental designs, and robustness checks confirm the reliability of the findings. Mechanism analyses further reveal that digital trade enhances GTFP by stimulating green technological innovation and optimizing supply chain management. Importantly, threshold regression reveals non-linear effects. Both the level of digital trade and institutional factors, such as environmental regulation, intellectual property protection, and market integration, moderate the relationship between digital trade and GTFP in U-shaped, N-shaped, and other positive non-linear patterns. These insights enhance the understanding of how digitalization interacts with institutional contexts to drive sustainable productivity growth, providing practical implications for policymakers seeking to optimize digital trade strategies and complementary regulatory frameworks. Full article

With the spread of the Industry 4.0 concept, implementing Artificial Intelligence approaches on the shop floor that allow companies to increase their competitiveness in the market is starting to be prioritized. Due to the complexity of the processes used in the industry, the inclusion of a real-time Quality Prediction methodology avoids a considerable number of costs to companies. This paper exposes the whole process of introducing Artificial Intelligence in plastic injection molding processes in a company in Portugal. All the implementations and methodologies used are presented, from data collection to real-time classification, such as Data Augmentation and Human-in-the-Loop labeling, among others. This approach also allows predicting and alerting with regard to process quality loss. This leads to a reduction in the production of non-compliant parts, which increases productivity and reduces costs and environmental footprint. In order to understand the applicability of this system, it was tested in different injection molding processes (traditional and stretch and blow) and with different materials and products. The results of this document show that, with the approach developed and presented, it was possible to achieve an increase in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of up to 12%, a reduction in the process downtime of up to 9% and a significant reduction in the number of non-conforming parts produced. This improvement in key performance indicators proves the potential of this solution. Full article

Under the requirements for high-quality development, the coordinated promotion of agricultural carbon emission reduction and agricultural product supply guarantee in China is crucial to hold the bottom line of national food security as well as promote agricultural green transformation and development. Based on such situation, from the perspective of decoupling effect, driving factors and the prediction, this paper uses panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, takes the carbon emission formula, the “two-stage rolling” Tapio decoupling elasticity coefficient method, the spatial Durbin model and the Grey model optimized by the Simpson formula background value to quantify the relationship between agricultural carbon emission and agricultural product supply, analyze the driving effects of agricultural carbon emission reduction and agricultural product increase, and predict the decoupling state of agricultural carbon emission and agricultural product supply between 2021 and 2025, so as to draw a scientific basis that is conducive to the coordinated promotion of agricultural carbon emission reduction and agricultural product supply guarantee in China. The result shows that: (1) The decoupling state of agricultural carbon emission and agricultural product supply shows generally “the eastern and central regions are better than the western regions” in China, and the decoupling state has improved significantly year by year. Green technology innovation (GTI), agricultural carbon emission and agricultural product supply in China have significant spatial differences and spatial auto-correlation, which shows the spatial factors cannot be ignored; (2) Green technology innovation and agricultural carbon emission in local and adjacent provinces are both in an inverted “U-shaped” relationship, meaning that high level green technology innovation is an effective way to reduce carbon emission. Though green technology innovation and agricultural product supply in local and adjacent provinces are both in a positive “U-shaped” relationship, but the minimum value of lnGTI is greater than 0, which indicates that current level of green technology has been raised to a certain level, effectively improving the output of agricultural products; (3) Compared with those in 2016–2020 in China, it is projected that in 2021–2025 the decoupling state of agricultural carbon emission and agricultural product supply will be improved significantly, and the provinces below the optimal state will leave the extremely unreasonable strong negative decoupling state, mainly show recessionary decoupling and recessionary connection. Our findings provide Chinese decision-makers with corresponding references to formulate accountable and scientific regional policies in order to achieve high-quality development of agriculture and realize “Double carbon” target in China. Full article

Karst terrain is the typical area covered with a high background of heavy metals under geochemical anomaly. This research explored the accumulation of geochemical elements and soil sources in karst terrain from rock and soil exposed in carbonate areas. The comprehensive ecological risk and enrichment of heavy metals from parent rock weathered to soil was investigated in 11 formations in the carbonate and clastic areas of the Weining and Hezhang counties in northwest Guizhou. The single factor pollution index, geoaccumulation index, and the potential risk coefficient were used to assess the environmental risk. The results revealed that the heavy metals in an overall geologically high background level of soil in northwest Guizhou is at a slight risk level. However, except for Cd, the heavy metals did not exceed the standard pollution reference. Moreover, the UNMIX model and Cd and Pb isotopes were used to analyze the source of heavy metals, comprising of cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn), and the geochemical elements of silicon (Si), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), and calcium (Ca). The study showed that most elements in the soil carbonate area exceed the national standard, and the heavy metals in the soil showed a strong enrichment, while the major elements Si and Mg display strong loss. Heavy metal concentrations in soil in the carbonate area were higher than in the clastic area. Geological sources and atmospheric deposition were the main contributors to heavy metal concentrations in both carbonate and clastic areas, and their concentrations differ according to soils developing in different formations. Full article

Exogenous sources and the superposition effect of HMs in agricultural soils made the idenfication of sources complicated in a karst area. Here, a typical watershed, a research unit of the karst area, was chosen as the study area. The smaller-scale study of watersheds allowed us to obtain more precise results and to guide local pollution control. In this study, sources of HMs in agricultural soil were traced by a CMB model. Superposition effects were studied by spatial analysis of HMs and enrichment factor (EF) and chemical fraction analysis. The average concentrations of Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn in surface soils were 8.71, 333, 154, 51.7, 61.5 and 676 mg∙kg⁻¹, respectively, which exceeded their corresponding background values. The main sources of Cd, Pb and Zn in agricultural soil were rock weathering, atmospheric deposition and livestock manure, and their contributions were 47.7%, 31.0% and 21.2% for Cd; 7.63%, 78.7% and 13.4% for Pb; and 17.0%, 52.3% and 28.1% for Zn. Cr mainly derived from atmospheric deposition (73.8%) and rock weathering (20.0%). Cu and Ni mainly came from livestock manure (81.3%) and weathering (87.5%), respectively, whereas contributions of pesticides and fertilizers were relatively limited (no more than 1.04%). Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu were easily enriched in surface soils near the surrounding pollution sources, whereas Cr and Ni were easily enriched in the high-terrain area, where there was less of an impact of anthropogenic activities. The superposition of exogenous sources caused accumulation of Cd, Pb and Zn in topsoil, contaminated the subsoil through leaching and improved bioavailability of Cd and Pb, causing high ecological risk for agricultural production. Therefore, Cd and Pb should be paid more attention in future pollution control. Full article

The background value of cadmium (Cd) in soil and water sediments in the karst area is 0.31 mg kg⁻¹, with a typical high background of cadmium geochemistry. It is well-known that Cd is classified as a highly toxic metal. Therefore, at the Yelang reservoir in Guizhou province, eco-toxicological tests were carried out using Daphnia pulex. The Geo-Accumulation Index and Potential Ecological Risk Index were used to assess the environmental risk of Cd in sediments. The Cd contents in the sediments of Yelang reservoir ranged from 2.51 to 5.23 mg kg⁻¹, while the LC₅₀ values of the acute toxicity test of Daphnia pulex and Cd at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h were 1.17, 0.50, 0.24, and 0.12 mg L⁻¹, respectively, giving a Safe Concentration threshold of Cd of 1.20 × 10⁻³ mg L⁻¹ in the water body. Based on curve fitting the solid–liquid two-phase distribution model of cadmium in Yelang reservoir was Y = 7.59 × 10⁻⁹ × X^2.58 (R² = 0.9995). The safety threshold sediment Cd concentration was 103 mg kg⁻¹, and was much higher than the Cd content in the sediment of the Yelang reservoir. The Geo-Accumulation Index (I_geo 2.432–3.491) results show that the sediments had reached medium-strong or strong risk levels. The Potential Ecological Risk Index ($E_r^i$ 242.8–505.9) reached a very high or extremely high-risk level. However, due to high concentrations of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺, and the pH being in the neutral–alkaline range of water body in karst areas, the Daphnia ecotoxicology evaluation method showed slight ecological risk, quite different from other assessment results, thus this method could be considered to use in such areas. Full article