Search Results (2,042)

Climate action is an alarming issue, and the world is concerned about sustainable solutions. Governance quality, financial technology and advanced-resource endowments have a pivotal role in climate action, yet the literature lacks evidence on their linkages with carbon emissions. The present study covers this gap in the literature for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, as they offer an ideal study setting given their extreme vulnerability to climate change, their reliance on fossil fuels, the strong efforts to address climate change issues, and their prioritization of transforming the financial sector through financial technology as a means of resolving climate issues. Results show that governance quality and financial technology curb carbon emissions. Specifically, financial technology reduces CO₂ emissions by approximately 36.4% in the FMOLS estimation, while governance quality contributes negatively and significantly to CO₂ emissions across most specifications. Further, the interaction term of financial technology and advanced-resource endowments is statistically significant with a negative coefficient, hereby providing a supportive role in reducing CO₂ emissions. Hence, advanced-resource endowments play a moderating role, transforming the effectiveness of financial technology in reducing carbon emissions. The findings are robust for quantile regressions and alternative measures of environmental degradation and have strong policy implications for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Full article

This study examines how client ESG performance affects supplier total factor productivity (TFP) from a knowledge spillover perspective, using matched client–supplier–year data for Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2023. The results show that client ESG significantly improves supplier TFP; specifically, a one-unit increase in client ESG is associated with an average increase of approximately 8.3% in supplier TFP. These results remain robust across a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis indicates that client ESG enhances supplier productivity through three knowledge spillover channels: technical assistance, management sharing, and innovation induction. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that this positive effect is more pronounced in long-term cooperative relationships, among clients with stronger market power, for state-owned suppliers, and when clients and suppliers have aligned ownership structures. Further analysis shows that the positive effect of client ESG persists for at least three fiscal years and is more pronounced in industries characterized by lower volatility. These findings suggest that policymakers and firms should strengthen supply chain ESG governance to promote knowledge spillovers and improve productivity. Full article

Lake Sarez in Tajikistan, formed by a major earthquake-induced landslide in 1911, is located in the highly seismically active Pamir–Hindu Kush region. The lake is impounded by the Usoi Dam, one of the largest natural landslide dams in the world, which has raised concerns regarding its long-term stability and associated downstream flood hazards. Due to its geomorphological setting and potential exposure to multiple triggering mechanisms, including seismic activity and landslides, Lake Sarez is widely considered a high-consequence hazard system. Although the dam has remained stable for over a century and is currently monitored using modern geodetic and satellite-based technologies, uncertainties remain regarding its internal structure and response to extreme external forcing. While existing early warning systems enhance preparedness in downstream communities, effective long-term risk reduction requires continued monitoring, improved hazard modeling, and strengthened regional cooperation. This review synthesizes existing studies on the geological setting, hazard potential, stability assessments, and disaster risk management strategies related to Lake Sarez. It highlights the importance of integrated multi-hazard analysis and precautionary risk governance in managing low-probability but high-impact natural dam failure scenarios. Full article

Background: This study examines how humanitarian supply chain cooperation in Morocco may evolve toward 2030, focusing on the roles of donors, volunteers, and digital technologies in strengthening coordination, operational performance, and resilience in crisis environments. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining qualitative data collected through interviews and focus groups with 57 humanitarian actors and quantitative data obtained from 1183 logistics professionals. Regression analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and qualitative foresight techniques were employed to explore current cooperation patterns and future humanitarian supply chain dynamics. Results: The findings indicate that donors are increasingly expected to support digital coordination, predictive planning, and capacity-building initiatives rather than acting solely as financial contributors, while volunteers continue to play a critical role in adaptive and decentralized operations, particularly in rural areas. The results further suggest that digital technologies may enhance visibility, responsiveness, and collaboration when integrated into human-centered governance systems. Conclusions: The study proposes an integrated socio-technical framework for understanding humanitarian supply chain cooperation toward 2030 and provides practical insights for developing resilient, collaborative, and future-ready humanitarian logistics systems in emerging economies. Full article

Single-use plastic (SUP) pollution has emerged as a major sustainability and environmental-governance challenge in developing and institutionally fragile regions characterized by weak waste-management systems, uneven enforcement capacity, and fragmented regional coordination. This paper examines the regulation of SUPs in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states as a case of regional environmental governance in contexts of institutional diversity and limited regulatory capacity. Using a structured doctrinal and comparative legal-analysis methodology, the study evaluates formally enacted national and selected subnational legal and policy instruments through the framework of international environmental law principles, particularly prevention, precaution, polluter-pays, cooperation, and life-cycle governance. The findings reveal substantial divergence in plastics governance across the region. Some countries, including Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia, rely primarily on direct bans and preventive restrictions, while others regulate plastics indirectly through broader environmental and waste-management frameworks. Kenya demonstrates the region’s most integrated governance model through preventive regulation, extended producer responsibility (EPR), recycling obligations, and circular-economy measures, whereas responsibility-based governance remains weak across much of the region. The study further shows that fragmented legal systems, weak enforcement capacity, limited recycling infrastructure, and insufficient regional coordination continue to undermine effective plastics governance in IGAD. From a sustainability-law perspective, the paper demonstrates how fragmented institutional environments and uneven governance capacities shape plastics governance in underexamined, fragile regional contexts. It concludes that progressive regional harmonization integrating prevention, producer responsibility, recycling systems, lifecycle governance, and transboundary cooperation offers the most viable pathway toward sustainable plastics governance in the IGAD region while contributing to discussions concerning SDGs 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17. The findings further suggest that IGAD institutions and member-state governments should strengthen extended producer responsibility frameworks, invest in recycling and waste-management infrastructure, enhance enforcement capacity, and promote coordinated regional policies to support a transition toward a circular economy and reduce transboundary plastic pollution. Full article

Continuous alumina (Al₂O₃) fibers are critical reinforcement materials for ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) utilized in extreme high-temperature environments. While their baseline thermal and mechanical properties are well-documented, their long-term service reliability in complex, multi-field environments—specifically coupled thermal, hygral, and atmospheric conditions—remains insufficiently quantified. This study systematically investigates the degradation mechanisms of alumina ceramic fiber ropes subjected to simulated engine exhaust atmospheres and cyclic rain exposure. By integrating macroscopic tensile testing with rigorous multi-scale microstructural characterizations (SEM, XRD, TGA, and advanced surface chemical state analyses via EDS and XPS), a comprehensive degradation model is proposed. Our findings reveal a pronounced two-stage mechanical degradation behavior: an initial catastrophic strength collapse followed by a stabilization phase. We elucidate that the initial embrittlement is governed not merely by thermal damage, but fundamentally by the hydrothermal volatilization and depletion of the surface amorphous SiO₂ binder, which annihilates the inter-fiber cooperative load-sharing capability. Concurrently, quantitative XPS and XRD analyses strongly suggest that the internal amorphous grain-boundary films undergo rapid structural rearrangement and crystallization, effectively homogenizing the microstructure and shifting the fracture mechanics from energy-dissipative crack deflection to unhindered brittle cleavage. After the preferential depletion of the amorphous silicate phase, the exposed α-Al₂O₃ core dictates a stabilized mechanical response. This research provides critical theoretical frameworks and experimental evidence for the life-cycle assessment and microstructural optimization of advanced oxide ceramic fibers in next-generation aerospace applications. Full article

Cross-border cooperation (CBC) is defined as the structured, institutionalized, or informal collaboration between adjacent regional and local authorities, economic actors, and civil society groups across international state borders. Within contemporary border studies, CBC has transitioned from traditional top-down, state-centric diplomatic containment toward bottom-up, grassroots territorial integration. This entry synthesizes the multidisciplinary evolution of CBC across geography, economics, jurisprudence, sociology, and political science, structuring the analysis around four core dimensions: spatial, political, economic, and socio-cultural. It categorizes diverse territorial and governance mechanisms of cooperation, ranging from localized town twinnings to formalized Euroregions and European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTCs), and introduces quantitative performance metrics such as the Cross-Border Activity Index (CBAI). Examining how these structures operate along both the internal and external borders of the European Union, this entry analyzes the cyclical, non-linear dynamics of the bordering–debordering–rebordering framework. By evaluating diverse theoretical models across varying geopolitical contexts, it identifies the universal characteristics of contemporary border dynamics, conceptualizing borders not merely as physical or political demarcations, but as analytical lenses reflecting broader processes of globalization, regionalization, and territorial resilience. Full article

This paper investigates carbon reduction and pricing decisions in a green supply chain composed of a government, a manufacturer, and a retailer, under the joint influence of carbon tax policies and consumer environmental awareness. A game-theoretic framework is developed to systematically compare four cooperation structures: non-cooperation, emission reduction cooperation, pricing cooperation, and full cooperation. The results show that consumer environmental awareness significantly influences firms’ green investment, pricing strategies, and the government’s carbon tax policy. The analysis further reveals several nonlinear effects under different cooperation modes. In particular, when environmental performance is evaluated in terms of emission intensity, emission-reduction investment improves per-unit environmental performance, although demand expansion under strong consumer environmental awareness may weaken the extent of this improvement. In less environmentally sensitive markets, green investment translates more directly into environmental improvement. Pricing cooperation provides strong incentives for firms to reduce emissions, whereas full cooperation achieves a better balance between environmental and economic performance. This study enriches the theoretical foundation of green supply chain coordination and offers practical insights into carbon tax design and sustainable collaboration strategies. Full article

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 aims to make human capital the key driver of economic development and innovation. However, there is a dearth of research on employee well-being in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and in Saudi Arabia as well. There is a need to re-examine how the Kingdom’s unique cultural disposition (tribalism, gender segregation, religious customs, expatriate dependence) interacts with the well-being of their employees. With this background, the present study, by using an in-depth qualitative approach and integrating the JD-R model and sociocultural theory, attempts to provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing and understanding employee well-being outcomes among a Saudi public university’s staff members facing the impact of internationalization, digitalization, and policy reforms. The university chosen was one of the largest public universities of Saudi Arabia based in Jeddah. The qualitative approach adopted allowed for a rich, nuanced, and contextualized understanding of the lived experiences of well-being among the university’s teaching and non-teaching employees in their distinct sociocultural setting. The results suggest that while the JD-R model provides a useful starting point, sociocultural theory more adequately explains how cultural tools (religious and tribal identities) and structures (gender segregation, seniority policies) serve as both resources and demands. The reforms introduced under Vision 2030 have created tensions between the government’s new global, meritocratic goals for the sector and traditional Saudi sociocultural norms, with a negative spillover effect disproportionately borne by the expatriate staff, women, and administrative staff members. The study suggests that staff well-being should not be viewed as an outcome but as a precondition for successfully achieving Vision 2030 reform goals. In order to reduce attrition and ensure a more sustainable reform process, policymakers must balance their emphasis on performance with tangible support for human capital development. Full article

Does mandatory sustainability disclosure improve the quality of corporate financial reporting immediately, gradually, or with delay? We address this question using Saudi Arabia’s January 2021 Tadawul ESG Disclosure Guidelines—the first comprehensive sustainability disclosure framework in the Gulf Cooperation Council and a uniform, accurately dated regulatory shock affecting all listed firms. Using a balanced panel of 135 non-financial firms over 2017–2024 (1080 firm-year observations), we estimate absolute discretionary accruals from the Modified Jones Model and employ event-time fixed-effects regressions with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors robust to heteroskedasticity, autocorrelation, and cross-sectional dependence. We document a temporal paradox: reporting quality did not change in the announcement year (2021), deteriorated significantly in 2022 (+28%) and 2023 (+38%) relative to the pre-reform baseline, and then improved significantly in 2024 (−17%). The pattern survives performance-matched discretionary accruals, exclusion of the 2020 COVID-19 year, a placebo test, sectoral disaggregation across nine Tadawul-aligned industry groups, and a battery of pre-reform firm characteristics. Heterogeneity analysis identifies the underlying mechanism: voluntary pre-2021 ESG disclosers and firms with stronger pre-reform governance exhibit amplified short-run deterioration, while larger firms with pre-existing reporting infrastructure show a substantially attenuated paradox. These patterns are jointly consistent with the adjustment-cost mechanism we develop: the reform redirected scarce reporting governance toward the new disclosure margin during a three-year compliance buildout, after which the constraining effect on accrual-based earnings management emerged. The findings carry direct implications for the design and evaluation of mandatory sustainability disclosure reforms currently advancing across emerging and developed markets. Full article

This article offers a case-illustrative socio-legal analysis of five decisions of German ordinary courts concerning Muslim prayer and halal food in prison, Islam-coded public performance in urban space, minority community mediation in criminal justice and male circumcision as a ritual controversy involving Muslim and Jewish communities. Building on comparative work on “moderate secularism” and using cases identified through the CUREDI database, it develops a focused account of selective secularism by examining how courts translate minority claims into legal categories within Germany’s formally cooperative framework for governing religion. The analysis distinguishes this wider Christian-centred recognition architecture from the more specific legal and institutional baselines operative in the selected disputes. Within this framework, the argument examines how, in the selected decisions, minority practices are assessed through arena-specific legal standards and institutional routines presented within legal reasoning as neutral, administrative or secular, including security, public order, ordinary institutional diet, restorative justice, bodily integrity and child welfare. Non-religion is approached as an implicit baseline within disputes legally framed as religious. The article contributes to debates on Islam and religious diversity in Germany by analysing prison accommodation, urban public order, criminal mediation and bodily-integrity controversies together. It shows how each legal arena defines what counts as ordinary, which minority claims require justification, and which forms of accommodation or restriction become possible. It argues that, across these decisions, minority claims receive less restrictive legal treatment when they can be translated into goals legible to state institutions, such as order, repair, child welfare or regulated inclusion. Full article

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Prosperity Cluster (SDGs 7–11) represents a multidimensional framework linking economic growth, social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and resilient development. This review critically examines the interconnections among Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), and Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), with the aim of exploring how these goals collectively contribute to sustainable prosperity. Adopting a structured literature review methodology informed by PRISMA principles, the study synthesizes peer-reviewed and gray literature collected from major academic databases and institutional sources. The findings indicate that progress toward the prosperity-oriented SDGs remains uneven across regions due to disparities in governance quality, technological capacity, infrastructure development, and social inclusion. Renewable energy transitions, digital innovation, circular economy initiatives, green infrastructure, and sustainable urban planning emerge as critical drivers of long-term prosperity, while inequality, weak institutional coordination, inadequate human-capital investment, and uneven access to technology remain major barriers. The review further demonstrates that progress in one SDG strongly influences outcomes in others, emphasizing the importance of integrated and policy-coherent approaches rather than isolated sectoral actions. Conceptually, the paper advances the understanding of the “Prosperity Cluster” by positioning dynamism, equity, and environmental stewardship as mutually reinforcing dimensions of sustainable development. The study concludes that achieving sustainable prosperity requires governance systems capable of balancing economic competitiveness with environmental responsibility and social justice. Greater international cooperation, inclusive policymaking, and investment in resilient infrastructure and human capital are essential to ensure that prosperity benefits present and future generations without leaving vulnerable populations behind. Full article

In large-scale fluid transport systems, distributed pump and valve stations must coordinate their operations to prevent overpressure while minimizing energy use and control effort. This paper presents a communication-aware, game-theoretic coordination framework in which stations act as rational agents that iteratively adjust operating setpoints based on locally computed utilities. Existing station-level pressure controllers regulate local pressures and flows, while a slower supervisory negotiation layer governs inter-station coordination using steady-state hydraulic surrogates derived from pump affinity laws and pipeline loss relationships. The proposed framework does not rely on centralized optimization or exhaustive enumeration of strategies. Instead, stations update setpoints sequentially, evaluating incremental changes in utility to determine beneficial adjustments and detect equilibrium conditions. Cooperative behavior emerges naturally when communication is available, enabling stations to internalize the hydraulic impact of their actions on neighboring stations. When communication is lost, the system transitions seamlessly to a non-cooperative mode in which each station optimizes its local objective while maintaining safe operation. Simulation studies conducted on a multi-station pipeline with mixed actuator types demonstrate measurable performance improvements over fixed-setpoint operation. Cooperative coordination reduces total system energy usage from 39.6 MW to 38.8 MW while increasing average control valve openness from 60.4% to 63.7%. Non-cooperative operation converges more rapidly but results in higher energy consumption (39.2 MW) and greater valve throttling. Under partial communication loss, the system preserves near-cooperative energy performance (38.8 MW) with a modest increase in convergence time, demonstrating robustness to degraded communication. Across all simulated scenarios, the iterative game converged to stationary operating points consistent with Nash-equilibrium behavior in non-cooperative settings and Pareto-stationary solutions in cooperative communication settings. Full article

Background: Microbiome-oriented therapies, including fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), phage therapy, and live biotherapeutic products (LBPs), represent a promising direction in modern biomedicine for addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR), recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI), and dysbiosis-associated conditions. Despite encouraging clinical outcomes, their integration into routine clinical practice remains limited due to regulatory heterogeneity and unresolved ethical challenges. Objective: This review aims to analyze international regulatory approaches to microbiome-based therapies and to identify key bioethical issues associated with their clinical application. Main content: The paper summarizes current scientific evidence and regulatory frameworks governing microbiome therapies in the United States, the European Union, Ukraine, and selected Asia-Pacific countries. Particular attention is given to differences in classification, approval pathways, and safety requirements. The review also examines major ethical concerns, including informed consent, donor screening, biosafety, data protection, and equitable access to innovative treatments. Conclusions: The analysis demonstrates that microbiome therapies have significant potential for improving clinical outcomes and supporting antimicrobial stewardship. However, their broader implementation requires the harmonization of regulatory frameworks, strengthening of biosafety standards, and development of clear ethical guidelines. International cooperation and accumulation of clinical evidence are essential for the safe and effective integration of microbiome-based interventions into healthcare systems. Full article

The Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC) general contracting model has emerged as the dominant delivery method for large-scale infrastructure and industrial projects in China. However, contemporary EPC project cost control remains plagued by critical industry challenges, including fragmented cross-stage coordination, pervasive data silos, and the shallow integration of digital technologies into core management processes. This study considers three key stakeholders—government regulators, project owners, and EPC general contractors—and develops a tripartite evolutionary game model to analyze the strategic interactions underlying intelligent cost control in EPC projects. We examine the evolutionary stability of each stakeholder’s strategy selection, explore how various factors influence tripartite strategic choices, and further investigate the stability of equilibrium points in the game system. The key findings are summarized as follows: (1) Strengthening government incentives and penalties simultaneously promotes owners’ investment in intelligent cost control systems and general contractors’ active collaborative cost management. However, excessive incentive intensity undermines the government’s regulatory effectiveness. (2) Establishing a revenue-sharing mechanism for excess cost savings fully stimulates the spontaneous cooperation willingness of owners and general contractors, serving as the cornerstone for market-oriented operation of intelligent cost control. (3) Reducing owners’ intelligent construction investment costs and general contractors’ collaborative control costs effectively addresses practical implementation barriers and accelerates the digital upgrading of engineering cost management. Finally, numerical simulations are performed using MATLAB R2020b to validate theoretical findings. Full article