Search Results (17,009)

Sustainable marine economic development depends on the balanced integration of economic, social, and environmental dimensions. However, empirical evidence on the current degree of coordination among these dimensions remains limited, particularly in maritime countries. This study assesses the Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD) among these three dimensions of sustainable marine economic development in 15 Indonesian coastal provinces selected based on a proportion of coastal villages exceeding the national average and availability of complete 2024 data. Using subsystem performance scores derived from a previously published Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) index, the study evaluates how balanced the current coordination state is across provinces. The findings show that higher coordination is associated not only with higher subsystem performance but also with the relative balance among dimensions. Provinces with relatively balanced development tend to achieve higher coordination, whereas strong performance in a single dimension does not necessarily lead to a well-coordinated development system. Conversely, high coordination may also arise from uniformly low performance across all dimensions, indicating that coordination and development performance represent distinct characteristics of sustainability rather than interchangeable concepts. These findings demonstrate that CCD complements conventional performance-based assessments by capturing the degree of integration among multiple development dimensions. The study contributes to the sustainable marine development literature by providing a more comprehensive framework for evaluating multidimensional sustainability and offers insights for designing integrated, place-based blue economy policies that better align economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental conservation. Full article

Ehrlichia and Anaplasma are important tick-borne obligate intracellular bacteria that cause clinically and economically significant infections in humans and animals. Despite their importance, vaccine development for these pathogens remains limited, and the overall progression of vaccine-related research in this field has not been quantitatively characterized. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to characterize the trajectory and the research landscape of vaccine-related research for these pathogens. The literature was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection using the search terms (Ehrlichia OR ehrlichiosis OR Anaplasma OR anaplasmosis) AND (vaccine OR vaccines). A total of 483 publications published between 1965 and 2025 were included in the analysis. Bibliometric analyses were conducted using Biblioshiny (Version 4.3.3) and VOSviewer (Version 1.6.20) to assess publication trends, citation patterns, leading countries, institutions, and major research themes. The literature showed gradual growth over time, with more consistent publication output from the late 1990s onward. Scientific output was concentrated in a relatively small number of countries and institutions, led by the United States, South Africa, Brazil, Spain, and France. Keyword frequency and co-occurrence analyses showed that the field has been shaped mainly by bovine anaplasmosis, heartwater, and tick-associated vaccine research, with Anaplasma marginale and Ehrlichia ruminantium emerging as dominant pathogen-focused themes. Major surface proteins, msp1a, subolesin, and Bm86, appeared frequently, indicating continued interest in both pathogen-derived and tick-associated vaccine targets. In contrast, human and canine pathogens such as Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Ehrlichia canis were less represented. Our analysis maps the research landscape of Ehrlichia and Anaplasma vaccine development, quantifying how research activity has been distributed across pathogens, geographic regions, institutions, collaborations, and vaccine-related themes. It also identifies areas that remain comparatively less represented in the published literature and provides a quantitative baseline for future comparisons with independent measures of disease burden and research funding data. Full article

Natural resource endowments are often treated as major determinants of regional competitiveness, yet institutional and rentier-state scholarship suggests that institutional architecture, reform capacity, and policy implementation may also shape competitiveness trajectories. This study examines Saudi Arabia’s competitiveness trajectory under Vision 2030 in comparison with Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The analysis covers 2022–2026, complemented by historical IMD benchmarks and independently sourced real-economy indicators, particularly economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI). Saudi Arabia improved from 24th in 2022 to 13th in 2026, with Government Efficiency and Business Efficiency both reaching 4th globally. However, FDI remained at 1.25% of GDP, substantially below the UAE’s 7.90% and the 5.7% Vision 2030 target. Comparative evidence further indicates that neither infrastructure strength nor governance centralization alone accounts for observed competitiveness trajectories. The findings reveal incomplete correspondence between ranking improvement and real-economy transmission, supporting a conditional institutional interpretation in which reform capacity operates alongside regulatory credibility, implementation quality, and broader economic conditions. The study distinguishes reform velocity, institutional effectiveness, real-economy transmission, and institutional durability as analytically distinct dimensions of institutional transformation. Given its small-N descriptive comparative design, the study identifies theory-consistent patterns rather than causal effects of Vision 2030. Full article

Sustainable tourism is increasingly threatened by compound climate extremes, but how these hazards propagate through destination networks is poorly understood. This study quantifies the direct and cross-boundary spillover effects of compound climate extremes on tourism demand in Sichuan Province, China, by integrating 75 years of high-resolution ERA5 reanalysis data with an 11-year municipal panel dataset (2014–2024, N = 21). Employing a gravity center migration model and a two-way fixed-effects spatial econometric model, we find that prolonged droughts impose a significant direct local damage on tourism, while wet-hot compound events generate a substantial positive spatial spillover, indicating that tourists spatially substitute toward cooler neighboring destinations rather than cancelling travel. By contrast, drought and dry-hot events produce negative spillovers consistent with regional brand contagion. These contrasting propagation mechanisms (spatial substitution versus contagion) depend fundamentally on event type and are invisible to conventional non-spatial models. Our findings directly inform global sustainable development objectives related to climate action and economic growth, offering an evidence base for spatially coordinated, event-specific climate adaptation strategies in mountain tourism networks facing accelerating climate risks. Full article

In the context of global digital transformation and the “dual carbon” goals, digital infrastructure and clean energy serve as pivotal drivers of regional economic development. However, whether their synergistic effect can promote high-quality regional economic growth remains unclear, and potential regional disparities warrant investigation. Therefore, based on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2010 to 2023, this study measures the synergy level between digital infrastructure and clean energy development using a coupling coordination degree model. It empirically examines their impact on regional economic performance through fixed-effect and mediation effect models. The findings indicate that the synergistic effect of digital infrastructure and clean energy development significantly promotes regional economic growth, with its impact exceeding their individual contributions. Such influence manifests more evidently within China’s eastern provinces, where industrial structure upgrading and green technological innovation function as two underlying mediating channels. These conclusions offer theoretical and practical insights for optimizing regional development policies and fostering the synergistic integration of digitalization and green transformation. Full article

Academic inquiry into surf tourism has paralleled its economic growth over the past several years. Still, this study addresses a remaining gap in this literature by explicitly examining the natural and human-made impediments to surf tourism, utilizing the specific case of Oceania. To do so, information is collected on impediments to surf tourism across Oceania and used to construct two surf tourism threat indexes. Tests of econometric specifications that regress the number of surfing tourists visiting the countries of Oceania each year on the surf tourism threat index and other variables are conducted. The results suggest that a one-point increase in the surf tourism threat index is associated with about 20% to 25% fewer annual surf tourists per million population, thus providing exploratory evidence of the efficacy of the index. As such, researchers might employ extensions of the index developed in this study to other areas around the globe in empirical analyses of the global surfing economy. Full article

The global transition to antibiotic-free livestock production, accelerated by antimicrobial-resistance concerns, has intensified the search for alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters, and phytobiotics have emerged as key candidates. Cangzhu, the dried rhizome of Atractylodes lancea (Thunb.) DC, is a crude drug of traditional Chinese medicine that has attracted substantial attention as a multipurpose phytobiotic. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the phytochemistry, gut-protective mechanisms, and practical application of Cangzhu in sustainable livestock production. Its principal bioactive constituents are sesquiterpenoids (atractylone, β-eudesmol, hinesol, atractylenolides I–III), polyacetylenes (including atractylodin), polysaccharides, and flavonoids. Reported gut-protective mechanisms comprise upregulation of tight junction proteins (ZO-1, occludin, claudin-1); dual suppression of the NF-κB and MAPK-signaling pathways; activation of the Nrf2–Keap1 antioxidant axis; modulation of the gut microbiota; and TLR4-mediated stimulation of mucosal immunity. In swine, poultry, and ruminant studies, Atractylodes-based supplementation has been associated with improved growth performance, a lower incidence of diarrhea, favorable intestinal morphology, downregulated pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6), beneficial microbiota shifts, and inhibited pathogens. However, much of the mechanistic evidence derives from rodent and in vitro models, and much of the in vivo livestock evidence from the related species A. macrocephala (Baizhu) or multi-herb formulations; direct livestock trials with pure A. lancea remain limited for several endpoints, and the responses observed in these heterogeneous studies depend on the formulation, dose, and animal species used, as indicated by the explicit evidence-tier and source-species tags applied throughout the text, tables, and figures. The reported effective inclusion levels should be read as experimental study ranges and not as standardized dose recommendations. Framed within the One Health paradigm, Cangzhu is therefore best characterized as a mechanistically substantiated candidate alternative to antibiotic growth promoters whose adoption requires species-specific dose validation, quality standardization, and commercial-scale economic confirmation. Full article

Rapid urbanization across global South megacities has accelerated the overexploitation of urban aquifers, creating complex socio-hydrological crises that threaten long-term water resilience for a vast population. Conventional urban-water management frequently relies on uniform, city-wide regulatory mandates that fail to account for localized hydrogeological heterogeneities and the socio-economic drivers of private extraction. This study performed a seasonal assessment (post- and pre-monsoon) of groundwater levels (GWLs), across the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India, using a 13-year archival dataset (2010–2022) of 77 ‘common’ wells, with a sequential spatial–statistical framework. No statistically significant ‘seasonality’ was found in GWLs, except for isolated years. About 13% of the observations appeared as ‘deep outliers’, the call for more process-level hydrogeologic investigations. Spatial interpolation via the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation technique, alongside Global Moran’s I, Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA), and spatially Constrained Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (sHCA), revealed a recurrent spatial pattern: persistent, deep GWLs, within the fracture-dominated, low-yielding Alwar Quartzite (Delhi Ridge) of South and Southeast Delhi. The spatial clustering demonstrates the migration of the deep-GWL hotspots toward the unconfined alluvial aquifers of the Yamuna River floodplains to the east, threatening future baseflow stability. These spatial drawdown patterns represent a structural response to municipal Drinking Water Services Framework (DWSF) deficits, where intermittent supply and informal water markets incentivize the growth of more unregulated and unrestricted private pumping of groundwater. Achieving sustainable urban groundwater governance requires replacing blanket administrative mandates with a more data-driven, micro-zoned socio-hydrological framework across the city—combining area-specific extraction caps, economic instruments for geologically targeted aquifer storage and recovery, informal market regulation, and facilitating more participatory, community-based (Water users Associations, WUA) initiatives in the future to protect groundwater resources in Delhi. However, it requires specialized monitoring data, which is still largely lacking, and detailed investigations involving the aquifer hydrogeology and groundwater pumping patterns. Full article

Rapid urbanization of the human population and the escalating threat of climate change are the main global crises of the 21st century. When cities densify to accommodate the growth, they face critical shortage of urban space and intense competition between gray infrastructure, ecological preservation, and the urgent need for renewable energy generation, calling for effective urban planning as well as management. Traditionally, urban planning operates in isolated departments without cooperation; they simply separate nature into parks, energy into peripheral power plants, and water into underground pipes, leading to more and more vigorous competition for space utilization. This perspective argues that such a fragmented approach is no longer viable, while a new paradigm of spatial synergy integrating blue–green infrastructure (BGI) and renewable energy sources (RES) possesses encouraging potential and is gaining increasing attention. After discussing the mechanics, the planning methodologies, and the operational frameworks of the spatial synergy, the critical challenges and specific barriers in the synergistic integration are summarized in the dimensions of spatial planning, operation and techniques, socio-economics and governance, and the interconnected pathways, spanning good planning, honest financing, and inclusive governance are proposed to provide a clear roadmap for achieving tangible sustainable urbanism. Full article

The increasing demand and limited availability of fishmeal (FM) have intensified the need for sustainable alternative protein sources in shrimp aquafeeds. This study evaluated high FM replacement in juvenile Penaeus vannamei reared under biofloc technology (BFT), integrating in vitro protein digestibility, growth performance, nutrient utilization and microbiome analyses. Six isoproteic and isolipidic diets combined two FM levels (0% and 7.5%) with animal (A), plant (P), or mixed (AP) protein sources, plus a 15% FM Control diet were assayed. Plant-based diets showed higher in vitro protein digestibility and amino acid release than animal-based diets. However, these differences were not reflected in shrimp performance, as final body weight, SGR and survival were similar among dietary treatments. Apparent feed conversion ratio, protein efficiency, and economic performance were improved in shrimp fed the A7.5 and AP7.5 diets, whereas complete FM replacement resulted in poorer performance. Biofloc and shrimp intestinal microbial community composition was primarily driven by temporal succession, whereas dietary protein source modulated the abundance of specific bacterial families. Biofloc and intestinal communities shared limited taxonomic overlap at the family level, suggesting restricted microbial exchange together with strong habitat and host mediated selection. Overall, these findings indicate that a diet containing 7.5% fishmeal (FM), supplemented with either animal-derived proteins or a combination of animal- and plant-derived protein sources, represents an optimal strategy for juvenile Penaeus vannamei cultured under BFT conditions, maintaining performance while preserving intestinal microbial stability and health. Full article

The Min pig, a Chinese indigenous breed, is valued for its excellent meat quality and stress tolerance. Nevertheless, its growth rate falls considerably short of commercial pig breeds, a pattern typical of most unselected indigenous populations, and marked individual variation further undermines its economic viability. To explore the genetic basis of this variation, we evaluated a series of nonlinear fixed-effects and mixed-effects models based on the Gompertz, Logistic, and von Bertalanffy functions using body weight records from 92 Min pigs. Model selection was based on AIC, BIC, and leave-one-out cross-validation. The best-fitting model was a Logistic nonlinear mixed-effects model with individual-level random effects on all three growth parameters (Asymptotic weight, timing parameter, and be parameter), which clearly outperformed models with simpler random-effect structures and fixed-effects models. From this model, we identified three characteristic growth transition points: the early transition point (Growth Rate Index, GRI) at 94.83 days (22.32 kg), the single inflection point (Maximum Growth Rate, MGR) at 166.06 days (52.80 kg), and the late transition point (Late Growth Rate Index, LGRI) at 237.29 days (83.29 kg), with a maximum absolute growth rate of 488.2 g/day. These points partitioned growth into initial acceleration, rapid growth, deceleration, and Asymptotic growth phases. Using individual fitted growth curves, we selected five fast-growing and five slow-growing pigs that reached approximately 90 kg during the plateau phase, defined as a predicted body weight of at least 95% of the individual Asymptotic weight. The fast-growing group reached 90 kg at 240.5 ± 20.42 days, whereas the slow-growing group reached the same weight at 286.67 ± 19.20 days. At the 90 kg slaughter weight, we collected longissimus dorsi muscle samples from these pigs during the plateau phase and performed RNA-seq. Transcriptome analysis revealed 864 differentially expressed genes between the two groups, with 540 upregulated and 324 downregulated in the fast-growing group. Pathway enrichment implicated the PI3K-Akt and TGF-β signaling pathways in muscle development, and differential expression of IGFN1, DCN, COL3A1, MYOC, COL1A2, COL1A1, and IGF2 may explain the growth variation between the groups. In summary, the Logistic mixed-effects model with individual-level random effects on all growth parameters effectively captures the growth pattern of Min pigs, and the PI3K-Akt and TGF-β pathways likely mediate growth differences in this breed. Full article

This study investigates the long-term relationships among tourism activity, energy consumption, economic development, and CO₂ emissions using panel data for 15 Mediterranean Basin countries observed at 17 time points between 1994 and 2022. Pooled OLS, country fixed-effects, and two-way fixed-effects models, with gross capital formation included as a control variable, indicate that per capita energy consumption exhibits the strongest and most robust positive association with per capita CO₂ emissions. In the preferred TWFE specification, tourist arrivals, per capita income, and gross capital formation are not statistically significantly associated with per capita CO₂ emissions when inference is based on country-clustered standard errors. Driscoll–Kraay inference, the Common Correlated Effects Pooled Estimator, and an annualized first-difference specification confirm that the positive association between energy consumption and CO₂ emissions remains consistent across alternative specifications. A composite Sustainability Index developed in the study reveals substantial disparities across countries: Malta, Italy, France, and Israel display comparatively strong sustainability profiles, whereas Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt remain relatively vulnerable within the study sample. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of integrating renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, and adopting low-carbon tourism strategies to support sustainable development in the Mediterranean region. The reported regression coefficients should be interpreted as conditional associations rather than causal effects. Full article

The existing empirical literature on Morocco has examined FDI and economic growth, taxation and growth, and taxation and FDI separately. This study addresses this gap by investigating taxation’s moderating role in the FDI–growth nexus using Moroccan data from 1990 to 2024 and an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds-testing approach. The findings show that FDI is positively associated with long-run GDP growth, real GDP, and GDP per capita, whereas the aggregate fiscal burden and its interaction with FDI are negatively associated with these outcomes. Nevertheless, the marginal association of FDI remains positive across Morocco’s observed tax range, although it declines by 4.11%, 31.08%, and 13.47%, respectively. These findings show that the realised fiscal burden conditions the FDI–growth relationship. Full article

Understanding the relationship between economic growth, energy use, and environmental degradation remains a key challenge for resource-dependent economies undergoing energy transition. This study re-examines the effects of economic growth, energy consumption, renewable energy, and capital formation on CO₂ emissions in Kazakhstan using annual data for 1992–2024. To account for structural changes and ensure robust inference, the analysis employs the Bai–Perron structural break test, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, and alternative cointegration estimators including Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR). The results reveal a stable long-run relationship among the variables. Economic growth and energy consumption significantly increase CO₂ emissions, indicating the persistence of a carbon-intensive growth pattern in Kazakhstan. The effect of renewable energy is not robust across estimation techniques and does not provide consistent evidence of an emissions-reducing impact. Capital formation also shows limited explanatory power for long-run environmental outcomes. Overall, the findings suggest that Kazakhstan has not yet achieved a decoupling between economic growth and environmental degradation. The study contributes to the literature by jointly incorporating structural breaks, multiple cointegration estimators, and an extended sample period within a country-specific framework. The results imply that expanding renewable energy capacity alone may be insufficient to improve environmental quality, highlighting the need for broader structural transformation and low-carbon development strategies. Full article

This study examines whether exports from Israel to MENA countries influence Israel’s military expenditure indirectly through Israel’s economic growth during the period 1995–2023. The analysis is conducted for three samples: the aggregate MENA region, MENA countries with diplomatic relations with Israel, and MENA countries without diplomatic relations with Israel. Using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation and Wald tests, the results indicate that growth in Israel’s exports to the aggregate and diplomatic MENA samples contributes positively to Israel’s economic growth, which in turn significantly increases military expenditure. The indirect effect of exports on military expenditure through economic growth is found to be positive and statistically significant in these two samples. By contrast, no significant direct or indirect effects are observed for trade with non-diplomatic MENA countries. Overall, the findings suggest that trade can influence military expenditure indirectly through economic growth, particularly where stronger diplomatic and economic ties exist. Full article