Search Results (3,278)

After the global financial crisis, central banks used unconventional monetary policies, including quantitative easing (QE), to restore financial stability. Although several studies have analyzed the effects of these measures on financial markets, limited attention has been given to how central bank transparency influences the stability of commercial banks operating under these conditions. This study examines the impact of central bank transparency on national banking system vulnerability during periods of QE across eight economies from 2013 to 2019. Using a dynamic two-step generalized method of moments model based on bank-level data, the analysis includes bank-specific variables, monetary policy indicators, macroeconomic determinants, central bank characteristics, and structural factors of the banking sector and applies a fixed-effects panel regression model. The findings show that transparency moderates the effect of QE on bank vulnerability and strengthens banking system resilience. By emphasizing the role of central bank transparency as a key element of monetary policy, this research provides useful evidence for policymakers seeking to improve the effectiveness and credibility of unconventional monetary measures in different banking environments. Full article

This examines the development of the saltpeter industry in Chile after the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), a conflict between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance. Chile’s victory meant the annexation of the territories of Antofagasta and Tarapacá, effectively controlling the production of sodium nitrate and the global saltpeter monopoly. Industrial development was reflected through changes in foreign and Chilean capitals, technologies, and work practices. In Tarapacá, the most important investments in the 19th century were British and German. In Antofagasta, Chilean, English, German, and Croatian investments were prominent in the 19th and 20th centuries. And since 1926, American capitals have occupied the spotlight. The dominant technologies were the Shanks system between 1880–1926, the Guggenheim from 1926–1954, and the introduction of Solar Evaporation in the 1950s. Work evolved from manual artisanal labor without legal protection to mechanization under social laws. Saltpeter represented, in the social and economic history of Chile, the rise of the proletariat, communal social movements, a strong labor press, and a series of strikes and massacres. From the saltpeter era sprouted powerful literature, poetry, and music throughout the 20th century until today. The nitrate industry reached its peak between 1881 and 1917. During this period, it had to confront competition from synthetic nitrate and ceased to be the main source of revenue for the national treasury of Chile. This was followed by a period of decline and crisis from 1918 to 1931, the latter intertwined with the global financial crisis. Various state and business measures made it possible for a small number of nitrate oficinas (processing plants and settlements) in Tarapacá and Antofagasta to continue operating until the nationalization of the nitrate industry in 1971. The nitrate industry took place during the first globalization of liberalism, one that brought flows of capital, migration from Europe to the American Continent, changes to marine navigation, and the opening of various markets in Asia, Europe, and Africa. Nitrate became the most effective fertilizer for agriculture and replaced guano in crop production. In order to analyze this topic, we will utilize the results of the main monographic studies, texts used for historical and political context, and works with interpretative theses about specific periods of nitrate production. Full article

This study investigated the dynamic volatility connectedness among financial technology (FinTech), green indices, and global uncertainty metrics between June 2018 and May 2025. The research was conducted to understand how technological innovation and sustainability indices interact with systemic risk during periods of extreme global stress, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine conflict, and the market disruptions of early 2025. The analysis employed a time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) framework to capture time-varying interdependencies and risk spillovers across multiple market regimes. Key findings indicated that total dynamic connectedness intensified significantly during crisis events, with major spikes occurring during the 2020 pandemic onset and the 2025 shocks possibly related to the “DeepSeek” AI disruption and the US tariff announcements. FinTech indices and green assets consistently functioned as net transmitters of shocks, while uncertainty indices, particularly the VIX, served as net recipients. Notably, the Alternative Finance Index (AFI) exhibited regime-dependent behaviour, transitioning from a transmitter to a recipient during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results imply that innovative and sustainable sectors have evolved into systemic drivers of global market sentiment rather than mere recipients of external shocks. The findings provide critical insights for stakeholders in financial markets, helping them to rethink their current approaches and prevent financial losses amid market upheaval. Full article

The global plastic pollution crisis demands a fundamental re-evaluation of materials systems beyond incremental improvements to fossil fuel-based polymers. Bioplastics, polymers derived from renewable biological feedstocks, biodegradable under defined conditions, or both, offer a chemically diverse and rapidly evolving platform for transitioning toward circular materials economies in which the value of carbon, energy, and material is retained across multiple use cycles. This review provides a comprehensive and critically organized account of the bioplastics field, spanning three generations of feedstock development from food crops through lignocellulosic residues to algae and waste streams; primary production pathways including microbial fermentation, ring-opening polymerization, and biosynthesis; forming processes from extrusion and injection molding to additive manufacturing; and the mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties that determine application fitness. Particular emphasis is placed on life cycle assessment, which reveals that bioplastics’ climate benefits are conditional on feedstock choice, land-use management, energy source at manufacturing, and end-of-life pathway, and that burden-shifting from greenhouse gas emissions to land use, water consumption, and eutrophication is a systematic risk requiring integrated LCA evaluation rather than single-metric optimization. The review further examines end-of-life recycling, composting, and biodegradation pathways; market applications across packaging, agriculture, automotive, biomedical, and electronics sectors; and the growing role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in accelerating materials design, process optimization, and lifecycle data management. Critical barriers to scale, such as cost premiums of 20–75% over conventional plastics, inadequate composting infrastructure, recycling stream contamination, regulatory fragmentation, and consumer labeling confusion, are systematically analyzed alongside mitigation strategies. The review concludes with a forward-looking discussion of emerging feedstocks, smart and functional bioplastics, and the policy and infrastructure investments required to translate the environmental promise of bio-based polymers into realized circular economy impact. Full article

The global water crisis represents one of humanity’s most pressing challenges, with over 2 billion people lacking access to safely managed drinking water. This study presents the implementation and evaluation of an innovative air-conditioning condensate recovery system at Building F of the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (FIEE), Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico. The system integrates twenty-six 24,000 BTU air-conditioning units across twelve classrooms and two laboratories, recovering approximately 520 L of condensate water daily. An initial physicochemical characterization of the recovered condensate was conducted through pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and total dissolved solids (TDS) measurements. In addition, the dried residue obtained after evaporation of the condensate was examined using semi-quantitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. The XRF results describe the relative elemental composition of the dried residue and must not be interpreted as aqueous concentrations or as evidence of compliance with water-quality standards. The recovery system includes a nominal 0.5 µm polypropylene sediment cartridge, activated-carbon filtration, and a Crystolite^® treatment medium. Because paired measurements before and after treatment were not performed, the removal efficiencies of these components were not determined. The recovered water is subsequently stored and processed in a dual-tank configuration: a primary 3300 L storage system and a secondary 200 L tank used to prepare fertilizer-amended condensate for ornamental-plant irrigation. A fully water-soluble monopotassium phosphate fertilizer (MKP, 0 (–52–34) was incorporated at a gravimetric proportion of 1:10 (1 g MKP per 10 g recovered condensate water). Full article

This paper examines the predictive power of credit default swap (CDS) spread correlations in the context of the 2023 Credit Suisse failure. Using a two-window design, we separate a 50-week pre-crisis period from the final two-week “jump” window and evaluate whether historical market-implied dependence anticipated cross-sectional crisis repricing across Global Systemically Important Banks (G-SIBs). We find that the magnitude of each bank’s crisis-period CDS jump is significantly related to its prior co-movement with Credit Suisse across the full sample ($r=0.80$, $p<0.001$, $n=15$), indicating that contagion followed a structured dependence pattern rather than an undifferentiated panic dynamic. The relationship holds across both regional cohorts, with the European G-SIB group displaying a considerably tighter fit ($r=0.96$, $p<0.001$, $n=8$) than the non-European group ($r=0.84$, $p=0.019$, $n=7$), consistent with geographic and institutional proximity to Credit Suisse amplifying the contagion channel. Additional empirical outputs, including stepwise-regression diagnostics and placebo/event-time checks, support the interpretation that the estimated relationship contains an economically meaningful signal while remaining partly event-driven in short horizons. Overall, the evidence suggests that rolling CDS dependence regimes may serve as a useful leading indicator for identifying institutions most likely to face disproportionate repricing pressure during a localized systemic shock. These findings are drawn from a single crisis episode and 15 peer institutions; they should be read as preliminary evidence of a potentially useful mechanism rather than as the basis for an operational early-warning system, and replication across additional crises and institutional settings is required before broader generalization. Full article

The present study investigates extreme co-movements and financial contagion across a broad set of global financial markets, including ten developed and emerging stock market indices, commodities (gold and oil), and cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin), over the period from January 2007 to May 2023. In the context of the increasing interconnectedness of global financial markets, it is imperative to comprehend the propagation of systemic shocks across asset classes for the purpose of effective risk management. In order to achieve this objective, a Copula-GARCH framework is employed, in which the Student’s t-copula is selected for its superior ability to capture nonlinear dependence and tail co-movements. The analysis compares dependence structures during the pre-crisis and the COVID-19 crisis periods. The present study diverges from the majority of previous research in its utilisation of a combined approach, integrating Copula-GARCH modelling with wavelet analysis. This novel method is employed to collectively examine tail dependence and multi-scale contagion dynamics, thereby facilitating a more comprehensive evaluation of financial interconnectedness during periods of market stress. The empirical evidence indicates significant and largely symmetric tail dependence across the majority of market pairs. This finding suggests the presence of stronger co-movements during periods of extreme market conditions, a phenomenon that was particularly evident throughout the course of the global pandemic. The robustness of these findings is further confirmed by wavelet analysis, which provides a multi-scale perspective on shock transmission across markets. The results demonstrate that financial contagion intensified during the pandemic, with important implications for international portfolio diversification and risk management. Furthermore, the role of gold as a potential safe-haven asset during periods of severe financial stress is highlighted, providing valuable insights for investors and policymakers. Full article

Grassland degradation is a global ecological crisis that profoundly alters aboveground vegetation and soil properties, yet its impacts on soil microbial co-occurrence networks remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated soil bacterial and fungal communities along a well-defined five-stage degradation gradient spanning from non-degraded Leymus chinensis grassland to extremely degraded bare saline patches in the Songnen meadow steppe of northeastern China, using Illumina MiSeq sequencing and co-occurrence network analysis. Our results revealed that bacterial α-diversity exhibited a unimodal (hump-shaped) response peaking at the moderately degraded MD stage, whereas fungal diversity declined monotonically along the gradient, indicating greater sensitivity of fungi to degradation stress. Both bacterial and fungal community compositions shifted directionally with degradation, driven primarily by soil alkalization (pH) and electrical conductivity (EC). Network complexity followed a unimodal pattern for both kingdoms, maximizing at MD and collapsing at SD, suggesting a critical ecological threshold between moderate and severe degradation, while the increased proportion of positive correlations under severe degradation implied enhanced microbial cooperation in response to environmental stress. Structural equation models further revealed distinct regulatory pathways: bacterial networks were governed by both direct environmental filtering and indirect diversity-mediated effects, whereas fungal networks responded more strongly to direct pH/EC constraints and compositional shifts. Our findings demonstrate that microbial networks exhibit nonlinear threshold responses to grassland degradation, with fungi serving as more sensitive bioindicators than bacteria, and highlight the importance of integrating network-level properties into degradation monitoring and restoration frameworks. Full article

In this review, I synthesize recent evidence showing how climate acceleration, biosphere disruption, food and freshwater insecurity, pollution, disease, and inequality are increasingly converging into a single, interconnected sustainability challenge. I show that the Anthropocene crisis extends far beyond climate warming and its impacts alone: current national commitments remain consistent with warming of approximately 2.3–2.5 °C under full implementation, while current policies could produce up to 2.8 °C; however, the remaining carbon budget for a 50% chance of limiting warming to 1.5 °C may be exhausted within only a few years, and the oil and gas industry has committed to a 14% increase in upstream production over the period 2024–2030. At the same time, pollution remains responsible for approximately nine million deaths annually; agriculture accounts for roughly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals; and groundwater depletion, continental drying, marine heatwaves, weakening carbon sinks, and intensifying precipitation extremes are destabilizing the ecological and hydrological systems that sustain human health and food security. This review’s incremental contribution is the integration of these trends within a justice-centered sustainability framework that links Earth-system feedback, public health burdens, water insecurity, and institutional failure rather than treating them as separate environmental problems. I argue that because vulnerability is produced not by exposure alone but by unequal access to infrastructure, wealth, governance capacity, and political power, a viable response therefore requires more than decarbonization: it demands ecological restoration, food and water-centered governance, pollution and disease mitigation, and justice-based institutional reform capable of sustaining human dignity, equity, and resilience within planetary boundaries. I encourage resilience and sustainability programs around the world to fold in these additional challenges to their missions and goals. Full article

Against a backdrop of rising macroeconomic uncertainty, the digital economy has become a key driver of regional economic resilience. However, research on this relationship still requires further refinement for the Yellow River Basin, a special region characterized by ecological redline constraints and a dense concentration of resource-based cities. Using panel data from 78 prefecture-level cities over the period 2008–2019 and treating the global financial crisis as an exogenous shock, this study employs two-way fixed effects, mediation, and spatial Durbin models to examine the mechanisms and spatial patterns of the digital economy’s impact on economic resilience, while also incorporating heterogeneity analyses with regional characteristics of the Yellow River Basin for further investigation. The results show the following: (1) The digital economy expanded rapidly while resilience declined, with significant spatial divergence in both. (2) The digital economy positively affects resilience and is robust to various checks. (3) Industrial upgrading, innovation, and entrepreneurship serve as mediating channels. (4) The digital economy exerts spatial spillover effects on economic resilience at the basin-wide level. (5) The impact of the digital economy on resilience is moderated by ecological redline policies and resource dependence—western and resource-based cities gain the most, while eastern cities show negative spillovers from intensified factor competition. This study provides empirical evidence and policy insights for formulating differentiated digital transformation strategies in the Yellow River Basin. Full article

The present study examined the dynamics of equity-market integration among India and five major global economies: China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Daily data were analysed for the period from January 2002 to December 2025. This study employs Johansen co-integration and the Granger causality test, along with a DCC-GARCH model and the Diebold–Yilmaz connectedness approach, to estimate time-varying conditional correlations across crisis regimes. The findings reveal a single long-run co-integrating relationship in the pre-COVID-19 period (2002–2019) that weakens to none when the post-COVID-19 period (2020–2025) is investigated in isolation, suggesting that the intense early-pandemic coupling became moderated as monetary-policy cycles diverged. The Granger causality test showed that the United States consistently and unidirectionally drives the Indian market, while India’s pre-crisis role as a transmitter to Asian markets fades after the pandemic. The DCC-GARCH indicated that India’s conditional correlations with selected economies rose sharply during the 2008 and 2020 crises, peaking with Hong Kong SAR (0.64). The DY connectedness framework reinforced this pattern. Systemwide connectedness rose sharply during both crises, exceeding 57%, compared to roughly 45% in calmer phases. The United States emerged as the key net transmitter of shocks, and India acted as a net receiver. Full article

Photocatalytic hydrogen production has emerged as one of the most promising approaches for addressing the global energy crisis by enabling the sustainable conversion of solar energy into clean hydrogen fuel. However, its practical application is still hindered by the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, which severely limits photocatalytic efficiency. Although noble-metal co-catalysts have been demonstrated to markedly promote charge separation and accelerate surface reaction kinetics, their widespread application remains constrained by their high cost and limited availability. In this study, a non-noble Ni/NiOx@C co-catalyst was fabricated and employed to modify ZnIn₂S₄ (ZIS) for photocatalytic hydrogen production. The optimized sample (15Ni/NiOx@C/ZIS) exhibits a hydrogen production rate of 4140.03 μmol/g/h, 18.16 times higher than that of pristine ZIS. This enhancement is primarily attributed to the improved separation and transfer of photogenerated charge carriers facilitated by the Ni/NiOx@C co-catalyst. Notably, the hydrogen evolution rate of 15Ni/NiOx@C/ZIS is 1.33 times higher than that of ZIS/3%Pt, suggesting that Ni/NiOx@C has great potential as a substitute for noble metal Pt. Various characterization results demonstrate that 15Ni/NiOx@C/ZIS exhibits superior photocatalytic performance, ascribed to its enhanced light absorption capability, and efficient separation of photogenerated carriers. Additionally, cycling tests and XRD analysis confirm the excellent stability of 15Ni/NiOx@C/ZIS, indicating its potential for practical applications. This work provides a valuable reference for the rational design and development of efficient and cost-effective non-noble co-catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen production. Full article

This study examines the determinants of conditional volatility in energy-sector equity returns and their implications for sustainable energy resilience, energy security, and investment stability. Using a multi-stage econometric framework, the analysis investigates how global financial, commodity, and macroeconomic shocks are transmitted to volatility dynamics across heterogeneous energy companies. The dataset includes domestic and international firms, enabling a comparative assessment of volatility behavior and risk-transmission mechanisms under different market and institutional conditions. The empirical framework combines ARMA models for return dynamics, EGARCH/GARCH specifications for conditional volatility estimation, and OLS regressions with HAC standard errors to identify key determinants of volatility, including market indices, commodity prices, exchange rates, and major geopolitical and economic events. The findings reveal strong volatility persistence across all assets and asymmetric responses to market shocks in most cases. Global market conditions, particularly lagged MSCI World returns, significantly affect volatility, whereas commodity effects related to oil, gas, and coal remain heterogeneous across firms. Event-based regressors show that systemic shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the European energy crisis, increase volatility, although geopolitical effects depend on firm-specific exposure. The results contribute to the sustainability literature by linking energy-sector financial volatility with market resilience, energy security, and stable investment conditions for the energy transition. Full article

European energy markets have experienced significant instability as a result of consecutive global systemic shocks, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitical conflict in Ukraine. This paper analyses the development of crude oil and natural gas prices between 2019 and 2024 and discusses their implications for sustainable logistics, energy security and supply chain resilience in Europe. The study is based on secondary data from internationally recognized sources, including the International Energy Agency, OPEC, Eurostat, the European Council, the World Bank and the U.S. Energy Information Administration. An event-based comparative approach supported by descriptive price-change calculations was applied to distinguish between the pandemic-related demand shock and the geopolitical supply-side shock after 2022. The results show that crude oil prices declined from approximately 64 USD/barrel in 2019 to 41 USD/barrel in 2020, representing a decrease of about 3f5.9%, mainly in connection with reduced mobility, lower transport activity and industrial slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, crude oil prices increased to approximately 100 USD/barrel in 2022, representing an increase of about 143.9% compared to 2020, coinciding with geopolitical uncertainty and supply-side pressures. The European natural gas market appeared particularly vulnerable to the 2022 crisis because of supplier dependence, pipeline infrastructure constraints and reduced Russian gas flows. EU natural gas demand declined by 55 billion m³, or 13%, in 2022, indicating the effect of high prices, energy savings and crisis adaptation. The findings suggest that crude oil shocks are mainly related to transport costs and freight rates, while natural gas shocks may influence energy-intensive production, warehousing, cold chains and broader supply chain stability. The study highlights the need for energy diversification, renewable and low-carbon energy development, energy efficiency and more resilient logistics strategies. Full article

The continuous slowdown in the research and development of new antibiotics and antibiotic overuse have turned the problem of antibacterial resistance into a global public health crisis. As a very promising alternative to multi-drug-resistant bacterial infection, phage therapy is receiving renewed attention. However, the inherent biological limitations of natural phages restrict their extensive clinical application. This review examines how synthetic biology can be harnessed to transform phages and to build the next generation of antibacterial therapies. We outline the main advantages of natural phages, including high host specificity, self-amplification, bactericidal activity and the ability to degrade biofilms. We also point out the bottlenecks of clinical applications of bacteriophages, such as narrow host range, rapid removal in the body and potential genetic safety risks. Moreover, we elaborate on the core synthetic biological tools used to overcome the above limitations, including CRISPR-Cas gene editing, receptor-binding protein reprogramming, functional load delivery and immunogenic regulation, and summarize the recent clinical progress and personalized treatment process. The increasing clinical evidence shows that synthetic biology can effectively overcome the inherent defects of natural bacteriophages, confirming the safety and initial efficacy of bacteriophage therapy. Engineered phages provide a practical strategy to meet the antimicrobial resistance challenge. Clinical applications of such phages will mainly depend on progress in production standardization, regulatory framework construction and scientific and reasonable joint treatment program development. Full article