Search Results (275)

The depletion of global fish stocks poses a major challenge to sustainable development, particularly in economies where marine resources are critical to livelihoods and food security. In this study, the relationship between economic development and the sustainability of fish stocks is examined using the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). We use panel data from 32 economies between 2002 and 2020 and analyze the fish stock status indicator (EPI_FSS) from the Environmental Performance Index, which captures the proportion of national catches from overfished or collapsed stocks. Using a dynamic panel approach and the generalized method of moments (GMM), we investigate how the human development index (HDI) and other socio-economic factors influence changes in the state of fish stocks. Our results show a statistically significant inverted-U-shaped (∩-shaped) relationship between the HDI and the state of fish stocks, suggesting that the deterioration of fish stocks increases at lower levels of development, but improves beyond a certain threshold. In addition, higher levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), education, and research and development (R&D) spending are associated with better outcomes for fish stocks. These results suggest that while early economic growth may put pressure on marine resources, sustained investment in human capital, innovation, and global integration is critical to promoting long-term marine sustainability. Full article

Although group network characteristics significantly influence a group’s ability to exchange and absorb knowledge by listening to group members’ opinions, previous research on voice behavior has not yet fully addressed the social and relational factors in work groups that affect group-level voice. Specifically, in line with the “dark side of social capital” argument, this study examined the effects of group network density on group voice. In addition, drawing on the notion of status conflict, we further examined the moderating role of status conflict on the relationship between group network density and group voice. Using data from 55 work groups, we found an inverted U-shaped relationship between group network density and group voice. Moreover, we found that status conflict moderated the inverted-U effect of group density on group voice, such that when status conflict was high, (1) the overall level of group voice was reduced and (2) group voice decreased faster on the downward side of the inverted-U curve. Herein, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results with relation to effective group management. Full article

We investigate the influence of boardroom gender diversity on earnings management. Drawing on a sample of European firms over the 2010–2023 period, we document an inverted U-shaped nexus between boardroom gender heterogeneity and earnings manipulation. Moreover, we also find that the Democracy Index moderates the curvilinear nexus by flattening the inverted U-curve and shifting the inflection point leftward. Our findings are consistent across various measures of earnings management and different econometric approaches, offering valuable insights for European policymakers. Full article

Toxicological studies of pesticides in animal models provide critical insights into their mechanisms of action, while adsorption strategies offer potential solutions for decontaminating polluted waters. We evaluated toxicity induced by tetraethyl pyrophosphate (TEPP), an organophosphate pesticide and AChE inhibitor, on zebrafish (Danio rerio) development and behavior, alongside the efficacy of wine cork granules as a natural adsorbent. TEPP exposure reduced embryo viability following an inverted U-shaped dose–response curve, suggesting non-monotonic neurodevelopmental effects, but did not alter developmental timing or morphology in survivors. In juveniles, TEPP increased preference for dark environments (33% vs. controls) and enhanced swimming endurance approximately 3-fold, indicating disrupted phototaxis and stress responses. Most strikingly, water treated with cork granules retained toxicity, increasing mortality, delaying embryogenesis, and altering behavior. This directly contradicts in vitro adsorption studies that suggested cork’s efficacy. These results demonstrate the high sensitivity of zebrafish to TEPP at nanomolar concentrations, which contrasts with in vitro models that require doses approximately 1000 times higher. Our findings not only highlight TEPP’s ecological risks but also reveal unexpected limitations of cork granules for environmental remediation, urging caution in their application. Full article

Japan’s shift to a super-aged society is reshaping household carbon footprint (HCF) in ways that vary by age, income, and region. Drawing on a two-tier national–prefectural framework, we quantify the influence of demographic shifts on HCF and evaluate inequalities, and project prefectural HCF to 2050 under fixed 2005 technology and consumption baselines. Nationally, emissions follow an inverted-U age curve, peaking at the 50–54 s (2.16 tCO₂) and dropping at both the younger and older ends. Carbon inequality—the gap between high- and low-income households—displays the opposite U shape, being the widest below 30 and above 85. Regional HCF patterns add a further layer: while the inverted U persists, its peak shifts to the 60–64 s in high-income prefectures such as Tokyo—where senior emissions rise by 44% by 2050—and to the 45–49 s in low-income prefectures such as Akita, where younger age groups cut emissions by 58%. Although spatial carbon inequality narrows through midlife, it widens again in old age as eldercare and home energy needs grow. These findings suggest that a uniform mitigation trajectory overlooks key cohorts and regions. To meet the 2050 net-zero target, Japan should integrate age-, income-, and region-specific interventions—for example, targeted carbon pricing, green finance for middle-aged consumers, and less-urban low-carbon eldercare—into its decarbonization roadmap. Full article

The readiness of businesses to address global climate change is pivotal for achieving sustainable development. However, the dynamics of business development remain underexplored, thereby limiting the depth and scope of research in this area. To this aim, the study examines the relationship between CO₂ emissions and new business density (NBD) in the top 14 countries with the highest NBD (Hong Kong, Cyprus, New Zealand, Estonia, Malta, United Kingdom, Australia, Botswana, Iceland, Latvia, Mauritius, Norway, Sweden, and Georgia) from 2006 to 2020, within the framework of Schumpeter’s theory and the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, incorporating control variables such as renewable energy consumption (REC) and population size. To estimate the relationships between variables, we employ the novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) approach. The findings suggest that higher NBD is associated with increased CO₂ emissions. The results support the EKC hypothesis, positing an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation, and highlight the mitigating effects of REC and population growth on CO₂ emissions. These findings emphasize the need for countries to align labor legislation with sustainable development objectives and to promote strategies grounded in environmental principles, green economic practices, and eco-friendly technologies. Full article

Based on the PRISMA systematic review framework, this study screened relevant literature from the Web of Science database and selected 102 studies for analysis. Using CiteSpace for bibliometric analysis, this study identified three core research areas: (1) measurement methods for carbon emissions and digital economy, (2) the nonlinear relationship between digital economy and carbon emissions, and (3) mediating mechanisms. The results demonstrate that while digital technologies can reduce carbon emissions by improving energy efficiency, promoting green technology innovation, and upgrading industrial structure, the energy-intensive nature of digital infrastructure may conversely increase emissions. Notably, the relationship may exhibit nonlinear characteristics (inverted U-shaped or N-shaped curves). Three key mechanisms are summarized: energy efficiency effects, green technology innovation effects, and industrial structure effects. Future research should focus on optimizing evaluation systems, applying remote sensing technology, conducting micro-level studies, and examining digital divide impacts. This study provides both a comprehensive theoretical framework and practical policy insights for understanding the digital economy-carbon emissions relationship. Full article

Reducing the carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB) is essential for advancing environmental sustainability and socio-economic development. The expansion of digital service trade has emerged as a novel engine of global economic growth and a promising pathway for pollution reduction and carbon mitigation. This study investigates the nonlinear impact of digital service trade on CIWB, identifying an inverted U-shaped relationship—initially increasing CIWB, then reducing it beyond a certain threshold. In the financial digital service trade sector, this effect is mediated by energy structure transition, whereas in the technology-intensive sector, it is driven by green technological innovation. In contrast, digital service trade in the insurance, pension, and audiovisual sectors directly suppresses CIWB. Moreover, rising public environmental awareness helps leverage and strengthen the inhibitory effect of digital service trade on CIWB. Regionally, except for North America (which displays a consistently inhibitory effect), Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania reflect patterns similar to the overall sample. In regions with higher economic and internet development levels, the inverted U-shaped curve is steeper, and its turning point is located further to the left. Temporally, the relationship mirrors the full-sample patterns prior to the enforcement of the Paris Agreement, while an inhibitory effect emerges afterward. These findings offer policy implications for achieving the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Full article

This research aimed to investigate whether transformation of the industrial sector in a region could improve industrial land use efficiency. Taking the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in China as the research area, we compiled socioeconomic panel data from 2000 to 2020 in order to analyze the impact of the transformation of industrial sectors in an area on industrial land use efficiency from two dimensions: industrial structural optimization and industrial spatial layout. The research results show the following: (1) The rationalization and upgrading of the industrial sector, as well as the professional agglomeration of industry and diversified industrial agglomeration, have improved the efficiency of industrial land use. (2) The impact of industrial rationalization on industrial land use efficiency presents an inverted U-shaped curve, whereby the impact of industrial upgrading on industrial land use efficiency has a relatively small spatiotemporal heterogeneity. The spatiotemporal changes in the impact of industrial specialized agglomeration on industrial land use efficiency are relatively small, while the spatiotemporal changes in the impact of industrial diversified agglomeration on industrial land use efficiency are more obvious. (3) There is obvious spatial heterogeneity in the two dimensions industrial structural optimization and industrial spatial layout in the three sub-regions when improving industrial land use efficiency. Full article

In the process of social development, there is a contradiction between economic development and the ecological environment. Western countries were the first to experience the inverted U-shaped development model of “destruction first and compensation later”, and China is also facing similar problems. To reveal the formation mechanism and dynamic evolution of the inflection point of ecological environment changes in China, this paper combines the entropy weight method, the analytic hierarchy process, and quadratic curve fitting to construct the “Ecological Pressure Index—GDPP Model” and studies the inflection point of ecological pressure during China’s economic development from 2000 to 2022. The study shows that the key inflection point of China’s ecological environment pressure is between 2016 and 2017, which is mainly affected by multiple factors such as the economy, domestic and international situations, and policy adjustments. For example, the implementation of the “Supply-side Structural Reform” and the environmental protection supervision system has significantly reduced the pollution pressure. At the same time, the “inflection point” is applied to dynamically adjust the PSR model, revealing the stage transition of China’s environmental governance focus. For instance, from 2000 to 2016, end-of-pipe pollution treatment was dominant (for example, the weights of pollution emission indicators X₅–X₈ were relatively high), while after 2016, the focus of governance shifted to the restoration of ecological space (for example, the weight of nature reserves X₂₂ was 2.759%). The theoretical contribution of this paper lies in proposing the concept of “Policy-driven EKC”, emphasizing the core role of policy intervention in the formation of the inflection point of the ecological environment. In addition, the dynamic adjustment of the PSR model using the “inflection point” better interprets China’s self-transformation in the development process and provides other developing countries with a Chinese solution of “institutional innovation first” and the “Policy-driven EKC—Chinese PSR Model” for reference in balancing economic growth and ecological protection. Full article

Facing the widespread cooperation among different agribusiness entities in China, this study explores the impact mechanism of land scale on farmers’ cooperation with new agricultural business entities (abbreviated as NABEs), including family farms, cooperatives, and agribusinesses. The effects of income within the cooperation mechanism are further analyzed. Based on survey data from 1558 farmers in 10 provinces, applying binary Logit regression and mediation effect models, the study finds the following: (1) The current land area, past growth of land, and future willingness to expand land all positively affect farmers’ cooperation with new agricultural business entities; (2) An inverted U-shaped relationship exists between land size and the proportion of farmers joining new agricultural business entities. The probabilities of joining family farms, cooperatives, and agribusinesses peak at land sizes of 2.65, 6.82, and 7.04 acres, respectively; (3) The current income situation has an intermediary effect on the cooperation between farmers and family farms, while the future income expectation has an intermediary effect on the cooperation between farmers and cooperatives and agribusinesses; (4) The effect of land scale on cooperation is more significant for farmers of village officials or agricultural organization members, full-time farmers, and those with green production and modern sales. This study proposes a development growth curve of farmers, which can be divided into “self-development–cooperation–transformation” stages, and gives solutions for each stage, to facilitate moderate-scale operations and long-term cooperation among various entities in the context of market reforms and social division of labor. Full article

Background: Alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) is a glycoprotein synthesized mainly by the liver. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and liver fibrosis (LF) are associated with metabolic disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the potential correlation between AGP and both NAFLD and LF. Methods: The data were derived from the 2017–2023 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The linear association between AGP and NAFLD and LF was examined by multivariate logistic regression models. Non-linear relationships were described by fitting smoothed curves and threshold effect analysis. Subgroup analysis was also performed to assess potential regulatory factors. Results: The study included 2270 females. AGP was found to be significantly and positively associated with NAFLD [OR = 12.00, 95% CI (6.73, 21.39), p < 0.001] and LF [OR = 2.20, 95% CI (1.07, 4.50), p = 0.042]. Furthermore, the association between AGP and NAFLD was significantly different in the diabetic subgroup (p < 0.05 for interaction). Additionally, we found an inverted U-shaped relationship between AGP and controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), with an inflection point at 1.20 g/L. Conclusions: We found a significant positive correlation between AGP and both NAFLD and LF, and there was an inverted U-shaped relationship between AGP and CAP. Full article

Reducing pesticide use is of great significance for ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products, as well as alleviating agricultural non-point source pollution. Exploring the mechanisms by which environmental regulation drives pesticide reduction under different scenarios can help improve policy effectiveness and promote the sustainable development of agriculture. Utilizing panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning the period of 2010 to 2023, this study empirically analyzed the impact of environmental regulation on pesticide use through a fixed-effect model and further explored the moderating role of agricultural economic scale in this process. Moreover, a heterogeneity analysis was conducted based on regional and environmental regulation dimensions, respectively. The findings reveal that, overall, there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and pesticide use, where it initially increases and then decreases. Agricultural economic scale, serving as a moderating variable, amplifies the promotional effect of environmental regulation on pesticide reduction and accelerates the attainment of the inflection point of the inverted U-shaped curve. Regional heterogeneity analyses reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and pesticide use in the eastern and central regions, while this relationship is not significant in the western region. Notably, market-based environmental regulation exhibits a more pronounced impact compared to command-and-control environmental regulation. Full article

Media platforms provide an effective way to gauge public perceptions, especially during mass disruption events. This research explores public responses to the 2023 Ohio train derailment event through Twitter, currently known as X, and Google Trends. It aims to unveil public sentiments and attitudes by employing sentiment analysis using the Valence Aware Dictionary and Sentiment Reasoner (VADER) and topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) on geotagged tweets across three phases of the event: impact and immediate response, investigation, and recovery. Additionally, the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) model is employed to conduct time-series clustering analysis of Google search patterns, offering a deeper understanding into the event’s spatial and temporal impact on society. The results reveal that public perceptions related to pollution in communities exhibited an inverted U-shaped curve during the initial two phases on both the Twitter and Google Search platforms. However, in the third phase, the trends diverged. While public awareness declined on Google Search, it experienced an uptick on Twitter, a shift that can be attributed to governmental responses. Furthermore, the topics of Twitter discussions underwent a transition across three phases, changing from a focus on the causes of fires and evacuation strategies in Phase 1, to river pollution and trusteeship issues in Phase 2, and finally converging on government actions and community safety in Phase 3. Overall, this study advances a multi-platform and multi-method framework to uncover the spatiotemporal dynamics of public perception during disasters, offering actionable insights for real-time, region-specific crisis management. Full article

As a key region in China’s “dual carbon” strategy, the Yangtze River Delta region faces the dual challenge of sustaining tourism-driven economic growth and achieving significant emission reductions. Based on panel data of the Yangtze River Delta region from 2000 to 2022, this paper adopts the “bottom-up” method to measure the carbon emissions of tourism transportation. It systematically analyzes its spatiotemporal evolution, decoupling effect, and driving mechanism. The results showed that (1) regional carbon emissions showed a trend of “first rising and then decreasing”. The spatial distribution changed from “high in the east and low in the west” to central agglomeration, and the hot spots of high emissions continued to concentrate in Shanghai and its surrounding cities, reaching a peak in 2019. (2) The decoupling state is mainly weak decoupling. The environmental Kuznets curve verified that carbon emissions and the tourism economy showed an inverted U-shaped relationship, and the decoupling levels of cities were significantly different. (3) Gross Domestic Product and the scale of tourist flow of cultural facilities (grey correlation degree 0.925) are the core positive drivers. In contrast, the travel ratio (contribution value −215.9) and the scale of passenger flow in A-class scenic spots (correlation degree 0.876) are the key inhibiting factors. This paper proposes a three-pronged policy framework of “energy structure optimization—cross-city carbon compensation—cultural and tourism integration” to provide theoretical and empirical support for the low-carbon transformation of urban agglomerations. Full article