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Found 6278 publications
Nexus Between Life Expectancy, Education, Governance, and Carbon Emissions: Contextual Evidence from Carbon Neutrality Dream of the USA
Publication Name: Journal of the Knowledge Economy
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 15
Issue: 4
Page Range: 18987-19018
Description:
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between energy use, life expectancy, and governance related factors on the environmental quality of the USA. In this regard, the authors discuss the carbon neutrality target and sustainable development goals of the USA. For empirical analysis, the authors employ the US data for the period of 1996 to 2019. Using the Zivot-Andrews structural break unit root test, linear ARDL, and dynamic simulated ARDL, this study obtained the empirical results for diagnostic examination and long-run coefficients. The empirical findings explained how the education, life expectancy, and energy use induce the carbon emissions. Whereas, the instruments of governance have heterogenous impact on the environmental quality of the country. Based on the detailed empirical findings, the study draws the conclusions about the affirmative contributions to carbon emissions. The current research eventually suggests some energy related findings and implications to further reduce the environmental issues and to achieve neutrality targets of the USA.
Open Access: Yes
Beyond land use: Understanding variations in topsoil bulk versus recalcitrant organic matter
Publication Name: Catena
Publication Date: 2024-09-01
Volume: 244
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
Soil organic matter (SOM) concentration and composition are essential properties that affect most functions and ecosystem services. The relationship between soil and environmental covariates regarding SOM concentration and composition in various pools is not completely understood. This study aimed to identify the most influential drivers of SOM stabilization, focusing on arable lands in Hungary. Hungary is an ideal area for investigating SOM variability because it is at the meeting point of the three main climate effects that trigger a wide range of soil, land use, and topographical conditions. Overall, 87 soil samples were taken from the topsoil (2–20 cm) and fractionated (<20 µm) to separate the mineral phase-associated organic carbon (MAOC) and bulk pools. MAOC concentration varied on a wide range (0.5–14.1 %) and was the function of bulk SOM aromaticity and slope steepness, rather than land use, climatic conditions, or soil properties, indicating that MAOC is also affected by decomposition if the bulk OM is less available for the microbiome. Land use, especially in forest topsoils, reflects the elemental composition of the OM, focusing on the variations of residue composition. In contrast, aromaticity is rather related to soil and climate properties, suggesting increased relevance of transformation processes. As a consequence, SOM composition varies on a wide range in the topsoil, however, the lack of a definite trend at the county level suggests the complexity of the system and highlights the role of local circumstances.
Open Access: Yes
Precision agriculture: A bibliometric analysis and research agenda
Publication Name: Smart Agricultural Technology
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 9
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
The emergence of precision agriculture (PA) has brought a radical change in the agriculture sector and significantly contributed to agronomic development. In recent years, academic research on PA has increased at an unprecedented pace. However, a comprehensive picture of how PA can benefit the agriculture sector is still lacking. In addition, there is a clear scarcity of studies on PA that evaluate the impact of this paradigm on agriculture resources and inform practitioners about the importance of data-driven farming and agriculture. Therefore, we attempted to employ a bibliometric method to ascertain the current state-of-the-art and dynamics of PA. The findings of the analysis highlighted four distinct phases and the most predominant enabling technologies in PA. Additionally, we reviewed the key trends and put forth insightful recommendations for future research by researchers and practitioners. In terms of contributions, this review developed an integrative framework comprising PA-related technologies, PA application areas, and PA advantages. Furthermore, the challenges of PA were identified and categorized into four broad groups. Finally, the study's novelty resides in its systematization of the PA literature and its recommendations of several research directions for advancing PA in the agriculture sector.
Open Access: Yes
Do climate change policies, and environmental regulations affect the financial performance: policy-based analysis in context of green innovation
Publication Name: Environment Development and Sustainability
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 26
Issue: 12
Page Range: 32137-32161
Description:
In these modern times, developed and developing economies use different means and strategies to attain economic growth and financial development. Still, environmental recovery instruments are not yet empirically explored in developed regions. The prime objective of this study is to unveil the nexus between electricity use, environmental policies, and financial development to report novel approaches through the lens of sustainable development. The present research examines the heterogeneous impacts of climate policies and ecological taxes on financial development. In doing so, the study has considered greener energy and institutional quality variables as policy factors for financial development. The authors employ the 29 OECD economies data from 1994 to 2020. This research gathered the data from authentic sources such as the OECD, the World Bank, and ICRG. The pre-estimation diagnostic (residual cross-section dependence, unit root, and cointegration) tests asserted cross-section dependence between countries, variables’ stationarity, and cointegration between the variables. Due to the asymmetrical behaviour of data shown by the Jarque and Bera (Int Stat Rev 55:163–172, 1987) test, this study uses non-parametric panel quantile regression. It asserts environmental policies and green electricity use have a substantial yet mixed influence on financial development. In contrast, trade openness and GDP are the significant factors of economic development in the region. Overall, Environmental taxes adversely affect financial development in developed countries across quantiles. This study suggests promoting and improving green investment, trade, and efficient environmental policies to encourage financial development in developed countries without affecting ecological quality.
Open Access: Yes
β-Casomorphin-7 as a Potential Inflammatory Marker: How β-Casomorphin-7 Induces Endothelial Dysfunction in HUVEC/TERT2 Cell Lines
Publication Name: Biomedicines
Publication Date: 2025-11-01
Volume: 13
Issue: 11
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
Background/Objectives: Endothelial dysfunction plays a central role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. β-Casomorphin-7 (BCM-7), a biologically active peptide generated during the digestion of A1 β-casein, is presumed to contribute to this process; however, its direct effects on endothelial cells have not been previously investigated. Here, we aimed to assess whether BCM-7 treatment induces endothelial cell dysfunction through inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Methods: In our study, we analyzed the effects of BCM-7 (5 µg/mL) in combination with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 100 ng/mL) on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs/TERT2). The cell viability, apoptosis, necrosis, and intracellular reactive oxygen species were measured. Furthermore, proinflammatory cytokines and enzymes involved in the regulation of inflammation were assessed with quantitative real-time PCR. The gene and protein expression of enzymes that regulate inflammation and vascular function, thus maintaining endothelial homeostasis were assessed. Results: BCM-7 enhanced intracellular ROS production p ≤ 0.001, increased the expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) p ≤ 0.001, and was more effective when used in combination with LPS p ≤ 0.001. It decreased the expression of cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) p ≤ 0.05, during 4 h of exposure, whereas it increased the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) p ≤ 0.001, lipoxygenase-5 (LOX-5) p ≤ 0.01, and nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3) p ≤ 0.001; prostaglandin D2 synthase (PTGDS) (p ≤ 0.05), expression was also increased after short treatment. Conclusions: Our results suggest that BCM-7 may contribute to the development of endothelial dysfunction, especially in the presence of LPS, by enhancing oxidative stress and inflammatory response.
Open Access: Yes
Transfer Learning-Based Steering Angle Prediction and Control with Fuzzy Signatures-Enhanced Fuzzy Systems for Autonomous Vehicles
Publication Name: Symmetry
Publication Date: 2024-09-01
Volume: 16
Issue: 9
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
This research introduces an innovative approach for End-to-End steering angle prediction and its control in electric power steering (EPS) systems. The methodology integrates transfer learning-based computer vision techniques for prediction and control with fuzzy signatures-enhanced fuzzy systems. Fuzzy signatures are unique multidimensional data structures that represent data symbolically. This enhancement enables the fuzzy systems to effectively manage the inherent imprecision and uncertainty in various driving scenarios. The ultimate goal of this work is to assess the efficiency and performance of this combined approach by highlighting the pivotal role of steering angle prediction and control in the field of autonomous driving systems. Specifically, within EPS systems, the control of the motor directly influences the vehicle’s path and maneuverability. A significant breakthrough of this study is the successful application of transfer learning-based computer vision techniques to extract respective visual data without the need for large datasets. This represents an advancement in reducing the extensive data collection and computational load typically required. The findings of this research reveal the potential of this approach within EPS systems, with an MSE score of 0.0386 against 0.0476, by outperforming the existing NVIDIA model. This result provides a 22.63% better Mean Squared Error (MSE) score than NVIDIA’s model. The proposed model also showed better performance compared with all other three references found in the literature. Furthermore, we identify potential areas for refinement, such as decreasing model loss and simplifying the complex decision model of fuzzy systems, which can represent the symmetry and asymmetry of human decision-making systems. This study, therefore, contributes significantly to the ongoing evolution of autonomous driving systems.
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.3390/sym16091180
Examining the Expected Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Transport, Their Cross-Impacts and the Relationships Between Impacts †
Publication Name: Engineering Proceedings
Publication Date: 2024-01-01
Volume: 79
Issue: 1
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
We have a promising future in improving road safety, which requires a comprehensive assessment of the impact of systems on road transport. Research is timely as we are in a transitional period until the advent of autonomous vehicles. This research has identified the factors that influence the impact of vehicle control algorithms on road transport, depending on technological feasibility, as well as the factors that influence development directions, and then used a questionnaire survey to assess the factors that are most important to society. The correlations between the impacts were analysed and, after identifying the different clusters, this research assessed the opinions of different age groups on the expected impact of self-driving vehicles and the factors influencing their introduction.
Open Access: Yes
Navigating global financial turbulence: The evergrande collapse and its contagion effect
Publication Name: International Review of Economics and Finance
Publication Date: 2025-12-01
Volume: 104
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
This study investigates the contagion effects of the Evergrande collapse across international financial markets, with emphasis on tail-risk dynamics. Unlike prior work focusing on average spillovers or event windows, we employ a Quantile Vector Autoregression (QVAR) framework to capture state-dependent connectedness under bearish, median, and bullish market conditions, as well as calm versus turbulent volatility regimes. Using daily data for nine major stock indices (2015–2024), we find that the Evergrande crisis significantly amplified global spillovers, but with heterogeneous magnitudes across quantiles. At the 95 % volatility quantile, returns spillovers in the median quantile from Shanghai to the EU increased, during the Evergrande crisis, by approximately 3.5 % in the Net Pairwise Connectedness (NPC) case. In contrast, with very few exceptions, Canadian spillovers remained negligible, confirming its resilience and diversification potential. These results show that extreme market states reveal contagion patterns invisible in average-state analyses, underscoring the systemic role of Hong Kong as a transmission hub and the conditional global influence of Shanghai. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers on monitoring tail-risk channels and for investors seeking hedging strategies in insulated markets.
Open Access: Yes
Explaining variability in the production of seed and allergenic pollen by invasive Ambrosia artemisiifolia across Europe
Zita Dorner
Huseyin Onen
Danijela Stešević
Gerhard Karrer
Guillaume Fried
Paulina Anastasiu
Annamária Fenesi
Robert Leskovšek
Maja Šćepanović
Cristina Preda
Viktor Tiborcz
Caspar A. Hallmann
Gergely Zagyvai
Bruno Chauvel
Gyula Pinke
Eelke Jongejans
Mihály Zalai
Alla Aleksanyan
K. Nagy
Andreas Lemke
Levani Kalatozishvili
Melinda Leitsch-Vitalos
Barbara Tokarska-Guzik
Gabriella Kazinczi
Heinz Müller-Schärer
Peter Tóth
Suzanne T.E. Lommen
Publication Name: Biological Invasions
Publication Date: 2018-06-01
Volume: 20
Issue: 6
Page Range: 1475-1491
Description:
To better manage invasive populations, it is vital to understand the environmental drivers underlying spatial variation in demographic performance of invasive individuals and populations. The invasive common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, has severe adverse effects on agriculture and human health, due to its vast production of seeds and allergenic pollen. Here, we identify the scale and nature of environmental factors driving individual performance of A. artemisiifolia, and assess their relative importance. We studied 39 populations across the European continent, covering different climatic and habitat conditions. We found that plant size is the most important determinant in variation of per-capita seed and pollen production. Using plant volume as a measure of individual performance, we found that the local environment (i.e. the site) is far more influential for plant volume (explaining 25% of all spatial variation) than geographic position (regional level; 8%) or the neighbouring vegetation (at the plot level; 4%). An overall model including environmental factors at all scales performed better (27%), including the weather (bigger plants in warm and wet conditions), soil type (smaller plants on soils with more sand), and highlighting the negative effects of altitude, neighbouring vegetation and bare soil. Pollen and seed densities varied more than 200-fold between sites, with highest estimates in Croatia, Romania and Hungary. Pollen densities were highest on arable fields, while highest seed densities were found along infrastructure, both significantly higher than on ruderal sites. We discuss implications of these findings for the spatial scale of management interventions against A. artemisiifolia.
Open Access: Yes
