Pathway through which COVID-19 exacerbates energy poverty and proposed relief measures.

Increased residential energy consumption and reduced income caused by the lockdown measures invoked to combat the COVID-19 pandemic have deepened energy poverty, particularly in vulnerable communities. In this context, the pathway through which COVID-19 impacts energy poverty is constructed, and six relief measures are proposed: consistent financing of energy suppliers and consumers, developing various forms of socio-economic aids, leveraging fiscal stimuli to promote renewable energy transition, identifying vulnerable populations to improve policy effectiveness, designing equitable resource allocation mechanisms, and rethinking socio-economic transition in the post-pandemic era.

Unpacking the Potential Influence of Life Satisfaction on Network Heterogeneity, Emotional Exhaustion and Mobile App Fatigue: A Stressor-Strain-Outcome Approach.

The ramifications of mobile apps' detrimental aspect on users' life satisfaction have garnered increased attention from academics. To probe the underlying association between life satisfaction and mobile app fatigue, this article builds a research model based on a stressor-strain-outcome approach. In addition, the study investigates the relationships between different dimensions of network heterogeneity, emotional exhaustion, and mobile app fatigue among users.

Exploring the promoting effect of working time reduction on life satisfaction using Germany as a case study.

Worktime reduction's effect on life satisfaction is an important issue but one that has not been fully studied. This article fills this gap and uses an ordered probit model to analyse the working time reduction impact on life satisfaction in Germany by using the European Social Survey data, the mediating effect of health and cross-partner effect are also explored. A significantly negative correlation between working time and life satisfaction are revealed, showing that a short working week can improve Germans' life satisfaction.

Does less working time improve life satisfaction? Evidence from European Social Survey.

Background: Worktime is one of the main drivers of life satisfaction, and a balanced distribution of working hours and leisure hours directly impacts feelings of well-being. Based on previous studies, we seek to confirm this relationship in the European context and explore other potential driving forces of life satisfaction. Health condition as the mediating variable is also examined.

Four-dimensional evaluation and forecasting of marine carrying capacity in China: Empirical analysis based on the entropy method and grey Verhulst model.

This study separates marine carrying capacity into four key dimensions, i.e., social, economic, resource, and ecological, and uses the entropy method to evaluate the carrying capacity of China's 11 coastal regions during the period 2007-2016.

Effects of host country resource endowment and labor cost on China's investment in overseas cultivated land.

Although numerous linear regressions have been conducted to identify driving forces of farmland investment, this study uses panel threshold techniques to explore the nonlinear effects of resource endowment, labor cost, and other potential influencing factors on China's investment in farmland in 40 foreign countries during the period 2008-2016. Results show that increased resource endowment promotes China's investment in overseas farmland, but the correlation gradually weakens in magnitude as levels increase. A lower labor cost attracts greater Chinese investment in farmland, but the degree of influence declines with the continued increase in labor cost.

An alternative method for analyzing dimensional interactions of urban carrying capacity: Case study of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Most previous studies on comprehensive urban carrying capacity (UCC) have estimated UCC levels and comparatively analyzed the heterogeneity of the sample cities. Very few researchers have focused on the interaction effects between different categories of UCC based on synergetic theory. To fill this gap, we constructed a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model to study 11 cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area from 2000 to 2016.

Evaluation of urban comprehensive carrying capacity in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area based on regional collaboration.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is the most prominent urban agglomeration in China, with plans for further development. Using the regional collaboration theoretical framework for assessing urban comprehensive carrying capacity (UCC), the improved entropy method is applied to establish an index system based on a social, economic, environment, and transportation perspective to compare UCCs of the GBA's 11 cities for 2000-2016. Results show that the social subsystem is central to the evaluation system.

Evaluation of urban comprehensive carrying capacity: case study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, China.

An evaluation indexing system based on the theory of coordination was constructed to estimate the urban carrying capacity (UCC) of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region with four subsystems: social, economic, environmental, and transportation. This indexing system revealed the interactions between "supply" and "demand." The improved entropy method was adopted to calculate the weight of 17 indicators and evaluate the comprehensive UCC of 13 cities in the BTH region using data covering the period 1990-2018.

Paving ways for a sustainable future: a literature review.

Sustainable development, while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend, is one of the most important development goals. In this review, the theories of five sustainable development pathways are presented, followed by a discussion on the influences of involuntary and voluntary practices. Specifically, this paper reviews the literature on limits to growth and on planetary boundaries, examines the critique of green growth, and outlines the debate between degrowth and a-growth.

Factor decomposition and decoupling analysis of air pollutant emissions in China's iron and steel industry.

With its major influences on economic growth, energy consumption, and environmental quality, the iron and steel (IS) industry plays an important role in achieving green growth of the national economy. It is also the main air pollutant emitter compared with other industries. Therefore, this study first investigates the influencing factors of air pollutant emissions of the IS industry from dimensions of environmental regulation effect, pollutant generation intensity effect, energy structure effect, technological progress effect, and scale effect using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method.

The non-linear effect of environmental regulation on haze pollution: Empirical evidence for 277 Chinese cities during 2002-2010.

Numerous studies have examined the correlation between economic growth and air pollution, but few focuses on the nexus between environmental regulation and <2.5 μm (PM) fine particle matter. Using Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) and Spatial Two-stage Least Squares (2SLS) methods to analyze 277 Chinese cities over the period 2002-2010, this paper finds inverted U-shaped relationships between PM concentration and formal/informal environmental regulations for the whole and eastern and western regions.

Non-linear effects of heterogeneous environmental regulations on green growth in G20 countries: Evidence from panel threshold regression.

A comprehensive understanding of the relationships between environmental regulations and green growth of economy is essential for policy design and decision-making. This paper combines hybrid measure with Global Malmquist Luenberger index to estimate national green growth level. A panel threshold regression technique is then employed to observe the non-linear impacts of both the formal and informal environmental regulations on green growth in Group 20 countries during 2001-2015.

Environmental regulation, economic growth and air pollution: Panel threshold analysis for OECD countries.

Particles with a diameter of <2.5 μm (PM) have serious adverse-effects on human health, which have caused widespread public concern in recent decades. Currently, most of the existing research on PM have used linear regression analysis; very few studies on the subject have been conducted using non-linear models.

Analysis of the volatile compounds in Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. using HS-SPME-GC-MS.

A headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is described for the analysis of volatile compounds in the dry rhizome of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. Three types of SPME fibers including PDMS, PDMS-DVB and DVB-CAR-PDMS were investigated and the best extraction was achieved with the mixed fiber DVB-CAR-PDMS. Parameters for HS-SPME in terms of temperature and time, sample amount and particle size, and desorption time were also investigated.

Headspace solvent microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for the analysis of volatile compounds from Foeniculum vulgare Mill.

A novel and rapid headspace solvent microextraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HSME-GC-MS) for the analysis of the volatile compounds of Foeniculum vulgare Mill is described. HSME parameters including extracting solvent, extraction temperature and time, headspace volume and particle size were optimized. As a result, benzyl alcohol was finally used for the extraction at 70 degrees C for 20 min with headspace volume of 12.

[Preparation of stationary phases of four beta-cyclodextrin derivatives for gas chromatography by sol-gel technique].

Heptakis (2,3,6-tri-O-ethyl)-beta-cyclodextrin (CD) (perethylated-beta-CD), heptakis (2,3,6-tri-O-propyl)-beta-CD (perpropylated-beta-CD), heptakis (2,3,6-tri-O-octyl)-beta-CD (peroctylated-beta-CD), and (2,6-di-O-benzyl)-beta-CD were used as stationary phases to prepare columns for gas chromatography by sol-gel technique. The method of coating the columns is similar to the dynamic method and the time required was shortened. Chromatographic characteristics such as column efficiency (around 3000 plates/m), column stability and reproducibility (relative standard deviation below 8.