Theoretical Model and Actual Characteristics of Air Pollution Affecting Health Cost: A Review

Monitoring of bacterial and potentially toxic elements contamination in the Rawal Lake tributaries and filtration plant

This study examines bacterial and potentially toxic elements pollution in Jinnah Stream, Nurpur Stream, and Rawal Lake filtration plant during dry and wet seasons; Rawal Lake serves as a key source of water supply for the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Three growth media (Salmonella-Shigella agar, Brilliant Green agar, and Chromo-select agar) were used for microbial plating targeting Escherichia coli, Shigella spp., Salmonella spp., Citrobacter freundii spp., and Klebsiella pneumoniae spp. qPCR Taqman Probe-based assay was used for detection of E. coli (uidA), Salmonella (invA), Campylobacter (glyA), and Shigella (ipaH). Potentially toxic elements concentration was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, Zn and Pb were not detected in any of the sites for either season whereas concentrations of Cd and Cr exceeded the WHO drinking water guidelines (Cd: 0.003 mg/L; Cr: 0.05 mg/L), posing chronic health risk. Shapiro-Wilk test was employed to assess the distribution of data. Kruskal-Wallis H test and Mann-Whitney U test predicted the significance between seasons. Bacterial analysis revealed significant seasonal variability, with higher concentrations of Salmonella spp. and E. coli in the Nurpur Stream during the wet season, while others exhibited spatial variations. No statistically significant differences were observed in concentrations of potentially toxic elements across seasons. qPCR confirmed E. coli detection in both seasons except filtration plant. Interpolation techniques were employed to highlight their spatial distribution. Pollution risk classification maps showed various levels of toxicity at all sampling sites. This study stressed the significance of monitoring and highlighting quality of water for ensuring public health.

Unraveling the adsorption potential of Zr dithiol (MOF-DSH) through experimentation and neural network modeling

In this study, an aqueous-stable metal-organic framework with two thiol groups was synthesized using Zr as the metal centre and dimercaptosuccinic acid as the ligand through a conventional heating method for the removal of Cd(ii) from aqueous solution. Different characterization tools, including XRD, FT-IR, BET, SEM, TGA, and XPS, were employed. XRD results showed a characteristic pattern of a hexa-cluster, which was in agreement with the simulated MOF-801, and the corresponding vibrational peaks were observed in the FT-IR spectra. The synthesized MOF was thermally stable up to 300 °C, as demonstrated by TGA, and exhibited a specific surface area of 290 m2 g-1. Cadmium adsorption studies performed at different pH values showed a maximum adsorption capacity of 91.5 mg g-1 at pH 6. The adsorption behavior was well described by the Langmuir model and the pseudo-second order (PSO) kinetics, confirming the involvement of a monolayer with chemisorption as the dominant mode of adsorption. The synthesized MOF could be reused at least 4 times while retaining ∼80% of its initial adsorption capacity. FT-IR, XPS, and pH studies after Cd(ii) adsorption revealed that the predominant mode of interaction of Cd(ii) with the MOF is an ion-exchange mechanism. An artificial neural network-based (ANN) methodology was employed to model the adsorption capacity of Cd(ii) and predict the adsorption capacity as a function of Cd(ii) concentration, time of contact, and pH of the medium. The model demonstrated excellent results, with an average error of 2.3% and precision of 3.0%. The outcomes of these studies were consistent with the experimental results.

The impact of renewable energy, carbon emissions, and fossil fuels on health outcomes: a study of West African countries

This study analyses the panel data for the 19 countries of West Africa and employed the Grossman health production function, which is estimated using the regression model with Driscoll Kraay standard error and the robustness of the result is evaluated using Common Correlated Mean Group estimator. Current health expenditure, per capita income, and C02 emissions are significantly associated with an improvement in life expectancy and a reduction in under-5 mortality. Per capita income and fossil fuel are associated with significant reductions in mortality from chronic conditions. However, while fossil fuel is significantly associated with a reduced life span, there is no significant evidence that renewable energy improves life expectancy. Moreover, renewable energy and fossil fuels are not associated with a significant reduction in under-5 mortality. Finally, though insignificant, renewable energy and public expenditure on education are associated with mortality reductions for people with chronic conditions.

Health behavior and medical insurance under the healthy China strategy: a moral hazard perspective

Introduction

High medical expenditure is one of the major obstacles to achieving common prosperity in China. As a health risk compensation and protection mechanism, medical insurance has played a good role in alleviating the economic burden of patients. However, due to the existence of moral hazard, medical insurance may also lead to the occurrence of psychological deviation and overtreatment of patients or hospitals' health treatment expectations, thus generating unnecessary pressure on public financial expenditure.

Methods

Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) and Heckman model, this paper discusses the difference in the impact of medical insurance on outpatient and hospitalization costs. The change of the proportion of out-of-pocket medical expenditure is further analyzed.

Results

The study found that while medical insurance reduced the probability of outpatient visits and increased the probability of hospitalization, it increased the cost of outpatient visits and hospitalization. Further, it reduces the share of out-of-pocket medical expenditure.

Discussion

This shows that medical insurance does play a role in alleviating the financial pressure of patients, but the overtreatment caused by moral hazard cannot be ignored, especially the over-examination and over-prescribing of drugs in the outpatient process.

Attaining sustainable development in Nigeria: the role of solid waste, urbanization and pollution in reducing under-five mortality

The United Nations, through its subsidiary agency United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), has put in such resources to curb infant mortality in pursuit of the Sustainable development goals (SDG). Nevertheless, the issue of under-five mortality is still persistent in so many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this study investigated the long-term and short-term impacts of solid waste, urbanization, and pollution on under-five mortality, employing the Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and the dynamic Autoregressive distributed lag (DARDL) models for the empirical investigations and robustness checks, respectively. The study found that there is significant cointegration between the interest variables. While key findings from the DARDL results revealed that pollution, urbanization, and solid waste have long-term significant positive impacts on under-five mortality in Nigeria, the short-run outcome shows that urbanization and solid waste had a significant positive impact on under-five mortality, while pollution was statistically insignificant. Moreover, lead exposure showed a significant long-term positive and short-term negative impact on under-five mortality in Nigeria. Furthermore, the DARDL simulations show higher long-run shocks and variations as compared to the short run. Thus, CO2 emissions, urbanization, and solid waste encourage under-five deaths in Nigeria. The study recommends, among other things, the enactment of environmental laws that will curb CO2 emissions in the country while also strengthening the existing ones, discourage indiscriminate solid waste disposal, and encourage investment in clean technologies and modern healthcare facilities in urban areas of Nigeria.

Insights into relationship of environmental inequalities and multimorbidity: a population-based study

BACKGROUND

Substantial inequalities in the overall prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity have been widely reported, but the causal mechanisms are complex and not well understood. This study aimed to identify common patterns of multimorbidity in Serbia and assess their relationship with air pollutant concentrations and water quality indicators.

METHODS

This ecological study was conducted on a nationally representative sample of the Serbian population. Data were obtained from the European Health Interview (EHIS) Survey, a periodic study designed to assess population health using widely recognized standardized instruments. The study included 13,069 participants aged 15 and older, randomly selected through a multistage stratified sampling design. Multimorbidity was defined as having two or more self-reported diagnoses of chronic non-communicable diseases. Latent class analysis (LCA) was performed to identify clusters of multimorbidity. Concentrations of particulate matter (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3), as well as water quality indicators, were obtained from the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of multimorbidity was 33.4% [32.6%-34.2%]. Six latent classes of multimorbidity were identified: Healthy, Multicondition, Cardiovascular, Metabolic syndrome, Respiratory, and Musculoskeletal. Annual increases in PM10 and SO2 concentrations, as well as daily increases in O3 concentrations, significantly raised the odds of having multimorbidity (OR = 1.02, 95% CI 1.02-1.03; OR = 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02 and OR = 1.03, 95% CI 1.02-1.03, respectively). A pattern of increased risk was observed with rising levels of water contamination. Exposure to physico-chemical, microbiological and combined contamination was associated with a 3.92%, 5.17% and 5.54% higher probability, respectively, of having multiple chronic conditions. There was strong evidence that air pollutants, as well as chemical and microbial water contamination, were significantly associated with higher odds of the most common clusters of multimorbidity identified by LCA.

CONCLUSION

There is compelling evidence of an association between multimorbidity and environmental pollution, suggesting that exposure to air pollutants and water contaminants may contribute to disease accumulation and help explain geographically and socioeconomically patterned inequalities. These findings underscore the need for extensive studies that simultaneously measure both multimorbidity and pollution to explore their complex interrelationships.

The Impact of Ecological Footprint, Urbanization, Education, Health Expenditure, and Industrialization on Child Mortality: Insights for Environment and Public Health in Eastern Europe

The purpose of this study is to examine the connection between child mortality in Eastern Europe and ecological footprint, urbanization, education, health expenditure, and industrialization. The study acknowledges the significance of understanding how these factors influence the infant mortality rates in this region from 1993 to 2022. The Grossman Health Outcome (H-O) model investigates the theoretical framework. For the existence of the cross-sectional dependency, mixed-order unit root, and cointegration problem, the famous Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) approach is applied. The research also used the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) to check robustness. The findings illustrated that health expenditure and education lessen the infant mortality rate in Eastern European countries. But ecological footprint, industrialization and unemployment raise the infant mortality rate. According to the CS-ARDL findings, expenditure on healthcare significantly reduces child mortality. Still, the ecological footprint significantly impacts increasing child mortality. However, the AMG and CCEMG models demonstrate that investing in education is the most effective strategy for reducing child mortality. Therefore, the government of Eastern European countries should provide more priorities in the sustainable urbanization, health expenditure, and education sectors. The robustness of the AMG and CCEMG also demonstrated the strength of the CS-ARDL findings. This research paper contributes to SDG 3 by examining the environmental and health factors that influence child mortality in Eastern Europe. Policymakers, public health professionals, and other stakeholders can use the findings to inform the development and implementation of programs that specifically target the identified causes of child mortality.

Breathing in danger: Understanding the multifaceted impact of air pollution on health impacts

Air pollution, a pervasive environmental threat that spans urban and rural landscapes alike, poses significant risks to human health, exacerbating respiratory conditions, triggering cardiovascular problems, and contributing to a myriad of other health complications across diverse populations worldwide. This article delves into the multifarious impacts of air pollution, utilizing cutting-edge research methodologies and big data analytics to offer a comprehensive overview. It highlights the emergence of new pollutants, their sources, and characteristics, thereby broadening our understanding of contemporary air quality challenges. The detrimental health effects of air pollution are examined thoroughly, emphasizing both short-term and long-term impacts. Particularly vulnerable populations are identified, underscoring the need for targeted health risk assessments and interventions. The article presents an in-depth analysis of the global disease burden attributable to air pollution, offering a comparative perspective that illuminates the varying impacts across different regions. Furthermore, it addresses the economic ramifications of air pollution, quantifying health and economic losses, and discusses the implications for public policy and health care systems. Innovative air pollution intervention measures are explored, including case studies demonstrating their effectiveness. The paper also brings to light recent discoveries and insights in the field, setting the stage for future research directions. It calls for international cooperation in tackling air pollution and underscores the crucial role of public awareness and education in mitigating its impacts. This comprehensive exploration serves not only as a scientific discourse but also as a clarion call for action against the invisible but insidious threat of air pollution, making it a vital read for researchers, policymakers, and the general public.

Emerging pollutant in surface water bodies: a review on monitoring, analysis, mitigation measures and removal technologies of micro-plastics

Water bodies play a crucial role in supporting life, maintaining the environment, and preserving the ecology for the people of India. However, in recent decades, human activities have led to various alterations in aquatic environments, resulting in environmental degradation through pollution. The safety of utilizing surface water sources for drinking and other purposes has come under intense scrutiny due to rapid population growth and industrial expansion. Surface water pollution due to micro-plastics (MPs) (plastics < 5 mm in size) is one of the emerging pollutants in metropolitan cities of developing countries because of its utmost resilience and synthetic nature. Recent studies on the surface water bodies (river, pond, Lake etc.) portrait the correlation between the MPs level with different parameters of pollution such as specific conductivity, total phosphate, and biological oxygen demand. Fibers represent the predominant form of MPs discovered in surface water bodies, exhibiting fluctuations across seasons. Consequently, present study prioritizes understanding the adaptation, prevalence, attributes, fluctuations, and spatial dispersion of MPs in both sediment and surface water environments. Furthermore, the study aims to identify existing gaps in the current understanding and underscore opportunities for future investigation. From the present study, it has been reported that, the concentration of MPs in the range of 0.2-45.2 items/L at the Xisha Islands in the south China sea, whereas in India it was found in the range of 96 items/L in water samples and 259 items/kg in sediment samples. This would certainly assist the urban planners in achieving sustainable development goals to mitigate the increasing amount of emergent pollutant load.

Possibilities and limits of modelling of long-range economic consequences of air pollution - A case study

Air pollution is the biggest environmental problem in modern societies, causing considerable health damage and requiring substantial financial resources for health care. The goal of the study is to demonstrate the adverse economic consequences of air pollution on example of a small, open Central European country, Hungary, and to provide quantified financial arguments for macroeconomic decision-making for the development of a long-term energy strategy. On the basis of the Cobb-Douglas production function and Solow-Swann model of dynamic economic systems a simple and robust model was constructed to estimate and predict economic losses, caused by the pollution. On base of results it is obvious, that on base of macroeconomic theory and combination of various, publicly available, quality-controlled statistical resources quantifiable models can be constructed to characterise the economic consequences of air pollution, but it should be taken into consideration, that the reliability of economic models considerably depends on their initial parameters and practical validity of assumptions, based on which the underlying economic theories were built. The most important economic burden of air pollution is caused by the loss of working-age population, resulting in a decrease of 4.1-9.4 % a year in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the next fifty years. The additional burden of health care costs amounts to 0.1 % of GDP. Reducing air pollution is not only a quality of life improvement but also an investment into the economic development. Notwithstanding of statistical biases it could be proven the importance of combination health economic and econometric methods in preparation of more efficient environmental-related socio-economic decisions.

Effect of agricultural fiscal expenditures on agricultural carbon intensity in China

Few studies provide direct evidences that agricultural fiscal affects agricultural carbon intensity. This study tries to fill this gap. Using panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019, we conclude that agricultural fiscal expenditures significantly reduce agricultural carbon intensity. The result is still robust after employing the provincial agricultural leaders' birthplace information as an instrumental variable. Further study shows that the negative effect of agricultural fiscal expenditures on agricultural carbon intensity is more pronounced in regions with less corruption and is also more visible in central, western, and inland regions than other areas. For this effect, agricultural technological improvement and structure optimization are possible channels, but not operation scale expansion. Interestingly, although agricultural fiscal expenditures reduce the local agricultural carbon intensity, neighbor regions' carbon intensities are increased due to fiscal rivalry.

Sponge city construction and population health

Introduction

This paper focuses on the construction of sponge cities and their effects on population health. Sponge cities in China both solve stormwater problems and are a systemic transformation in the urban construction paradigm, addressing related issues arising from high-speed urbanization. Whether sponge city construction in China can promote population health has received scant attention. Most previous studies have focused on urban environments and population health, with few exploring the potential effects on population health caused by urban environment changes due to urban policies. This study hypothesizes that sponge city construction improves the urban environment, and thus, population health.

Methods

Using panel data from 119 prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2019 and the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), based on China's sponge city pilot policy, a quasi-natural experiment is conducted using Difference-in-Differences (DID) model to identify the health effects of the sponge city policy.

Results

The findings show that sponge city pilot policy not only reduced ecological environment pollution and promoted the quality of built environment, but also significantly improved population health by 10.4%. This mechanism is mainly due to the restorative effects of the built environment.

Discussion

The health effects vary across city administrative levels, and especially among non-older adults and local populations. Compared with the cities at higher administrative level, the health effect in lower administrative level is significantly positive, indicating that there is a diminishing marginal effect of sponge city construction. This study extends the causal identification chain of the impact of urban environment on population health to urban policies and provide insights into policy objectives for sponge city construction.

Exploring Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide Adsorption on (5,5) Aluminum Nitride Nanotubes for Enhanced Sensor Applications: A DFT Study

This study examined the sensitivity of single-walled (5,5) aluminium nitride nanotubes ((5,5) AlNNTs) to carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas molecules by performing DFT calculations using a hybrid functional, specifically, B3LYP (Becke's three-parameter, Lee-Yang-Parr) exchange-correlation functional at a 6-31G* basis set. This research investigates the adsorption behavior of CO2 and CO molecules on pristine and silicon-doped aluminum nitride nanotubes (AlNNTs) and examines their implications for sensor applications. The study assesses each system's adsorption energy, sensing potential, and recovery time to gain insights into their binding strength and practical viability. For CO2 adsorption on (5,5) AlNNT, significant adsorption energy of -24.36 kcal/mol was observed, indicating a strong binding to the nanotube surface, with a sensing potential of 8.95%. However, the slow recovery time of approximately 4.964 days may limit its real-time application. Si-(5,5) AlNNT exhibited a CO2 adsorption energy of -19.69 kcal/mol, a sensing potential of 5.40%, and a relatively short recovery time of approximately 2.978 min, making it a promising candidate for CO2 sensing. CO adsorption on (5,5) AlNNT showed an adsorption energy of -25.20 kcal/mol, a sensing potential of 9.095%, but a longer recovery time of approximately 20.130 days. Si-(5,5) AlNNT displayed a high CO adsorption energy of -20.78 kcal/mol, a sensing potential of 4.29%, and a recovery time of approximately 18.320 min. These findings provide insights into the adsorption characteristics of carbon molecules on AlNNTs, highlighting their potential for CO2 and CO sensing applications.

Advances in metal-organic frameworks for water remediation applications

Rapid industrialization and agricultural development have resulted in the accumulation of a variety of harmful contaminants in water resources. Thus, various approaches such as adsorption, photocatalytic degradation and methods for sensing water contaminants have been developed to solve the problem of water pollution. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of coordination networks comprising organic-inorganic hybrid porous materials having organic ligands attached to inorganic metal ions/clusters via coordination bonds. MOFs represent an emerging class of materials for application in water remediation owing to their versatile structural and chemical characteristics, such as well-ordered porous structures, large specific surface area, structural diversity, and tunable sites. The present review is focused on recent advances in various MOFs for application in water remediation via the adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of water contaminants. The sensing of water pollutants using MOFs via different approaches, such as luminescence, electrochemical, colorimetric, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic techniques, is also discussed. The high porosity and chemical tunability of MOFs are the main driving forces for their widespread applications, which have huge potential for their commercial use.

Consequences of Information and Communication Technologies and Environmental Degradation on Health Expenditure

This study aims to examine how the subcomponents and overall measurement of ecological footprint, as well as the use of information and communication technologies, affect health expenditures. For this study, the sample group consisted of the top 25 countries with the highest ecological footprint for the period 2000 to 2021. System GMM estimation results demonstrate that economic growth and ecological footprint have a positive impact on health expenditures. Covid-19 dummy variables, have a statistically significant and positive effect on health expenditures. On the other hand, information and communication technologies has a statistically significant but negative effect on health expenditures. The estimation results show that the Covid-19 pandemic increased health expenditures. Looking at the effect of subcomponents of environmental degradation on health expenditures, all subcomponents have a statistically significant and positive effect on health expenditures. It is seen that the most effective variable is forest products. The variable that has almost the same impact as the footprint of forest products is the carbon footprint. Carbon footprint has significant and positive impact on health expenditures, followed by fishing grounds cropland, grazing land, built-up land. The results of the study indicate which forms of pollution should be given priority by policymakers in order to prevent an increase in health expenditure resulting from environmental degradation.

A comprehensive review on immobilized microbes - biochar and their environmental remediation: Mechanism, challenges and future perspectives

The environment worldwide has been contaminated by toxic pollutants and chemicals through anthropogenic activities, industrial growth, and urbanization. Microbial remediation is seen to be superior compared to conventional remediation due to its low cost, selectivity towards particular metal ions, and high efficiency. One key strategy in enhancing microbial remediation is employing an immobilization technique with biochar as a carrier. This review provides a comprehensive summary of sources and toxic health effects of hazardous water pollutants on human health and the environment. Biochar enhances the growth and proliferation of contaminant-degrading microbes. The combined activity of biochar and microbes in eliminating the contaminants has gained the researcher's interest. Biochar demonstrates its biocompatibility by fostering microbial populations, the release of enzymes, and protecting the microbes from the acute toxicity of surrounding contaminants. The current review complies with the immobilization technique and remediation mechanisms of microbes in pollutant removal. This review also emphasizes the combined utilization, environmental adaptability, and the potential of the combined effect of immobilized microbes and biochar in the remediation of contaminants. Challenges and future outlooks are urged to commercialize the immobilized microbes-biochar interaction mechanism for environmental remediation.

Pencil Graphite Electrocatalytic Sensors Modified by Pyrene Coated Reduced Graphene Oxide Decorated with Molybdenum Disulfide Nanoroses for Hydrazine and 4-Nitrophenol Detection in Real Water Samples

Novel nanostructured platforms based on Pencil Graphite Electrodes (PGEs), modified with pyrene carboxylic acid (PCA) functionalized Reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO), and then decorated by chronoamperometry electrodeposition of MoS2 nanoroses (NRs) (MoS2NRs/PCA-rGO/PGEs) were manufactured for the electrocatalytic detection of hydrazine (N2H4) and 4-nitrophenol, pollutants highly hazardous for environment and human health. The surface morphology and chemistry of the MoS2NRs/PCA-rGO/PGEs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), assessing the coating of the PCA-rGO/PGEs by dense multilayers of NRs. N2H4 and 4-nitrophenol have been monitored by Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV), and the MoS2NRs/PCA-rGO/PGEs electroanalytical properties have been compared to the PGEs, as neat and modified by PCA-rGO. The MoS2NRs/PCA-rGO/PGEs demonstrated a higher electrochemical and electrocatalytic activity, due to their high surface area and conductivity, and very fast heterogeneous electron transfer kinetics at the interphase with the electrolyte. LODs lower than the U.S. EPA recommended concentration values in drinking water, namely 9.3 nM and 13.3 nM, were estimated for N2H4 and 4-nitrophenol, respectively and the MoS2NRs/PCA-rGO/PGEs showed good repeatability, reproducibility, storage stability, and selectivity. The effectiveness of the nanoplatforms for monitoring N2H4 and 4-nitrophenol in tap, river, and wastewater was addressed.

The Impact of Fintech Development on Air Pollution

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, China has achieved rapid economic and technological growth at the cost of severe air pollution. The emerging Fintech, as the result of financial institutions' adapting to the latest digital technology, might be a solution to reduce air pollution. This paper investigates the impact of Fintech development on air pollution using a two-factor fixed effects model based on data for prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2017. The findings show that Fintech development can effectively reduce air pollution emissions, and this conclusion is proved to be robust throughout a series of tests. The mechanism analysis shows that Fintech reduces air pollution by promoting digital finance and green innovation.

Analytical method development, validation and study on behaviour of ipfencarbazone in paddy (rice)

Supervised field trial was conducted to study persistence of a pre-emergent herbicide, ipfencarbazone (25% SC) on rice crop. Single application of two different doses, 156.25 g a.i.ha^-1/625 mL formulationha^-1 and 312.50 g a.i.ha^-1/1250 mL formulationha^-1, was applied. Method was validated to analyse ipfencarbazone in rice samples (leaf/plant, grain, straw and husk) and in soil. Initial accumulation of ipfencarbazone in rice plants was 6.72 and 14.71 mg kg^-1 in standard and double dose, respectively. The residues decreased linearly with r² values of 0.92 and 0.98 in different doses and reached below limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 0.01 μg kg^-1 (for rice plant/leaf) and 0.05 μg kg^-1 (for rice grain, husk, straw) on 30th and 97th (harvest) day respectively after application in both the doses. An average half-life of ipfencarbazone was approximately 4 days. Less than LOQ levels at harvest and short half-life suggest that the use of ipfencarbazone is safe, provided good agricultural practices (GAP) are followed. The data can be used by regulatory authorities like Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and CODEX for establishing maximum residue limits (MRLs) of ipfencarbazone.

Does environmental regulation improve public health? Evidence from China's Two Control Zones policy

Improving public health is the premise of sustainable human development and an essential condition of economic growth. However, increasing severe environmental pollution poses a threat to public health. Implementing environmental regulation policy has become a meaningful way to control environmental pollution and the basis and guarantee for achieving public health. This paper aims to study the impact of environmental regulation on public health. The Two Control Zones (TCZ) policy is the earliest and stricter environmental regulation in China. Based on the policy experiment of TCZ, this paper analyzes the role of TCZ policy in improving public health using the DID model and data from 112 cities. The study finds that the TCZ policy can significantly improve public health, and this improvement effect was continuous and lagging. The results of benchmark regression show that the implementation of the TCZ policy has reduced the incidence rate of respiratory diseases in TCZ areas by 5.7%. When considering city heterogeneity in terms of economic and geographical conditions, the study further found that the impact of improvement is largest for cities in more heavily non-provincial capital and central and western regions, respectively. In addition, the results of mediating test show that TCZ policy improves public health by reducing environmental pollution. Our research fills the gap in the literature on the micro effects of environmental regulation policy on public health in developing countries. The government should prioritize environmental pollution control through reasonable environmental regulation policies. The government should strengthen environmental information disclosure to remind the public to deal with air pollution. The government and enterprises also should take various environmental protection measures to reduce air pollution emissions.

Risk Characteristics of Catastrophic Health Expenditure in Multidimensional Borderline Poor Households in China

Background

Ending poverty and realizing common prosperity are the essential requirements for the localization of Marxism in China. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the post-poverty era further aggravates the risk of catastrophic health expenditure for borderline poor households and increases the uncertainty of returning to poverty due to illness, potentially undermining decades of hard-won efforts to eradicate poverty in China.

Methods

Based on the latest data released by China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) database, this paper uses the Logit model to empirically explore the risk characteristics of catastrophic health expenditure of multidimensional borderline poor households based on identifying multidimensional borderline poor households.

Results

The results show that factors such as family income level, child support, and medical insurance have different impacts on catastrophic health expenditure, and the risk of catastrophic health expenditure of multidimensional borderline poor households is much higher than that of non- multidimensional borderline poor households, and there is a certain difference between urban and rural areas.

Discussion

The government should strengthen and improve the social security system and health service system, such as medical insurance, and more resources should be allocated to multidimensional borderline poor households, especially in rural areas.

The role of digital finance in reducing agricultural carbon emissions: evidence from China's provincial panel data

As a vast agricultural country that emits a high level of agricultural carbon, China faces significant pressure to reduce its agricultural emissions. In recent years, digital finance has become a crucial part of China's financial system and has reshaped China's mode of green finance. Based on the 2011 to 2020 panel data of 31 provinces in China, this study discusses the effect and mechanisms of digital finance on agricultural carbon emissions. A two-way fixed effect model, threshold effect model, mediating effect model, and moderating effect model have been adopted to investigate the nexus of digital finance and agricultural carbon emissions. The results show that: (1) digital finance can reduce agricultural carbon emissions, and this effect is nonlinear, with two thresholds. (2) A reduction of agricultural carbon emissions through digital finance can be realized via digital finance's impact on farmers' entrepreneurship and agricultural technology innovation. (3) Urbanization has a positive moderating effect on digital finance's agricultural carbon emissions reduction effect. Based on the above conclusions, specific recommendations are proposed with regard to digital finance reducing agricultural carbon emissions.

Configurations of the driving factors promoting China's commercial health insurance: A comparative qualitative analysis based on the technology–organization–environment framework

With the nation's remarkable improvement in living standards, China's health insurance system cannot satisfy people's higher demands; therefore, it is necessary to promote the supply of commercial health insurance (CHI) in China. Based on the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework, this study constructs a novel analysis framework to investigate the driving path of China's CHI. Employing the data of 31 provincial regions of China in 2018, a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis is conducted to analyze configurations. We also adopt a necessary condition analysis in the robustness check to examine the necessary conditions, determining that no necessary relationship exists between possible conditions and the performance of CHI. More particularly, three sufficient configurations, TOE strategy, government attention (GA)–environment adaptability (EA)–citizen demand (CD) strategy, and dual EA–CD strategy are demonstrated to achieve high performance, and the other three configurations of technological management capability (TMC)–EA-CD strategy, technological infrastructure (TI)–EA strategy, and combined TI–TMC–EA strategy do not result in high performance. In addition, technological conditions (TI and TMC) and EA are relatively more important than the other configurations. Notably, government departments' financial expenditure is found to have a negative effect on CHI promotion.

Does Elderly Chronic Disease Hinder the Sustainability of Borderline Poor Families’ Wellbeing: An Investigation From Catastrophic Health Expenditure in China

Objectives: Health and health expenditure caused by elderly chronic diseases are a global problem. As China has just lifted itself out of poverty in 2020, the sustainable development of Borderline Poor Families’ Wellbeing faces severe challenges. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore the impact of elderly chronic diseases on the catastrophic health expenditure of Borderline Poor Families.

Methods: Based on screening 8086 effective samples from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database and calculating catastrophic health expenditure, this paper uses two-part model and logit regression to discuss the impact of elderly chronic diseases on the sustainable development of Borderline Poor Families’ Wellbeing.

Results: The results showed that stroke, cancer, and liver disease caused the most catastrophic health expenditures and had the greatest impact on the Borderline Poor Families’ Wellbeing.

Conclusion: Therefore, in order to ensure the sustainable development of Borderline Poor Families’ Wellbeing, the government should strengthen the publicity of pre-prevention and post-healthcare of chronic diseases such as stroke, and combine pre-prevention policy with post-guarantee policy.

Analysis of Major Factors Affecting the Quality of Life of the Elderly in Korea in Preparation for a Super-Aged Society

In preparation for the expected super-aged society in 2025, this study attempted to prepare basic data that can help design development measures for the welfare of the elderly so that everyone can prepare for a healthy and happy retirement. Accordingly, the major factors affecting the quality of life of the elderly in Korea were verified. To this end, the questionnaire consisted of 22 questions in total, and a mobile survey was conducted between September and October 2021; in total, 250 copies were used for the final analysis, and the following conclusions are derived. The major factors that were found to determine the quality of life of the elderly were age, subjective health status, monthly household income, leisure activities, and health inequality fairness. It was found that the higher the age, the lower the quality of life. Further, the higher the subjective health status, monthly household income, participation in leisure activities, and perceptions of health inequality as fair, the more the quality of life of the elderly was affected. Therefore, policy support such as leisure activity, health programs, and medical welfare services for the elderly and sufficient attention from our society are all required.

Corporate Non-Financial Reporting in the UK: Diversions from the EU Sustainability Reporting Framework

In late 2019, the European Union presented the EU Green Deal, which targets climate neutrality by 2050. Under the EU Green Deal’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a clear sustainability reporting and assurance framework was proposed as a significant aspect of the EU Sustainable Finance Package in 2021. However, because of its exit from the EU in 2020, the UK will cease to adopt EU legislations and will have to produce its own laws to achieve climate neutrality. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to explore how best to improve the non-financial reporting mechanism in the UK, in order to assist the UK in transitioning to a more sustainable economy. This paper investigates the unique challenges for non-financial reporting in the UK caused by Brexit, and the significance and effectiveness of risk-based regulation approach in the UK. The paper proposes a ‘really responsive’ industry-based non-financial reporting framework for the UK to address its unique challenges.

Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Tourism Flows and Network Analysis of Traditional Villages in Western Hunan

Traditional village tourism is an effective path to rural revitalization and an excellent way to preserve traditional sceneries and cultural heritage. However, research on the subject matter has been limited. To address some of the current research gaps, this study used 2372 online travelogues from popular travel websites to explore the spatio-temporal distribution and network structure of the tourism flow in traditional villages in western Hunan using ArcGIS and social network analysis. The main findings are as follows: (1) In terms of time distribution, the tourism flow in traditional villages in Western Hunan is dominated by short-term tourism and shows significant seasonal differences. (2) The spatial distribution forms a double-core and multipoint spatial pattern with “Fenghuang Ancient City—Zhangjiajie National Forest Park” as core. (3) The network of traditional villages in Western Hunan exhibits a “core-periphery” hierarchical structure, with a network density of 0.275. Aside from the attraction and appeal of the twin cores, Furong Town and Tianmen Mountain constitute the core points of the network structure, and the radiation drive of the core nodes is not pronounced.

An Augmented Geospatial Service Web Based on QoS Constraints and Geospatial Service Semantic Relationships

The service network is capable of addressing large-scale service composition. However, existing service network works still have several limitations. Prior knowledge, such as expert-defined service chains, is not incorporated into the service network. QoS constraints are less considered in the service network, and thus the generated service chain does not always satisfy the optimal QoS constraints. Additionally, some basic services also require outputs to be used directly as inputs, which the service network cannot provide. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a geospatial service web (GSW) model named SR-QoS-GSW that incorporates service semantic relationships and QoS information. The SR-QoS-GSW model consists of atomic services and composite services that consider QoS, processing services, data services, and relationships among them. A SR-QoS-GSW prototype was developed using 570 atomic services and 27 composite services and evaluated using two case studies—a river network extraction and an urban housing selection. Then, the information entropy and time complexity between SR-QoS-GSW and the existing service network were compared. The results show that geospatial service chains can be created more efficiently by incorporating existing service chains as composite services. Integrating QoS information into the GSW would allow service composition algorithms to generate service chains that satisfy optimal QoS constraints. The outputs of services used as new inputs with additional self-matching relationships also give the service network greater flexibility. Finally, the analysis of the information entropy and time complexity verified the increased diversity and decreased the search space of the SR-QoS-GSW.

Differences in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Results between Only-Child and Non-Only-Child Children: Analysis of Propensity Scores Based on Large-Scale Assessment

Based on the data of 3561 fifth-grade and 4062 eighth-grade students from the Beijing Assessment of Educational Quality in China, the present study used a propensity-value matching model to scientifically analyze only-child and non-only-child children in primary and secondary schools. Female differences in cognitive outcomes (linguistic performance) and non-cognitive outcomes (teacher-student relationships, peer relationships, and emotional management) were also evaluated. The results of the study were as follows. First, fifth-grade only-child students had a higher linguistic performance compared to that of their non-only-child counterparts, and the same result was found for eighth-grade students. Second, fifth- and eighth-grade only-child students had good teacher-student relationships that were not significantly different from those of their non-only-child counterparts. Third-, fifth-, and eighth-grade only-child students had significantly better peer relationships and emotional management compared to these parameters in their non-only-child counterparts.

The Impact of Dependency Burden on Urban Household Health Expenditure and Its Regional Heterogeneity in China: Based on Quantile Regression Method

Background

The aging population has led to a growing health expenditure burden. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the old-age dependency ratio rose from 10.7% in 2003 to 17.8% in 2019, and health expenditure increased from 658.410 billion yuan in 2003 to 5812.191 billion yuan in 2019 in China.

Methods

This paper utilizes the quantile regression method to discuss the influencing factors of health expenditure in urban China based on the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), especially dependency burden. Moreover, its regional heterogeneity is also compared.

Results

The old-age dependency ratio, age, family size, self-rated health status, and income significantly impact the health expenditure of urban families in the quantile regression of the national sample. Dependency burden and other variables on urban household health expenditure have great regional heterogeneity. The relationship between urban health expenditure and residential areas in western China is more stable than that in eastern and central China.

Discussion

Government should improve the healthcare system suitable for the older adult population as soon as possible. The government of western China should pay more attention to the introduction of professional medical talents and the configuration of precision medical equipment to improve the health system in western China.

Multi-dimensional vulnerability analysis on catastrophic health expenditure among middle-aged and older adults with chronic diseases in China

OBJECTIVE

Middle-aged and older adults are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases because of their particular health characteristics, which lead to a high incidence of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE). This study plans to analyse the different factors affecting CHE in middle-aged and older adults with chronic diseases, target the vulnerable characteristics, and suggest groups that medical insurance policies should pay more attention to.

METHODS

The data used in this study came from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database. The method of calculating the CHE was adopted from the World Health Organization (WHO). The logistic regression was used to determine the family characteristics of chronic disease in middle-aged and older adults with a high probability of incurring CHE.

RESULTS

The incidence of CHE in middle-aged and older adults with chronic disease was highest in sub-poverty level families (26.20%) was lowest in wealthier level families (20.07%). Households with malignant tumours had the highest CHE incidence under any circumstances, especially if the householder had been using inpatient service in the past year. Among the comparison of CHE incidence in different types of medical insurance, the Urban and Rural Residents' Basic Medical Insurance (URRBMI) was the highest (27.46%). The incidence of CHE was 2.73 times (95% CI 2.30-3.24) and 2.16 times (95% CI 1.81-2.57) higher among people who had used inpatient services in the past year or outpatient services in the past month than those who had not used them.

CONCLUSIONS

Relatively wealthy economic conditions cannot significantly reduce the financial burden of chronic diseases in middle-aged and older adults. For this particular group with multiple vulnerabilities, such as physical and social vulnerability, the high demand and utilization of health services are the main reasons for the high incidence of CHE. After achieving the goal of lowering the threshold of universal access to health services, the medical insurance system in the next stage should focus on multiple vulnerable groups and strengthen the financial protection for middle-aged and older adults with chronic diseases, especially for patients with malignant tumours.

The Path of Housing Prices in Promoting the Upgrading of Industrial Structure: Bank Credit Funds, Land Finance, and Consumer Demand

The impact path of housing prices on the upgrading of the industrial structure is an important part of realizing the high-quality operation of the national economy in China. In order to discuss the mechanism of different influencing paths to upgrading industrial structure, this paper introduces three different intermediary variables from the levels of supply, demand, and government, and further subdivides and compares them to empirically test the specific impact path of housing prices on industrial structure upgrading by constructing multi-dimensional industrial structure upgrading indicators. It obtains some meaningful results. Firstly, there is a significant U-shaped relationship between housing prices and industrial structure upgrading; secondly, rising house prices will exacerbate the real estate industry’s occupation of bank credit funds, hindering the upgrading of the whole industrial structure; thirdly, the negative impact of the land’s financial dependence on the upgrading of the industrial structure was underestimated; and, finally, the rise in housing prices can improve the consumption level and promote the upgrading of regional industrial structures. By studying the impact path of house prices on the upgrading of different industrial structures, it will help local governments regulate house prices and give full play to the role of house prices in promoting the upgrading of industrial structure through multiple channels.