The impact of public environmental preferences and government environmental regulations on corporate pollution emissions

The Chinese government has attached great importance to pollution emission reduction. Since public environmental preference plays an important role in curbing polluting emissions by companies, this paper aims to explore the impact of public environmental preference and government environmental regulation on corporate pollution emissions. The coordinating role of environmental preference in the implementation of environmental regulatory policies is analyzed using pollution emission data of Chinese enterprises. The results show that both environmental preference and environmental regulation have significant inhibitory effects on corporate pollution emissions. The inhibitory effects are achieved by promoting the green technology progress. With high environmental preference, environmental regulation can effectively curb corporate emissions. This paper is helpful for policy makers to formulate ecological and environmental protection policies and cultivate public environmental preferences.

Assessing trade-offs among productive, economic, and environmental indicators of forage systems in southern Tibetan crop-livestock integration

Fostering crop-livestock integration via crop-forage rotation provides opportunities to cope with land degradation, feed deficit, and agropastoral sustainability. Farmers' preferences for forage options are influenced by economic benefit, environmental preference, and productive performance. However, there is little information available on evaluating multiple trade-offs of forage systems for the design of crop-forage rotations. Here, we performed a comprehensive evaluation to compare the economic, environmental, and productive indicators of five typical forage systems in terms of habitat conditions, soil ecosystem services, economic profit, and forage yield and nutritive value on the southern Tibetan Plateau. Alfalfa pasture and silage corn were mostly cultivated in lower altitudes, with more abundant precipitation, and higher growing degree days. Soil carbon and nitrogen accumulation were significantly higher in perennial alfalfa than in the other forage systems. The relative feed value of alfalfa pasture was also evidently greater than the other forage systems, whereas the yield of silage corn was among the highest. Alfalfa pasture presented superior economic benefits compared to the others. But the alfalfa pasture over six years showed a significant decrease in soil carbon and nitrogen storage, net present value, and yield. Forage systems generally have more soil carbon accumulation, but only forage legumes are more likely to positively affect soil nitrogen retention compared to cereal croplands. The trade-offs among economic, environmental, and productive indicators demonstrated that annual forage systems (silage corn, forage oat, and ryegrass) met productive target rather than environmental and economic objectives, while perennial alfalfa showed synergies among the three goals. These findings indicate that integrating crop-forage rotation, particularly introducing legume forages into farming systems is an adaptive option for crop-livestock integration on the southern Tibetan Plateau. Given the large topographic variation, suitable crop-forage systems should be designed for the heterogeneous Yarlung Zangbo River valleys. Among them, alfalfa-silage corn intercropping is recommended as a promising system to meet both productivity and profitability.

Styles and Style-Stretching: How are They Related to Successful Learning?

Although the learning style construct has aroused much interest over the years, questions remain regarding basic issues such as definition, the validity and/or reliability of various measurement instruments, and the relationship between learning style and successful learning. Furthermore, although maintaining stylistic flexibility is recommended by many authors, few studies have attempted to relate the style-stretching concept to successful learning. This study therefore attempted to address these questions. According to results, conducted among 106 Turkish university students, using an original instrument constructed using elements from established questionnaires, a small group of styles was significantly correlated with exam results, accounting for about a quarter of the variance (considered a large effect size in social science). In addition, higher-scoring students reported a more eclectic range of styles, suggesting more willingness to style-stretch, while lower-scoring students reported a more limited range. Pedagogical implications as well as areas for ongoing research are suggested.

Experimental mood manipulation does not induce change in preference for natural landscapes

According to evolutionary theory, emotions are psychological mechanisms that have evolved to enhance fitness in specific situations by motivating appropriate (adaptive) behavior. Taking this perspective, a previous study examined the relationship between mood and preference for natural environments. It reported that participants' anxiety level was associated with a preference for landscapes offering what Appleton called "refuge," while participants' anger and cheerfulness were both associated with a preference for landscapes offering what Appleton called "prospect." We attempted to replicate these results and to improve on the study by experimentally manipulating mood. Using a between-subjects design, 80 participants were instructed to self-induce one of four moods: anger, sadness, anxiety, or joy. After the mood induction, they viewed fourteen landscape photographs and recorded the seven most preferred. It was hypothesized that subjects experiencing anger or joy would prefer landscapes rich in "prospect" features, whereas participants experiencing sadness or anxiety would prefer landscapes rich in "refuge" features. In contrast to the previous study, the predictions were not supported: artificially induced moods may not provide ecological validity as a test of the "mood as motivator" model; alternatively, the first study may have reported an alpha error. To see whether the model has practical value, we recommend a study of landscape preference using participants with clinically significant levels of mood dysphoria.