Adoption of green banking practices and environmental performance in Pakistan: a demonstration of structural equation modelling

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Banking industries are blamed to be among the major factors that affect global climate change both directly and indirectly. The green banking concept...     

Testing the relationship between globalization and carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan: does environmental Kuznets curve exist?

Over the last few decades, the atmospheric carbon dioxide emission has been amplified to a great extent in Pakistan. This amplification may cause global warming, climate change, and environmental degradation in Pakistan. Consequently, ecological condition and human life may suffer in the near future from these indicated threats. Therefore, an attempt was made to test the relationship between globalization and carbon dioxide emissions in case of Pakistan. The study covers the time series data over the period of 1975–2014. We employed modern econometric techniques such as Johansen co-integration, ARDL bound testing approach, and variance decomposition analysis. Results of the Johansen co-integration test show that there is a significant long-run relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and globalization. The long-run elasticities of the ARDL model show that a 1% increase in economic globalization, political globalization, and social globalization will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.38, 0.19, and 0.11%, respectively. Further, our findings reveal that the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis prevails an inverted U-shaped relationship between carbon dioxide emission and economic growth. Therefore, the EKC hypothesis is valid in the presence of globalization. The diagnostic test results show that the parameters of the ARDL model are credible, stable, and reliable in the current form. Finally, variance decomposition analysis displays that economic, political, and social globalization are contributing significantly to carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan.

     

Evaluation of fresh and stored rainwater quality in fluoride and arsenic endemic area of Thar Desert,Pakistan

In the current study, the chemistry of fresh and stored rainwater of Thar Desert, Pakistan, was estimated during two consecutive monsoon periods. The present research deals with the variation in physicochemical parameters, total arsenic (As^t), inorganic arsenic species (Asⁱ, As^V, As^III), and fluoride (F^?) in stored rainwater (SRW) at different time intervals (1 week to 3 months). The pH of fresh rainwater (FRW) samples showed slightly acidic to neutral in nature (6.08–7.06) which were inconsistent with the reference pH value (5.6) of rainwater. The resulted data indicated that As^t and F^? levels in SRW were enhanced with time duration. The levels of As^t and F^? in SRW after different time intervals were found in the range of 194–683 μg/L and 10–35.4 mg/L, respectively. The values of As^t and F^? were 20–70 and 7–24 times higher than those of WHO permissible limits, 10 μg/L and 1.5 mg/L, respectively. The As^III was dominant species in SRW, which corresponds to >60 % of Asⁱ. The characteristics of the SRW revealed an unacceptable quality to consume for drinking and agricultural purposes in the studied area.     

Bacillus safensis with plant-derived smoke stimulates rice growth under saline conditions

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Salinity is a worldwide environmental problem of agricultural lands. Smoke and plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR) are individually used to improve...     

Controlling bacterial leaf blight of rice and enhancing the plant growth with endophytic and rhizobacterial Bacillus strains

This study was conducted to assess efficacy of biological control against bacterial leaf blight (BLB) of rice produced by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Five endophytic strains (A1, A2, A3, A13 and A15) and two rhizospherial Bacilli (D29 and H8) were tested for their antagonistic activities against BLB in vitro and in vivo. All seven strains showed high potential of antagonistic activity against X. oryzae pv. oryzae and three phytopathogenic fungi in vitro. Test of 16SrRNA gene sequence were assigned isolates A1, A3 and A13 as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens while isolates A2 and A15 as B. methylotrophicus and B. subtilis, respectively. In greenhouse, four strains of displayed 50.29%–57.86% inhibition rate against the pathogen and significantly increased plant fresh weight from 50.03% to 73.11% and dry weight from 64.11% to 86.65% in treated rice plants. In addition, these strains demonstrated strong capability to produce indole-3-acetic acid, siderophores, solubilizing phosphate and also colonize roots. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that expression of defense-related genes including OsAOS2, OsJMT1, OsNPR1 and OsPR1b were significantly up-regulated in leaves of D29-exposed rice plants, suggesting that treatment of rice with D29 suppressed BLB through systemic activation of the plant defense system. Therefore, data suggest that Bacillus isolates A13, A15, D29 and H8 support effective antagonistic activity against BLB under greenhouse conditions in addition to their potential to promote growth of rice plants.     

Bisphenol S induces oxidative stress and DNA damage in rat spermatozoa in vitro and disrupts daily sperm production in vivo

Bisphenol S has been introduced into some industrial applications and it may act as a xeno-estrogen that can alter endocrine functions and reproduction. The present study was carried out to examine the effect of bisphenol S exposure on oxidative stress, generation of reactive oxygen species, and DNA integrity in rat spermatozoa in vitro and daily sperm production and sperm DNA damage in vivo. Sperm were incubated with bisphenol S at concentrations of 0.5, 1, 10, and 100 µg/L. At the highest concentration, bisphenol S induced formation of reactive oxygen species, caused lipid peroxidation, affected superoxide dismutase levels, and increased DNA fragmentation. Adult rats were exposed to doses of 0.5, 5, 25, and 50 µg/kg/d for 28 days. Decrease in daily sperm production and an increase in sperm DNA damage was observed at the highest dose in the 50 µg/kg/d treated group, but sperm motility was not reduced.     

Intellectual capital,financial resources,and green supply chain management as predictors of financial and environmental performance

This research examines the influence of intellectual capital on financial and environmental performance with a mediating role of green supply chain management and a moderating role of financial resources. Structural model estimation was conducted on the data set of 324 Pakistani manufacturing SMEs and showed that intellectual capital significantly encourages green supply chain management as well as significantly contributes to financial and environmental performance. Green supply chain management partially mediates the relationship between intellectual capital and performance both the financial and environmental. Financial resources significantly strengthen the relationship between intellectual capital and green supply chain management. In light of the results, we suggest that firms should encourage intellectuality among their managers and employees to adopt green practices that can improve their financial and environmental performance. In addition, it is also suggested for managers and CEOs to effectively manage financial resources that are necessary for green practices.

     

A critical review of state-of-the-art electrocoagulation technique applied to COD-rich industrial wastewaters

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Electrocoagulation (EC) is one of the emerging technologies in groundwater and wastewater treatment as it combines the benefits of coagulation,...     

Epidemiology of tornado destruction in rural northern Bangladesh: risk factors for death and injury

The epidemiology of tornado-related disasters in the developing world is poorly understood. An August 2005 post-tornado cohort study in rural Bangladesh identified elevated levels of death and injury among the elderly (≥ 60 years of age) (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 8.9 (95 per cent confidence interval (CI): 3.9-20.2) and AOR = 1.6 (95 per cent CI: 1.4-1.8), respectively), as compared to 15-24 year-olds, and among those outdoors versus indoors during the tornado (AOR = 10.4 (95 per cent CI: 5.5-19.9) and AOR = 6.6 (95 per cent CI: 5.8-7.5), respectively). Females were 1.24 times (95 per cent CI: 1.15-1.33) more likely to be injured than males. Elevated risk of injury was significantly associated with structural damage to the house and tin construction materials. Seeking treatment was protective against death among the injured, odds ratio = 0.08 (95 per cent CI: 0.03-0.21). Further research is needed to develop injury prevention strategies and to address disparities in risk between age groups and between men and women.     

Identifying impact of international trade and renewable energy consumption on environmental quality improvement and their role in global warming

There is a lack of proper research that highlights the impact of institutional quality (IQ) and renewable energy consumption (REC) on the carbon emission (CE). The significance of IQ and REC in the achievement of zero CE is highlighted in this research. The current research reports the effects of these important factors on the consumption-based carbon emissions in the G-7 countries from 1995 to 2018. Based on the outcome of the cointegration test, the long-run connection is recognized between IQ, REC, GDP, exports, imports, and consumption-based CE. The findings also validated that there exist significant decrease and increase in the CE in both the short and long run; for instance, IQ, REC, and exports decrease the CE, while imports and GDP increase the CE. The estimates of causality test showed that policies aimed at improving IQ, REC, GDP, exports, and imports have a significant impact on the CE. Consequently, based on these results, policymakers in the G-7 must prioritize IQ and REC to enhance environmental quality and attain carbon neutrality.