Environmental performance and spillover effects on productivity: evidence from horticultural firms

This study investigates the effect of environmental investment and related spillover effects on productivity in the agricultural sector by using a panel data of horticultural firms in Andalusia (Southern Spain). The results indicate a positive relationship between firm investment in environmental practices and productivity improvement, also showing the presence of positive environmental spillovers. In a second-stage of analysis, the incidence of environmental factors in firm specific individual technical efficiency is estimated. This analysis also shows the link between environmental knowledge diffusion and horticultural firms' performance.     

Evaluation and impact factors of indoor and outdoor gas-phase nitrous acid under different environmental conditions

As an important indoor pollutant, nitrous acid (HONO) can contribute to the concentration of indoor OH radicals by photolysis via sunlight penetrating into indoor environments, thus affecting the indoor oxidizing capability. In order to investigate the concentration of indoor HONO and its impact factors, three different indoor environments and two different locations in urban and suburban areas were selected to monitor indoor and outdoor pollutants simultaneously, including HONO, NO, NO₂, nitrogen oxides (NO_x), O₃, and particle mass concentration. In general, the concentration of indoor HONO was higher than that outdoors. In the urban area, indoor HONO with high average concentration (7.10 ppbV) was well-correlated with the temperature. In the suburban area, the concentration of indoor HONO was only about 1-2 ppbV, and had a good correlation with indoor relative humidity. It was mainly attributed to the heterogeneous reaction of NO₂ on indoor surfaces. The sunlight penetrating into indoor environments from outside had a great influence on the concentration of indoor HONO, leading to a concentration of indoor HONO close to that outdoors.     

PM2.5 concentration declining saves health expenditure in China

● Monthly hospitalization expenses are sensitive to increases in PM_2.5 exposure. ● The increased PM_2.5 causes patients with CHD and LRI to stay longer in the hospital. ● The impact of PM_2.5 on total expenses for stroke is greater in southern China. ● Males may be more sensitive to air pollution than females. Air pollution has been a severe issue in China. Exposure to PM_2.5 has adverse health effects and causes economic losses. This study investigated the economic impact of exposure to PM_2.5 pollution using monthly city-level data covering 88.5 million urban employees in 2016 and 2017. This study mainly focused on three expenditure indicators to measure the economic impact considering lower respiratory infections (LRIs), coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke. The results show that a 10 µg/m³ increase in PM_2.5 would cause total monthly expenses of LRIs, CHD, and stroke to increase by 0.226%, 0.237%, and 0.374%, respectively. We also found that LRI, CHD, and stroke hospital admissions increased significantly by 10%, 8.42%, and 5.64%, respectively. Furthermore, the total hospital stays of LRIs, CHDs, and strokes increased by 2.49%, 2. 51%, and 1.64%, respectively. Our findings also suggest heterogeneous impacts of PM_2.5 exposures by sex and across regions, but no statistical evidence shows significant differences between the older and younger adult subgroups. Our results provide several policy implications for reducing unequal public health expenditures in overpolluted countries.     

Attenuation of a point blast shock wave in the dusty air

The behavior of the blast impulse initiated by a point blast in the dusty air is investigated theoretically. It is shown that the jumps of parameters at the shock front in the dusty air follow other regularities in comparison with the case of an ideal gas, beginning from the distance of three dynamic radii, so at ten dynamic radii the difference in overpressure exceeds 60%. When the air heterogeneity is taken into account, substantial gradual changes of wave profile come over and the total blast wave impulse can't be determined by the front overpressure only. The known far asymptotic law takes no place in the point blast flow at the volume dust densities ρ₂₀ > 3·10^?3 kg/m³. In contrast to the ideal gas, the shock front discontinuity vanishes in the dusty air at a finite distance from its origin and the blast wave eventually turns into a dispersive wave without discontinuity. The wave structure changing is studied in the process of the shock wave transformation into the dispersive wave.     

Analysis of the experimental results of the initiation of detonation in short tubes with kerosene–oxidizer mixtures

The paper describes the experimental investigation of detonation initiation in a mixture of kerosene–oxidant in a short test tube. Various mixtures of oxygen and nitrogen were used as an oxidant, from pure oxygen to the composition of air. The goal of the study was to determine the minimum diameter of the tube and the minimum level of energy needed for the direct initiation of detonation. As a result of the measurements the pressure courses were obtained for two kinds of cases: with and without (only shock waves) of fuel injection. The results of both kinds of measurements were compared, providing information about the initiation of detonation in a fuel–oxidizer mixture. Brief analyses of the results for different initiators and different oxidizers were performed and compared with the shock wave and Chapman–Jouget velocity.     

Heterogeneous reaction of SO2 on CaCO3 particles: Different impacts of NO2 and acetic acid on the sulfite and sulfate formation

Despite the heterogeneous reaction of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) on mineral dust particles significantly affects the atmospheric environment, the effect of acidic gases on the formation of sulfite and sulfate from this reaction is not particularly clear. In this work, using the in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) technique, we employed a mineral dust particle model (CaCO₃) combined with NO₂ and acetic acid to investigate their effects on the heterogeneous reaction of SO₂ on CaCO₃ particles. It was found that water vapor can promote the formation of sulfite and simulated radiation can facilitate the oxidation of sulfite to sulfate. The addition of NO₂ or acetic acid to the reaction system altered the production of sulfate and sulfite accordingly. There was a synergistic effect between NO₂ and SO₂ that promoted the oxidation of sulfite to sulfate, and a competitive effect between acetic acid and SO₂ that inhibited the formation of sulfite. Moreover, light and water vapor can also affect the heterogeneous reaction of SO₂ with the coexistence of multiple gases. These findings improve our understanding of the effects of organic and inorganic gases and environmental factors on the formation of sulfite and sulfate in heterogeneous reactions.     

Sustainable rangeland management using a multi-fuzzy model: how to deal with heterogeneous experts' knowledge

While fuzzy specialists commonly use homogeneous experts' knowledge to construct fuzzy models, it is much more difficult to deal with knowledge elicited from a heterogeneous group of experts. This issue is exemplified in the area of sustainable rangeland management (SRM). One way to deal with the diversity of opinions is to develop a fuzzy system for all experts and to combine all these, the so-called primary systems, into one multi-fuzzy model. To derive each of the primary fuzzy systems, several semi-structured interviews were held in three different areas of the Fars province in Southwest Iran using the knowledge of a group of administrative experts. To obtain the final output of the multi-fuzzy model, we applied different 'voting' methods. The first method simply uses the arithmetic average of the primary outputs as the final output of the multi-fuzzy model. This final output represents an estimation of the right rate of stocking (RRS). We also propose other (un)supervised voting methods. Most importantly, by harmonising the primary outputs such that outliers get less emphasis, we introduce an unsupervised voting method for calculating a weighted estimate of the RRS. This harmonising method is expected to provide a new useful tool for policymakers dealing with heterogenity in experts' opinions: it is especially useful where limited field data are available and one is forced to rely on experts' knowledge only. By constructing the three fuzzy models based on the elicitation of heterogeneous experts' knowledge, our study shows the multidimensional vaguenesses that exist in SRM. Finally, by comparing the final RRS with its common values, this study strongly points to the existence of overgrazing in pastures in the three regions of the Fars province in Southwest Iran.     

What influences the pattern of pollutant releases? An investigation of firms’ siting and households’ sorting decisions in Ontario,Canada

The relationship between the pattern of pollutant releases and neighborhood characteristics has been in the center of environmental justice debates for the last decades. One part of the discourse revolves around the question if the siting decision of polluting firms or the sorting decision of households is the explanatory factor for the pattern of pollutant releases. The aim of this study is to contribute to the discussion by investigating the potential correlation between polluting facilities and socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods in Ontario, Canada, using data from the Canadian census and National Pollutant Release Inventory. The analysis shows that when the results are considered from the perspectives of the siting decision of firms and sorting decision of households’ hypotheses, the results weigh in favor of the sorting decision of households.     

Recent progress on synthesis of ZIF-67-based materials and their application to heterogeneous catalysis

In recent years, an increasing amount of interest has been dedicated to the synthesis and application of ZIF-67-based materials due to their exceptionally high surface area, tunable porosity, and excellent thermal and chemical stabilities. This review summarizes the latest strategies of synthesizing ZIF-67-based materials by exploring the prominent examples. Then, the recent progress in the applications of ZIF-67-based materials in heterogeneous catalysis, including catalysis of the redox reactions, addition reactions, esterification reactions, Knoevenagel con-densations, and hydrogenation–dehydrogenation reactions, has been elaborately discussed. Finally, we end this work by shedding some light on the large-scale industrial production of ZIF-67-based materials and their applications in the future.     

Directing technical change from fossil-fuel to renewable energy innovation: An application using firm-level patent data

In this paper we provide an analysis of directed technical change in the sector of electricity generation. We rely on patent data in fossil-fuel (FF) and renewable energy (REN) technologies for 5471 European firms over the 1978–2006 period. The novelty of our approach is in the focus on firm׳s heterogeneity in driving technological change. We make a distinction between small specialized firms, which innovate in only one type of technology, and large mixed firms, which innovate in both technologies, to analyse how REN patents can replace FF ones at the sector level both through a shift in innovation activities within existing firms and through firms׳ entry and exit. We use zero-inflated count data estimation techniques to identify the factors that affect specialized versus mixed firms׳ patenting behaviour both at the intensive (i.e., levels of innovation) and extensive (i.e., technological entry) margins. We further investigate the implications of our firm-level estimations for reducing the gap between REN and FF innovation at the aggregate level. We establish two key findings: (1) a decrease in the FF-REN technology gap mainly comes about through technological entry of specialized REN firms following an increase in REN market size; (2) increases in FF prices, FF market size, and FF knowledge stocks all increase the technology gap by increasing mixed firms FF innovation rates. An important implication of our results is that policies aimed at increasing REN innovation should focus on helping small firms to start and sustain innovation in the long-run.