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Evidence shows a continuing increase in the frequency and severity of global heatwaves1,2, raising concerns about the future impacts of climate change and the associated socioeconomic costs3,4. Here we develop a disaster footprint analytical framework by integrating climate, epidemiological and hybrid input–output and computable general equilibrium global trade models to estimate the midcentury socioeconomic impacts of heat stress. We consider health costs related to heat exposure, the value of heat-induced labour productivity loss and indirect losses due to economic disruptions cascading through supply chains. Here we show that the global annual incremental gross domestic product loss increases exponentially from 0.03 ± 0.01 (SSP 245)–0.05 ± 0.03 (SSP 585) percentage points during 2030–2040 to 0.05 ± 0.01–0.15 ± 0.04 percentage points during 2050–2060. By 2060, the expected global economic losses reach a total of 0.6–4.6% with losses attributed to health loss (37–45%), labour productivity loss (18–37%) and indirect loss (12–43%) under different shared socioeconomic pathways. Small- and medium-sized developing countries suffer disproportionately from higher health loss in South-Central Africa (2.1 to 4.0 times above global average) and labour productivity loss in West Africa and Southeast Asia (2.0–3.3 times above global average). The supply-chain disruption effects are much more widespread with strong hit to those manufacturing-heavy countries such as China and the USA, leading to soaring economic losses of 2.7 ± 0.7% and 1.8 ± 0.5%, respectively.

The highly energy-intensive iron and steel industry contributed about 25% (ref. 1) of global industrial CO2emissions in 2019 and is therefore critical for climate-change mitigation. Despite discussions of decarbonization potentials at national and global levels2–6, plant-specific mitigation potentials and technologically driven pathways remain unclear, which cumulatively determines the progress of net-zero transition of the global iron and steel sector. Here we develop a CO2emissions inventory of 4,883 individual iron and steel plants along with their technical characteristics, including processing routes and operating details (status, age, operation-years etc.). We identify and match appropriate emission-removal or zero-emission technologies to specific possessing routes, or what we define thereafter as a techno-specific decarbonization road map for every plant. We find that 57% of global plants have 8–24 operational years, which is the retrofitting window for low-carbon technologies. Low-carbon retrofitting following the operational characteristics of plants is key for limiting warming to 2 °C, whereas advanced retrofitting may help limit warming to 1.5 °C. If each plant were retrofitted 5 years earlier than the planned retrofitting schedule, this could lead to cumulative global emissions reductions of 69.6 (±52%) gigatonnes (Gt) CO2from 2020 to 2050, almost double that of global CO2emissions in 2021. Our results provide a detailed picture of CO2emission patterns associated with production processing of iron and steel plants, illustrating the decarbonization pathway to the net-zero-emissions target with the efforts from each plant.

Host-guest recognition-based macrocycle in macrocycle to form “Russian doll” assemblies remains an interesting topic in supramolecular chemistry. Herein, a macrocycle-in-macrocycle assembly was studied using cucurbit[10]uril (Q[10]) and the smallest cucurbituril-like macrocycle (TD[4]). X-ray crystal structure analysis revealed that TD[4] was encapsulated in the cavity of Q[10] to form a 1:1 complex. Importantly, competitive guest studies suggested that TD[4] had the highest binding constant with the Q[10] host among the guests used, including Q[5], Me8TD[4], and amantadine molecules in water. Our results provided a new cucurbituril-based Russian-doll structure containing both the largest and smallest cavities of the cucurbiturils, which expanded the family of molecular Russian dolls.

ABSTRACTMycobacteriumsp. 16 F can degrade 94% of pyrene (20 ppm) in 4 days. To investigate its pyrene degradation mechanism, proteomic changes were analyzed using two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis (2DE-DIGE). Comparative analysis of differential proteins revealed 91 differentially expressed protein spots after pyrene exposure. Among these, 65 spots were identified as 57 proteins. Further analysis revealed that 13 spots were involved in the pyrene degradation pathway, and most of these were dioxygenases and dehydrogenases. Further, 16 up-regulated expression protein spots were associated with four pathways that may be related to pyrene degradation. Bioinformatics analysis further revealed that the pentose phosphate and glycolytic pathways led to the production of amino acids and nucleotide precursors in pyrene-induced cells. The metabolites from these processes then entered the shikimate pathway via the β-ketoadipate pathway in conjunction with the pyrene degradation pathway. This study provides a new model for the pyrene degradation pathway in Mycobacteria.Abbreviations:PPP, pentose phosphate pathway; ED-EMP, Entner-Doudoroff pathway and Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway; E4P, erythrose-4-phosphate; PEP, phosphoenol-pyruvate; PAL, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase; SucCoA, succinyl-CoA; AcCoA, acetyl-CoA; TCA, tricarboxylic acid cycle.

The interaction between economic entities and environmental impacts in developing countries has been a source of concern. It uses a unique conceptual framework to create a system for collaboration between foreign and domestic e-businesses to improve the environment. A study is given by the Collaborative Management Strategy (CMS) ideas for innovation systems, industrialization of development, and product concept. It aims to collaborate between foreign and domestic e-businesses, government, consumers, and suppliers. As a result of its importance to economic stability and human well-being, achieving sustainable development goals (SDG) has become one of the most important goals in the global economy. The green supply chain management is digitized and automated with a deep learning algorithm. The business industry is a significant focus for SDG implementation. Considering this, the value of small and medium-sized e-businesses has been discussed from this perspective.

We are living in the digital age where consumers have become more elegant, and their buying intention is radically transforming from traditional to online buying behavior. This study investigates the impact of digital marketing (DM) tools on consumers' online impulsive buying tendencies (OBIT), i.e., effective (AD) and cognitive tendencies (CD) with intervening role of the gender (GDR) and education-level (EL). Four hundred surveys were randomly distributed to online shoppers in Pakistan. SEM was applied to test the proposed relationships and findings revealed a positive association between DM and consumers' OBIT. The comprehensive examination affirmed the positive interrelationships of sub-dimensions of DM on consumers' OBIT, i.e., AD and CD. It is further revealed that GDR and EL did not moderate the relationships between DM and OBIT. This study furnishes insights on how advertisers can exploit such platforms to achieve OBIT and creating effective relationships in today's digital age. This study demonstrates certain directions for academicians and practitioners.

In this article, we introduce two community-contributed data envelopment analysis commands for measuring technical efficiency and productivity change in Stata. Over the last decades, an important theoretical progression of data envelopment analysis, a nonparametric method widely used to assess the performance of decision-making units, is the incorporation of undesirable outputs. Models able to deal with undesirable outputs have been developed and applied in empirical studies for assessing the sustainability of decision-making units. These models are getting more and more attention from researchers and managers. The teddfcommand discussed in the present article allows users to measure technical efficiency, both radial and nonradial, when some outputs are undesirable. Technical efficiency measures are obtained by solving linear programming problems. The gtfpchcommand we also describe here provides tools for measuring productivity change, for example, the Malmquist–Luenberger index and the Luenberger indicator. We provide a brief overview of the nonparametric efficiency and productivity change measurement accounting for undesirable outputs, and we describe the syntax and options of the new commands. We also illustrate with examples how to perform the technical efficiency and productivity analysis with the newly introduced commands.

The food industry is constantly seeking bioactive molecules from natural sources, using recyclable and sustainable strategies for effective use and for preventive and therapeutic purposes. The Dictyophoragenus, considered to be a well-known homology plant of food or medicine, has considerable great health benefits and market utilization value. Guizhou Dictyophoragenus, has recently attract the interest of experts owing to its vast health benefits. The production and processing of Dictyophoragenus produces a large number of by-products (pileus, volva and stipe) with limited commercial development and negative environmental impacts. This review summarizes recent advances in the Dictyophora genusby-products as valuable sources of bioactive molecules for functional food development. Particular attention was given to the approaches used for Dictyophora genuspolysaccharides extraction, purification, and structural characterization, chemical components, relevant biological properties in Dictyophora genus. These by-products are vital resources with diverse bioactivity and high value-added ingredients, which are widely used as functional emulsifiers and additives in the food industry. Due to these health-promoting potentials, the efficient use of these high value-added ingredients in the development of novel food formulations should be further stimulated. Furthermore, we highlight areas where further research is still required.

The global economy is facing a serious recession due to COVID-19, with implications for CO2emissions. Here, using a global adaptive multiregional input–output model and scenarios of lockdown and fiscal counter measures, we show that global emissions from economic sectors will decrease by 3.9 to 5.6% in 5 years (2020 to 2024) compared with a no-pandemic baseline scenario (business as usual for economic growth and carbon intensity decline). Global economic interdependency via supply chains means that blocking one country’s economic activities causes the emissions of other countries to decrease even without lockdown policies. Supply-chain effects contributed 90.1% of emissions decline from power production in 2020 but only 13.6% of transport sector reductions. Simulations of follow-up fiscal stimuli in 41 major countries increase global 5-yr emissions by −6.6 to 23.2 Gt (−4.7 to 16.4%), depending on the strength and structure of incentives. Therefore, smart policy is needed to turn pandemic-related emission declines into firm climate action.

ABSTRACTAlthough genetically modified (GM) glyphosate-resistant soybeans with cp4-epspsgene have been widely planted all over the world, their proteomic characteristics are not very clear. In this study, the soybean seeds of a GM soybean line H06-698 (H) with cp4-epspsgene and its non-transgenic counterpart Mengdou12 (M), which were collected from two experiment fields in two years and used as 4 sample groups, were analyzed with label-free proteomics technique. A total of 1706 proteins were identified quantitatively by label-free quantification, and a total of 293 proteins were detected as common differential abundance proteins (DAPs, FC is not less than 1.5) both in two groups or more. Functional enrichment analysis of common DAPs identified from four groups, shows that most up-regulated proteins were clustered into stress response, carbon and energy metabolism, and genetic information processing. Further documentary analysis shows that 15 proteins play important roles in shikimate pathways, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and stress response. These results indicated that the change of protein abundance in different samples were affected by various factors, but except shikimate and branched pathways related proteins, only ROS and stress-related proteins were found to be stably regulated by cp4-epspsgene, and no unexpected and safety-related proteins such as antinutritional factors, allergenic proteins, and toxic proteins were found as DAPs. The influence of foreign genes in genetically modified plants is worthy of attention and this work provides new clues for exploring the regulated proteins and pathways in GM plants.

This study explores a new theoretical model of employee creativity by investigating the impact of ethical leadership on creativity mediated by creative self‐efficacy and psychological safety. Data collected from 200 supervisor–subordinate dyads in Pakistan reveal that ethical leadership is positively related to creativity. Further, psychological safety partially mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and creativity. However, creative self‐efficacy is found insignificant in the relationship between ethical leadership and creativity. The study discusses research and practical implications of the proposed new theoretical framework with regard to employee creativity.

The aim of this paper is to assess the effects of technology innovation intensity on firm performance. A sample of 297 businesses funded by the Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Kenya was used as study framework. Correlation and a regression model were used for content analysis. The findings show that technology innovation intensity contributes positively to firm performance, but the entrepreneur characteristic affects the firms' innovation level. Further, the results show low profitability and expansion level among micro and small enterprises. The findings provide information necessary for competitive advantages and recommends the empowerment of entrepreneurs in technology innovation trends for their firm performance. The study endeavors to discover and advance enterprise innovative strategies that are ideally anchored in the technological, organizational, and environmental frameworks. The value of this study is on the approaches of entrepreneur capability in handling technology innovation intensity within a competitive business environment to improve firm performance.

This article helps identify the main factors influencing the performance of small and medium agribusiness enterprises in Kenya. The study proposes five research hypotheses, each tested on a sample of 150 agribusiness enterprises using multiple regression analysis. The results show that the use of external partners, such as scientific research establishments and commercial consultants, influences the firm's performance. This influence is moderated by factors like internal capabilities and the firm's degree of openness to innovation.

Misfolding of TATA-box binding protein-associated factor 15 (TAF15) may cause neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Some mutations of prion-like domain (PrLD) have been detected in patients with sporadic ALS, suggesting the importance of TAF15-PrLD in ALS pathogenesis. Herein, combining experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we investigated the influences of several TAF15-PrLD mutations on the amyloid fibril formation of TAF15-PrLD-extracted peptide segments, and identified an essential β-amyloid-forming segment from TAF15-PrLD. A pathogenic mutation T2 E71G resulted in significantly enhanced aggregation of the TAF15-PrLD segment T2 (Y56GQSQSGYSQSYGGYENQ73). In addition, the peptide T2 with a strong β-amyloid-forming tendency was able to induce the liquid to solid phase transition of TAF15-PrLD protein. Further study identified the SGYS motif as a critical segment that promoted the formation of amyloid fibrils, which maintained a stable β-sheet structure through intermolecular hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking interaction. This work provides a clue to elucidate the molecular pathogenic mechanism of TAF15-associated neurodegenerative diseases, and will direct drug development targeting TAF15.

Phytoene desaturase (PDS) is a critical functional enzyme in blocking ζ-carotene biosynthesis and is one of the bleaching herbicide targets. At present, norflurazon (NRF) is the only commercial pyridazine herbicide targeting PDS. Therefore, developing new and diverse pyridazine herbicides targeting PDS is urgently required. In this study, diflufenican (BF) was used as the lead compound, and a scaffold-hopping strategy was employed to design and synthesize some pyridazine derivatives based on the action mode of BFand PDS. The preemergence herbicidal activity tests revealed that compound 6-chloro-N-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-3-(3-(trifluoromethyl)phenoxy)pyridazine-4-carboxamide (B1) with 2,4-diF substitution in the benzeneamino ring showed 100% inhibition rates against the roots and stems of Echinochloa crus-galliand Portulaca oleraceaat 100 μg/mL, superior to the inhibition rates of BF. Meanwhile, compound B1demonstrated excellent postemergence herbicidal activity against broadleaf weeds, which was similar to that of BF(inhibition rate of 100%) but superior to that of NRF. This indicated that 6-Cl in the pyridazine ring is the key group for postemergence herbicidal activity. In addition, compound B1could induce downregulation of PDS gene expression, 15-cis-phytoene accumulation, and Y(II) deficiency and prevent photosynthesis. Therefore, B1can be considered as a promising candidate for developing high-efficiency PDS inhibitors.

This article reviews works in an endeavour to distinctly determine the aspects that affect organisational performance. The pertinent articles are retrieved and scrutinised for relevancy after which the next action is to objectively appraise the writings to ascertain methodological quality. The literature review describes the significant aspects that influence organisational performance specifically leadership approach, organisational culture, organisational systems and structures, organisational environment, resources and expertise, and organisational adaptation. These dimensions develop an environment that enables performance at personal, group and organisational stages. Organisations to a great extent, strive to obtain better performance and take advantage of the gains from superior performance, and embrace the sustainability of circumstances that boost performance around their operational environments as a lasting process. This outcome helps scholars and practitioners to embrace technical approaches for the identification of management actions that enhance performance and human resource development activities in organisations.

Agility has become a key driver for all business operations, including supply chain (SC) operations to convene the requirements of the customers in a timely manner. The concept of agility with respect to SC is accelerating therefore sparse literature accessible on such domain, especially with incorporation of technology (TE) from developing economies. The current study investigates the linkages between distinct dimensions of the agile supply chain (ASC) and firms' sales performance (FSP) by adopting moderating effect of TE within SMEs of Bangladesh. Data collected from SC managers and evaluated using structural equation modelling. The findings affirmed the positive relationships between ASC and FSP along with positive connection of each dimension of ASC, i.e., alertness (ART), flexibility (FXB), decisiveness (DSV), swiftness (SWT), and accessibility (ACB). A positive influence of TE is found between ASC and FSP, respectively. This study presents insights for strategic SC management to focus ASC and TEs' capabilities in order to optimise FSP in today's customer-oriented era.

This article investigates the relationships among social network sites (SNSs) and social apps (SAPs) on consumers' online purchase attitude (OPA) with moderating effect of gender (GND). Structural equation modeling using SPSS and supporting tools was employed to represent the correlations among adopted constructs. To this end, the questionnaires were distributed to online shoppers from September 2017 and November 2017. The findings revealed the positive relationships of SNSs, i.e., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest on consumers' OPA. Second, it is found that SAPs, i.e., Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, Wechat, Instagram, and Snapchat have positive relationships on consumers' OPA. In addition, it is found that GND did not moderate the relationships among SNSs, SAPs, and consumers' OPA. This study furnishes insights how strategic managers can utilize such social media tools in marketing communications to empower consumers' OPA in today's era. Aside, study provides future studies for academicians and professionals.

Ellagic acid (EA), a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound, is commonly known for its anti-inflammatory properties. The low bioavailability greatly limits the clinical applications of EA. In this study, a biodegradable hollow zein nanoparticle with an average diameter of about 70 nm was developed to mediate oral delivery of EA. The inner core of the nanoparticle consists of EA/sodium carbonate (EA/Na2CO3) prepared by coprecipitation, which was further encapsulated in hollow zein nanoparticles with triethyl citrate as a natural plasticizer. The optimized ellagic acid-hollow plasticized zein nanoparticles (EA-HTZN) exhibited a small dimension of 72 nm with a PDI of 0.131, a drug loading capacity as high as 326  mg g−1at an equilibrium concentration of 5.0  mg mL−1. EA-HTZN had high drug loading and prevented their precipitation at simulated physiological environment. The EA-HTZN significantly improved permeation ability in vitro. Oral administration of EA-HTZN showed effective against inflammation related to suppression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IL1 β) overproduction in carrageenan-induced mouse paw edema model. Pharmacokinetic parameters of optimized formulation revealed 3.6- and 2.1-fold increase in bioavailability as compared to EA suspension and EA solid nanoparticle, respectively. Together, these results demonstrated the successful formulation of EA-HTZN and their potential to improve oral delivery through high drug loadings and good stability.

This research aims to study the association between knowledge sharing activities and organisational performance. Theoretical relationships are verified through an empirical assessment of 237 Kenyan firms in the petroleum and telecommunication industries. The industries were selected to tackle both tangible and intangible assets. This paper demonstrates how firms that appreciate knowledge sharing principles enjoy superior gains than their rivals. The issue of dissemination of stocks of knowledge has not been factored as a practice of knowledge sharing. Fresh studies can be carried out on the topic in its entirety. It demonstrates knowledge sharing actions that have a positive influence on the organisational performance. The visualisation of knowledge sharing principles illustrates intellectual creativity. Various knowledge embracing industries can adopt this innovation.

This study researched on the association between performance contracting (PC) actions and public sector performance. Theoretical relationships were tested empirically through a study carried out on 141 senior level managers in the public sector of Kenya. This study demonstrates how government departments that adopt PC practices obtain better performance. Subject of benchmarking on PC and new results measurement tools have not been exhaustively examined. Further direction of investigation is proposed considering this aspect. The research ascertains practices that have a favourable effect on performance. The conceptualisation of PC represents a theoretical innovation. This scale can be useful in other PC embracing organisations. The research signifies that these procedures have a positive consequence on public sector performance.

This study investigates the effect of organisational justice (OJ) on organisational commitment (OC) and job satisfaction (JS) with interactive effect of Islamic work ethics (IWE). The questionnaires were used to collect the data from 400 employees in the banking industry of Pakistan. The results indicate that the three dimensions of OJ (e.g., procedural, distributive and interactional justice) and IWE promote employees' OC and JS. In addition, results confirm the interactive effect of IWE between justice dimensions and work outcomes. The study provides practical implications for managers and recommends several future directions for academics and practitioners.

Aims This study aimed to investigate where acidification occurred in soil profiles of Guizhou tea gardens, and the influence of acidification on the availability of soil mineral elements in order to inform soil nutrient management and improvement practices in tea gardens. Methods The acidification characteristics were investigated in soils from plantations grown for various numbers of years and across different soil layer profiles. Moreover, the pH buffering capacities (pHBC) of soils were evaluated and changes of mineral elements’ contents due to soil acidification were explored. Key results With increased tea plantation age, the acidification rate of 0–20-cm soil layers reached 0.025pH unit/year. Soil acidification extended from the surface layer downwards through profiles, while the pH of entire soil layers were Conclusions Soil acidification gradually increased downward from the surface and soil minerals were lost in acidic environments, while the acid buffering capacity was reduced. Implications These results suggest that organic fertilisers and trace elements should be supplemented as needed in the management of tea gardens to achieve long-term stability of quality and yields.

International efforts to avoid dangerous climate change have historically focused on reducing energy-related CO2emissions from countries with either the largest economies (e.g. the EU and the USA) and/or the largest populations (e.g. China and India). However, in recent years, emissions have surged among a different and much less-examined group of countries, raising concerns that a next generation of high-emitting economies will obviate current mitigation targets. Here, we analyse the trends and drivers of emissions in each of the 59 countries where emissions in 2010–2018 grew faster than the global average (excluding China and India), project their emissions under a range of longer-term energy scenarios and estimate the costs of decarbonization pathways. Total emissions from these ‘emerging emitters’ reach as much as 7.5 GtCO2/year in the baseline 2.5° scenario—substantially greater than the emissions from these regions in previously published scenarios that would limit warming to 1.5°C or even 2°C. Such unanticipated emissions would in turn require non-emitting energy deployment from all sectors within these emerging emitters, and faster and deeper reductions in emissions from other countries to meet international climate goals. Moreover, the annual costs of keeping emissions at the low level are in many cases 0.2%–4.1% of countries’ gross domestic production, pointing to potential trade-offs with poverty-reduction goals and/or the need for economic support and low-carbon technology transfer from historically high-emitting countries. Our results thus highlight the critical importance of ramping up mitigation efforts in countries that to this point have been largely ignored.The 59 emerging emitters with faster-than-average growing emissions recently will continue surging the emissions. From costs perspective, the ambitious scenarios to reach the global 1.5°C target are unlikely to be achieved in these countries without substantial further decreases in the costs of non-emitting energy deployment or economic support and low-carbon technology transfer from historically high-emitting countries.

The objective of this work is the study of boron trifluoride etherate (C4H10BF3O, a kind of Lewis acid) as a catalyst to depolymerise coal. Coliquefaction of coal and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) using C4H10BF3O with different weight ratio of coal and LDPE were carried out at 370°C. The similar coliquefaction using C4H10BF3O at 200°C, and the similar coliquefaction using ammonium molybdate [(NH4)2MoO4] as catalyst at 370°C were performed for comparison. The result indicates that C4H10BF3O plays a significant role in depolymerisation of coal at 370°C other than 200°C, and oil yield increased approximately 30% when the temperature increased from 200°C to 370°C. The main reason is that coal has a deeper level of cracking at higher temperature. The hexane soluble, hexane insoluble-tetrahydrofuran (THF) soluble and residue organic parts after coliquefaction were analysed by molecular weight, FT-IR, 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR to get confirmatory results. [Received: April 29, 2013; Accepted: November 8, 2013]