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Some studies suggest that childhood can affect some later outcomes. This cross-sectional study of the first phase of the Ardakan Cohort Study on Aging (ACSA) on 5,197 individuals examined the effects of childhood socioeconomic and health on aging well. Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) was measured using parents' education and self-expressed family's financial status. Quality of Life (SF-12), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), WHO well-being scale, and self-reported health questionnaire were used. All data, including childhood experiences, was collected at a single time point. Poor childhood health was associated with lower well-being, life satisfaction, and mental quality of life (OR: .53, p = .032, OR: 0.49, p = .019, and β: -3.51, p = .008, respectively). The family's financial status during childhood was associated with the mental and physical quality of life, satisfaction, well-being, and health (all p < .05). Fathers and mothers who had some level of education increased the odds of being healthy by 1.20 and 1.49 times, respectively. Childhood circumstances affect older adults' health and social conditions. Policies to improve childhood health and SES should be prioritized., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: The last decade saw the emergence of a new significant migration corridor due to the mass migration of Venezuelans to neighboring countries in South America. Since 2018, Brazil became the third host country of Venezuelan displaced populations. Little is known about how migratory processes affect needs, access to social programs, and public health services of migrant women. The goal of this study is to shed light on the socio-economic profile, living conditions, and use of health services of Venezuelan migrant women in two main reception cities in Brazil., Methods: A survey was conducted using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) in the cities of Boa Vista (Roraima), and Manaus (Amazonas). The study included 2012 Venezuelan migrant women aged between 15 and 49 years old who migrated from Venezuela to Brazil between 2018 and 2021. Relative prevalence was calculated, and the χ 2 test was used to analyse the homogeneity of proportions. All analyses considered the complex sampling., Results: The main reasons for migrating relate to difficulties obtaining food (54%) and accessing health services (37.8%) in their country of origin. They were young and mixed race (65.7%) and had high school education (69.9%). In Manaus, 3.7% of the interviewees declared that they had no family income in the last month, while in Boa Vista, it was higher (66.2%) (p-value < 0.001). Almost one-third of them sought health care in the last 15 days, and 95% of them received care. The residents of Boa Vista arrived more recently and family income and access to paid work improved with time of residence in Brazil., Conclusions: Given the increasing flow of Venezuelan migrants crossing to Brazil, a reception system was established for the provision of food, shelter, access to health services, and income transfer programs to migrants. This was the case despite high unemployment and poverty levels and income inequality, particularly in the city of Boa Vista. However, the majority had legal migrant status and had access to the public and universal healthcare system in Brazil (SUS). The use of the SUS was similar in both cities, acting as a buffer for the differences in opportunities offered., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: This study aims to expand on the concept of peace and health by drawing from Keynes' theory of the economic consequences of peace, in light of the global pandemic experienced in 2020 due to COVID&#95;19., Methods: In this paper, I will elaborate on the concept of 'security', as an indicator of peace in the time of biological shocks, in order to expand the definition of Keynesian precautionary motivation. This puts forth a new monetary policy model developed to make contributions to achieving global peace. In so doing, I will calculate the optimal growth rate of discount rate through utilizing the Global Peace Index (GPI), adjusted by the Case Fatality Risk (CFR) of COVID-19 in a dynamic shopping time monetary model. This analysis is comprised of the top 15 GDP countries as well as the 10 most and least peaceful countries in 2020., Results: The results indicate that households in more peaceful and healthy countries tend to hold less money compared to those in less peaceful and healthy countries. Besides, the discount rate needs to be reduced due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the decrease in the level of peace in the economy., Conclusion: Insofar as the imposition of fines through international legal circles on countries with an insignificant health and peace policy will increase the cost of liquidity, other alternative methods of financing will be affor dable for the countries., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Environmental protection is a shared task among nations. In pursuit of its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, China has implemented more robust energy-saving targets. This study utilizes panel data from 288 Chinese cities spanning from 2006 to 2020 to examine the policy effects of energy-saving targets on carbon neutrality. The findings reveal that (1) energy-saving targets positively impact carbon substitution, resulting in reduced carbon emissions and facilitating the progress towards carbon neutrality through three primary channels: energy governance, energy production, and energy consumption. (2) The influence of energy-saving targets on carbon neutrality exhibits a significant spatial spillover effect, driven primarily by the reduction in carbon emissions, although the spatial spillover effect of carbon substitution is relatively limited. The collaboration between the government and enterprises plays a crucial role in achieving carbon neutrality, while the engagement of the general public is yet to be fully realized. (3) However, the inadequacy of enhancing carbon neutrality through energy-saving targets lies in the compulsory emissions reduction behavior at the expense of sacrificing some economic benefits in cities that overachieve energy-saving targets. This undermines the coordinated development of ecology and economy. Therefore, it is recommended to establish a policy implementation monitoring system to ensure the scientific basis of policy objectives, enhance the level of green technology innovation, accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises, and establish a synergistic mechanism that involves multiple stakeholders., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Nordic register data are not collected for research purposes, and various dimensions of working conditions are typically missing in register-based research. One way to address the issue of missing information on the work environment in register data is to utilize a job exposure matrix (JEM). The purpose of this paper is to document and provide access to a Mechanical Job Exposure Matrix (JEM) and a validated Occupational Mechanical Job Exposure Index based on the constructed JEM, allowing researchers to utilize the index in register-based research. The JEM and the Occupational Mechanical Job Exposure Index were created using data from five nationwide Surveys of Living Conditions on work environment conducted in Norway in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016, and 2019, encompassing a total of 43,977 respondents. The index can be merged to register data using occupational codes (STYRK-98) and gender, which is information collected by the registries. The ultimate aim of constructing the index was to create a comprehensive measure of mechanical job exposures for use in future analyses of Norwegian register data., Data Description: This paper provides the scripts documenting the construction of the Mechanical Job Exposure Matrix (JEM) and the Occupational Mechanical Job Exposure Index, as well as a data file including the matrix and the index. A script for merging the matrix and index to register data is also provided., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In many species, establishing and maintaining a territory is critical to survival and reproduction, and an animal's ability to do so is strongly influenced by the presence and density of competitors. Here we manipulate social conditions to study the alternative reproductive tactics displayed by genetically identical, age-matched laboratory mice competing for territories under ecologically realistic social environmental conditions. We introduced adult males and females of the laboratory mouse strain C57BL/6J into a large, outdoor field enclosure containing defendable resource zones under one of two social conditions. We first created a low-density social environment, such that the number of available territories exceeded the number of males. After males established stable territories, we introduced a pulse of intruder males and observed the resulting defensive and invasive tactics employed. In response to this change in social environment, males with large territories invested more in patrolling but were less effective at excluding intruder males as compared with males with small territories. Intruding males failed to establish territories and displayed an alternative tactic featuring greater exploration as compared with genetically identical territorial males. Alternative tactics did not lead to equal reproductive success-males that acquired territories experienced greater survival and had greater access to females.

Exertional heatstroke (EHS), a severe form of exertional heat illness (EHI), is the third leading cause of death in athletes; thus, early detection and prevention of EHI can help prevent EHS, which is a life-threatening condition. This study aimed to clarify the association between the cognizance of experiencing EHI and living conditions and specific EHI symptoms among collegiate athletes. This study was conducted in October 2022 by administering a questionnaire to 237 male collegiate athletes. Of the 215 (90.7%) respondents, 197 (91.6%) provided valid responses; among them, 88 (44.7%) responded they had experienced EHI, while 109 (55.3%) had not. A history of medical examinations due to EHI, having experienced headaches during summer activities, and having read the EHI manual were factors indicating cognizance of EHI. The number of times meals containing a staple food, main dish, and side dish were eaten in a day was a factor in preventing EHI. Early detection of EHI is important for its prevention, and it is important that athletes themselves have knowledge of symptoms and can correctly self-diagnose EHI. Emphasizing the potential of a well-balanced dietary intake has the potential to prevent EHI is crucial.

China is facing challenges to tackle the threat of climate change while reducing social inequality. Poverty eradication requires improvement in the living conditions of low-income households, which leads in turn to higher carbon footprints and may undermine the efforts of climate change mitigation. Previous studies have assessed the climate impacts of poverty eradication, but few have quantified how the additional carbon emissions of poverty eradication are shared at the subnational level in China and the impact on China's climate targets. We investigated the recent trend of carbon footprint inequality in China's provinces and estimated the climate burden of different poverty reduction schemes, measured by increased carbon emissions. The results indicate that poverty eradication will not impede the achievement of national climate targets, with an average annual household carbon footprint increase of 0.1%-1.2%. However, the carbon emissions growth in less developed provinces can be 4.0%, five times that in wealthy regions. Less developed regions suffer a greater climate burden because of poverty eradication, which may offset carbon reduction efforts. Therefore, interregional collaboration is needed to coordinate inequality reduction with investments in low-carbon trajectories in all provinces., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Child stunting (chronic undernutrition) is a major public health concern in low- and middle-income countries. In Rwanda, an estimated 33% of children are affected. This study investigated the household living conditions and the impact of gender-related decision-making on child stunting. The findings contribute to ongoing discussion on this critical public health issue. In December 2021, a population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Rwanda's Northern Province; 601 women with children aged 1-36 months were included. Stunting was assessed using low height-for-age criteria. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was used to determine household socioeconomic status. Researcher-designed questionnaires evaluated gender-related factors such as social support and household decision-making. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified risk factor patterns. Six hundred and one children were included in the study; 27.1% (n = 163) were diagnosed as stunted; there was a higher prevalence of stunting in boys (60.1%) than girls (39.9%; p<0.001). The MPI was 0.265 with no significant difference between households with stunted children (MPI, 0.263; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.216-0.310) and non-stunted children (MPI, 0.265; 95% CI, 0.237-0.293). Most households reported a lack of adequate housing (78.9%), electricity (63.0%), good water sources (58.7%), and proper toilets (57.1%). Male-headed households dominated (92% vs. 8.0%; p = 0.018), and women often shared decision-making with their partners. However, 26.4% of women reported forced sexual intercourse within marriage (Odds Ratio [OR] 1.81; 95% CI, 1.15-2.85). Lack of support during illness ([OR], 1.93; 95% CI, 1.13-3.28) and absence of personal guidance (OR, 2.44; 95% CI, 1.41-4.26) were significantly associated with child stunting. Poverty contributes to child stunting in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Limited social support and women's lack of decision-making power in the household increase stunting rates. Interventions should empower women and address the broader social and economic context to promote both women's and children's health., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Utumatwishima et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study examines the relationship between climate change vulnerability and geopolitical risk using data on 42 countries from 1995 to 2021. Utilising two distinct indices, the climate vulnerability index (CVI) and the country-specific geopolitical risk (CGPR) indices, we find that countries with high vulnerability to climate change are more likely to experience geopolitical conflicts. Further analysis reveals that country-level overall economic, social, and governance (ESG) readiness significantly mitigates this detrimental effect. This moderation is mainly attributed to the social and governance readiness measures. Additional tests indicate that the mitigating role of ESG is more pronounced for countries with high institutional governance. These results remain resilient through a set of endogeneity tests using matched samples of countries generated through propensity score matching (PSM) estimation. Our findings suggest that addressing climate vulnerability is crucial to promoting global peace and geopolitical stability., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing interest There is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Do geopolitical conflicts matter for the environmental, social, governance (ESG) and overall ESG performance of firms? We answer this question by studying the impact of geopolitical conflict of a country on the ESG performance, separately and collectively, of firms of that country. We use data from Refinitiv and UCDP/PRIO (Uppsala Conflict Data Program/International Peace Research Institute, Oslo) databases for the period from 2002 to 2021 for 79 countries and we use fixed effects regression as our main methodology. We find that if a country is in a geopolitical conflict, their firms are impacted in the form of lower E, S and G performance and overall ESG performance, with stronger effects for developed countries. This comes on top of the direct costs of geopolitical conflicts. Our results are robust to country, year and firm fixed effects as well as robust to endogeneity as we use Lewbel (2012) estimator to eliminate any chances of endogeneity. We provide first evidence on this topic and it has geopolitical and socioeconomical implications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We would like to declare there is no conflict of interest in submitting this paper entitled Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance of Firms in the Era of Conflicts.” for potential publication in the Journal of Environmental Management., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Deepening the carbon market allocation reform is a strong support for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. China has been piloting carbon trading in batches since 2013. However, there is little literature on whether and how carbon emission trading (CET) improves total factor carbon emission efficiency (TFCEE). To fill this gap, this study first calculates urban TFCEE using an extended Epsilon-based model and then designs a quasi-natural experiment based on causal inference. The staggered DID model is adopted to investigate the impact of CET pilot policies on urban TFCEE and its impact mechanism. Our results show that (1) the CET policy has a significant promoting effect on TFCEE in pilot cities, and this conclusion is reconfirmed by adopting robustness tests. (2) The mediating effect models are employed to confirm the mediating role of green technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and resource allocation efficiency in CET policy promoting regional TFCEE. (3) The heterogeneity test of CET policy depicts a considerable positive impact on TFCEE in cities with abundant resources. Eastern and developed cities are more likely to experience better carbon efficiency promotion through this policy than other cities. This study provides evidence for the important role of CET in promoting the development of a low-carbon economy and carbon neutrality., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

As an efficient long-term carbon sink, marine carbon sinks and the associated carbon sink effects, technology, accounting and trading market construction warrant investigation across various disciplines. However, information on the interrelationships and their development over time with respect to the research conducted in China is limited, affecting the ability to drive research directions and optimize continued advancement in this field. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to understand the current situation of marine carbon sink research in China to promote a deeper level of scientific development based on the research literature related to marine blue carbon sinks in the core databases of the China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI) and Web of Science (WOS). We used bibliometric tools in the Citespace software to quantitatively compare and analyse the main characteristics of marine blue carbon sink research including publication volume, time, journals, authors and institutions. We also explored the popular research topics, frontier areas, and theme evolution trends through keyword clustering and emergent and co-occurring knowledge maps. The key recommended research directions for ocean carbon sinks are: (1) to promote the unified carbon sink market research of land and sea integration through multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research; (2) to achieve new breakthroughs in ocean carbon sinks with the support of coastal wetlands and seawater offshore aquaculture environments; (3) to explore the protection provided by ocean carbon sinks with a comprehensive eco-compensation mechanism; (4) to improve the application of marine carbon sinks by taking the theory and technological innovation research related to marine carbon sinks as the guide. Ultimately, our work helps characterise the current situation of marine carbon sink research, promote the research in this field to a deeper level of development and provide reference for subsequent scholars to carry out related research., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study utilizes panel data from 30 provinces in mainland China from 2011 to 2020 to investigate the impact of carbon-neutral development on economic high-quality development by constructing an economic high-quality development index and a carbon-neutral development index. Firstly, the study examines the effects of carbon-neutral development on economic high-quality development using baseline regression and spatial Durbin regression. The results indicate that carbon-neutral development has a positive direct effect on economic high-quality growth, but there are negative spatial spillover effects. Secondly, this study employs total factor productivity (TFP) as an intermediate variable in the mediation model regression. The findings demonstrate that carbon-neutral development significantly improves TFP, and the significant improvement in TFP promotes high-quality economic growth. Lastly, the study conducts regional heterogeneity analysis and finds a significant promoting effect of carbon-neutral development on economic high-quality development in the eastern and central regions of China, while it is not significant in the western region. Therefore, it is recommended that China, in the process of achieving carbon-neutral growth, consider the geographical connections between different regions to prevent negative spillover effects. Additionally, regional heterogeneity should be taken into account when formulating relevant policies to promote economic high-quality development., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Cui et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

While necessary parts of the puzzle, cultural technologies are insufficient to explain peace. They are a form of second-order cooperation - a cooperative interaction designed to incentivize first-order cooperation. We propose an explanation for peacemaking cultural technologies, and therefore peace, based on the reputational incentives for second-order cooperation.

Glowacki defines peace as harmonious relationships between groups maintained without the threat of violence, where groups can be anything from families to nation states. However, defining such contentious concepts like "peace" and "groups" is a difficult task, and we discuss the implications of Glowacki's definitions for understanding intergroup relationships and their evolutionary history.

The capacities required for both peace and war predate 100,000 years ago in the genus Homo are deeply entangled in the modes by which humans physically and perceptually construct their worlds and communities, and may not be sufficiently captured by economic models.

Glowacki recognizes the importance of norms in enabling war and peace, but does not focus on the cultural evolutionary mechanisms by which these norms are maintained. We highlight how group-structured cultural selection shapes the scale and nature of peaceful intergroup interactions. The mechanistic perspective reveals that there are many more cases of peaceful intergroup relations than the current account implies.

Peace is a hallmark of human societies. However, certain ant species engage in long-term intergroup resource sharing, which is remarkably similar to peace among human groups. We discuss how individual and group payoff distributions are affected by kinship, dispersal, and age structure; the challenges of diagnosing peace; and the benefits of comparing convergent complex behaviours in disparate taxa.

Glowacki's work meshes well with our view of human nature as having evolved to use culture to improve survival and reproduction. Peace is a cultural achievement, requiring advances in social organization and control, including leaders who can implement policies to benefit the group, third-party mediation, and intergroup cooperation. Cultural advances shift intergroup interactions from negative-sum (war) to positive-sum (trade).

Peace, the article shows, is achieved by culturally evolved institutions that incentivize positive-sum relationships. We propose that this insight has important consequences for the design of human social cognition. Cues that signal the existence of such institutions should play a prominent role in detecting group membership. We show how this accounts for previous findings and suggest avenues for future research.

If group norms and decisions foster peace, then understanding how norms and decisions arise becomes important. Here, we suggest that neither norms nor other forms of group-based decision making (such as offering restitution) can be adequately understood without simultaneously considering (i) what individual psychologies are doing and (ii) the dynamics these psychologies produce when interacting with each other.

Based on evidence of selection against alpha-male behavior in the earliest Homo sapiens , I suggest that by 300,000 ya (years ago) language would have been sufficiently sophisticated to contribute to peacemaking between groups. Language also influenced the social landscape of peace and war, and groups' ability to form coalitions.

I challenge the idea by Glowacki that "strong sanctions" such as fines, physical punishment, or execution are more effective in promoting peace than "weak punishments" like social rejection. Reviewing evidence that social rejection can have significant social and psychological costs for norm violators, I propose that social rejection can serve as a powerful reputational sanction in fostering peace in society.

The 30 commentators are largely sympathetic to the account I develop for the origins of peace in humans, though many suggest that peace has deeper roots and that humans share characteristics of peace with other species. Multiple commentators propose how to extend my framework or focus on the cognitive and psychological prerequisites for peace. In my reply, I discuss these considerations and further my account of why I think peace as defined here was unlikely prior to behavioral modernity which emerged approximately 100,000 years ago. In general, there seems to be a consensus that moving the debate beyond "war versus peace" in human evolution and instead focusing on the conditions that enable war or peace is a fruitful direction for the field to take.

Glowacki argues that the human capacity for peace emerged 100,000 years ago, and that the logic of peace is such that the traits and technologies that enable peace are the same that are used to wage war. In my commentary I raise some concerns about these points as well as about Glowacki's understanding of peace.

While effective institutional practices are critical for the evolution of peace certain factors deter their effectiveness. In-group and out-group dynamics may make peace difficult between culturally distinct groups. Critical ecological conditions often lead to intractable conflict over resources. And within group conflicts of interest most prominently between generations may inhibit effective peace making.

By focusing on peace, Glowacki provides a fresh perspective on warfare. Why did humans evolve peace? Other animals aggregate peacefully when resources are not economically defendable. The human capacity for peace may arise from two key factors: Multilevel societies and psychology shaped by within-group exchanges, which may have begun when tools enabled hominins to extract foods, including tubers and roots.

Glowacki's detailed account of small-scale societies' endogenously emerging tendencies to oscillate between phases of peace and war highlights a need for understanding better the incentives governing "internal" policing for "external" peacekeeping. Here, I sketch some of these incentives and point out a resulting dilemma which Glowacki's account leaves unresolved for the time being.

We take issue with Glowacki's assumption that intergroup relations are characterized by positive-sum interactions and suggest to include negative-sum interactions, and between-group independence. As such, peace may be better defined as the absence of negative-sum interactions. Rather than being a consequence of cooperation, peace emerges as a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for positive (in)direct reciprocity between groups that, in turn, is key to social identities and cultural complexity.

We elaborate on Glowacki's claim that humans are more capable of establishing peace than other mammals. We present three aspects suggesting caution. First, the social capabilities of nonhuman primates should not be underestimated. Second, the effect of these capabilities on peace establishment is nonmonotonous. Third, defining peace by human-centered values introduces a fallacy.

Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest We have no Conflicts of interest to declare.

Competing Interests: We declare no competing interests. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the positions of the respective organisations.

Climate change issues present substantial obstacles to the global community's stability and humanity's overall welfare. Reducing carbon emissions is crucial in attaining environmental sustainability and addressing the consequences of SDG 13 (climate actions). The G7 nations, representing some of the largest economies globally and significantly contributing to global carbon emissions, have achieved certain advancements in mitigating their carbon footprint. Nevertheless, the attainment of carbon neutrality continues to pose a substantial obstacle. This study examines the mechanisms leading to environmental sustainability in G7 economies, explicitly emphasizing the contribution of research and development (R&D) toward attaining carbon neutrality. The present study utilizes G7 data from 1990 to 2020 to conduct an empirical analysis employing a cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CSARDL) panel model. The primary objective of this investigation is to examine the influence of R&D expenditure (R&DE) on carbon emissions metric ton (CO2Mt). Furthermore, this study investigates the current state of the EKC in the economies of the G7 nations, as well as the influence of renewable energy (RE) and non-renewable energy (NRE) on CO2Mt. The results suggest that R&DE is critical in mitigating CO2Mt and attaining carbon neutrality. The study also validates the EKC implies a negative and non-linear relationship between growth and CO2Mt. Moreover, renewable and non-renewable energy validate their respective negative and positive effects on CO2Mt. The findings of our study offer valuable insights for policymakers in the G7 nations, aiding them in developing effective regulatory measures for achieving carbon neutrality goals., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The excessive use of fossil energy in industrialization has caused the frequent occurrence of global warming and environmental pollution issues, which seriously threaten the sustainable social and economic development of South Korea and other countries. In response to the international community's call to effectively address climate change, South Korea has announced achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. In this context, this paper takes the carbon emission of South Korea from 2016 to 2021 as a sample and focuses on using the GM(1,1) model to predict the carbon emission change trajectory of South Korea in the process of achieving carbon neutrality. The results show: first, in the process of carbon neutrality, South Korea's carbon emissions show a downward trend, with an average annual rate of 2.34%. Second, by 2030, carbon emissions will decline to 502.34 Mt CO 2 e, down about 26.79% from the 2018 peak. By 2050, South Korea's carbon emissions will decline to 312.65 Mt CO 2 e, down about 54.44% from the 2018 peak. Third, it is difficult for South Korea to achieve its carbon neutrality target by 2050 based solely on its forest carbon sink storage capacity. Therefore, this study is expected to provide a reference for improving the carbon neutrality promotion strategy in South Korea and strengthening the construction of relevant systems of carbon neutrality, and so can provide some reference for other countries, including China, to improve policy design to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the global economy., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We plan to empirically study the assessment of scientific papers within the framework of the anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic. This study is a follow-up study which is intended to answer open questions from the previous study with the same topic Bornmann (2021) and Bornmann (2023). The previous and follow-up studies address a central question in research evaluation: does bibliometrics create the social order in science it is designed to measure or does bibliometrics reflect the given social order (which is dependent on the intrinsic quality of research)? If bibliometrics creates the social order, it can be interpreted as an anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic. In the planned study, we shall undertake a survey of corresponding authors with an available email address in the Web of Science database. The authors are asked to assess the quality of articles that they cited in previous papers. The authors are randomly assigned to different experimental settings in which they receive (or not) citation information or a numerical access code to enter the survey. The control group will not receive any further numerical information. In the statistical analyses, we estimate how (strongly) the quality assessments of the cited papers are adjusted by the respondents to the anchor value (citation counts or access code). Thus, we are interested in whether possible adjustments in the assessments can not only be produced by quality-related information (citation counts), but also by numbers that are not related to quality, i.e. the access code. Strong effects of the anchors would mean that bibliometrics (or any other number) create the social order they are supposed to measure., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Bornmann, Ganser. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objectives: Although the association between adverse childhood conditions and health in later life has been relatively well established, little is known about how and through which mechanism this association develops. Building on the developmental adaptation model (Martin & Martin, 2002), the present study investigates the effects of distal and proximal influences on successful aging (SA)., Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of 475 adults aged 50 and above (Mean age = 72.13, SD  = 10.46). SA was measured based on Rowe and Kahn's successful aging criteria model (1997) and an SA operationalization based on a number of multidimensional biopsychosocial indicators, including no disease and disability, active engagement with life, high physical and cognitive functioning, psychological well-being, life satisfaction and a one-item subjective SA question., Results: Parental death had no direct effect on SA (β = .03, p = .629), whereas education had (β = .39, p < .001). Furthermore, perceived income level and social conditions were identified as two sequential mediators between both education and SA; and parental death and SA., Conclusions: The findings suggest that both early life and current factors contribute to explaining SA in a variety of ways.

In order to reduce environmental deterioration and promote sustainable growth, green innovation-which includes ecologically friendly technology and practices-has become a top priority of policymakers worldwide. This research investigates how formal and informal finance affects green innovation in highly polluted high, middle-, and low-income economies, using data spanning from 2007 to 2021. For analyzing the empirical link between formal finance, informal finance, and green innovation, we have employed the 2SLS and GMM estimation techniques. The primary estimates of the analysis suggest that formal and informal funding methods significantly impact environment-related technologies in high-income and middle- and low-income nations. Moreover, the GDP, carbon emissions, trade openness, human capital, research and development, financial stability, and digital finance are essential factors in promoting environment-related technologies in high-, middle-, and low-income nations, respectively. The policymakers in both groups of countries should foster collaboration between the formal and informal sectors to promote green innovations, which is essential for achieving sustainable development goals., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Urbanization and the concentration of energy-consuming economic activities make cities responsible for more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The European Cities Mission launched a call in September 2021 to set out on a path towards "100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030". A very large and diverse sample of 344 candidate cities in 35 countries (a subset of the 362 considered eligible to participate in the Cities Mission) was used to conduct this timely research aimed at identifying the main dimensions on which cities are working to achieve a smart and sustainable transition. The research focused on five main dimensions: local climate planning, climate emergency declarations, participation in networks, international projects and competitions. Results show that only 20 (5.8%) cities have no experience in any of them, while there are 18 (5.2%) cities that have in their background activities that fall under all dimensions. Moreover, networking is the most important dimension, among the five analysed, for cities applying for this Mission, involving 309 cities (approximately 90% of the sample). This is followed by local climate planning, involving 275 cities (80%) and city participation in international projects, involving 152 cities (44%). Cities that have declared a climate emergency are less than a fifth of the sample and are very unevenly distributed in only 37.1% of the countries represented (interestingly, all the UK cities in the sample). Similarly, only 49 cities (14.2%) have received international awards. The results provide insights into the main efforts currently being made by cities to engage in the transition to climate neutrality and may be useful to practitioners, scholars and policy-makers at all levels to improve their knowledge of the steps they need to take to support this process and amplify its scope., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Pro-environmental behavior has a significant role to play in environmental sustainability. There has been little research done on environmental higher education-renewable energy consumption nexus. This study examines the impact of environmental higher education on renewable energy consumption in China from 1997 to 2021. The ARDL results show that higher environmental education enhances renewable energy consumption in long run. Findings also show that internet usage and economic development encourage renewable energy consumption in the long run. However, financial development and internet usage have a short-term impact on renewable energy consumption in China. The QARDL estimates are robust, and the finding shows that environmental higher education has a positive impact on renewable energy consumption in short and long run at higher quantiles. The empirical findings have environmental implications for China in terms of achieving long-term environmental sustainability by embracing patterns of pro-environmental behavior., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Anthropogenic global warming strategies on carbon mitigation are driven by encouraging green innovation and using carbon taxes, yet an empirical model to validate this is non-existing. Moreover, the existing stochastic effects by regression on population, wealth, and technology (STIRPAT) model has been found to lack policy tools on taxes and institutions that cut carbon emissions. This study amends the STIRPAT model with environmental technology, environmental taxes, and strong institutional frameworks to create a new model STIRPART(stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, regulation, and technology) to understand the factors impacting carbon pollution using the emerging 7 economies. Using data from 2000 to 2020, the Driscoll-Kraay fixed effects are employed in this analysis to conduct evidential tests of the impacts of environmental policies, eco-friendly innovations, and strong institutions. The outcomes indicate that environmental technology, environmental taxation, and institution quality decrease E7's carbon emissions by 0.170%, 0.080%, and 0.016%, respectively. It is recommended that E7 policymakers should adopt the STIRPART postulate as the theoretical basis for policies favoring environmental sustainability. The key contribution is the amendment of the STIRPAT model and the enhancement of the market-based mechanisms, such as patents, strong institutions, and carbon taxes, to enable environmental policy to be carried out sustainably and cost-effectively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A healthy diet can help to prevent or manage many important conditions and diseases, particularly obesity, malnutrition, and diabetes. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence and smartphone technologies have enabled applications to conduct automatic nutritional assessment from meal images, providing a convenient, efficient, and accurate method for continuous diet evaluation. We now extend the goFOOD TM automatic system to perform food segmentation, recognition, volume, as well as calorie and macro-nutrient estimation from single images that are captured by a smartphone. In order to assess our system's performance, we conducted a feasibility study with 50 participants from Switzerland. We recorded their meals for one day and then dietitians carried out a 24 h recall. We retrospectively analysed the collected images to assess the nutritional content of the meals. By comparing our results with the dietitians' estimations, we demonstrated that the newly introduced system has comparable energy and macronutrient estimation performance with the previous method; however, it only requires a single image instead of two. The system can be applied in a real-life scenarios, and it can be easily used to assess dietary intake. This system could help individuals gain a better understanding of their dietary consumption. Additionally, it could serve as a valuable resource for dietitians, and could contribute to nutritional research.

High carbon emission efficiency is an important guarantee for achieving the goals of "carbon peaking" by 2030 and "carbon neutrality" by 2060. Based on the panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2018, the spatial difference-in-difference model is used to empirically test the spatial spillover effect of the opening of high-speed rail (HSR) on urban total factor carbon emission efficiency (TFCEE). The results show that the spatial correlation of TFCEE between regions is positive, and the opening of HSR has a significant positive spatial spillover effect on TFCEE. The conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. We further employ a mediating effects model to verify that green technology innovation and labour resource mismatch are two important channels of influence for the opening of HSR to improve TFCEE. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the opening of HSR significantly promotes the higher development level and the provincial capital TFCEE., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

China is currently developing a green economy, and improving carbon productivity (CAP) is an important part of this process. The current study applied a minimum distance to strong efficient frontier (MinDS) model to measure China's CAP. The Dagum Gini coefficient and kernel density estimation methods were further used to reveal its spatial differences and dynamic evolution, while the coefficient of variation and spatial convergence models were employed to examine its convergence characteristics. The results showed significant spatial differences in China's CAP, with primarily high and low spatial distribution characteristics in the east and west, respectively. Between-regional differences were the main sources of the overall differences. Moreover, the differences between overall, eastern, central, and western regions of China all exhibited a widening trend. Although none showed σ convergence, all had significant absolute β spatial convergence and conditional β spatial convergence characteristics. Collectively, the findings of this study objectively reflect the real level, distribution characteristics, and spatial convergence characteristics of CAP in China as a whole and in each region, while also providing a reference basis for achieving peak carbon neutrality., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)