148 research outputs found
Predictors of green purchase intention toward eco-innovation and green products: Evidence from Taiwan
ABSTRACT
Recently, purchasing intention towards green products has gained global
attention due to their extensive use and high environmental issues.
Thus, the current article investigates environmental concern, environmental
knowledge, green product, and eco-innovation influence on
the green purchase intention of green products in Taiwan industry. The
research also examines the mediating role of consumers’ attention
among environmental concerns environmental knowledge, green
products eco-innovation, and green purchase intention. The article
used questionnaires to collect the primary data from the sampled
population. To examine the hypothesis, the PLS methodology was
adopted. The results indicated that environmental concern, environmental
knowledge, green product, and eco-innovation have a positive
association with green purchase intention. The findings also exposed
that consumer attention significantly and positively mediates environmental
concern, environmental knowledge, green product, eco-innovation,
and green purchase intention. The paper also proposed some
guidelines to the practitioners which help them in the development of
green-related policies to increase purchase intention
Green finance, renewable energy investment, and environmental protection: empirical evidence from B.R.I.C.S. countries
Environmental degradation has become a severe concern for the
globe; therefore, policymakers in emerging economies are trying to
meet the environmental standards. Nowadays, economies have
shifted their energy pattern from non-renewable to renewable
energy (R.E.U.), but its cost is too high. Undoubtedly, the financial
sector also performs well in facilitating such green activities.
Therefore, the current study investigates the role of R.E.U. and
green finance in environmental quality and collects the data for
B.R.I.C.S. economies from 2000 to 2018. The study uses quantile
regressions and other advanced techniques to deal with the problems
of cross-sectional dependence (C.S.D.) and heterogeneity. The
estimated outcomes show that green finance, R.E.U. consumption,
and technical innovations perform well in securing the environment
by reducing carbon emissions. Likewise, the environmental
quality in selected economies is deteriorating due to the rise in
non-R.E.U. consumption, economic progress, F.D.I., and trade openness.
Therefore, it is time to reshape the local, national and regional
growth policies concerning a green investment that can secure our
environment. Also, this study proposes future pathways for green
finance and other factors relevant to a sustainable environment
Impact of eco-innovation and sustainable tourism growth on the environmental degradation: the case of China
Climate complexities and global warming have made sustainable
development a customary topic in environmental literature. Since
then, various diggings have been happening in academia. Amongst
them tourism and eco-innovation receives the heap due to its contribution
to economic development. The study, thereby, examines
the impact of tourism, economic growth and eco-innovation on
environmental degradation in China. The secondary data has been
extracted from World Development Indicators (WDI) database from
1988 to 2020. The nexus among the variables have been examined
using Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (NARDL) model.
Findings reveal that international tourism receipts, expenditures and
number of tourist arrival, GDP, national income and inflation are
positively correlated with environmental degradation, while sustainability-
oriented eco-innovation is related negatively in case of China.
This study has provided help to the regulators while developing
new policies regarding environmental degradation by controlling
emissions from economic and tourism development and using sustainability-
oriented eco-innovation
Examining consumers’ adoption of wearable healthcare technology: The role of health attributes
With the advancement of information technology, wearable healthcare technology has emerged as one of the promising technologies to improve the wellbeing of individuals. However, the adoption of wearable healthcare technology has lagged when compared to other well-established durable technology products, such as smartphones and tablets, because of the inadequate knowledge of the antecedents of adoption intention. The aim of this paper is to address an identified gap in the literature by empirically testing a theoretical model for examining the impact of consumers’ health beliefs, health information accuracy, and the privacy protection of wearable healthcare technology on perceived usefulness. Importantly, this study also examines the influences of perceived usefulness, consumer innovativeness, and reference group influence on the adoption intention of wearable healthcare technology. The model seeks to enhance understanding of the influential factors in adopting wearable healthcare technology. Finally, suggestions for future research for the empirical investigation of the model are provided
COVID-19 Crisis: Exploring Community of Inquiry in Online Learning for Sub-Degree Students
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a tremendous impact on the pedagogy and learning experience of students in sub-degree education sector of Hong Kong. Online learning has become the “sole” solution to deal with student learning challenges during this chaotic period. In this study, we explore online learning for sub-degree students by using a community of inquiry (CoI). As such, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on survey data gathered from 287 sub-degree students from the business and engineering disciplines. Results indicated that the network speed for online education determines the perceived cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence of students, whereas gender and academic disciplines of students are not moderating factors that create a significant difference in perceived cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence of students. Our study findings for creating and sustaining a purposeful online learning community are highlighted
Dynamic association between energy transition technologies, renewable energy production, trade openness, green investment, carbon tax, and carbon neutrality: empirical evidences from China
The existing millennium documents the most adverse consequences
of global warming which in contrast to pre-industrial era are
more devastating. Thus, these prevailing consequences raise
numerous concerns regarding the well-being of future and current
generation. Scholars, in this regard, are putting efforts punctiliously
towards methods that could halt the surging emissions. This paper
also attempts to contributes to existing literature by reporting the
empirical evidences regarding the role of energy transition technologies,
renewable energy production (REP), trade openness, green
investment, and carbon taxes in carbon neutrality in Chinse economy
covering the time span of 1980–2020. By employing Dynamic
Auto-regressive Distributed Lags (DARDL) model to check the association,
findings exposed that electricity production from water
sources, electricity production from solar sources, REP, trade openness,
green investment, and carbon taxes are negatively correlated
with CO2 emissions. Study offers policymakers a help in formulating
policies related to achieve carbon neutrality using renewable
sources of energy production, carbon taxes, and green investmen
Assessing the capacity of renewable power production for green energy system: a way forward towards zero carbon electrification
Ghana suffers from inadequate power supply due to increasing demand though it is amongst the African nations with the highest access to electricity. This research aims to assess the techno-economic potential of wind and solar energy potential for Ghana’s northern part. We employ the Weibull distribution function, levelized cost of energy, and net present cost metrics for the economic study. The wind and solar energy resource’s structure generated 72,284 kWh yearly. Both systems were identified to be too expensive if implemented under the current financing conditions in the country. The PV systems generated 38,859 kWh/ year, representing 53.76% of the total electricity generated in a year, generating renewable hydrogen in the country. The findings show that sizing and management of renewable plants will fulfill the basic annual cooking demands of the populations, which are 785 kg H2 in Ghana. The countries’ capacity for developing solar hydrogen plants is further suggested by generating new solar hydrogen opportunity charts. Considering the significance of hydrogen energy under the renewable energy output, we recommend using hybrid systems for hydrogen production. The findings reveal which flexibility options are critical in key stages of the energy transition to a 70, 80, 90, and 100% renewable energy system
Reactivation of Epstein–Barr virus by a dual-responsive fluorescent EBNA1-targeting agent with Zn2+-chelating function
EBNA1 is the only Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) latent protein responsible for viral genome maintenance and is expressed in all EBV-infected cells. Zn2+ is essential for oligomerization of the functional EBNA1. We constructed an EBNA1 binding peptide with a Zn2+ chelator to create an EBNA1-specific inhibitor (ZRL5P4). ZRL5P4 by itself is sufficient to reactivate EBV from its latent infection. ZRL5P4 is able to emit unique responsive fluorescent signals once it binds with EBNA1 and a Zn2+ ion. ZRL5P4 can selectively disrupt the EBNA1 oligomerization and cause nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tumor shrinkage, possibly due to EBV lytic induction. Dicer1 seems essential for this lytic reactivation. As can been seen, EBNA1 is likely to maintain NPC cell survival by suppressing viral reactivation
Recommended from our members
Repurposing hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels as a novel therapy for breast cancer.
Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels are members of the voltage-gated cation channel family known to be expressed in the heart and central nervous system. Ivabradine, a small molecule HCN channel-blocker, is FDA-approved for clinical use as a heart rate-reducing agent. We found that HCN2 and HCN3 are overexpressed in breast cancer cells compared with normal breast epithelia, and the high expression of HCN2 and HCN3 is associated with poorer survival in breast cancer patients. Inhibition of HCN by Ivabradine or by RNAi, aborted breast cancer cell proliferation in vitro and suppressed tumour growth in patient-derived tumour xenograft models established from triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tissues, with no evident side-effects on the mice. Transcriptome-wide analysis showed enrichment for cholesterol metabolism and biosynthesis as well as lipid metabolism pathways associated with ER-stress following Ivabradine treatment. Mechanistic studies confirmed that HCN inhibition leads to ER-stress, in part due to disturbed Ca2+ homeostasis, which subsequently triggered the apoptosis cascade. More importantly, we investigated the synergistic effect of Ivabradine and paclitaxel on TNBC and confirmed that both drugs acted synergistically in vitro through ER-stress to amplify signals for caspase activation. Combination therapy could suppress tumour growth of xenografts at much lower doses for both drugs. In summary, our study identified a new molecular target with potential for being developed into targeted therapy, providing scientific grounds for initiating clinical trials for a new treatment regimen of combining HCN inhibition with chemotherapy
Post translational changes to α-synuclein control iron and dopamine trafficking : a concept for neuron vulnerability in Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disorder, the aetiology of which remains elusive. The primary clinical feature of progressively impaired motor control is caused by a loss of midbrain substantia nigra dopamine neurons that have a high α-synuclein (α-syn) and iron content. α-Syn is a neuronal protein that is highly modified post-translationally and central to the Lewy body neuropathology of the disease. This review provides an overview of findings on the role post translational modifications to α-syn have in membrane binding and intracellular vesicle trafficking. Furthermore, we propose a concept in which acetylation and phosphorylation of α-syn modulate endocytic import of iron and vesicle transport of dopamine during normal physiology. Disregulated phosphorylation and oxidation of α-syn mediate iron and dopamine dependent oxidative stress through impaired cellular location and increase propensity for α-syn aggregation. The proposition highlights a connection between α-syn, iron and dopamine, three pathological components associated with disease progression in sporadic Parkinson's disease
- …