Dynamic effects of sports and physical activities and public health spending on sustainable environmental performance? New evidence from 50 U.S. states

Environmental-friendly behaviours are increasingly imperative in the current era to diminish the speed of environmental degradation and its damaging impacts. Increased sports and physical activities entail positive health outcomes, as well as having the potential to reduce vehicle-related carbon emissions. Therefore, the present study investigates the impact of sports and physical activities and public health spending on environmental performance in 50 U.S. states for the period 2010–2019. The system of the generalised method of moment (G.M.M.) and feasible generalised least squares (F.G.L.S.) are employed in the present analysis. The results reveal that sports and physical activities are significantly increases environmental performance in U.S. Similarly, health expenditures are negatively and significantly associated with air pollution and encourage overall environmental performance. However, economic growth contributes to higher emissions and therefore impede environmental performance. The interaction term of health expenditures and sports activities indicate that the combination of higher health expenditures with sports activities puts a profound effect on environmental quality. These findings signal the need to retrace health care spending programs and sports activities to accomplish zero-carbon targets and better environmental performance

Insights into rising environmental concern: prompt corporate social responsibility to mediate green marketing perspective

Green investment is a trending marketing strategy that has been endorsed as a prominent financial actor due to the growing environmental issues and business sustainability. With the introduction of green and climate bonds in the last decade, the investment in eco-friendly projects has been deemed a paradigm shift. China has been a pioneer in introducing green and climate bonds, setting a precedent for green investment in the global market. Following the green strategy, therefore, the main aim of this study is to examine the importance of green investment and green marketing for enhancing business performance. Besides, this study has also examined the critical mediating role of CSR. Data were collected from 619 respondents from Chinese manufacturing companies via questionnaires. This study employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to test hypotheses in Smart PLS software. This study revealed that green marketing strategy and green investment positively complement the CSR of companies and their business performance. Moreover, results also showed that CSR plays a significant mediating rolein enhancing business performance positively by stimulating the targeted relationships. With the ascendency of being environment friendly, this study will also be a powerful magnet for practitioners and policymakers

Outbreak of epidemic diseases and stock returns: an event study of emerging economy

The massive contagion diseases such as COVID-19 amongst others, has affected nearly all the economies and business concerns that leads to substantial decline in the cashflows and returns dynamics. Considering the same, this paper intends to investigate the impact of outbreak of epidemic diseases on the stock return (observed through cumulative average abnormal return (CAAR)) for the listed banks in Pakistan from 2011 to 2020. Event study method was employed and five days pre and ten days post event of each disease were observed as an event window. The results confirm that none of the epidemic disease outbreak significantly determines the CAAR for all listed banks, except COVID-19 and Dengue Fever during the event day. There is a negative and significant impact of COVID-19 on the stock returns for all the banks in Pakistan from the event day to day eight except day seven. More specifically, COVID-19 is found to be a significant indicator for the stock returns of private banks. However, in case of public listed banks, only the outbreak of HIV cases possesses significant and positive impact on CAAR at the day of event. These findings would guide all stakeholders such as investors, financial analysts, regulators, and chief risk officers specifically in banks to make strategic decisions while analyzing the relationship between epidemic outbreaks and stock returns

Impact of CSR, innovation, and green investment on sales growth: new evidence from manufacturing industries of China and Saudi Arabia

Environmental concerns have got supreme interest from the researchers and policy makers for which experts have revealed their organizational impacts too. At the same time, corporate social responsibility is observed as a key determinant of financial performance both in developed and developing economies. Recognize the same, this study aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibilities, economic innovation, green credit, and green investment on the sales growth of manufacturing industries of China and Saudi Arabia. This study has selected top twelve trading manufacturing companies registered in the Shanghai stock exchange and Saudi stock exchange during the period of 2016 to 2020. For data estimation, panel regression estimations like fixed and random effect models have been used. The results indicate that corporate social responsibility, economic innovation, green credit, and green investment are significantly and positively associated with sales growth of manufacturing industries in China and Saudi Arabia. However, their coefficient’s magnitude varies due to distinct features of both countries. These findings offer valuable policy recommendations for all stakeholders

Moderating role of compassion in the link between fear of Coronavirus disease and mental health among undergraduate students

"Background The societal challenges presented by fear related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic may present unique challenges for an individual's mental health. However, the moderating role of compassion in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health has not been well-studied. The present study aimed to explore the association between fear of COVID-19 and mental health, as well as test the buffering role of compassion in this relationship. Methods The participants in this study were 325 Iranian undergraduate students (228 females), aged 18–25 years, who completed questionnaires posted on social networks via a web-based platform. Results The results showed that fear of COVID-19 was positively related with physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The results also showed that compassion was negatively associated with physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The interaction-moderation analysis revealed that compassion moderated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and subscale of mental health. Conclusion Results highlight the important role of compassion in diminishing the effect of fear of COVID-19 on the mental health (physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms) of undergraduate students.

Moderating role of compassion in the link between fear of Coronavirus disease and mental health among undergraduate students

"Background The societal challenges presented by fear related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic may present unique challenges for an individual's mental health. However, the moderating role of compassion in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health has not been well-studied. The present study aimed to explore the association between fear of COVID-19 and mental health, as well as test the buffering role of compassion in this relationship. Methods The participants in this study were 325 Iranian undergraduate students (228 females), aged 18–25 years, who completed questionnaires posted on social networks via a web-based platform. Results The results showed that fear of COVID-19 was positively related with physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The results also showed that compassion was negatively associated with physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The interaction-moderation analysis revealed that compassion moderated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and subscale of mental health. Conclusion Results highlight the important role of compassion in diminishing the effect of fear of COVID-19 on the mental health (physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms) of undergraduate students.

Dietary Dracocephalum Kotschyi Essential Oil Improved Growth, Haematology, Immunity and Resistance to Aeromonas Hydrophila in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss)

In the present study, the effect of Dracocephalum kotschyi essential oil (DKE) was investigated on growth, haematology, immune and antioxidant defence system and resistance of rainbow trout juveniles to bacterial infection (Aeromonas hydrophila). For this purpose, the fish were fed a diet containing different concentrations of DKE including 0 (control), 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3 mg/kg diet in three replicates for 60 days. After feeding trial, the fish were challenged with a pathogenic dose of A. hydrophila. Based on the results, immune components in plasma (alternative complement activity [ACH50], IgM content, lysozyme activity, total protein and total albumin) and mucus (protease activity, IgM content and lysozyme activity) significantly elevated in fish fed diet containing 0.2 and 0.25 mg DKE/kg diet compared with other groups (p < 0.01). The plasma bactericidal activity increased in all DKE-supplemented fish. Supplementation of fish with 0.3 mg DKE/kg diet depressed the mucosal lysozyme activity and IgM content. The liver antioxidant enzymes, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) showed increased activity in response to 0.25 and 0.3 mg DKE/kg diet compared with other experimental diets (p < 0.01). Dietary DKE changed the haematology of the fish. The haematocrit, red blood cell count (RBC), white blood cell (WBC), haemoglobin content and mean erythrocyte cell haemoglobin content (MCHC) increased in response to DKE. In contrast, the mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) decreased in fish fed 0.2 and 0.25 mg DKE/kg diet compared with other diets (p < 0.01). The supplementation of fish with 0.2 and 0.25 mg DKE/kg diet decreased the expression of cytokine-related genes, TNF-α and IL-8. In contrast, the DKE up-regulated the expression of the immune-related genes, C3 and lysozyme. DKE at concentration of 0.3 mg/kg diet depressed the C3 and lysozyme gene expressions. The DKE supplementation decreased the mortality rate of the fish after bacterial challengecompared with non-supplemented ones (p < 0.01). In conclusion, the findings of this study revealed the immune-stimulating effects of DKE at optimized dietary concentrations. In addition, DKE decreased the mortality induced by A. hydrophila infection

Development of hybrid machine learning model for simulation of chemical reactors in water treatment applications: Absorption in amino acid

Separation and capture of CO2 from gas mixtures is of great importance from environmental point of view which can be effectively achieved using amino acids as new class of chemical absorbents. However, screening the proper absorbent with desired separation properties using experimental measurements is tedious and costly. The predictive computational techniques can be employed to overcome this problem. In this study, for estimating and analyzing CO2 solubility in chemical solvents based on amino acid salt solutions, we created two regression models from different classes of machine learning methods. The main aim is to analyze the effect of physico-chemical parameters on the CO2 dissolution in solvent which can be carried out in chemical reactors for separation/conversion of CO2 for environmental applications. A number of CO2 solubility data are collected from resources and used for training and validation of machine learning computations. Several inputs were considered for the developed machine learning models. Inputs in this regression task are T (temperature), weight% (overall mass percentage of solvent), PCO2 (partial pressure of CO2 in the gas), MW-am (molecular weight of amino acid salt), MPC (melting point of amino acid salt), MWC (molecular mass of cation). In this task, we must predict alpha (CO2 loading in the amino acid solution) as the only output of the developed models. The models studied in this research are the Gaussian process and the decision tree boosted with Gradient boosting. With the R 2 criterion, the scores of the two Gradient boosting and Gaussian process models were obtained 0.985 and 0.993, respectively. As the third efficiency metric of the models, the Gradient boosting and regression of the Gaussian process with the RMSE criterion is the error rates of 1.10E−01 and 1.44E−01. The models developed in this work indicated to be reliable and robust enough for screening the solvents for a particular application and to save time and cost of experimental measurements

Moderating role of compassion in the link between fear of Coronavirus disease and mental health among undergraduate students

"Background: The societal challenges presented by fear related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic may present unique challenges for an individual's mental health. However, the moderating role of compassion in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health has not been well-studied. The present study aimed to explore the association between fear of COVID-19 and mental health, as well as test the buffering role of compassion in this relationship. Methods: The participants in this study were 325 Iranian undergraduate students (228 females), aged 18–25 years, who completed questionnaires posted on social networks via a web-based platform. Results: The results showed that fear of COVID-19 was positively related with physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The results also showed that compassion was negatively associated with physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The interaction-moderation analysis revealed that compassion moderated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and subscale of mental health. Conclusion: Results highlight the important role of compassion in diminishing the effect of fear of COVID-19 on the mental health (physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms) of undergraduate students.