Convergent evidence associates exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) with major human diseases, even at regulation-compliant concentrations. This might be because humans are exposed to ...EDC mixtures, whereas chemical regulation is based on a risk assessment of individual compounds. Here, we developed a mixture-centered risk assessment strategy that integrates epidemiological and experimental evidence. We identified that exposure to an EDC mixture in early pregnancy is associated with language delay in offspring. At human-relevant concentrations, this mixture disrupted hormone-regulated and disease-relevant regulatory networks in human brain organoids and in the model organisms
and
, as well as behavioral responses. Reinterrogating epidemiological data, we found that up to 54% of the children had prenatal exposures above experimentally derived levels of concern, reaching, for the upper decile compared with the lowest decile of exposure, a 3.3 times higher risk of language delay.
•Command-and-control and market-based environmental regulation(ER) are identified.•ER increases the proportion of new energy investment.•Command-and-control ER increase investment ratios of new ...energy.•FCER increases the proportion of new energy investment.•ICER increases the proportion of new energy investment in China's eastern region.
Investment structure optimization is important for achieving green development, and environmental regulation affects enterprises’ investment behavior significantly. This study divides environmental regulation into market-based and command-and-control policies. The latter is further divided into the formulation and implementation of policies. Using the Chinese power generation industry from 2007 to 2017 as a sample, we employ the system generalized method of moments (system GMM) to study the impact of environmental regulation on the energy investment structure and explore how differences in regions and environmental regulations affect the energy investment structure. The results show that although environmental regulation increased the proportion of investment in new energy power generation, different types and levels of environmental regulations affected investment in power generation differently. Stricter command-and-control environmental regulation policies at the formulation level increased the investment proportion of new energy power generation. However, the regional data show that different types and levels of environmental regulation affected the power generation investment structure in each region differently. Both command-and-control and market-based environmental regulation in China's central and western regions failed to play their role. Moreover, the implementation of command-and-control environmental regulation policies significantly influenced the direct increase in the proportion of new energy power generation in China's eastern region.
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the impact of mandatory reporting and auditing of firms’ financial statements on industry‐wide resource allocation. Using threshold‐induced variation in the share of ...mandated firms in a given industry, I document that reporting mandates facilitate ownership dispersion in capital markets and spur competition in product markets. I, however, do not find that reporting mandates unambiguously improve the efficiency of industry‐wide resource allocation. With respect to auditing mandates, I find only that they impose a fixed cost on firms, deterring smaller entrants.
Based on the large scale provincial panel data on in China from 2006 to 2015, this paper uses the directed acyclic graph (DAG) and structure vector autoregrression (SVAR) to study the internal ...dynamic relationship among the environmental regulation, technological innovation and energy efficiency. The results of the DAG analysis confirm the existence of three conduct paths among environmental regulation, technological innovation and energy efficiency. First, the market incentive environmental regulation contributes directly to energy efficiency. Second, the market incentive environmental regulation drives the energy efficiency through technological innovation. Third, the command control environmental regulation contributes directly to energy efficiency. The results of forecast error variance decomposition based on SVAR model corroborate the view that the impacts of the command control environmental regulation and market incentive environmental regulation on energy efficiency have no obvious difference in the short term. In addition, with the extension of the forecast period, the promotion effect of the command control environmental regulation on energy efficiency gradually decreases, whereas the promotion effect of the market incentive environmental regulation on energy efficiency gradually increases. Technological innovation has a significant role in promoting energy efficiency both in the short and the long term. The changes in technological innovation are affected not only by itself, but also by the market incentive environmental regulation, whereas the command control environmental regulation has no obvious impact on technological innovation.
•Directed acyclic graph is used to find the conduct paths of the variables.•SVAR model is used to study the Dynamic Relationship of the variables.•The different effects of Market incentive and command control environmental regulation are studied.•Large-dimensional panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2015 is used.
Although environmental regulations have been considered as important forces of conducting green innovation, how and under what conditions they affect green innovation are still unclear. Drawing from ...institutional theory, this study used survey data from 237 manufacturing firms in China to investigate how two dimensions of environmental regulations (i.e., command and control regulation and market‐based regulation) affect green product innovation and green process innovation. Further, this article examined the mediating role of external knowledge adoption and the moderating role of green absorptive capacity. Our results indicate that both command and control regulation and market‐based regulation have positive influences on external knowledge adoption. External knowledge adoption fully mediates these positive relationships. In addition, green absorptive capacity only strengthens the positive impact of market‐based regulation on external knowledge adoption. Our study contributes to institutional theory and green innovation literature.
Withania somnifera produces pharmacologically important triterpenoid withanolides that are derived via phytosterol pathway; however, their biosynthesis and regulation remain to be elucidated.
A ...jasmonate- and salicin-inducible WRKY transcription factor from W. somnifera (WsWRKY1) exhibiting correlation with withaferin A accumulation was functionally characterized employing virus-induced gene silencing and overexpression studies combined with transcript and metabolite analyses, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay.
WsWRKY1 silencing resulted in stunted plant growth, reduced transcripts of phytosterol pathway genes with corresponding reduction in phytosterols and withanolides in W. somnifera. Its overexpression elevated the biosynthesis of triterpenoids in W. somnifera (phytosterols and withanolides), as well as tobacco and tomato (phytosterols). Moreover, WsWRKY1 binds to W-box sequences in promoters of W. somnifera genes encoding squalene synthase and squalene epoxidase, indicating its direct regulation of triterpenoid pathway. Furthermore, while WsWRKY1 silencing in W. somnifera compromised the tolerance to bacterial growth, fungal infection, and insect feeding, its overexpression in tobacco led to improved biotic stress tolerance.
Together these findings demonstrate that WsWRKY1 has a positive regulatory role on phytosterol and withanolides biosynthesis, and defense against biotic stress, highlighting its importance as a metabolic engineering tool for simultaneous improvement of triterpenoid biosynthesis and plant defense.
•This study proposed a complex eco-efficiency system for an economic region, Yangtze river economic Belt, in China.•A notable pattern was identified for each of the two periods: 2008–2012 and ...2013–2016.•The “race to top” occurs more in developed areas, while the “race to bottom” occurs more in the western urban clusters.•Moderate environmental regulation can reduce the harmful influence of green technological innovation.
The contradiction between economic development and environmental protection has become a major concern in many developing countries. To resolve environmental issues, political and technical measures must be considered. However, because of geographical, climatic, and economic differences, ecological issues need to be resolved at the regional level. This study proposes a complex eco-efficiency (EE) system composed of multidimensional components with entropy flows for an economic region, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, in China. There were distinct disparities of eco-efficiency in urban cluster, with the higher efficiency in the central cities and the lower efficiency in the satellite cities. Based on the periodic characteristics of eco-efficiency, two distinct periods, 2008–2012 and 2013–2016, were found. The relationships among environmental regulation (ER), green technological innovation (GTI), and EE varied in different regions and periods because of the “innovative compensation”, “compliance cost”, and “energy rebound” effects. When GTI efficiently improved the EE, inappropriate ER weakened the marginal benefits of GTI. When an “energy rebound effect” occurred, moderate ER was found to assist in reducing the harmful influence of GTI. A “race to the top” phenomenon was found to be more likely in developed areas, while a “race to the bottom” effect was found in the western urban clusters. Differentiated sustainable environmental policies of integrating institutional and free-market approaches are provided.
•South American countries have stepped up deforestation regulations and enforcement.•We study potential spillover effects of these regulations for soy and beef.•We find little change in soy or ...pasture expansion patterns due to increased regulations.•We find a decrease in beef imports from more regulated biomes.•Substitution between markets and actors diminish the effectiveness of regulations.
In response to the extensive loss of forests caused by soy and cattle expansion in South America, several countries have increased their legal restrictions on deforestation, and stepped up their enforcement. In addition, in the Brazilian Amazon, new private agreements were initiated in 2006 and 2009 to limit the purchase of soy and cattle linked with deforestation. One concern is that such policies, because they are spatially heterogeneous or focus on a subset of relevant actors, might generate negative spillovers in the form of leakage of agricultural activities and deforestation to less-regulated areas, and/or a redistribution of non-compliant product sales to non-participants. In this study, we use panel data on soy and beef production and trade in agricultural frontiers of South America to examine how changes in deforestation regulations in South America have altered soy and cattle expansion and exports in this region, and to understand how these changes, if they have occurred, influence the overall effectiveness of deforestation regulations. We find no evidence of a change in soy or pasture area expansion patterns due to changes in regulations, except within the Amazon biome where pasture expansion slowed in response to more stringent regulations and coincided with pasture intensification. We do find, however, a decrease in beef imports from biomes with more stringent deforestation regulations. While this decrease may indicate the existence of leakage to countries outside the study area, it is likely offset by pasture intensification, continued opportunities for deforestation, and increasing domestic consumption from these biomes. These results point to the potential role of substitution effects between local and international consumer markets, and between different actors, in diminishing the overall effectiveness of deforestation regulations.
Globalization critics argue that international trade spurs a race to the bottom among national environmental standards. ISO 14001 is the most widely adopted voluntary environmental regulation which ...encourages firms to take environmental action beyond what domestic government regulations require. Drawing on a panel study of 108 countries over seven years, we investigate conditions under which trade linkages can encourage ISO 14001 adoption, thereby countering environmental races to the bottom. We find that trade linkages encourage ISO 14001 adoption if countries' major export markets have adopted this voluntary regulation.
Summary
The gaseous plant hormone ethylene is produced by a fairly simple two‐step biosynthesis route. Despite this pathway’s simplicity, recent molecular and genetic studies have revealed that the ...regulation of ethylene biosynthesis is far more complex and occurs at different layers. Ethylene production is intimately linked with the homeostasis of its general precursor S‐adenosyl‐l‐methionine (SAM), which experiences transcriptional and posttranslational control of its synthesising enzymes (SAM synthetase), as well as the metabolic flux through the adjacent Yang cycle. Ethylene biosynthesis continues from SAM by two dedicated enzymes: 1‐aminocyclopropane‐1‐carboxylic (ACC) synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO). Although the transcriptional dynamics of ACS and ACO have been well documented, the first transcription factors that control ACS and ACO expression have only recently been discovered. Both ACS and ACO display a type‐specific posttranslational regulation that controls protein stability and activity. The nonproteinogenic amino acid ACC also shows a tight level of control through conjugation and translocation. Different players in ACC conjugation and transport have been identified over the years, however their molecular regulation and biological significance is unclear, yet relevant, as ACC can also signal independently of ethylene. In this review, we bring together historical reports and the latest findings on the complex regulation of the ethylene biosynthesis pathway in plants.
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