Drawing on unbalanced panel data with a maximum of 271,656 bilateral trade flow observations from 1996 to 2021, this study investigates both the linear and nonlinear influence of national Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance gaps on green exports. When the ESG performance of the exporting country exceeds that of the destination country, the results indicate that an increase in the ESG gap significantly stimulates green exports, and there is evidence that this stimulating effect is achieved by widening green innovation gaps. However, the marginal effect diminishes as environmental regulations in the destination country become more stringent. Conversely, when the exporting country’s ESG performance is lower, narrowing the ESG gap leads to an N-shaped relationship with green exports, which remains U-shaped after removing the extremes. This research provides empirical evidence and policy implications for the trade effects of ESG performance from a macro perspective, while supporting the rationality and necessity of the ESG concept.

We investigate the asymptotic behavior of nearly unstable Hawkes processes whose regression kernel has $L^1$ norm strictly greater than 1 and close to 1 as time goes to infinity. We find that the scaling size determines the scaling behavior of the processes as in Jaisson and Rosenbaum (2015). Specifically, after a suitable rescale of $({a_T-1})/{T{\textrm{e}}^{b_TTx}}$, the limit of the sequence of Hawkes processes is deterministic. Also, with another appropriate rescaling of $1/T^2$, the sequence converges in law to an integrated Cox–Ingersoll–Ross-like process. This theoretical result may apply to model the recent COVID-19 outbreak in epidemiology and phenomena in social networks.

A significant association between tomato consumption and a lower risk of developing hypertension has been reported. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between tomato intake and prehypertension risk among Korean adults. Hypertension was defined according to the criteria established by the Korean Society of Hypertension. The study participants were selected from the Health Examinees cohort study. Tomato consumption was measured using a food frequency questionnaire and categorized into quintiles based on the amount consumed. Higher tomato consumption was associated with a lower risk of prehypertension in men (hazard ratio 0.86, 95% confidence interval 0.80–0.92, p for trend 0.0005). Women in the highest quintile also showed a similar trend (hazard ratio 0.94, 95% confidence interval 0.90–0.99, p for trend 0.0091). Stratified analyses revealed a reduced risk of prehypertension across all subgroups, except underweight individuals and those with a history of alcohol consumption (all P-interaction <0.05). These findings indicate that higher tomato intake may offer potential advantages for managing blood pressure levels.

To examine the association between snack characteristics (snack frequency, snack energy density (ED) and snack nutritional quality) with diet quality and cardiometabolic risks among U.S. adolescents from the 2009-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Cross-sectional dietary data collected using a 24-hour dietary recall from the 2011-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1,999 boys and 1,897 girls aged 12–19 years) were analysed. Associations between snack characteristics with diet quality, fasting blood glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, blood pressure, waist circumference, metabolic syndrome risk score using multiple linear regression, were analysed stratified by sex. Higher snack nutritional quality (β [95% CI]: boys 0.31 [0.09, 0.52]; girls 0.44 [0.30, 0.57]) was linked to better overall diet quality, whereas snack ED excluding beverages (β [95% CI]: boys –1.82 [–2.52, –1.12]; girls –1.75 [–2.69, –0.82]) was linked to poorer overall diet quality. Among girls, higher snack frequency was associated with lower waist circumference and lower fasting blood glucose (-0.67 [-1.28, -0.05]). Additionally, higher snack ED and nutritional quality was associated with lower waist circumference and triglycerides, respectively. No associations between snack characteristics and cardiometabolic indicators or metabolic syndrome risk score were observed for boys. Findings suggest strategies to improve adolescent snack nutritional quality and ED may improve overall diet quality. However, limited associations were observed between snack characteristics and cardiometabolic risk indicators among girls only. Prospective studies are needed to further investigate the relationship between snack characteristics and adolescent health outcomes.

This article reconceptualizes the “rural problematique” in Canada through the contemporary “problem” of the rural migrant. Utilizing critical historical institutional theory, we argue that the challenges newcomers face in rural spaces not only reveal the stagnation of settlement policies but also demonstrate the long-lasting, integrative and harmful impacts of policy inertia. While newcomers experience the implications of inadequate and exclusionary social policies particularly acutely, the obstacles they face cannot be solved through changes to migration policy alone. Rather, we show how these barriers are the result of the historical, specific role that rural Canada plays within the political economy of the country, which relies upon the delineation between rural and urban, and the persistence of the rural as problematic. Thus, an analysis of the contemporary “problem” of the rural migrant demonstrates how the context can change, but the outcomes, which are consistent with the broader rural dynamic, remain the same.

In recent years, the emergence of both the spatial and spectral turns has meant a more intense focus on the importance of space in supernatural narratives, especially within modern, industrialized cities. Less has been said, however, about the importance of understanding the affective resonances of space in early modern tales. This article examines tales of ghost sightings in London and Southwark that appeared in print. It argues that these hauntings created affective topographies that had both individual and communal resonances. In turn, the article explores how these emotional responses contributed to conceptions of space, community and neighbourhood in early modern London. As such, it demonstrates how paying attention to supernatural narratives can reveal a hidden geography of the city, one that is shaped by supernatural storytelling, emotions and close conceptions of community.

The naming of cityscapes has never been a disinterested or straightforward affair. This article, which introduces the special issue on multifunctional urban toponymy in the Romanov Empire, opens by providing an overview of recent developments in critical place-name studies and bringing this field into dialogue with the historiography of the empire. It then delineates the main waves of toponymic changes in the empire from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, and proposes a typology of the main categories of imperial toponyms used for (re)naming. Our main argument is that place names performed a wider array of functions, beyond just orientational and ideological, and were also used to gain socio-economic capital and enhance the social desirability and economic value of urban areas. Having introduced the contributions to the special issue, the article then outlines several avenues for future research.

The Salapunku archaeological site is located within the Historic Sanctuary – National Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu (HS-NAPM) in the Cusco area of Peru. Although Salapunku is related to the Inca settlements of the HS-NAPM, during archaeological excavations, we distinguished different moments of cultural occupation from the earliest human presence to complex pre-Hispanic societies such as the Inca and finally to the colonial period. Previous research on the site’s chronology was based on typological analyses of pottery and other artifacts found during archaeological research. This radiocarbon analysis, the first of its kind in this area, establishes a chronology of the cultural history of this significant settlement, considered the gateway to the Cordillera of Vilcabamba.

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to white clergy members who had urged him to cease demonstrating against segregation laws, follow the standards of law and order, and pursue change through official governmental channels. These remonstrations mirror arguments invoked to delegitimize dissent and provide support for legal but immoral governmental policies such as American slavery, Nazi atrocities, and apartheid. At the heart of religious justifications for such arguments is Romans 13:1–7, which endorses human government as God ordained but can be interpreted to require unqualified obedience to law. It is also the go to passage used by Christians to describe the role and authority of police officers in their law enforcement capacity. The way Romans 13 has often been interpreted and applied, however, is exegetically and theologically problematic. Most importantly, the passage is not describing the role of individual police officers as is often argued, but rather the operation of human government as an institution. This flawed starting point has led to a cascade of other interpretive errors, which include describing police officers as agents of God’s wrath and delegitimizing dissent against unjust laws. It also promotes some of the most pernicious features of American law enforcement, including the alienating idea of police as the thin blue line, the we-they mentality that demeans those being policed, the use of warrior to describe the policing role, the militarization of law enforcement, and the systemic racism that plagues U.S. policing. In this article, the author offers a more exegetically and theologically accurate reading of Romans 13, with very different implications for role of law enforcement, and gestures toward a much-needed Christian theology of policing.

Despite growing attention being paid to digital inclusion and its impact on individual well-being, empirical research focusing specifically on middle-aged adults and young-old adults remains limited, particularly in China. This study examines the association between digital inclusion and subjective well-being among middle-aged adults (aged 45–59) and young-old adults (aged 60–69) in China, utilizing data from the 2019 and 2021 waves of Chinese Social Survey (CSS). The analysis begins with descriptive statistics that outline the current status of digital inclusion and subjective well-being among these groups, followed by regression models that assess the impact of digital inclusion and investigate possible moderating factors. The results indicate that digital inclusion significantly enhances subjective well-being for both middle-aged and young-old adults, with all four dimensions of digital inclusion showing positive associations with well-being. Among these, digital learning inclusion exerts the strongest effect. However, factors such as socio-economic status, social connection and political participation do not fully account for this relationship, and, notably, social connection may even diminish the positive effects of digital inclusion on well-being. This study offers a new perspective on the impact of digital inclusion on the subjective well-being of middle-aged and young-old adults, and provides a direction for further research in this field.