Increased Management Costs Research Articles

1인 가구 특성이 주택점유에 미치는 영향

Single-person households are closely associated with the social issue of housing poverty. The purpose of this study is to present policy alternatives for addressing the challenges faced by single-person households by examining the influence of socio-economic and locational characteristics on occupancy patterns. The results of this study are as follows. The results of the binary logistic regression analysis are as follows. The results revealed that bereavement, increased management costs, residing in the Seoul metropolitan area, being employed in labor, sales, or service occupations, living in officetels or one-room apartments, and owning a car showed statistically significant associations with self-probability. Ragarding of regional characteristics, it was observed that the closer people reside to the metropolitan area, the higher the probability of leasing. Specifically, Gyeonggi-do Province has a higher likelihood of leasing than Seoul. This suggests that tenants may be moving to Gyeonggi Province due to the steep monthly rent increase in Seoul, which they cannot afford. Based on the results of this study, housing support measures and policy implications are presented. The younger generation requires priority housing support measures compared to other generations to address the low birth rate. During a period of continuous increase in housing prices and rents, it is essential to implement housing support measures to prevent involuntary displacement from current residences.

Unlocking policy effects: Water resources management plans and urban water pollution

Water resource management, as a foundation for supporting sustainable urban development, has garnered increasing attention from scholars. Developing effective water resource management plans is a major challenge faced by countries worldwide. This study uses the 2015 Water Pollution Control and Prevention Action Plan (WPCAP) in China as a natural experiment and employs a Difference-in-Differences (DID) model to estimate the relationship between WPCAP and urban water pollution from 2010 to 2021. The findings are as follows: 1) WPCAP reduces water pollution. 2) WPCAP decreases water pollution in high-policy-pressure cities but increases water pollution in low-policy-pressure cities within a 60 km radius, particularly having a significantly negative impact on water pollution in low-policy-pressure cities with low altitude. 3) optimizing industrial and domestic water use, as well as enhancing sewage treatment capabilities, are crucial pathways through which WPCAP reduces water pollution. Additionally, WPCAP significantly improves water pollution control capabilities in cities with abundant water resources, large cities, and industrialized cities. 4) although WPCAP's ability to control water pollution increases management costs, it also raises residential income and promotes population growth. These findings have important implications for the sustainable development of water resources in emerging countries, including China.

Competition and cooperation in international high-speed railway industry chain based on evolutionary game

ABSTRACT Due to the market demand, the development of the high-speed railway (HSR) is crucial. The purpose of this study is to analyze the competitive and cooperative behavior of enterprises in the international HSR industry chain. The evolutionary game model between upstream and downstream enterprises and the evolutionary game model between peer enterprises are constructed and solved. Then, the factors influencing strategy selection process and evolution direction are evaluated by numerical experiments. The findings reveal that various factors play role in relationships among HSR enterprises to evolve differently. For the upstream and downstream enterprises, critical factors such as the probability of winning the bid, construction costs, increased management costs, and transaction costs paid will influence the speed and direction of evolution. Whereas, for the peer enterprises, other factors, related to the winning probability of joint bidding, income distribution, cost distribution, and transaction costs will influence the speed and direction of evolution.

Epidemiology and risk factors of lumpy skin disease outbreak in cattle in the north-west area of Bangladesh

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an acute viral disease of cattle that recently emerged in Bangladesh that negatively impacts livestock by reducing animal production, increasing management costs, and death of infected animals. Recently, Bangladesh has faced the ominous effects of LSD, like other countries. Because of this pressing concern, the present cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the infection status and risk factors of LSD outbreaks from January to December 2023 in Bangladesh’s northwest area. A total of 2858 cattle from various randomly selected farms were surveyed. The diagnosis was made on the basis of clinical inspection, clinical history, and owner complaints. The overall attack rate, mortality, and case fatality were 37.6%, 2.8%, and 7.5%, respectively, but in calves (≤1 month), the attack rate, mortality, and case fatality were 44.3%, 9.3%, and 21.3%, respectively. The infection status was discussed based on age, sex, breed, genotype, health status, immune status, coat color, farm size, farming system, separation of affected animals, separation place, use of common utensils, introduction of new cattle, use of vaccine and season of the year. Among them, age, sex, breed, health status, coat color, farm size, farming system, use of common utensils, and introduction of new cattle have no significant relationship with LSD outbreaks, but in calves (≤ 1 year), age has a significant association with the occurrence of LSD. The risk factor analysis revealed that the outbreaks of LSD were significantly (p<0.05) associated with genotypes, immune status, separation place, vaccination status of farm, and season of the year. The findings of the present study could provide useful epidemiological data on risk factors associated with LSD to livestock owners, field veterinarians, and government-level livestock regulators, which will help formulate prevention and control strategies and minimize the negative impact of LSD on cattle farming.

Location optimization of on-campus bicycle-sharing electronic fences

In the bicycle-sharing operation network, the mismatch between supply and demand as well as indiscriminate bicycle parking have caused the waste of resources and increased management costs for operators. This study presents design of a bike-sharing electronic fences location developed for Hunan University of Technology and Business. In this paper, we constructed Site Selection Model with Constrained Service Level and use Hybrid Genetic & Annealing algorithm (HGAA) to adjust the location of electronic fences to balance the supply and demand of sharing bicycles with the objective function of minimizing the cost and ensuring the service level, and we use Hunan University of Technology and Industry as an example to verify the effectiveness of the method.

Design and Implementation of Enabling SQL–Query Processing for Ethereum-Based Blockchain Systems

A blockchain is designed to establish consistent and reliable agreements in an untrusted and decentralized environment. In addition, the blockchain enables transaction processing and the creation of smart contracts. It empowers end users to execute contracts without any intermediate entities. However, there are some issues when it comes to retrieving information, such as the state and history of smart contracts and regular transactions in the blockchain. For example, in a smart contract, user-defined data structures can be used to recall the state of the smart contract for a range query, which can decrease the general performance. In addition, an external database can be required to retrieve regular transactions for range queries, which increases management costs. To achieve this, we propose a new scheme that enables SQL query operations to retrieve a smart contract and regular transaction information within the blockchain system. To achieve this, we combine an embedded relational database with an Ethereum-based blockchain system to provide the SQL query. It enables range queries on smart contracts without requiring user-defined data structures and decreases management costs for regular transactions without any external database. We implement the proposed blockchain system on quorum, which is an Ethereum-based blockchain system. Also, we evaluate the proposed system using a synthetic benchmark. The performance of retrieving smart contract data is improved by up to approximately 22×, with low memory usage compared with the existing system. Moreover, the proposed system demonstrates a similar search performance to the existing system, even when considering external databases in regular transactions.

Private management costs of Popillia japonica: a study of viticulture in Italy.

The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) is classified as a high-priority pest in the European Union and is reported to have caused extensive damage to grapevine leaves in Italy. As there are few studies, which measure the beetle's socio-economic impact, we conduct a first descriptive assessment of grapevine farmers' perception of the beetle's impact and assess the pest's effect on private management costs using a partial budgeting approach. Our sample includes data from 65 producers and 118 vineyard plots. In terms of farmers' perception, we find that farmers anticipate increased management costs and believe a further spread of the beetle will lead to at least moderate yield and quality damages for the majority of plots (58-91%). While farmers do not expect to stop grapevine cultivation for the majority of vineyard plots, affected farmers they believe it is likely to very likely for 29% of plots. We also find that affected farmers rate their vines' resilience higher than unaffected farmers do. Using a partial budgeting approach, we find that a Japanese beetle infestation leads on average to a net income decrease of around €2727 per hectare. This decrease is due to an average increase in labor costs of around €1715. Additionally, an average yield reduction that results in a revenue loss of around €966 and additional control costs of around €47 per infested hectare, further contribute to the net income decrease. Even though the small number of observations does not allow us to make conclusions about the beetle's impact on the Italian viticulture sector as a whole, our findings provide first insights and demonstrate the need for environmentally friendly and effective control products that can replace labor-intensive manual control measures, which are currently applied in Japanese beetle infested vineyards.

Development of microsatellite markers and genetic diversity of the velvetbean caterpillar Anticarsia gemmatalis (Lepidoptera: Erebidae)

AbstractThe velvetbean caterpillar Anticarsia gemmatalis (VBC) is widely distributed in the Americas and causes severe damage to soybean foliage. This insect presents high ecological plasticity, a feature that is of great importance to understand its genetic diversity and potential gene flow to assist in resistance management strategies. With this objective, we developed microsatellite markers for VBC and applied them to five populations from Brazil. Nine primers were polymorphic, with high values of polymorphic information content (PIC > 0.5), and 134 alleles were identified in 155 individuals. These primers indicated deviation from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium for all populations (observed heterozygosity, Ho = 0.48, expected heterozygosity, He = 0.76), with moderate to high levels of genetic diversity and a moderate fixation index (FST = 0.14) among the populations. Analysis of population structure indicated the formation of two principal clusters. The northern one can be divided into the two populations that formed the cluster, with high genetic differentiation between them. The other cluster is formed by three populations, and we found evidence of low gene flow between them in the south–north direction, indicating that these populations may be migratory in certain conditions. These findings indicate that the designed primers were effective in describing the genetic diversity of VBC, with major implications for integrated pest management. Given the little gene flow and the high genetic diversity of populations, they present great potential to become resistant to control practices, which can lead to increased management costs.

Response of pink bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) to Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab toxin

BackgroundDuring field surveillance in Gujarat, India, in 2009, scientists found that pink bollworm was surviving in the first generation of Bollgard cotton, which contains a single protein. This survival was observed in four districts of Gujarat. From 2012 to 2014, surveys revealed that pink bollworm larvae had higher survival rates on Bollgard II cotton in Amreli and Bhavnagar districts. In 2016, a pink bollworm outbreak in Maharashtra caused significant losses in cotton production, leading to damage, yield losses, and increased management costs in several regions. The objective of the present study was to determine the reaction of Pectinophora gossypiella to Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab toxins.ResultsNeonates of P. gossypiella collected from six distinct locations in Vidarbha were subjected to seven different concentrations of Cry1Ac. The highest LC50 value was recorded in the population collection of Yavatmal (1.362 μg/ml diet) but the lowest LC50 value of 0.600 μg/ml diet in Buldana population. The highest MIC50 value was recorded in the population collected from Yavatmal (0.743 μg/ml diet) and the lowest MIC50 value of 0.413 μg/ml diet in the Buldana population (0.431 μg/ml diet). The highest IC50 value was recorded in the population collected from Yavatmal (0.303 μg/ml diet) but the lowest IC50 value of 0.127 μg/ml diet in the Buldana population. Neonates of P. gossypiella collected from six different locations in Vidarbha were exposed to seven different concentrations (9.0, 3.0, 1.0, 0.333, 0.111, 0.037 and 0.012 for Cry1Ac and 27.0, 9.0, 3.0, 1.0, 0.333, 0.111 and 0.037 μg/ml for Cry2Ab) which revealed that the Yavatmal population had the highest LC50 value of 94.294 μg/ml diet and the lowest LC50 value was recorded in the Amravati population (42.144 μg/ml diet). The highest MIC50 value of 27.258 μg/ml diet was recorded in Buldana population, but the lowest MIC50 value was recorded in the Amravati population (12.881 μg/ml diet). The highest IC50 value of 3.209 μg/ml diet was observed in Yavatmal population, and the lowest one was recorded in the Amravati population (1.574 μg/ml diet).ConclusionsAccording to the LC50 values, all of the P. gossypiella populations in Vidarbha were extremely insensitive and had field-evolved resistance to the Bt proteins found in the transgenic cotton varieties of Bollgard II.

In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Selected South African Plants against Drug-Resistant Staphylococci Isolated from Clinical Cases of Bovine Mastitis

Bovine mastitis in dairy livestock production is a serious economic problem causing milk production losses and increased management costs. Staphylococcus aureus and non-aureus staphylococcus (NAS) are important causes of bovine mastitis. Antimicrobial resistance can limit the control of mastitis pathogens. Antibacterial and cytotoxic activities of acetone and ethanol extracts of nine South African plants were determined against reference and drug-resistant staphylococci isolated from clinical cases of bovine mastitis. The nine plants, namely, Antidesma venosum, Elaeodendron croceum, Erythrina caffra, Indigofera frutescens, Pleurostylia capensis, Searsia lancea, Searsia leptodictya, Trichilia emetica, and Ziziphus mucronata, were chosen for research material. The antibacterial activity of extracts was determined using a serial microdilution method, while a tetrazolium-based assay was used to determine their cytotoxicity against Vero cells. The values of antibacterial minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) obtained were promising, with MIC ranging between 0.01 and 1.41 mg/mL. Generally, acetone extracts of most plants had better activity than their ethanol counterparts. The S. aureus strains were more susceptible to all the extracts than the NAS strains. The plant extracts’ half-maximal toxicity (LC50) was higher than 0.02 mg/mL, which is the recommended cytotoxic cut-off concentration. The ethanol extract of E. caffra, which showed better MIC values than its acetone extract, had the highest mean selectivity index (SI) of 8.30. Among the plants tested, S. lancea exhibited the most potent antibacterial activity, suggesting its potential usefulness as a broad-spectrum antibacterial agent against staphylococci associated with bovine mastitis, at relatively non-cytotoxic concentrations. Therefore, it is recommended for further investigation.

The impact of green mergers and acquisitions on illegal pollution discharge of heavy polluting firms: Mechanism, heterogeneity and spillover effects

This paper is to discuss the impact of green mergers and acquisitions (GMA) on illegal pollution discharge (ILP). The diurnal difference pollution data of the nearest monitoring station around heavy polluting enterprises are used to measure ILP. Results show that: (1) Compared with polluting firms that have not conducted GMA, GMA can reduce ILP by 2.9%. (2) Large scale, strong industrial correlation and cash payment of GMA is more conducive to controlling ILP. GMA in the same city is easier to inhibit ILP. (3) Impact paths of GMA on ILP mainly include cost effect, technology effect and responsibility effect. GMA aggravates ILP by increasing management costs and risk control risks. GMA inhibits ILP by increasing green innovation, environmental protection investment, social responsibility performance and environmental information disclosure. (4) GMA has a greater inhibition effect on ILP in state-owned firms, technology-intensive firms and eastern firms. (5) The industrial spillover effect of GMA is more obvious than that of the same city. This paper provides implications for curbing ILP from the perspective of GMA.

Towards a Circular Economy: an Analysis of Kazakhstani case

 A circular economy is an economic system in which resources are used, reused, and regenerated in a closed loop, rather than the traditional linear model of extraction, use, and disposal. The topic is particularly urgent for emerging countries as it can help address many of the economic, environmental, and social challenges these countries face. This article aims to analyze the current state of circular economy development in Kazakhstan and its progress in implementing circularity principles over the years. The research was conducted in two stages: (1) a statistical analysis based on secondary data, which identifies patterns and trends in waste recycling; (2) a regression model for evaluating the impact of management costs on the level of recycling and reuse of waste in Kazakhstan. The data was collected for the period from 2015 to 2021. The results show that solid waste recycling has increased more than 11 times, while the municipal waste generation rate per capita slightly decreased. The regression analysis demonstrates that increasing management costs does not have the desired effect on the reuse and recycling of waste, backing the previous research results about the importance of other factors like environmental consciousness and state regulation. Despite the general positive changes, the progress of Kazakhstan in implementing a circular economy is still in its early stages. The article can provide valuable insights to policymakers and researchers in Kazakhstan on ways of assessing the waste management system and promoting a circular economy in the country. Keywords: circular economy, waste management, regression analysis, environmental consciousness

Nutrient Use and Management Practices on United States Golf Courses

Nutrient use on United States golf courses increases management costs and has the potential to influence ecosystems. Therefore, it is critical to assess nutrient use and management practices to develop and teach best management practices. The objectives of this survey were to measure nutrient use and management practices on United States golf courses in 2021, and to determine if changes occurred since 2006. A survey was developed and distributed via e-mail to 14,033 United States golf facilities, with 1444 responding. From 2006 to 2021, the total projected nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P2O5), and soluble potash (K2O) applied declined by 41%, 59%, and 54%, to 54,376, 13,761, and 41,386 tons, respectively. These reductions were attributed to course closures, reduced fertilized acres, reduced application rates, and nutrient use restrictions. The percentage of facilities that did not apply P2O5 increased to 21%, which is likely a result of P2O5 application restrictions. Soil testing was associated with greater application rates of N, P2O5, and K2O. Returning clippings, using precision fertilizer applications, reducing turfgrass acreage, and considering N release from soil organic matter were associated with reduced application rates of P2O5. Golf course superintendents have contributed to nationwide reductions in N, P2O5, and K2O, as evidenced by the reduction in fertilized acres and the reduction in nutrient use rates from 2006 to 2021.

Analysis of Retailer's Coping Style after Epidemic— — Based on IKEA's Coping Style

When faced with the sudden Covid-19, many companies have suffered large or small losses, especially small and medium-sized retailers, they have been hit unprecedented — compulsory policies imposed by the government have forced them to suspend their business, thus bringing many problems, such as inventory backlog, increased management costs, capital chain breakage, and so on. However, in today's time for the outbreak to recover, these retailers must begin to consider how to recover after the outbreak. Therefore, this paper takes the world-famous chain retailer Ikea as the research object, uses SWOT/PEST analysis method to analyze the dilemma and opportunities of Ikea, at the same time studies the practice of Ikea, studies the advantages of Ikea's practice for retailers. This essay holds the view that the measures IKEA did give suggestions to small and medium-sized enterprises to restore the economy, and hopes to help retailers quickly recover or even surpass the pre-epidemic level.

Effects of applying river sediment with irrigation water on salinity leaching during wheat-maize rotation in the Yellow River Delta

In the Yellow River Delta, soil salinization and river sediment are the two factors influence on economic growth. A large area of salinization reduces crop yields and dredged river sediment increases management costs. This study evaluated the effects of applying sediments under different levels of irrigation on salinity leaching for improving field productivity. A three-year field experiment (from June 2017 to June 2020) was conducted by considering three levels of sediment application:a control (no sediment added, S1), 30▒mm ha−1 (S2) and 60▒mm ha−1 (S3), and three levels of irrigation water: 290▒mm (90▒mm maize + 200▒mm wheat, W1), 385▒mm (120▒mm maize + 265▒mm wheat, W2) and 480▒mm (150▒mm maize + 330▒mm wheat, W3). The results exhibited that soil leaching rate was up to 66.3 % under 60▒mm ha−1 sediment application and 385▒mm irrigation after three wheat-maize rotation cultivation. This irrigation and sediment applied strategy achieved the effect of leaching salt, saving water and increasing grain yields. The mean yield of wheat and maize in sediment application and irrigation treatment was 18.3▒t ha−1 in three-year experiment which was significant bigger than the control. Thus, it is a technically feasible and friendly sustainable approach for salinization soil development in the Yellow River Delta.

Blockchain-based distributed operation and incentive solution for P-RAN

Operators are coming up with new solutions that use grid topology as an innovative response to future mobility requirements and the increasing management costs for wireless access networks. Proximity Radio Access Network (P-RAN), which was proposed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), expands the cellular structure from base station to intelligent terminal equipment through device to device (D2D) technology, which provides a cost-effective deployment solution for the 5G and 6G. The extensive deployment of P-RAN solution should be based on the active participation of a large number of distributed intelligent equipment users. Fair, reasonable and credible incentive solution is the key to realize the sustainable operation of this distributed system. This paper introduces a technical solution that applying blockchain technology to design P-RAN operating and incentive mechanism. Through blockchain technology, the current centralized P-RAN operation and incentive can be achieved in point-to-point way. By utilizing blockchain-based identity authentication and asymmetric key pairs, user and relay can confirm and sign the network usage information in sequence to reduce disputes. The abstract of all transactions related to P-RAN services can be recorded on blockchain immutably as the calculation basis of relay rewards. Through smart contracts and P-RAN incentive policy, relays that provide more and higher quality P-RAN service will be rewarded more, which can help to create positive feedback in this decentralized system. The tokens awarded to relays will be able to exchange through the blockchain network for the increase of the whole ecosystem utility. Blockchain-based P-RAN operation and incentive solution pioneer a way to the future heterogeneous network resource sharing and collaboration for supporting Web3.0 and Metaverse.

Effects of Farmland Landscape Fragmentation on Agricultural Irrigation in Hotan Oasis

Farmland landscape fragmentation is an important problem affecting the agricultural modernization process in China. However, farmland landscape fragmentation leads to land being wasted and increases management costs, particularly in the dryland’s oasis regions. Therefore, investigating the impact of farmland landscape fragmentation on agricultural irrigation is of great significance in developing oasis agriculture. This paper used the landscape quantitative index (DIVISION), the moving window method, and gradient analysis methods to study the temporal and spatial pattern changes in farmland fragmentation in the Hotan Oasis. Additionally, the impact of fragmentation on irrigation in the oasis was elaborated upon by exploring the relationship between evapotranspiration and its components in farmland fragmentation. The results showed that the farmland area of the Hotan Oasis increased from 1546.19 km2 in 2000 to 2068.23 km2 in 2020, and farmland landscape fragmentation increased with the expansion of the Hotan Oasis. In addition, a significant relationship between farmland fragmentation and evapotranspiration and its components was evident. A lower DIVISION value corresponded to a higher ET value, a lower ETs/ETc ratio, and a higher water use efficiency. When the total farmland area is assumed to remain unchanged, the irrigation water consumption is reduced by 4.82 × 108 m3 according to the size and proportion of arable land with the lowest degree of fragmentation (L1, division value of 0.46). In addition, with the increase in the proportion of farmland, the scale of oasis decreases by 2431.56 km2 for the reduction in field roads, shelterbelt, and bare land. These findings suggest that solving the problem of farmland fragmentation can effectively reduce irrigation water consumption, realize the internal expansion of the oasis through intensive land use, and relieve the pressure of the external expansion of the oasis.

Epidemiology and economic impact of lumpy skin disease of cattle in Mymensingh and Gaibandha districts of Bangladesh.

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an emerging viral disease of cattle that negatively impacts livestock by reducing animals' production and increasing management costs. Like other countries, Bangladesh has also faced the ominous effects of LSD. Because of this pressing concern, the present study was undertaken to determine the attack rate and risk factors along with economic losses of the recent LSD outbreaks from October 2019 to June 2020 in Bangladesh's Mymensingh and Gaibandha districts. A total of 1187 cattle from 150 randomly selected cattle farms were surveyed. The diagnosis was made both clinically and molecularly. The overall attack rate, mortality and case fatality were 34%, 1.10% and 3.23%, respectively, but in calves up to 1 month of age, the attack rate, mortality and case-fatality were 41.6%, 12.5% and 30%, respectively. In risk factor analysis using multiple logistic regression, the following factors were significantly (p < .05) associated with LSD occurrence: no administration of goat pox vaccine, frequency of goat pox vaccination - single dose, introduction of new cattle, land type (low land and medium-high land), use of common syringe and needle, and use of common utensils. The average economic loss per case was 9384.41 BDT (110.40 US $). The higher economic loss per case was accounted in Mymensingh district (10248.91 BDT ≈ 120.58 US $) than Gaibandha district (8211.52 BDT ≈ 96.61 US $). The loss was higher in crossbred cattle (9709.58 BDT ≈ 114.23 US $) compared to indigenous cattle (7595.94 BDT ≈ 89.36 US $). The total estimated annual loss due to LSD in Mymensingh and Gaibandha districts was 7763.25 million BDT (91.33 million US $). In Gaibandha district, the estimated annual loss was 2666.20 million BDT (31.37 million US $) while in Mymensingh district it was 5097.05 million BDT (59.97 million US $). Findings of the study could provide useful epidemiological data with losses incurred due to LSD to the livestock owners, field veterinarians and government-level livestock regulators, which will help to formulate prevention and control strategies and minimize the negative impact of LSD's probable return or spread.

LIFE RIPARIAS Early Alert: Using GBIF-mediated data to better manage invasive alien species

Invasive alien species represent one of the major threats to biodiversity. Prevention is better than cure, but once invasive species get established, early management interventions are important to prevent further damage to nature and increasing management costs. Managers need to be informed as swiftly as possible when invasive species pop up in their area. Moreover, an effective response also requires information on species in neighbouring areas. This way, managers can anticipate recolonisation and coordinate the response across higher spatial scales. Open data are indispensible to efficiently organize such early detection of and rapid response to invasive species. Here, we present LIFE RIPARIAS Early Alert, a new open source tool that aggregates data from diverse sources and sends tailored e-mail alerts to managers. The tool focusses on the project area of the EU co-funded project LIFE RIPARIAS (Reaching Integrated and Prompt Action in Response to Invasive Alien Species, LIFE19 NAT/BE/000953), which aims to improve dataflows for the management of invasive alien species in river basins across regional administrative borders in Belgium. Data on invasive alien species in Belgium are scattered across a multitude of sources, including project surveys, official monitoring schemes, scientific projects and citizen science reporting portals. We facilitated the standardization and publication of these sources as open datasets to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The early alert tool then harvests these observations from GBIF, visualizes them on a map as well as in table view, with their exact coordinates and a link to the original record. The tool allows for date range filtering and the selection of newly reported (and published) observations through a simple intuitive user interface. Users can create e-mail alerts to be notified of new observations for their species group(s), area(s) or source dataset(s) of interest. Currently, only observations from LIFE RIPARIAS target species (Branquart et al. 2022)—equally published as a checklist on GBIF—are displayed. These include non-native crayfish, invasive aquatic plants and a range of high-impact alert list species that should not yet occur in the area but will be rapidly removed should they arrive. The tool is currently being tested by the Belgian managerial community. In time, we hope to increase both the taxonomic scope as well as the number of sources. To our knowledge the RIPARIAS early alert tool is one of the first of its kind in Europe. It is unique in displaying data from multiple data sources at the highest spatial resolution, considering the species from the European Union Invasive Species Regulation (European Commission 2019) and actively promoting and supporting data owners to publish their data openly.

Does climate change affect enterprises’ ability to sell their products?

Based on local cities’ climate change data and the operating income data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2008 to 2019, we study the impact of climate change on enterprises’ sales ability and analyze its subsequent influence on their sales revenue from three dimensions: inside enterprises, the supply side and the demand side. The results show that climate change reduces enterprises’ sales revenue. From enterprises’ internal perspective, climate change reduces production efficiency, increases management costs and the impact on the cost of sales is not obvious. From the demand side, climate change increases business risks and reduces transactions between large customers and enterprises. The share of sales from large customers is reduced, but no obvious impact is observed for small customers. On the supply side, climate change reduces business credit levels, which in turn reduces sales revenue. A heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of climate change on sales revenue is more obvious in private enterprises, enterprises with weak internal controls and enterprises in central and western regions of China.