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Local development is a subject that arouses significant interest in the international scientific community in general, and in the Ibero-American one, in particular. The process of globalization has transformed the management of local development, altering the role that is played by local and regional entities, and it is the object of an important follow-up and analysis by academia. This research uses a bibliometric methodology and a fractional counting method, reviewing the 738 articles from the Scopus database in order to understand the state of Ibero-American research on local development, and analyze the scientific literature on the topic. The results show a significant increase in the number of publications in the 21st century, with Spain and Brazil leading the way. In addition, this research provides interesting results regarding the most influential authors on this topic, the most relevant journals, and the most important institutions and funding organizations. There are several areas of knowledge involved since local development is a transversal field, such as Social Science, environment, business, economics, and agriculture. A deep analysis of authors’ keywords identified new trends, linking local development with tourism, education, geotourism, climate change, local sustainable development, social innovation, and creativity, which provides academia with potential new lines of research.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the threshold effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental degradation. In empirical analysis, FDI and environmental degradation are jointly determined under the given threshold variable and other exogenous variables. Using carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita as a proxy for environmental degradation, the results show that increasing FDI worsens CO2 emissions after a threshold level of corruption has been reached. Our results demonstrate that increasing FDI will increase CO2 emissions when the degree of corruptibility is relatively high. The study suggests that further FDI and improved environmental quality are competing rather than compatible objectives in high-corruption countries and are compatible rather than competing objectives in low-corruption countries. Higher trade liberalization in low-corruption countries could contribute to negative environmental consequences because of the increased output or economic activity which results from increased trade. The robustness estimation confirms the evidence that pollution and economic development increase together up to a certain income level, after which the trend reverses.

This research studied the impacts of the environmental Kuznets curve and the determinants of economic growth for Visegrad countries from 1990 to 2018. This paper reflects on the effects of renewable and non-renewable energy, urban population, foreign direct investment, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions. According to our results, the panel of unit root tests showed that the variables under study are integrated into the first differences. Considering the empirical results for the environmental Kuznets curve, we observe that economic growth is positively correlated with pollution emissions; nevertheless, the squared income per capita is negatively impacted by carbon dioxide emissions. Energy consumption increases carbon emissions, and foreign direct investment confirms the pollution halo hypothesis. Therefore, the econometric results showed that renewable energy consumption promotes regional growth. Consequently, urban population and foreign direct investment positively correlate with economic growth.

Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) are complex to manage due to their intermittent nature and their severe impact on the economy and human health. The conditions which promote HAB have not yet been fully explained, though climate change and anthropogenic intervention are pointed as significant factors. The rise of water temperature, the opening of new sea canals and the introduction of ship ballast waters all contribute to the dispersion and establishment of toxin-producing invasive species that promote the settling of emergent toxins in the food-chain. Tetrodotoxin, ciguatoxin, palytoxin and cyclic imines are commonly reported in warm waters but have also caused poisoning incidents in temperate zones. There is evidence that monitoring for these toxins exclusively in bivalves is simplistic and underestimates the risk to public health, since new vectors have been reported for these toxins and as well for regulated toxins such as PSTs and DSTs. In order to avoid public health impacts, there is a need for adequate monitoring programs, a need for establishing appropriate legislation, and a need for optimizing effective methods of analysis. In this review, we will compile evidence concerning emergent marine toxins and provide data that may indicate the need to restructure the current monitoring programs of HAB.

Nowadays, the use of a drug to modify a person's behavior with criminal intentions has become a growing public concern. In fact, stealthy drink spiking with certain drugs can cause the incapacitation of a potential victim of assault and in extreme cases can even lead to death. Belonging to the group of drugs used to commit drug-facilitated crimes is glibenclamide, which not only exhibits high sedation secondary effects but when subject to an overdose intake can lead to intense hypoglycemic episodes that could end with death. Suicide attempts and homicides through overdose with glibenclamide have already been reported. In this work and for the first time, it was developed a new methodology for detection of glibenclamide in spiked liquid samples (teas) by fluorometry (λ(ex)=300 nm; λ(em)=404 nm). The novel methodology was also implemented in a miniaturized and portable automatic flow system based in the concept of multipumping with an in-line pre-separation unit. The separation of the drug from the liquid samples was achieved through adsorption of the drug into activated charcoal packed within a mini column followed by elution with a solution composed by ethanol, hydrochloric acid and the surfactant CTAB (70%, 1.0 mol L(-1), 0.01 mol L(-1), respectively). The results allowed to obtain a linear working range for glibenclamide concentrations of up to 50 mg L(-1) (r=0.9999) and the detection limit was about 0.81 mg L(-1) of glibenclamide.

Since 2019, the world has been experiencing a pandemic period due to the COVID-19 virus, which has brought the need for organizations in general, healthcare organizations and their professionals in particular, to focus on innovation as a way to fight an utterly unknown virus. Thus, this study aims to understand how nurses and their personal factors (stress, anxiety, work engagement, organizational support) impact their innovative behaviour and innovation outputs, contributing to innovation in the current pandemic period through changes in thoughts, values, behaviours and relationships among healthcare professionals and their organizations. For this purpose, the Job Demands-Resources model was used as a reference, and the measurement instrument was applied to 738 nurses working in healthcare units in Portugal. Therefore, it was found that the nurses’ personal factors have a positive effect on the nurses’ innovative behaviour and innovation outputs, with the innovative behaviour having the most significant impact on innovation outputs, which will benefit healthcare organizations and the healthcare provided to patients during the pandemic, through innovative behaviours and products. It is also possible to understand how the available resources and the demands imposed on nurses interfere with their innovative behaviour (Job Demands-Resources model).

This study explores the impacts of environmental pollution and the digital economy on the new energy industry with panel data on 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2020. Mean group regression was performed, and fully modified OLS and dynamic OLS were conducted to check the robustness of the results. The authors reached two conclusions: (1) environmental pollution exerts significant negative impacts on the new energy industry. For every 1% increase in environmental pollution, the level of development of the new energy industry drops by 0.1658%. In other words, environmental pollution levels down the new energy industry. (2) The digital economy produces significant positive impacts on the new energy industry. For every 1% increase in the digital economy, the level of development of the new energy industry rises by 0.4262%. That is, the digital economy levels up the new energy industry. Our policy recommendations place equal stress on both the prevention and the control of environmental pollution, strengthening digital infrastructure, enhancing the government’s digital governance and service capabilities, protecting consumer rights, and replacing conventional energy with new energy.

The association between resource rents and economic growth is one of the key issues that have attracted the attention of both policymakers and scholars. Several attempts have been made regarding the association, yet the literature holds the gap. The present research intends to explore the connection between natural resource volatility and economic performance in seven (G-7) countries. For the time frame from1990 to 2020, this study also examines the role of technological innovation (TI), human capital (HCI), and research and development budget for renewable energy (RER&D). Empirical results asserted that the variables under study are cointegrated. Employing a novel non-parametric panel quantile method of moments regression and quantile-on-quantile, the outcomes propose that natural resources volatility significantly affects EP throughout the quantiles. This negative impact is valid for the aggregate panel of countries and cross-sections. Natural resource volatility supports the resource curse hypothesis for G7 economies. On the other hand, HCI and TI are significant economic performance factors. From lower to higher quantiles, the magnitude and significance levels increase. The variable for cleaner energy investment is also positively related to economic performance yet insignificant in the higher quantile. The study recommends channeling natural resource rents to effectively and fully transfer the full potential of natural resources to other real sectors of the economy to fully utilize the benefit from it.