The effects of the formation of Stone-Wales defects on the electronic and magnetic properties of silicon carbide nanoribbons: a first-principles investigation.

Detailed first-principles density functional theory (DFT) computations were performed to investigate the geometries, the electronic, and the magnetic properties of both armchair-edged silicon carbide nanoribbons (aSiCNRs) and zigzag-edged silicon carbide nanoribbons (zSiCNRs) with Stone-Wales (SW) defects. SW defects in the center of aSiCNRs can remarkably reduce their band gaps, irrespective of the orientation of the defect, whereas zSiCNRs with SW defects in the center or at the edges exhibit degenerate energies of their ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) states, in which metallic and half-metallic behavior can be observed, respectively; half-metallic behavior can even be observed in both the FM and AFM states simultaneously. Further, it was shown that the formation energies of the SW defects in SiCNRs are orientation dependent, and the formation of edge defects is always favored over the formation of interior defects in zSiCNRs. The possible existence of SW defects in SiCNRs was further validated through exploring the kinetic process of their formation. These findings can be anticipated to provide valuable information in promoting the potential applications of SiC-based nanomaterials in multifunctional and spintronic nanodevices.

The donor/acceptor edge-modification: an effective strategy to modulate the electronic and magnetic behaviors of zigzag silicon carbon nanoribbons.

Based on first principles computations, we systematically investigated electronic and magnetic properties of zSiCNRs with unilateral/bilateral modification by employing electron donor/acceptor groups, where five chemical functional groups are sampled, namely, CH3, OH, NH2, CN and NO2. Our computed results reveal that the edge modification with donor/acceptor groups can break the magnetic degeneracy of pristine zSiCNRs, and intriguing antiferromagnetic (AFM) half-metallicity, AFM metallicity and ferromagnetic (FM) metallicity can be achieved. This overcomes the bottleneck that FM metallicity and AFM half-metallicity in pristine zSiCNRs are vulnerable under even small disturbances, due to the energy degeneracy between the FM and AFM states. Obviously, edge modification with donor/acceptor groups can be an effective strategy to modulate the electronic and magnetic behaviors of zSiCNRs, which will be advantageous for promoting SiC-based nanomaterials in the application of spintronics and multifunctional nanodevices in the near future.

Evaluating the Impact of Institutional Performance and Government Trust on Farmers' Subjective Well-Being: A Case of Urban-Rural Welfare Gap Perception and Family Economic Status in Shaanxi, Sichuan and Anhui, China.

In the modern world, fostering comprehensive social sustainability has become one of the major concerns. Interestingly, rural livelihood may significantly comprise the compelling performance evaluations of governmental institutions' performances. Governmental institutions' performances in rural areas largely depend on whether they can gain relatively higher trust levels of marginal farmers. However, the critical interaction between these two prospects may foster farmers' subjective well-being (SWB). Therefore, the study aims to model and test institutional performance, government trust, and farmers' subjective well-being by utilising a survey of data from 963 farmer households in Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Anhui provinces, China. We have adopted structural equation modelling (SEM) to craft the study's findings. However, in the literature, political performance is widely quantified by the urban-rural welfare and economic status gap; thus, in the core model, we have incorporated and measured the mediating role of the urban-rural welfare gap and household economic status. The results show that institutional performance, social insurance performance, and ecological livability performance have a significant and positive impact on institutional performance and government trust and eventually derive farmers' SWB. However, the role of environmental livability performance is more substantial than social insurance performance in quantifying governmental trust and institutional performance. Moreover, it has a significant positive impact on the subjective well-being of farmers, and the effect of policy trust is not substantial. The results of further mediation and moderation effects show that social insurance performance and ecological livability performance can enhance the subjective well-being of farmers through the indirect transmission of institutional trust. In contrast, the mediating impact of policy trust is not significant. For farmers with higher economic status, institutional performance has a more substantial effect on the subjective well-being of farmers with a relatively smaller perception of the urban-rural welfare gap and lower family economic status.

Influence and Action Mechanisms of Governmental Relations Embeddedness for Fostering Green Production Demonstration Household: Evidence from Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Anhui Province, China.

As an innovative tactic, the core aspects of green products should be comprehensively demonstrated and firmly promoted to enhance their adoption. For doing so, continuous governmental support and interventions through distinct sets of networking and relationships could be crucial for synthesizing and diffusing the extent of green production demonstration households. Interestingly, the structural relationship between these two has not yet been evaluated comprehensively by the existing literature. Therefore, the study empirically analyzes the impact and mechanism of government relationships embedded in fostering green production demonstration households. The study compiles the empirical data from 963 farmers which were collected from the major tea-producing areas of Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Anhui provinces, China. In order to craft the findings, first we constructed the ordered Probit for benchmark regression analysis. Meanwhile, the Ordinary Standard Error Ordered Probit model, Ordered Logit model, and multivariate linear model were constructed for the robustness test. Third, the Extended Ordered Probit model and Bootstrap mediation effect model were used to test the path diagram. Finally, robustness testing and endogeneity processing test were used to explore the reliability of the findings. The results showed that: (i) Government relationship embedding has a positive effect on fostering green production demonstration households. In particular, factors such as relationships with general government staff, professional and technical personnel, and village cadre are most significant. (ii) Seemingly, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the farmers with large operating scales and low family economic status have a relatively stronger impact. (iii) Further mechanism research results show that government relations are embedded through government identification (policy identification, government trust), improving farmers' behavioral ability (production knowledge reserve, self-efficacy), and strengthening farmers' perceived value of green production (self-interest perception, altruistic values). Therefore, the government should strengthen the interactive mechanism embedded with farm households and extend support for green production demonstration zones. The farmers' information-sharing facilities and platforms should be modernized and highlighted according to the local conditions and long-term targeted strategies.

Effects of Market Incentives and Livelihood Dependence on Farmers' Multi-Stage Pesticide Application Behavior-A Case Study of Four Provinces in China.

Improvement in pesticide application and efficiency structure has long been recognized as having great significance in reducing pollution, ensuring food safety, and promoting green agricultural development. Based on theoretical analysis, using the survey data of 766 farmers in key tea areas in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces in China, the study empirically analyzes the influence of market incentives and livelihood dependence on farmers' multi-stage pesticide application behavior. More specifically, the study employed ordered probit analysis to craft its findings. The dependent variable of this study is the multi-stage pesticide application problem of farmers, and the core independent variables are market incentives and livelihood dependence, and the judgment is based on the core variable coefficients of the econometric model of farmers at each stage. The study found the following: (i) Market incentives significantly prompted some farmers to give up synthetic pesticide application and farmers tend to choose green pesticides in the type of pesticide application. (ii) Livelihood dependence meant that the proportion of tea income significantly prompts farmers to apply pesticides, and also creates a tendency for farmers to choose green and low-toxic pesticides in the type of pesticide application. The planting period tends to have a moderate impact on applying green and low-toxic pesticides. (iii) The interaction term of market incentives and the proportion of tea income has no significant impact on farmers' multi-stage pesticide application behavior. The interaction term of market incentives and planting years has impacted negatively on whether farmers apply pesticides, and has no significant impact on farmers' choice of pesticide application types, but makes farmers increase the amount of green and low-toxic pesticides. (iv) The education level of the household head significantly promotes farmers to choose green and low-toxic pesticides. Seemingly, the brand effect of pesticides significantly encourages farmers to choose green and low-toxic pesticides. In external support, technical training significantly encourages farmers to choose green and low-toxic pesticides. Furthermore, better infrastructure and local market conditions significantly encourage farmers to reduce the use of conventional pesticides.