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Forests play an essential role in ensuring ecological balance and providing valuable resources. Evaluating their ecological effectiveness and economic value is vital for sustainable forest management. Due to the ecological benefits of the forest ecosystem, China has introduced reforms in its ecological system and incorporated them into its national economic accounting system. This research study selects different types of forests based on their locality and species. It formulates a classifier using Convolution Neural networks (CNN) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) data mining techniques. First, this paper briefly discusses data mining methods used to determine the impact of different factors on forest health, quality, and its importance in terrestrial ecology. Second, this research study designs a classifier for labeling forests according to their ecological and economic worth. A confusion matrix was used to ascertain the performance of the classifier. Third, it illustrates an index system for evaluating forest ecosystem service function value and explores dynamic characteristics of forest resource variation and the change process of the forest ecosystem. Finally, a statistical analysis is performed among the proposed study and related studies. The proposed study outperforms its predecessors and depicts that the proposed technique is more accurate than traditional systems. The study showed that the amount of nutrients accumulated by trees and the amount of polluted gas absorbed have doubled, and the growth rate of other functions has also increased by more than 70%. The average growth of forest ecological functions is 97.93%, significantly improving people's awareness of forest resource protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, lung cancer has become one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, which seriously threatens the life and health of mankind. Lung cancer is also the most common cancer in China. According to the latest report released by the National Cancer Center, the incidence and fatality rate of lung cancer in China rank first among malignant tumors, which has brought great disease burden to the Chinese. In this paper, using ethyl acetoacetate as the starting material, eight benzo[d]imidazolium[2,1-b]thiazole target compounds containing chromone were synthesized in five steps through alpha halogenation, cyclization, hydrolysis, condensation and cyclization reaction. MTT assay was used to evaluate the in vitro inhibitory activity of the target compounds on A549 and H2228 cancer cells. The IC50 values of the target compounds to A549 and H2228 cell lines ranged from 17.63 to 369.09 μmol/L. Some target compounds have moderate anti-tumor activity in vitro, which could be used to prepare related anti-tumor drugs for lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topographic variables derived from digital elevation models (DEM) are the most commonly used predictor in soil organic carbon (SOC) prediction. The predictability of these variates for the spatial heterogenity of SOC is influenced by the size of DEM resolution. This paper aimed to investigate the resolution effect of the topography at multiple DEM resolutions and select the most important predictors and the optimal resolution for SOC prediction in a large-scale and morphologically complex area. The study area, covering 15 600 km2, was located in a mountainous province in China. A total of 3901 soil samples and three machine learning algorithms including random forest, gradient boosted regression tree, and artificial neural network were used to construct the SOC predictive models at resolutions of 30, 90, 150, 210, 270, 330, and 390 m. Topographic factors were derived from the DEM with an original resolution of 30 m and were subsequently resampled to varying resolutions by using the bilinear interpolation algorithm. The importance of each variate in each predictive model was computed for the most important predictor selection, and the determination coefficient (R2) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of each predictive model were computed for the accuracy evaluation. Comparative analysis on point-based topographic representation, the accuracy of predictive models, and the variable importance was conducted among different resolutions to investigate the resolution effect on the SOC prediction and to select the optimal resolution for this study area. The results showed that topography was the key factor influencing the SOC distribution in this large-scale area due to the region's mountainous nature, and the relative contribution of the topography to predict SOC distribution varied with DEM resolutions. Elevation was the most important topographic factor at all DEM resolutions. Accuracies of predictive models built on the three machine learning algorithms were all dependent on DEM resolution, indicating that DEM resolution had an important effect on SOC prediction. Overall, the random forest predictive models outperformed the other two algorithms, and its most accurate result was obtained at the 210-m resolution with an R2 of 0.25 and an RMSE of 4.77 g kg–1. In conclusion, we found that finer resolutions did not necessarily produce more accurate SOC predictions even in a large-scale and morphologically complex area. Therefore, investigating the resolution effect is suggested to select an optimal resolution for the SOC prediction in other regions characterized by similar geomorphological conditions as this study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By studying both the microscopic physical and chemical typomorphic characteristics of typical mineral pyrite samples associated with representative gold deposits on the north-central margin of the North China Platform, this paper seeks to identify macroscopic metallogenic mechanisms of gold deposits and to reveal the formation mechanism of lattice gold in pyrite. Typomorphic characteristics of pyrite reveal that pyrite grain size has a negative correlation with gold content. Cubic pyrite, as the dominant crystal form, contains more gold than pentagonal dodecahedral pyrite. Both pyrite crystal forms and chemical compositions indicate that the replacement style of gold deposit formed in a low saturability, low sulfur fugacity, and at temperatures either much higher or much lower than its best forming temperature; comparatively, that of the quartz vein style of gold deposit occurred under conditions with the best temperature, rich in sulfur, and with high sulfur fugacity. The Au/Ag ratios of the pyrites show that both the replacement and quartz vein styles of deposits are mesothermal and hypothermal, while the Co/Ni ratios of the pyrites indicate that the quartz vein style is of magmatic-hydrothermal origin. The X-ray diffraction intensity of pyrite rich in gold is lower than that of pyrite poor in gold at the quartz vein style. In general, with an increase in gold content in pyrite, the total sum intensity ΣI decreases. The pyroelectricity coefficient has a negative correlation trend with the values of (Co + Ni + Se + Te)-As and (Co + Ni + Se + Te)/As. The pyrite pyroelectricity of the replacement style is N-type, indicating that it formed under low sulfur fugacity, while that of the quartz vein style is a mixture of P-N types, indicating that it formed under high sulfur fugacity. On the pyroelectricity-temperature diagram, pyrite of the replacement style is mainly distributed between 200 and 270 °C, while that of the quartz vein style varies between 90–118 and 274–386 °C, demonstrating a multistage forming process. In contrast to previous researchers' conclusions, the authors confirm the existence of lattice gold in pyrites through the use of an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) test. Au in the form of Au+, entering pyrite as an isomorph and producing electron–hole centers, makes the centers produce spin resonance absorption and results in EPR absorption peak II. The intensity of auriferous pyrite absorption peak II has certain direct positive correlations with pyrite gold content. The #I and #III absorption peaks of pyrites possibly result from the existence of Ni2+ and/or Cu2+. γ1, γ2, and γ3 are the strongest and most typical absorption peaks of the infrared spectra of the pyrites. Generally, with the increase in gold content in the pyrite samples, γ1, γ2, and γ3 tend to shift to higher wavenumbers, and the gold content in the pyrite samples has a positive correlation with their relative absorbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the understudied topic of international student sojourners' emotional intercultural competence in higher education by analysing Chinese postgraduate students' experiences of managing their emotions evoked during intercultural communication at a British university. Through ethnographic interviews, this study examines how students construct their emotion-management experiences as well as the effects of social interaction on the construction processes of these experiences. The findings shed light on the motives and pathways for deploying specific emotional intercultural competencies in practice. Furthermore, the findings manifest the central role of the interplay between individual agency and societal forces in shaping the substances, facilitators, constraints, two-way interactivity and dialectical tensions of emotional intercultural competencies that unfold in specific interpersonal, moral and structural contexts. By representing competence as a repertoire of action strategies performed by individuals to address their important concerns and by illuminating the meanings of competence in particular environments at particular moments, this study moves beyond the traditional 'list' approach which largely conceptualises competencies as fixed, individual-based and universal entities. The study emphasises the importance of taking a holistic, process-oriented, context-based and dialectical perspective in developing a deeper level of competence for empowering individuals engaged in intercultural communication. In addition, this study discusses practical implications regarding the development of emotion-management strategies towards competence for intercultural education in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous Neoproterozoic granitic intrusions occur over a north-south distance of more than 700 km in the western Yangtze Block. In this paper, we use zircon U-Pb age, Lu-Hf isotopic, and whole-rock geochemical data to show that the Shimian granitic pluton, which was previously thought to be S-type granite in the area, is actually A-type granite. The selected fresh samples for this study are mainly porphyritic biotite monzogranites. They are weak peraluminous, A2-subtype granites, displaying high contents of SiO2 and K2O, low CaO, and Na2O, with the characteristics of high silica, rich potassium, and low sodium. They are enriched in incompatible trace elements, but low in trace elements compatible in mafic silicates and feldspars, and they are chemically characterized by having high REE and Ga abundances and low Al, Ni, Ba, Sr, and Eu abundances. The major and trace element behavior suggests that the granites underwent the process of advanced fractional crystallization and were likely generated by crustal partial melting. Zircon U-Pb age shows the Shimian granitic pluton was emplaced at 728 ± 20 Ma. The studied granites yield an average 176Hf/177Hf value of 0.282363 (εHf = 0.8) with a 94% confidence interval of 0.282334 to 0.282384 (εHf = −0.1 to 1.7), indicating that they are derived from the remelting of juvenile continental crust. We suggest that this newly identified A-type granite at Shimian, southwestern China, was more plausibly generated in an extensional setting as a result of slab window caused by ridge subduction, which can account not only for the formation of voluminous granitoids, but also for the basalts, boninitic pillow lavas, and SSZ-type ophiolites in western Yangtze Block. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contradiction between ecological maintenance and economic production is increasingly prominent with the rapid development of forestry. Uncovering the forestry eco-efficiency which integrates ecology, resources and economic production is the premise of mitigating the hazards of strict reliance on heavy inputs and improving the resource utilization efficiency in forestry. This paper applies a three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model combined with the DEA-Malmquist approach to eliminate the interferences of external environment and random errors and reveal the evolution of real forestry eco-efficiency and its decomposition. Besides, it is beneficial to understand the convergence of forestry eco-efficiency for grasping the long-term efficient operation mechanism of ecological production. The empirical results demonstrate that the forestry eco-efficiency progress is closely related to an excellent environment and efficient internal management by comparing the results between stage I and stage III. Different environmental variables have different effects on the slack of different inputs in stage II. Moreover, the convergence analysis proves the existence of absolute convergence and conditional convergence of forestry eco-efficiency in the whole China and six regions; that is, the catch-up effect is observed in backward provinces. Hence, targeted policy suggestions are provided to achieve forestry return to its green essence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is highly development-oriented and appeals to developing countries whose wish is to catch up with developed economies. China has called for co-construction of the BRI with all and sundry, particularly with African countries, which it has considered important and strategic in actualizing the BRI project. The call for co-construction echoes well with the African partners, who are keen on leveraging the BRI for their own development. Tied to China's status as a rising economic power, both partners have agreed to align the BRI with the African Union's development agenda for complementary and beneficial development. Our paper revealed that although the call for co-construction of the BRI is a welcomed initiative, there are potential setbacks that abound, and therefore offered strategies for responding to China's call for co-construction of the BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a larger study, this paper presents findings from my exploration of discourses about China-US geopolitics through popular discussions on Chinese international students (CIS) who are attending American universities during the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. The study seeks to advance scholarship for international students attending American colleges, with particular implications for Chinese students, as agents of geopolitical relations. In doing so, it investigates (a) how these students are represented in American media and (b) the criticality of international geopolitics in the mobility of international students. The findings reveal that American popular media sources assume a tone when writing about CIS that may stem from a deeper anti-Chinese sentiment that exists in the US. They also suggest that American institutions of higher education, and American companies that employ CIS after graduation, treat these students as imported subjects/objects that support America's intellectual and economic advancement. In doing so, the media perpetuates narratives of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, while representing CIS as unwitting agents of those tensions. The study seeks to advance scholarship on international students attending US colleges, particularly those from China, during an era of rising populism and right-wing movements in the US coupled with rapidly deteriorating US-China relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex topology of river networks and the numerous factors influencing streamflow make it challenging to forecast streamflow in large river basins. Improving the accuracy of streamflow forecasting in these basins is of great importance for water resource planning and management. In this paper, considering the spatial variability of impacts of human activities on streamflow, a streamflow forecasting method with a hybrid physical process-mathematical statistic is proposed to obtain better results by realizing the complementary advantages of conventional methods and the streamflow into Hongze Lake in China is forecasted by the proposed method. Firstly, the physical process-based Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is used to forecast the streamflow of tributaries with few water storage projects such as reservoirs in the catchment area. Secondly, considering the correlation between mainstream streamflow and tributaries streamflow as well as the correlation between mainstream streamflow and its previous streamflow, streamflow forecasting models based on the vine copula function are constructed to forecast the mainstream streamflow and its confidence intervals, where there are many water storage projects in the catchment area. Then, the total streamflow into Hongze Lake and its confidence intervals are obtained by coupling the outputs of the above two parts. Finally, statistical indicators are chosen to evaluate the forecasting effects in terms of the credibility of deterministic forecasting as well as the reliability and acuity of probabilistic forecasting. The results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing SWAT and long and short-term memory (LSTM) neural network methods in terms of forecasting performance. Consequently, it presents an effective alternative for addressing complex hydrological forecasting tasks in large river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The residual oil in the fluvial reservoir of Gudong Oilfield is still widely developed even after decades of development. In order to explore the remaining oil in the subsurface fluvial reservoir, we need to have a better understanding on fluvial sandbody characteristics. This paper aims to demonstrate how to quantify anatomy on meandering fluvial architecture. Sedimentologic data from core descriptions of Guantao Formation in Gudong Oilfield were used to identify architectural elements. The upper Guantao Formation consists of ten lithofacies composing five different types of architectural elements. By integrating the available core, well logs, and seismic data, the fluvial sandbody distribution was analyzed. To characterize the fluvial channel geomorphology, we used seismic inversion to explore the stratigraphic correlation and stacking patterns of different channels, and the sandbody isopach map was obtained by the sandbody thickness in each layer. The architectural elements distribution in the plane was mapped by the sandbody isopach map and its profile characteristics. According to the investigation of meandering fluvial outcrops, subsurface meandering fluvial seismic geomorphology, and modern river morphology, the upstream-bar portions are always eroded because of the downstream channel migration. Statistics on the morphometric parameters (bar width/looplength, upstream deflection angle, downstream deflection angle, etc.) of modern meandering river (Ob River) were obtained from the Google Earth. It is found that the bar width/looplength and upstream deflection angle, upstream deflection angle and downstream deflection angle in modern meandering river have a good relationship, and we can have a quantitative architectural characterization on the point bar. This study quantified lithofacies thickness and proportion in different architectural elements of Guantao Formation, which ensures a high resolution anatomy on the small scale architecture. By using this method, the lithofacies proportion in each architectural element was computed, and through the statistics of architectural elements proportion in the Gudong Oilfield, the different lithofacies proportions in the block 6 can be computed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local climate zones (LCZs) are an effective nexus linking internal urban structures to the local climate and have been widely used to study urban thermal environment. However, few studies considered how much the temperature changed due to LCZs transformation and their synergy. This paper quantified the change of urban land surface temperature (LST) in LCZs transformation process by combining the land use transfer matrix with zonal statistics method during 2000–2019 in the Xi'an metropolitan. The results show that, firstly, both LCZs and LST had significant spatiotemporal variations and synchrony. The period when the most LCZs were converted was also the LST rose the fastest, and the spatial growth of the LST coincided with the spatial expansion of the built type LCZs. Secondly, the LST difference between land cover type LCZs and built type LCZs gradually widened. And LST rose more in both built type LCZs transferred in and out. Finally, the Xi'an-Xianyang profile showed that the maximum temperature difference between the peaks and valleys of the LST increased by 4.39°C, indicating that localized high temperature phenomena and fluctuations in the urban thermal environment became more pronounced from 2000 to 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public environmental concern (PEC) is an important bottom-up force in building an environmentally sustainable society. Guided by attitude theory, this paper innovatively constructed a PEC evaluation index system, while introducing entropy weighted-TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) to realize the assessment of PEC. Exploratory spatial data analysis was used to portray the spatio-temporal evolution patterns of PEC in 362 Chinese cities at prefecture-level and above from 2011 to 2018. Furthermore, the Geodetector model was performed to identify the multi-dimensional determinants of PEC from the perspective of spatial heterogeneity. The results indicated that: 1) PEC in China exhibited a fluctuating upward trend, consistent with the spatial distribution law of 'Heihe-Tengchong Line' and 'Bole-Taipei Line'; 2) the driving effect of each factor varied dynamically, but in general, economic development level, population size, industrial wastewater, and education level were the dominant driving factors explaining the spatial variation of PEC; 3) risk detection revealed that four factors, government environmental regulations, PM2.5, vegetation coverage, and natural resource endowment, had nonlinear effects on PEC; 4) the interactions between factors all demonstrated an enhancement in explaining the spatial differentiation of PEC. PEC was driven by the comprehensive interaction of four-dimensional factors of economy, society, pollutant emissions, and ecology. Among them, population agglomeration accompanied by a high level of regional economy and information technology can explain the increase in PEC to the greatest extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China prioritizes ecological civilization construction and embraces the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." Great achievements have been made in ecological protection and restoration through implementing a series of policies and projects. This paper reviews the history of ecological restoration in China and the current development of the "integrated protection and restoration project of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts (IPRP)." Furthermore, the characteristics of IPRP were systematically elaborated from the perspectives of the ecological civilization thought, the policy management, and the key scientific issues. Also, the current achievements were summarized in the fields of national ecological space management, biodiversity conservation, and ecological protection and restoration. Existing challenges in management policy, scientific issues, and engineering practices were highlighted. Future perspectives include ecological space control, nature-based Solutions, biodiversity big data platform, modern techniques, and value realization mechanisms of ecological products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-civilization, as a civilizational discourse led by China, implies the next stage of civilization after industrial civilization, the essence of which is to respect, conform to, and protect nature. Although the international community is paying more attention to eco-civilization, the existing literature still lacks a systematic discussion of which theories and practices underpin the construction of eco-civilization. Due to the ambiguity of eco-civilization, some even criticize it as being a form of purely partisan politics in China. By systematically reviewing its theoretical pillars, practical actions, and major achievements, this perspective paper argues that China's eco-civilization is not a partisan politics, but rather a legitimate, imperative pathway to global sustainable development rooted in complementary theory and practice, i.e., theories guide practices, and practices enrich theories. We highlight that the theoretical basis and practical actions of eco-civilization constitute a continual improvement process that permits diverse viewpoints and understanding, and any action exploring how to achieve a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature is consistent with the values of eco-civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's concept of "ecological civilization" can be understood as a new system of development and governance based on the perspective of political decision-making. Environmental management, ecological restoration, and green development are its primary principles—distinctly different from industrial and agricultural-oriented civilizations. In this paper, we evaluate the evolution of political connotations of the ecological civilization concept in China over the past 15 years through a textual analysis approach. Additionally, we systematically outline an ecological civilization indicator system and analyze its evolutionary process, applicable scales, and role in guiding the implementation of the ecological civilization concept. Eco-civilization demonstration sites and experiences are also discussed, followed by a review of academic research and policy-making responses. Finally, we propose different perspectives on the outlook for the future of ecological civilization development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the gender disparities and cohort differences in the health trajectories of older Chinese adults. Drawn on a nationally representative dataset from the 2008–2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, this paper uses a growth-curve model to identify the health trajectories of older adults in functional limitations, chronic diseases, depressive symptoms and cognitive skills. Older women are found to have slightly fewer functional limitations than older men at an earlier age; however, this gap is reversed later because of women's higher deterioration rate in physical function. Compared to men, older women have more chronic diseases at younger ages, but this trend is changed after age 90 years due to a faster decline rate in chronic diseases for women. The gender gap in the depressive symptom trajectories narrows with age, whereas the gap in the trajectories of cognitive skills widens. The cohort differences favouring later-born cohorts decrease with age in the trajectory of functional limitations. The latest cohort born in 1940 or after has the fastest increase in chronic diseases and depressive symptoms among all the cohorts. These results are further verified using the random-effect model and pooled ordinary least squares. Policymakers should promote gender equality and reduce cohort differences to achieve the national goal of "Healthy China". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many societies, parents prefer sons over daughters, but the well-being effects of child gender, especially in later life, are less studied. Using the latest two waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this paper evaluates the impacts of having daughters on older parents' subjective well-being (SWB) in urban China, which has a rapidly aging population and the traditional preference for sons. Studying the cohort of parents whose child gender is as good as random, we find that having more daughters promotes older parents' SWB, especially overall life satisfaction, satisfaction with health, and satisfaction with children. Our results suggest that the increase in SWB is achieved through better health, more financial support from daughters and more spending on leisure. The positive SWB effects of daughters are found to be more salient among more vulnerable groups, including those who are older, less educated, and with fewer children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Tuberculosis is one of the oldest diseases in human history, and spinal tuberculosis (STB) is the most common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. A large number of research has been conducted in this field. However, there has been no bibliometric analysis performed in recent years in STB. The aim of this study was to analyze trends and hotspots in research on STB. Methods: Publications regarding STB between 1980 and 2022 were extracted from the Web of Science database. CiteSpace (V5.7.R2) and VOSviewer (1.6.10) were used to perform global analyses of the number of publications, countries, institutions, authors, journals, keywords, and cited references. Results: A total of 1262 articles were published between 1980 and 2022. We observed rapid growth in the number of publications since 2010. Spine had the highest number of publications (47, 3.7%). Zhang HQ and Wang XY were key researchers. The Central South University published the most papers (90, 7.1%). China was the leading contributor in this field with 459 publications and 29 H-index. National partnerships are dominated by the USA, and there is a lack of active cooperation between other countries and authors. Conclusion: research on STB has achieved great progress, with an increasing number of publications since 2010. Surgical treatment and debridement are current research hots pots, and diagnosis, drug resistance, and kyphosis are likely research frontiers. Cooperation between countries and authors needs to be further strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rockburst is a frequent challenge during tunnel and other underground construction and is an extreme rock damage phenomenon. Therefore, it is very crucial to accurately estimate the damage potential of rockburst events. Microseismic (MS) monitoring can be used to obtain the relevant MS parameters for short-term rockburst prediction in real time that reflect the evolution of short-term rockburst. In this study, short-term rockburst potential data containing 7 MS parameters (cumulative number of events, cumulative released energy, cumulative apparent volume, event rate, energy rate, apparent volume rate, and incubation time) and 91 rockburst events (none rockburst, low rockburst, moderate rockburst, and high rockburst) were collected from the Jinping Hydropower Station diversion tunnel project in China. The objective of this paper is to propose an ensemble learning (EML) model based on the LévyFlight-Jaya optimization (LFJaya) and fivefold cross-validation (CV) method to achieve an accurate prediction of short-term rockburst damage potential using MS information. The EML consists of light gradient boosting machine (LGBM), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and logistic regression (LR), with seven MS parameters as the EML inputs and four rockburst levels as target variables. 70% and 30% of the cases were randomly selected for training and testing, respectively. Five metrics (accuracy, kappa, precision, recall, and F1-score) and nonparametric statistical tests were used to evaluate the performance of the model. It can be observed from the results of this study that the proposed EML has a higher test accuracy (89.29%) than the multiple base classifiers used in the study. With the use of the ensemble model, the decision boundary becomes more precise and overfitting is significantly improved. Additionally, the internal decision-making process of EML was elucidated through an analysis of the model parameters using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME). It was discovered that the cumulative released energy, the number of MS events, and the cumulative apparent volume (which reflects the number and strength of rock fractures) exert a significant influence on the prediction of short-term rockburst potential. Finally, developed graphical user interface (GUI) accurately predicted six instances of rockburst in the deeply buried tunnel of Jinping. Verification results indicated that the proposed EML exhibits strong generalization and can effectively utilize MS information to achieve precise short-term rockburst potential predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid rise of infrastructure construction in southwestern mountainous areas of China, tunnel engineering has become increasingly frequent in crossing faults with strong activity. However, there has been a long-term lack of an effective theoretical method for identifying the stability and controlling the deformation of extremely weak surrounding rocks inside active faults. Therefore, this paper researched stability analysis and deformation control of a tunnel with extremely weak surrounding rocks caused by strike-slip fault activity. Firstly, uniaxial and triaxial compression tests were conducted on completely decomposed granite within active faults under drained and undrained conditions, and the mechanical properties of granite after desertification and argillization were analyzed. Then, based on the upper-bound limit theory and according to the relationship between the safety factor, instability trace, and geo-stress, a theoretical method to evaluate the stability of the unsupported surrounding rock under different geo-stress levels was proposed. Furthermore, a comprehensive deformation control method, including advanced support, excavation face reinforcement, and radial grouting, was proposed, and the applicability of this method was analyzed and verified through field mechanics and deformation measurements. The results showed that under the triaxial stress state, the post-peak stress drop characteristics of completely decomposed granite basically disappear, and the plastic deformation characteristics of rock become prominent. The comprehensive strengthening scheme has a significant deformation control effect, and the surrounding rock deformation can be reduced by over 65%. In addition, the pressure on the supporting structure will be more than 3.2 times higher with no reinforcement scheme. Highlights A comprehensive deformation control scheme has been proposed to prevent and control deformation disasters in extremely weak surrounding rocks caused by strike-slip fault activity. An upper-bound limit theory considering the influence of geo-stress is established to judge the stability of the unsupported surrounding rock. The mechanical properties of completely decomposed granite caused by strike-slip fault activity under drained and undrained conditions are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

20-inch Large area photomultiplier tube based on microchannel plate (MCP-PMT) is newly developed in China. It is widely used in high energy detection experiments such as Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), China JinPing underground Laboratory (CJPL) and Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). To overcome the poor time performance of the existing MCP-PMT, a new design of large area MCP-PMT is proposed in this paper. Three-dimensional models are developed in CST Studio Suite to validate its feasibility. Effects of the size and bias voltage of the focusing electrodes and MCP configuration on the collection efficiency (CE) and time performance are studied in detail using the finite integral technique and Monte Carlo method. Based on the simulation results, the optimized operating and geometry parameters are chosen. Results show that the mean ratio of photoelectrons landing on the MCP active area is 97.5%. The acceptance fraction of the impinging photoelectrons is close to 100% due to the emission of multiple secondary electrons when hitting the MCP top surface. The mean transit time spread (TTS) of the photoelectrons from the photocathode is 1.48 ns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays environmental issues have been of great concern to the world, among which the problem of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is particularly prominent. All countries in the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have committed to control greenhouse gas emissions, and China, as the largest carbon emitter, has assumed a heavier burden. China has been striving to develop low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen, nuclear, wind, and solar energy, but the most attention should be paid to CCUS, which many scholars have high expectations that CCUS can help China reduce emissions to some extent. Therefore, this paper presents a prediction that CCUS can reduce 3.8% of carbon emissions for China in 2040 when CCUS emission reductions increase at a rate of 30%. The power and chemical industries could reduce carbon emissions by 2.3% and 17.3%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bats are a crucial component within ecosystems, providing valuable ecosystem services such as pollination and pest control. In practical conservation efforts, the classification and identification of bats are essential in order to develop effective conservation management programs for bats and their habitats. Traditionally, the identification of bats has been a manual and time-consuming process. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, the accuracy and speed of identification work of such fine-grained images as bats identification can be greatly improved. Bats identification relies on the fine features of their beaks and faces, so mining the fine-grained information in images is crucial to improve the accuracy of bats identification. This paper presents a deep learning-based model designed for the rapid and precise identification of common horseshoe bats (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae: Rhinolophus) from Southern China. The model was developed by utilizing a comprehensive dataset of 883 high-resolution images of seven distinct Rhinolophus species which were collected during surveys conducted between 2010 and 2022. An improved EfficientNet model with an attention mechanism module is architected to mine the fine-grained appearance of these Rhinolophus. The performance of the model beat other classical models, including SqueezeNet, AlexNet, VGG16_BN, ShuffleNetV2, GoogleNet, ResNet50 and EfficientNet_B0, according to the predicting precision, recall, accuracy, F1-score. Our model achieved the highest identification accuracy of 94.22% and an F1-score of 0.948 with low computational complexity. Heat maps obtained with Grad-CAM show that our model meets the identification criteria of the morphology of Rhinolophus. Our study highlights the potential of artificial intelligence technology for the identification of small mammals, and facilitating fast species identification in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are urgent ecological and environmental problems in the process of the utilization of urban construction land, promoting green utilization of construction land is conducive to urban sustainable development and high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 108 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China from 2003 to 2017, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the green efficiency of urban construction land (GEUCL), analyzes its spatial–temporal evolution characteristics, and constructs the spatial autoregressive model to study its spatial spillover effects from the perspective of urban hierarchy. It is found that, in terms of temporal variation, the average efficiency value shows a fluctuating upward trend during the study period, rising from 0.27 in 2003 to 0.39 in 2017, the cumulative growth rate is 44.44%, with an average annual growth rate of 3.14%. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics, during the study period, the number of medium-efficiency and high-efficiency cities increases significantly, while the number of low-efficiency cities decreases sharply; high-efficiency cities always present scattered distribution, while medium-efficiency cities change from scattered distribution to agglomeration distribution. In addition, GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of different grades and between neighboring cities of the same grade, among them, the increase of GEUCL in higher-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in adjacent lower-grade cities; the increase of GEUCL in lower-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in neighboring higher-grade cities; GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of the same grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a two-step approach to construct a multi-period double-difference model and introduces a quasi-natural experiment of the Broadband China pilot policy to investigate whether household financial market participation at the urban level is affected by the digital economy, which is significant for promoting Chinese households' shift from savings to investment and alleviating the long-standing problem of insufficient household financial market participation in China. In terms of direct impact, the digital economy increases the household financial market participation rate of urban residents by 3.26%, and increases the financial market participation rate of highly financially literate households by 2.14%; in terms of indirect impact, the development of the digital economy increases the total number of household smart Internet devices by 8.27%, and similarly increases the attention to household financial information by a significant 4.22%, which further positively influences the household financial market participation rate. This paper also evaluates the individual and regional differences of the digital economy on household financial market participation, and the estimated causal effect of the digital economy on household financial market participation is purer, which expands the scope of research on the digital economy and household financial market participation, and provides a certain reference basis and policy inspiration for the government to promote the construction of the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important part of urban public open space, pocket parks have become an important activity place for the elderly in the context of the aging society in China. With the pocket parks in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China as research object, this paper set six landscape features to be studied, namely, Height of trees, Green color richness, Stratification of green landscapes, Green space ratio, Leisure facilities, and Water landscape. The elderly respondents with different demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, education level and residential type, were subjected to the picture stimulation experiment whose results were then statistically analyzed. The results indicate that gender and residential type exert certain influence on the elderly's visual impact assessment of pocket park landscape. To be specific, the male elderly prefer the pocket park landscape with 3-6 m high trees, medium green space ratio, and more leisure facilities; the female elderly are in greater favor of pocket park landscapes with 0-3 m high trees, five or more colors, three or more layers; the elderly who live with their families prefer pocket park landscapes with medium green space ratio and more leisure facilities; to the elderly who live alone, pocket park landscapes with trees which are 0–3 m high, five or more colors, and medium leisure facilities are more attractive. This study can provide valuable reference for pocket park design in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yellow River Basin is a key ecological barrier and commercial zone in China, as well as an essential source of energy, chemicals, raw materials, and fundamental industrial foundation, the achievement of its carbon peaking is of great significance for China's high-quality development. Based on this, we decomposed the influencing factors of carbon dioxide emissions in the Yellow River Basin using the LMDI method and predicted the carbon peaking in the Yellow River Basin under different scenarios using the STIRPAT model. The results show that (1) the energy intensity effect, economic activity effect and population effect play a positive role in promoting carbon emissions during 2005–2020. The largest effect on carbon emissions is the population size effect, with a contribution rate of 65.6%. (2) The STIRPAT model predicts that the peak of scenarios "M–L", "M–M" and "M–H" will occur in 2030 at the earliest. The "M–H" scenario is the best model for controlling carbon emissions while economic and social development in the Yellow River Basin. The results of this paper can provide a theoretical basis for the development of a reasonable carbon peak attainment path in the Yellow River Basin and help policy makers to develop a corresponding high-quality development path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous scientific research on reservoirs of the Deng IV Member in the Gaoshiti-Moxi area, the main production area of the Anyue gas field with reserves of tens of billions of cubic metres, has focused on karst palaeogeomorphology reconstruction, the facies distribution on platform margins, and their effects on creating favourable reservoirs. However, the quality of microbial carbonate reservoirs is also closely related to their original depositional environments on both inner and marginal platforms. Therefore, this paper attempts to reveal favourable microbial carbonate reservoir characteristics and the sedimentary effects on their distribution and prediction based predominantly on a synthetic analysis of the sequence stratigraphy and depositional facies. The results show that favourable reservoirs of the Deng IV Member are classified into three types according to their reservoir spaces: fracture-cavity, pore-cavity and pore reservoirs. Secondary dissolution pores and cavities are primary reservoir spaces developed mainly in nonskeletal grain dolomites with sparry cements, thrombolites, and stromatolites. The physical properties of the fracture-cavity and pore-cavity types of reservoirs are better than those of pore reservoirs and have porosities between 1 and 5% and permeabilities between 0.01 × 10–3 and 1 × 10–3 μm2. Vertically, favourable reservoirs are developed mainly in parasequence set 6 (PSS6) and PSS7 and are laterally distributed in well zone MX9-MX19-MX1 for the fracture-cavity type, MX105-MX110-GS20 for the pore-cavity type and MX17-MX107-MX41-MX102-GS102 for the pore type. Moreover, depositional effects on reservoirs in terms of depositional sequences, seismic facies, microfacies and microfacies associations indicate that to some extent, the fracture-cavity type of reservoir is constrained by the top boundaries of PSS7, PSS2, parasequence 17 (PS17) and PS14; the pore-cavity type of reservoir is constrained by the top boundaries of PSS7, PSS4, PS18 and PS12; and the pore type of reservoir is constrained by the top boundaries of PSS7, PSS6, PSS3, PSS2, PS18, PS17, PS14, and PS12. Seismic facies associated with shoals and mound-flat complexes are related to the facies distributions of pore cavities and pore reservoirs. MA1, MA3, MA7, and MA8 are predominant microfacies associations of favourable reservoirs of the Deng IV Member in the Gaoshiti-Moxi area. The above results are significant for further petroleum exploration and exploitation of ultradeep microbial carbonate reservoirs in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer is one of the significant diseases that threaten the survival of men worldwide, with the progression of androgen deprivation therapy, become much rely on it, finally, developed into castration-resistant prostate cancer (ADT). In western countries, ranks second in incidence, and in China, with increasing lifespan, the incidence of prostate cancer is rising steadily. Although chemotherapy agents, such as taxane, have achieved some efficacy, treatment failure still occur. As sensitivity of hormone levels change, the disease can progress to castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Because of the poor efficacy of traditional surgery, endocrine therapy, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, the treatment options for castrate-resistant prostate cancer are limited. Advanced prostate cancer can progress on immunotherapy, and thus, bio -immunotherapy targeting the unique, prostate microenvironment is an important option. In this paper, we systematically revealed the role of three types of bio-immunotherapies (immune checkpoint inhibitors, tumors, vaccines, cytokines) in castrate-resistant prostate cancer, providing a reference for clinical treatment of prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thunderstorms are usually accompanied by heavy precipitation and other disasters. Therefore, it is very important to study the thermodynamic and dynamic mechanisms that control the occurrence and development of storms. However, the relatively coarse resolution of the reanalysis may limit the evaluation and application of its derived convective parameters at regional and local scales, especially in high mountains. Given that the effect of grid averaging on ERA5 can be well-reflected in the monthly mean, the paper proposes a methodological framework to achieve the statistical downscaling of convective parameters (SDCP). After the convection-related variables are decomposed, we introduce a multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model and take the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) as explanatory variables to improve the spatial resolution of monthly-scale convective parameters. The convective parameters chosen for the downscaling experiments are closely related to thunderstorm occurrence, involving instability, moisture, and wind shear. ERA5 and SDCP datasets' quality is evaluated based on measurements available from 11 radiosonde stations over 10 years. We also explore the climatology of thunderstorm environments and the corresponding trends. The results show that the accuracy of the SDCP data obtains additional added value in complex-terrain areas. Compared with ERA5, the downscaled results have a finer spatial structure. A strong but spatially and scale-varying relationship exists between the monthly mean convective parameter and the resampled NDVI and DEM. Considering the very high predictive ability of the MGWR model, the performance of the SDCP algorithm mainly depends on the accuracy of the ERA5 data. Our study demonstrates the possibility of high spatial resolution land surface features observed by remote sensing satellites in improving the spatial resolution of thermodynamic parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonal precipitation and temperature predictions with global climate models that are developed based on the ocean–atmosphere interactions, contribute to the water resources management and hazard mitigation. To date, multi-model ensemble seasonal climate prediction systems, such as North American multi-model ensemble (NMME), are an effective way to provide useful forecast information a few months ahead especially over regions with strong ocean–atmosphere coupling. Previous studies have evaluated the skill of NMME hindcasts worldwide, however, whether the NMME real-time forecasts perform as well as the hindcasts and how the decadal variability in ocean-atmospheric teleconnections affect the prediction skill remain unclear. In this paper, based on precipitation and temperature datasets from nine models of NMME, the evaluation of forecast skills during hindcast (1982–2010) and real-time forecast (2011–2020) periods is carried out in the Yangtze River basin over China. Results show that although selecting an appropriate time frame for the calculation of climatology can reduce errors of real-time prediction, but the real-time prediction skills are lower than hindcast skills in the Yangtze River basin, with anomaly correlation decreased by 14–51% (38–75%) and error increased by 30–31% (51–55%) for seasonal precipitation (temperature) predictions up to the sixth lead-season, and the skill decrease is larger at longer leads. The failure in representing the decadal variations of ocean-atmospheric teleconnection (especially the association with Indian Ocean surface temperature) during the real-time forecast period can partly explain the decline in the prediction skills. Our findings suggest that a better grasp of decadal variability is needed to improve the real-time climate predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Baidu migration data to obtain the intercity trips between cities in China. Taking intercity travel as a functional connection between cities, taking into account the internal and external intercity travel connections of urban agglomerations, an improved rank scale distribution method was used to quantitatively measure the form and function of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu-Chongqing, Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Harbin-Changchun urban agglomerations. It is found that, firstly, there are differences in the Functional Polycentricity presented by the internal and external connections of urban agglomerations, which are related to the economic development of urban agglomerations and central cities. Secondly, there are differences between Morphological Polycentricity and Functional Polycentricity of the eight urban agglomerations measured by the internal and external connections, indicating that the external connections have a significant impact. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections of urban agglomerations. The study of urban agglomerations should not ignore the internal or external connections, and the overall consideration can more comprehensively reflect the polycentric characteristics of urban agglomerations. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections, and the study of urban agglomerations should not ignore internal or external connections. Overall consideration can better reflect the polycentirccharacteristics of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic types and evolution characteristics of pores are the important basis for evaluating the quality of unconventional shale reservoirs. In this paper, taking the Lower Cambrian Marine shales in southern China as an example, the microscopic pore structure, genetic types and evolutionary characteristics of shales are systematically studied. The results show that circular and oval organic pores with good connectivity and non-fixed inorganic pores with poor connectivity are mainly developed in marine shale. The marine shales mostly have laminar sedimentary structures, the thickness of which is several millimeters to several centimeters. Siliceous laminae, clay laminae, organic laminae and carbonate laminae were identified. Lamination can also be retained in oxygen-rich environments with rapid sediment inflow, which may be related to high turbidity fluid. The Lower Paleozoic marine shales in southern China have experienced a complex tectonic-thermal evolution history, which aggravated the complex distribution of laminar structures. Some shale sections show very low resistivity, and resistivity has a significant negative correlation with TOC content. Organic matter is the main factor that causes the extremely low resistivity of shale. This study is of great significance to accelerate the process of Marine shale exploration and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of natural gas production using foam to lift liquid, there exists obvious difference in the requirements of foam stability between wellbores and gathering & transportation systems. To ensure the effect foam dewatering of gas wells and highly efficient defoaming and gas-water separation on surface, it is meaningful to investigate the influencing factors of foam stability comprehensively. In this paper, a tight gas block in China which adopted foam for liquid lifting was taken as an example. It was researched that the key influencing factors and changing rules of foam stability through static and dynamic experiments on foam stability, chemical defoaming experimets and field tests. The results showed that the concentration of foaming agent used in the field, namely UT-11C, had the most significant effect on the foam stability followed by the salinity, temperature and PH value. Foam stability was also can be improved with higher pressure. Results of chemical defoaming experiments showed that even under the optimal defoaming concentration, mamely 1%, it also took about 20 minutes to completely eliminate the foam. Combined with the laboratory results and the statistical analysis of the water production in field, the optimal injection amount of foaming agent was calculated, which makes the dosage reducing by 40%. And the effective was validated by field test. This work not only ensures the high production of gas wells, but also takes the economy into account, having a strong guidance for the production of natural gas fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the only natural satellite of the earth, the Moon has always been the first choice for human exploration of the solar system. China's lunar exploration project (Chang'e project) was launched in 2004. At present, it has created a perfect end to the three phases of "orbiting, landing and returning". A series of remarkable research achievements have been made on the basic issues of current lunar scientific research, such as the Earth-Moon space environment, lunar surface material, morphology, geological structure, lunar subsurface and internal structure, and the origin and evolution of the Moon, further deepening the human understanding of the Moon. This paper briefly reviews the development process of China's lunar exploration project, summarizes the main research results and scientific understanding, and finally prospects to the future development of China's lunar and planetary exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhymes are popular tools in children's learning in many cultures, but the pedagogical underpinnings of rhyme practice are largely unknown. Drawing on insights from a study in China, this paper explores the pedagogical meaning and function of rhymes in early childhood education. Individual interviews were conducted with 10 Chinese early childhood teachers and a series of classroom observations of teachers' rhyme practices were undertaken. An overarching theme from the data was the multifunctionality of rhymes, or in teachers' words 'they can do many things'. Framed by the notion of tools in sociocultural theory and existing studies on rhymes as a pedagogical tool, this theme is discussed with reference to the discourses on mediation, habitual practice, and professional support which bring to the fore some issues in Chinese early childhood education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper was aimed at estimating the prevalence and risk factors of hearing loss (HL) among the middle-aged and elderly in China. Methods: Databases including the CQVIP (VIP) Database, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Biology Medicine disc (CBMdisc), Wanfang, PubMed, Web of Science, Excerpta Medica Database (Embase) and the Cochrane Library were comprehensively searched. In this review, random-effect models were used for pooling the prevalence of HL and the odds ratios (ORs) of potential risk factors. Results: 34 studies were included in the meta-analysis. HL among the middle-aged and elderly in China had a pooled prevalence of 45% (95% confidence interval (CI) 40–51%). There were significant differences in the prevalence of HL between males and females (47% vs. 42%), between different screening methods by self-report and pure-tone audiometry (44% vs. 46%), between the middle-aged and the elderly (18% vs. 52%), and between the uneducated and the educated (49% vs. 36%). In urban areas, the prevalence was slightly higher than that in rural areas (50% vs. 48%). The findings suggested that the middle-aged and elderly in the South Central China region (61%, 95% CI 45–78%) and Northwest China (57%, 95% CI 55–58%) were more likely to develop HL. In addition, it was confirmed that advanced age, being male, noise exposure history, hypertension and hyperglycemia were related to a higher prevalence of HL among middle-aged and older adults. Conclusion: The prevalence of HL among the middle-aged and older population in China is 45%, nearly half of the total population. It is urgent to take great efforts to raise people's awareness of HL prevention and early hearing screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the significant impact of COVID-19, financial markets in various countries have undergone drastic fluctuations. Accurately measuring risk in the financial market and mastering the changing rules of the stock market are of great importance to macro-control and financial market management of the government. This paper focuses on the return rate of the Shanghai Composite Index. Using the SGED-EGARCH(1,1) model as a foundation, a quantile regression is introduced to establish the QR-SGED-EGARCH(1,1) model. Further, the corresponding value at risk (VaR) is calculated for a crisis and stable period within each model. To better compare the models, the Cornish-Fisher expansion model is included for comparison. According to the Kupiec test, VaR values calculated by the QR-SGED-EGARCH(1,1) model are superior to other models at different confidence levels most of the time. In addition, to account for the VaR method's inability to effectively measure tail extreme risk, the expected shortfall (ES) method is introduced. The constructed model is used to calculate the corresponding ES values during different periods. According to the evaluation index, the ES values calculated by the QR-SGED-EGARCH(1,1) model have a better effect during a crisis period with the model showing higher accuracy and robustness. It is of great significance for China to better measure financial risk under the impact of a sudden crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variability in the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) brings the risk of heavy flooding or drought to the Yangtze River basin, with potentially devastating impacts. Early forecasts of the likelihood of enhanced or reduced monsoon rainfall can enable better management of water and hydropower resources by decision-makers, supporting livelihoods and major economic and population centres across eastern China. This paper demonstrates that the EASM is predictable in a dynamical forecast model from the preceding November, and that this allows skilful forecasts of summer mean rainfall in the Yangtze River basin at a lead time of six months. The skill for May–June–July rainfall is of a similar magnitude to seasonal forecasts initialised in spring, although the skill in June–July–August is much weaker and not consistently significant. However, there is some evidence for enhanced skill following El Niño events. The potential for decadal-scale variability in forecast skill is also examined, although we find no evidence for significant variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays environmental issues have been of great concern to the world, among which the problem of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is particularly prominent. All countries in the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have committed to control greenhouse gas emissions, and China, as the largest carbon emitter, has assumed a heavier burden. China has been striving to develop low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen, nuclear, wind, and solar energy, but the most attention should be paid to CCUS, which many scholars have high expectations that CCUS can help China reduce emissions to some extent. Therefore, this paper presents a prediction that CCUS can reduce 3.8% of carbon emissions for China in 2040 when CCUS emission reductions increase at a rate of 30%. The power and chemical industries could reduce carbon emissions by 2.3% and 17.3%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT) has gained significant popularity through wearable technologies. Several IoT devices are used in educational institutions, smart homes, and security management. Their widespread use in sports training applications using IoT (WS-IoT)-based wearable sensors is noteworthy. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved rapidly, and its applications have expanded across many diverse fields. Over the past few years, China has placed greater emphasis on physical education to enhance students' physical fitness and overall capabilities. A significant number of colleges and universities have adopted artificial intelligence to transform traditional single-mode sports training methods. This paper introduces a continuous monitoring system for sports individuals using the WS-IoT. The goal of coaches is to maximize the results of athlete training across various sports events using AI technology and their sports expertise. In this study, we examine the use of AI technology in sports and assess the practical implications of its implementation. To achieve the objective function, we used a Bayesian deep classifier and deep learning algorithms that utilize adaptive optimization. Utilizing artificial intelligence in Chinese educational institutions improves training efficiency and effectiveness. The system was then rigorously tested and analyzed in terms of the quality-of-service parameters, including communication collisions and packet loss rates. It is shown that packet loss rates increase with increasing packet numbers, but collision rates remain unchanged. Furthermore, a practical application of the system in colleges and universities showed that 14.4% of the students were extremely satisfied with the use of teaching materials, 24.5% were satisfied with the materials, 30.1% were satisfied with the training methods, and 17.9% were dissatisfied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important part of urban public open space, pocket parks have become an important activity place for the elderly in the context of the aging society in China. With the pocket parks in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China as research object, this paper set six landscape features to be studied, namely, Height of trees, Green color richness, Stratification of green landscapes, Green space ratio, Leisure facilities, and Water landscape. The elderly respondents with different demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, education level and residential type, were subjected to the picture stimulation experiment whose results were then statistically analyzed. The results indicate that gender and residential type exert certain influence on the elderly's visual impact assessment of pocket park landscape. To be specific, the male elderly prefer the pocket park landscape with 3-6 m high trees, medium green space ratio, and more leisure facilities; the female elderly are in greater favor of pocket park landscapes with 0-3 m high trees, five or more colors, three or more layers; the elderly who live with their families prefer pocket park landscapes with medium green space ratio and more leisure facilities; to the elderly who live alone, pocket park landscapes with trees which are 0–3 m high, five or more colors, and medium leisure facilities are more attractive. This study can provide valuable reference for pocket park design in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collection of relevant information about the vulnerability of infrastructure damaged by landslides is not an easy task due to the existence of several compounding factors and uncertainties. This makes it difficult to quantitatively estimate their vulnerability to slow-moving landslides. This paper presents a new vulnerability assessment model for masonry buildings on slow-moving landslides based on physical models and field observations. A masonry building model is made of brick and concrete at a scale of 1:10 to physically simulate the damage in structures caused by ground tension cracks commonly developed on slow-moving landslides. The tension crack opening process is simulated through a load-controlled table with an aperture on which the building model is constructed. The strain on the wall and its foundation were measured, and the damage of the model (crack formation and evolution for each loading step) was collected, described, and analyzed. These data were used to develop failure criteria for masonry buildings in rural areas in China in terms of a quantitative vulnerability curve. The quantitative model of vulnerability for masonry structures was established based on fuzzy mathematics and the Weibull function applied on the test data and observations. The vulnerability curve is verified with field cases of masonry buildings damaged by ground tension cracks associated with slow-moving landslides in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. The results support further testing and use of vulnerability curve proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China's reform and opening up in 1978, the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization in China had led to dramatic changes in the pattern of urban-rural land use. In this paper, we focused on the rural industrialized areas in central China (Xinxiang County and Changyuan City of Henan Province). We used the average nearest neighbor index, spatial statistical analysis, and a structural equation model to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors of urban-rural construction land based on multi-source spatial data and survey data. The results showed that: 1) from 1975 to 2019, the spatial distribution of urban-rural construction land in rural industrialized areas had evolved from homogeneous distribution to local agglomeration. In terms of comparative analysis of cases, the spatial distribution of urban-rural construction land in Changyuan City had shown a trend from diffusion to agglomeration, and Xinxiang County had overall shown a spatial change from homogenization to agglomeration and then to regional integration development. 2) The hot spots with increased urban-rural construction land significantly expanded, and they had a high degree of spatial overlap with industrial development. Among them, Xinxiang County was concentrated in central and marginal areas, and Changyuan was mainly concentrated in central urban areas. 3) From the evolution of spatial proximity of urban-rural construction land, rural industrialized areas generally decline, showing the characteristics of internal differentiation in the rate of change. 4) Industrial development, social economy, the policy environment, and urban development played a positive role in promoting the expansion of urban-rural construction land in rural industrialized areas. To promote the optimal use of regional land and the integrated development of urban-rural areas, we should combine the advantages of regional endowment, formulate development strategies according to local conditions, and adjust the way that land is used in a timely manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural green development is an essential direction for global sustainable agriculture. The academic literature, however, needs to place greater emphasis on studying the factors influencing agricultural green development performance and how such performance can be improved. A theoretical framework for agricultural green development performance was constructed in this paper using the Super-SBM model, which considers undesirable outputs, to measure the agricultural green development performance of 330 cities at or above the prefecture level in China (excluding Tibet Autonomous Region, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China) from 2007 to 2018. Furthermore, the influencing mechanism of agricultural green development performance was then analyzed using a spatial econometric model. The results show that: 1) from 2007 to 2018, China's agricultural green development performance experienced three stages of evolution: 'rise, decline and rise'. 2) The regions with high performance agricultural green development are mainly distributed in eastern China, northeastern China, and southern Qinghai Province. 3) The agricultural economic level, industrialization process, and labor quality play significant roles in promoting local agricultural green development performance, while such performance is obviously inhibited by the openness level and the government's environmental regulations. Local agricultural green development performance is significant inhibited by the agricultural economic level and accelerated industrialization process in neighboring cities, while significantly promoted by the agricultural industrial structure in neighboring cities. Some suggestions for improving agricultural green development performance are proposed based on these research results, which can provide scientific references for promoting sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Settlements and cultivated land are important production and living spaces in promoting rural revitalization. However, few studies have explored the relationship between rural settlements and cultivated land from spatiotemporal interaction perspective. This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal conversion and the interactive mechanism between rural settlements and cultivated land in a karst mountainous area (Qixingguan District of Guizhou Province) with fragile ecological environment in China during 2009–2018. The results showed that the expansion of rural settlements and the loss of cultivated land coexisted in Qixingguan District. Only 2.68% of the new cultivated land was reclaimed from rural settlements, whereas 85.45% of the new rural settlements occupied cultivated land. Six spatial expansion modes of rural settlements when occupying cultivated land were identified. Among these six modes, the area of the edge-expansion & along traffic roads (EA) mode accounted for 52.75%. The occupation by rural settlements made the cultivated land landscape more fragmented. The area ratio index of cultivated land to rural settlements (ARICR) of Qixingguan District averaged 18.75 in 2009 and 17.21 in 2018, respectively. The ARICR reduced in all township administrative regions. Cultivated land with suitable slope condition for farming or without rocky desertification was more likely to be occupied by rural settlements. The probability of cultivated land occupied by rural settlements increased with the decrease of the distance to traffic roads, towns, and old rural settlements. The better the economic and social development of the township administrative regions, the more the ARICR decreased, while the richer the agricultural resources and the better the rural development of the township administrative regions, the less the ARICR decreased. The optimal reconstruction path of rural settlements, the comprehensive conservation path of cultivated land and the urban-rural integration development path in karst mountainous area were proposed. The findings would contribute to our understanding of the spatiotemporal interaction between rural settlements and cultivated land, and would provide a theoretical basis for promoting the coordinated development of rural man-land relationship and rural revitalization in karst areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the issue of the healthy and coordinated development of the population and economic factors in rural areas will not only help consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, but will also lay a foundation for comprehensive rural revitalization. In this paper, the spatial coupling relationship between the population and economic factors in rural areas in the Qinling-Daba Mountains, China, is explored to provide a reference for rural revitalization and regional sustainable development in poverty areas. Sixty-eight county units in rural areas in the Qinling-Daba Mountains, as well as the population and economic factors in rural areas, are used to study the spatial coupling relationship between population and economy, as well as the driving mechanism, in rural areas in the Qinling-Daba Mountains from 2010 to 2020. The results show that a population contraction phenomenon occurred in the rural areas in the Qinling-Daba Mountains, and the spatial agglomeration trends of the population and economic factors were consistent. The agglomeration was mainly located in the suburban areas of the municipal area, and the agglomeration degree was significantly higher in these areas than in other areas. In terms of the spatial distribution, the economic development level of the rural areas in the northeastern part of the Qinling-Daba Mountains was generally higher than that in the central and western parts, and the unbalanced trends of the population and economic spatial differentiation in the eastern and western regions were significant. The spatial coupling relationship between the population and economy changed from coordinated development to economic advancement. This was mainly due to the mutual restriction and joint actions of the industrial structure, capital situation, natural environment, policies, and institutional regulations, among which the industrial structure and capital status had significant effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing climate has altered the trends and variability of precipitation and temperature globally and thereby increasing the risk of natural and social disasters, especially in coastal climatic transitional zones such as the Huaihe river basin (HRB). This paper applies the Empirical Quantile Mapping (EQM) method for bias correction and systematically evaluates the performance of the 30 Global climate models (GCMs) of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) in simulating precipitation and temperature over the Huaihe river basin (HRB) for 1979–2014. A suitable multi-model ensemble subset (BMME) is selected based on the Euclidean Distance (ED) synthetic metric. Results show that in comparison to the baseline period 1995–2014, precipitation (temperature) over HRB is projected to increase at the rate of around 15 mm/decade (0.1 °C/decade), 16 mm/decade (0.3 °C/decade), 20 mm/decade (0.5 °C/decade), and 15 mm/decade (0.6 °C/decade) for the period 2015–2100, under Shared Socioeconomic Pathways SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5, respectively. In the long-term (2081–2100), the annual precipitation is projected to increase by 32%, 27%, 35%, and 26%, under the four scenarios, respectively. The temperature is projected to remain stable or slightly decrease under SSP1-2.6 (2 °C) and SSP2-4.5 (3 °C), while will keep rising and increasing by 6 °C under SSP5-8.5 and by 4 °C under SSP3-7.0 by 2100. The isotherm and isohyet are projected to shift northwest from southeastern coastal China to inland in the future, which is likely associated with the northwestward shift of the western Pacific anticyclone in summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are a recent innovation in precision agriculture technology. They are being used in a wide range of agricultural practices, whereby pesticide application is one of the most common uses of UAVs in China's agriculture. However, the economic effects of UAVs in pesticide application have not been sufficiently investigated. To address the gap, this paper used propensity score matching to evaluate the economic effects of UAV adoption on outcome variables including revenue, pesticide costs, time spent on pesticide application, and pesticide application frequency based on a dataset covering over 2000 grain farmers across 11 provinces of China. Furthermore, generalized propensity score matching was used to evaluate the heterogeneity of outcome variables arising from differing UAV adoption intensities. The empirical results show that adoption of UAV increased revenue by approximately 434–488 dollars per hectare and reduced the time spent on pesticide application in the range of 14.4–15.8 h per hectare. Depending on the area with use of UAVs for pesticide spraying, UAV adoption has heterogeneous impacts on grain farmers' revenue and the time spent on pesticide application. In terms of marginal revenue and marginal time spent on pesticide application, the optimal area with use of UAVs for pesticide spraying is estimated to be 20 hectares of arable land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]