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Abstract: Waste recycling for paper production is an important component of waste management. This study constructs a physical input–output life-cycle assessment (PIO-LCA) model. The PIO-LCA model is used to investigate environmental impacts of four categories of waste recycling in China’s paper industry: crop straws, bagasse, textile wastes and scrap paper. Crop straw recycling and wood utilization for paper production have small total intensity of environmental impacts. Moreover, environmental impacts reduction of crop straw recycling and wood utilization benefits the most from technology development. Thus, using crop straws and wood (including wood wastes) for paper production should be promoted. Technology development has small effects on environmental impacts reduction of bagasse recycling, textile waste recycling and scrap paper recycling. In addition, bagasse recycling and textile waste recycling have big total intensity of environmental impacts. Thus, the development of bagasse recycling and textile waste recycling should be properly limited. Other pathways for reusing bagasse and textile wastes should be explored and evaluated. Moreover, imports of scrap paper should be encouraged to reduce large indirect impacts of scrap paper recycling on domestic environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Latent fingerprint deposits on thermal paper sourced from the U.S., China, the U.K., and Australia have been visualized by heating. U.S. and Chinese sourced paper produced two distinct types of fingerprint development. In one type (type 1), the paper dye colors where the deposit is present (as previously reported) and in the other type (type 2) the 'inverse' of this gives paper coloring only in areas not coincident with the deposit. Both development types gave identifiable fingerprints, the majority fading within 24 h of heating. Fingerprint development from U.K. and Australian sourced paper was exclusively type 1 and resistant to fading. Temperatures for fingerprint visualization were higher for U.S. paper (64-71°C) and Chinese paper (75-95°C) than for U.K. and Australian sourced paper (43-50°C). Particularly for Chinese sourced paper, these temperatures were within a few degrees of the normal paper color temperature. A mechanism for type 2 fingerprint development is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The pulp and paper industry is one of the most energy-intensive industries worldwide. In 2007, it accounted for 5% of total global industrial energy consumption and 2% of direct industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. An energy audit is a primary step toward improving energy efficiency at the facility level. This paper describes a plant-wide energy audit aimed at identifying energy conservation and CO2 mitigation opportunities at a paper mill in Guangdong province, China. We describe the energy audit methods, relevant Chinese standards, methods of calculating energy and carbon indicators, baseline energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the audited paper mill, and nine energy-efficiency improvement opportunities identified by the audit. For each of the nine options, we evaluate the energy conservation and associated CO2 mitigation potential. The total technical energy conservation potential for these nine opportunities is 967.8terajoules (TJ), and the total CO2 mitigation potential is equal to 93,453tonnes CO2 annually, representing 14.4% and 14.7%, respectively, of the mill’s total energy consumption and CO2 emissions during the audit period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Papermaking is a water intensive industry. The growth of paper demand will further intensify the need of fresh water resources. Papermaking involves complex processing routes. Previous investigations of water consumption in papermaking industry have focused primarily on key processes and pathways, ignoring the impacts of many intermediate and inter-related processes in paper production cycles and there underestimating the sustainability impacts. Herein, the results of a life cycle analysis of water consumption for papermaking industry in China using an extensive system boundary that includes the water embedded in intermediate processing are presented. The results show the life cycle water consumption and water saving potentials for different papermaking pathways. The advocacy of "forest pulp and paper integration" may have few practical contribution to reducing water consumption due to the low indirect water consumption of raw materials and energy for transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research papers published by Chinese and Indian researchers during 1998-2007 and cited at least 100 times by end of 2009 are analysed. There were 776 papers with at least one author from India (amounting to 0.32% of all papers from India) and 2260 papers with at least one author from China (0.4% of all papers from China) that have gone on to be cited at least 100 times. We have identified prominent authors and institutions, journals used and fields of research. Although highly cited Chinese papers were cited on average less often than the highly cited papers from India, Chinese authors have been able to place their papers in high impact journals such as Nature and Science far more often than Indian authors. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore are the prominent Indian institutions, whereas universities in Hong Kong, Peking University, Tshing Hua University and several institutions under the Chinese Academy of Science dominate in China. In terms of citations, Chinese National Human Genome Centre Shanghai, Shanghai, tops the list. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on seven kinds of traditional Chinese paper. Effect of jiaofanshui, animal glue with alum as an acidic sizing agent; Properties of xuan paper and daqian writing paper; Uses of various traditional Chinese papers.

Purpose: Digital humanities database is one of the essential tools in digital humanities research area. Therefore, examining the usage of digital humanities database in academic papers is conducive to assessing the value of digital humanities database for scientific research activities and improving the construction of digital humanities infrastructure. Design/methodology/approach: This paper constructs an evaluation system of digital humanities database from the perspective of academic influence and social influence, with mention frequency, usage motivation, platform access data, usage region and usage discipline as indicators and takes China Biographical Database Project as the empirical object to explore the usage of digital humanities database in China. Findings: The data analysis result demonstrates that digital humanities databases are widely used and recognized in China. However, the problem of low actual usage remains. Originality/value: This paper constructs the digital humanistic database's evaluation system and discusses applying the digital humanistic database in China, which provides a new perspective and method for the influence evaluation study of the digital humanistic database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy has become a driving force in the rapid development of the global economy and the promotion of export trade. Pivotal in its advent, the digital transformation of enterprises utilizes cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies to provide an impetus for evolution and transformation in various industries and fields. in enhancing quality and efficiency. This has been critical for enhancing both quality and efficiency in enterprises based in the People's Republic of China. Through the available data on its listed enterprises, this paper measures their digital transformation through a textual analysis and examines how this transformation influences their export product quality. We then explore the possible mechanisms at work in this influence from the perspective of enterprise heterogeneity. The results find that: (1) Digital transformation significantly enhances the export product quality in an enterprises, and the empirical findings still hold after a series of robustness tests; (2) Further mechanism analysis reveals that the digital transformation can positively affect export product quality through the two mechanisms of process productivity (φ), the ability to produce output using fewer variable inputs, and product productivity (ξ), the ability to produce quality with fewer fixed outlays; (3) In terms of enterprise heterogeneity, the impact of digital transformation on export product quality is significant for enterprises engaged in general trade or high-tech industries and those with strong corporate governance. In terms of heterogeneity in digital transformation of enterprise and the regional digital infrastructure level, the higher the level of digital transformation and regional digital infrastructure, the greater the impact of digital transformation on export product quality. This paper has practical implications for public policies that offer vital aid to enterprises as they seek digital transformation to remain sync with the digital economy, upgrade their product quality, and drive the sustainable, high-quality, and healthy development of their nation's economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Travelers often change their behavior in reaction to adverse weather conditions. This paper seeks to conduct an empirical evaluation of both ordered and unordered discrete outcome frameworks for examining the adaptive behavior decisions of intercity travelers and investigate the varying effects of explanatory factors on different alternatives of adaptive behavior during adverse weather. The data from 754 respondents in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, China are collected by a two-phase survey instrument. To capture the unobserved heterogeneity more effectively, this paper develops three advanced models to investigate the variations in intercity travel behavior during adverse weather. Four alternative adaptive behaviors are determined as outcome variables: maintaining original travel plans, changing only the intercity mode, changing the departure date, and canceling the trip, while potential influencing factors including adverse weather conditions, trip-related characteristics, individual attributes and urban agglomeration attributes are statistically assessed. The results indicate that the unordered models consistently outperform their ordered counterparts, and the incorporation of multilayer heterogeneity enhances the model fit. Furthermore, significant factors and their coefficient values vary across the different adaptive behavior alternatives. Intercity travelers demonstrate a higher probability of changing departure dates or canceling trips during snowy and windy days compared to rainy and foggy days. Trains exhibit higher flexibility and reliability during adverse weather, and access attributes significantly affect intercity travel adaptive behavior. Additionally, the analysis of individual and urban agglomeration attributes uncovers variations in adaptive behavior among individuals and cities. These findings provide profound insights into the complexities and variations of intercity travel behavior during adverse weather, and propose practical strategies to mitigate the detrimental impacts of adverse weather on intercity travelers. • Adaptive behavior of intercity travelers during adverse weather is investigated. • Unordered framework outperforms ordered counterparts in adaptive behavior study. • Multilayer unobserved heterogeneity in the adaptive behavior is accounted for. • The varying effects of explanatory factors on different adaptive alternatives are examined. • Practical strategies are proposed to mitigate negative impacts of adverse weather. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study by F. Zhang and colleagues which reported 20-metre shuttle run test (20mSRT) scores from Chinese school students. Topics include caution against the use of fallacious methods of estimating and interpreting the peak VO2 of children and adolescents, an appreciation for the researchers for raising the profile of pediatric health and well-being in China, and suggestions for researchers in China and elsewhere.

Over the past millennium and across the length and breadth of China and beyond, people have been burning paper replicas of the material world to send to their deceased family members, ancestors, and myriads of imaginary beings. The paper replicas, which include all types of goods and treasures, mostly old and new forms of money, is commonly referred to as the paper money custom. Studies of the paper money custom have neglected the native opposition to it, especially that of the contemporary intelligentsia, one form of which consists of news reports and human interest stories in the popular press that lampoon the practice of burning paper money. Many stories lampoon the paper money custom by showing how it burlesques traditional virtues such as filial piety. One of the interesting maneuvers in this criticism is how it employs the old and newer kinds of paper monies to shape the response of the readers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From the 1820s pith became a familiar material in Europe, under the name of rice-paper, as a raw material for artificial flowers, and as a medium for export paintings from China. The structure of pith sheets was early recognised as different to that of paper, but it was not until 1852 that William Jackson Hooker was able to describe the source plant, as Aralia papyrifera Hook., now Tetrapanax papyrifer (Hook.) K. Koch. Using his consular contacts, Hooker was able to build up a remarkable collection of pith, as raw materials, artificial flowers and Chinese paintings. Many are described and illustrated in this article, in the context of recent work on the history and conservation of pith paintings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The effluent from a Chinese paper mill (pH 7.1) was concentrated, and the solid residue was dried and ground. Crude lignosulfonate was obtained as a brown powder, and a novel sand-fixation agent was synthesized by means of graft copolymerization of the lignosulfonate with acrylic acid and formaldehyde. The newly synthesized product had good water solubility, potentially good biodegradation, and produced no additional pollution. The crusts formed on shifting sands using this agent had higher crushing strength and better resistance to wind erosion than those produced with two other recently patented fixatives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cracking in dryers has long been a challenge in the pulp and paper industry. The acoustic emission (AE) technique, which is capable of supplying information regarding the cracking behaviour of metal objects, can be used to reduce or prevent dryer failure. This study applies AE testing to a paper dryer made of grey cast iron in China. To realise this task, the AE characteristics of the cast iron dryer were examined by accomplishing three main work parts: (i) in the lab part, basic AE signatures from the dryer shell material were characterised; (ii) in the artificial crack test part, AE features from the crack were obtained and the AE location of the crack in the dryer was tested; (iii) in the field part, the basic procedure for testing the paper dryer under hydrostatic test conditions was verified based on the analysis of parts I and II. The results indicate that grey cast iron is a good AE emitter. The tensile test revealed that the AE responses are active and the AE sources include the deformation of pearlite, decohesion and fracture of several graphite flakes and microcrack growth. The AE attenuation in the dryer is not severe and the cracks in the dryer during hydraulic testing exhibit an active AE response. Additionally, an accurate crack location was obtained by using the cylindrical location method. These results can provide useful information for AE inspection on structures made of cast iron. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report on a review of papers written by teachers aimed at knowing more about teachers’ perceptions of the current situation of classroom assessment in primary mathematics education in China. The review is based on 266 papers included in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database. We found that the teacher-authors reflected various aspects of their classroom assessment practice, including the purpose of assessment, the content of it, the person who is the assessor, the assessment methods that are used, and the feedback that is provided. Most attention was paid to feedback; it seems many teacher-authors considered classroom assessment to be equivalent to feedback. In general, the conceived classroom assessment practice as described in the papers echoed well nearly all aspects that are advocated in the Chinese mathematics curriculum standards. The only aspect that was scarcely discussed in the papers was the use of assessment results to adapt and improve instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used data from the Retraction Watch website and from published reports on retractions and paper mills to summarize key features of research misconduct in China. Compared with publicized cases of falsified or fabricated data by authors from other countries of the world, the number of Chinese academics exposed for research misconduct has increased dramatically in recent years. Chinese authors do not have to generate fake data or fake peer reviews for themselves because paper mills in China will do the work for them for a price. Major retractions of articles by authors from China were all announced by international publishers. In contrast, there are few reports of retractions announced by China's domestic publishers. China's publication requirements for physicians seeking promotions and its leniency toward research misconduct are two major factors promoting the boom of paper mills in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, situated in the circum-Pacific seismic belt, experiences frequent seismic activity and faces diverse geological conditions, making structural stability of paramount importance, especially under seismic conditions. The majority of current earthquake generation methods do not consider the nonstationary nature of earthquakes. This paper introduces a spectral representation-random function model for generating nonstationary earthquakes, effectively simulating stochastic seismic ground motion. Furthermore, traditional slope stability analysis methods are deterministic and incapable of providing probabilistic assessments of slope instability. Therefore, this paper proposes a unified framework for static and dynamic structural reliability analysis based on the direct probability integration method, quantifying the impact of stochastic seismic ground motion on the dynamic reliability of slope stability. Finally, the proposed methods are applied to an excavation slope in Nanjing, using sliding displacement and safety factors as evaluation criteria to study the reliability of the slope under the influence of stochastic seismic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighborhood effects are a common strategy for rural households to deal with irrational situations such as deficient information and ability. Based on the 2019 CHFS survey data, we designed a Probit model to verify whether neighborhood effects exist in the online financial investment of rural households. Our paper constructs a multiple mediation model to explore its mechanism. Otherwise, we execute the heterogeneity analysis by dividing the total sample into groups. Our paper proved that (1) Rural households have significant neighborhood effects on online financial investment. (2) Heterogeneity analysis shows that neighborhood effects are stronger among women, the younger, low-education, and low-income rural households. (3) Through the multiple mediation model, we proved that the neighborhood effects on online financial investment of the peasant household work by the financial knowledge spillover and risk-taking enhancement. Our study conduces to a better understanding of the financial decision-making of rural households, which may provide a practical implication for the popularization of new financial products and the optimal design of policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the Chinese government has implemented a variety of measures, the gender wage gap in 21st century China has not decreased. A significant body of literature has studied this phenomenon using sector segmentation theory, but these studies have overlooked the importance of the collective economy beyond the public and private sectors. Moreover, they have lacked assessment of the gender wage gap across different wage groups, hindering an accurate estimation of the gender wage gap in China, and the formulation of appropriate recommendations. Utilizing micro-level data from 2004, 2008, and 2013, this paper examines trends in the gender wage gap within the public sector, private sector, and collective economy. Employing a selection bias correction based on the multinomial logit model, this study finds that the gender wage gap is smallest and most stable within the public sector. Furthermore, the private sector surpasses the collective economy in this period, becoming the sector with the largest gender wage gap. Meanwhile, a recentered influence function regression reveals a substantial gender wage gap among the low-wage population in all three sectors, as well as among the high-wage population in the private sector. Additionally, employing Brown wage decomposition, this study concludes that inter-sector, rather than intra-sector, differences account for the largest share of the gender wage gap, with gender discrimination in certain sectors identified as the primary cause. Finally, this paper provides policy recommendations aimed at addressing the gender wage gap among low-wage groups and within the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ming Great Wall Military Defense System is the most complete ancient military cultural heritage in China, which is of great significance to the study of China's ancient military defense mechanism and pattern. Military settlement is an important carrier of this mechanism. The estimation and in-depth understanding of its value can further excavate the profound connotation of the military defense system and the Great Wall spatial pattern in the Ming Dynasty. This paper adopts the AHP-CRITIC weighting approach to determine the weights of the historical value, scientific value, social value, cultural value and artistic value of the settlement heritage, so as to construct the value evaluation model of military settlements, and takes 34 Ming Great Wall military settlements in the Liaoxi Corridor as an example for evaluation. The results of the evaluation identified the priority settlements for conservation and development, and also explored their relationship with historical status, urbanization processes and official policies. The evaluation model constructed in this paper has a certain universality, and can also be followed in the evaluation of other military settlements in the Ming Great Wall Defense System, so as to obtain the overall cognition of the settlement system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a bibliometric review focusing on the utilization of water electrolysis as a means of generating hydrogen as an energy carrier. The analysis includes research conducted over the past decade, covering from 2014 to 2023 (till August). Several key aspects are highlighted, including publication trends, the leading country in research output, journal rankings, and a citation analysis of papers related to water electrolysis. The findings reveal a notable increase in publication trends, with China emerging as the leading contributor in this research area. Furthermore, the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy is identified as the highest-ranked journal in terms of both publication number and citation impact. Additionally, the top ten most cited research articles and review papers are investigated to determine their influence within the field. To gain a deeper understanding of water electrolysis methods, the three primary approaches: alkaline water electrolysis (AWE), proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis, and solid oxide electrolysis (SOE) is examined. The analysis emphasizes that PEM electrolysis is the most prevalent method for hydrogen generation, particularly when integrated with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power due to its rapid response to electrical input fluctuation. Finally, the challenges and future directions of water electrolysis in hydrogen production are highlighted, including an exploration of economic and environmental considerations at large scale, offering insights into the path forward for advancing this technology sustainably. • A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of water electrolysis for hydrogen production. • Publication trends, journal rankings, and citation analysis are highlighted. • China is identified as the leading contributor in water electrolysis publications. • International Journal of Hydrogen Energy: the highest-ranked journal in this field. • Specific electrolysis methods, including AWE, PEM, and SOE are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes an improved undesirable output DEA model to measure the eco-efficiency of cities in five major urban agglomerations in China during 2006–2020. It employs the Theil Index and Geodetector to investigate the spatial-temporal distribution differentiation characteristics and driving factors of urban eco-efficiency. The main findings are as follows. Firstly, the eco-efficiency of all urban agglomerations showed a fluctuating upward trend, but the eco-efficiency performance of different urban agglomerations in China shows a stratification characteristic. Specifically, the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration consistently ranks first in China, while the mean values of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, and Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration are lower than the national average. Secondly, the overall differences in the urban eco-efficiency of all sample cities show a consistently fluctuating downward trend. The factor that affects the level differences of eco-efficiency in different cities is the intra-regional differences. Last but not least, the top three factors affecting the spatial distribution difference of urban eco-efficiency in the whole sample are environmental pollution control investments, innovation level, and environmental infrastructure investments. In the end, this paper proposes that reducing the intra-regional differences is the primary task to achieve the coordinated improvement of urban eco-efficiency in urban agglomerations, and then puts forward some policy suggestions to improve eco-efficiency for the five major urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing penetration of renewable energy resources, their variable, intermittent and unpredictable characteristics bring new challenges to the power system. These challenges require micro-meteorological data and techniques to provide more support for the power systems, including planning, dispatching, operation, and so on. This paper aims to provide readers with insights into the effects of micro-meteorology on power systems, as well as the actual improvement brought by micro-meteorology in some power system scenarios. This paper provides a review including the relevant micro-meteorological techniques such as observation, assimilation and numerical techniques, as well as artificial intelligence, presenting a relatively complete overview of the most recent and relevant micro-meteorology-related literature associated with power systems. The impact of micro-meteorology on power systems is analyzed in six different forms of power generation and three typical scenarios of different stages in the power system, as well as integrated energy systems and disaster prevention and reduction. Finally, a case study in China is provided. This case takes wind power prediction as an example in a power system to compare the performance when applying micro-meteorological data or not. The experimental results demonstrated that using the micro-meteorological reanalysis dataset with high spatial--temporal resolution for wind power prediction performed better, verifying the improvement of micro-meteorology to the power system to some extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional networking strategy is widely implemented in China as a normative policy aimed at fostering cohesion and enhancing competitiveness. However, the empirical basis for this strategy remains relatively weak due to limitations in measurement methods and data availability. This paper establishes the urban networks by the enterprise investment data, and then accurately measures the network's external effects of each city by the method of MGWR model. The results show that: (1) Regional networking plays a significant role in urban development, although it is not the dominant factor. (2) The benefits of network connections may vary depending on the location and level of cities. (3) The major cities assume a pivotal role in the urban network. Based upon the aforementioned research conclusions, this paper presents strategic measures to enhance the network's external impacts, aiming to offer insights for other regions in formulating regional development strategies and establishing regional urban networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's agricultural economy has been hindered by insufficient accumulation of agricultural capital and credit constraints. It is worth investigating whether China's county financial marketization reform policy can alleviate these constraints and promote high-quality development of the agricultural economy (HQDAE). This paper presents an empirical analysis of the impact of county financial marketization reform on the HQDAE, based on county panel data. The focus is on the mechanism of county urbanization in the above relationship. The results show that county financial marketization has a significant non-linear impact on the HQDAE. Specifically, it has a 'U-shaped' impact on the overall growth of the agricultural economy and an inverted 'N-shaped' impact on the quality improvement of the agricultural economy. Secondly, the relationship between county financial marketization and the HQDAE is influenced by a threshold effect based on the level of county urbanization. As the level of county urbanization increases, the promoting effect of county financial marketization on HQDAE also increases significantly. Additionally, county financial marketization helps to promote county urbanization and accelerate urban-rural integration, which in turn leads to HQDAE. The research in this paper suggests that county-level local governments should promote a differentiated county financial system. In the early stages of financial market-oriented reform, the government should enhance the capacity of financial services in rural areas through tax breaks, policy incentives, and other measures to prevent financial leakage from agriculture. In the later stages of financial marketization reform, the government should strengthen financial supervision to prevent financial resources from being diverted from industry to capital. Moreover, to achieve the HQDAE, it is necessary to promote county financial market-oriented reform and accelerate the construction of county urbanization. This will help break the dual economic structure of urban and rural areas and promote the flow of financial capital, technology, and human capital from county cities to rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sunken green space is one of the urban rainwater collection facilities, which belongs to Low Impact Development (LID) techniques. It plays a key role in the construction of sponge city, and the amount of runoff collection is usually affected by the area of the sunken green space, the infiltration rate of the soil, and the annual runoff collection rate. To determine the minimum soil infiltration rate of sunken green space considering the annual runoff collection ratio of sponge cities, this paper selects a residential district in Hefei city, China, as the case study. Based on 45 years of precipitation data, the designed rainfall corresponding to annual runoff collection ratios of 75%, 80% and 85% is 21.3 mm, 23.4 mm and 27.5 mm, respectively. The characteristics of rainfall infiltration in sunken green space are analyzed by using the water balance model and runoff yield and conflux model. The results reveal that the soil infiltration rate is 1.16×10−4 cm/s~3.88×10−3 cm/s when the sunken depth is 0.1 m~0.3 m and that the ratio of green space area is 5%~25%. The runoff collection of the reconstructed sunken green space is 2.87 times and 1.98 times that of the nonsunken green space and the nonreconstructed sunken green space, respectively. That is to say, under the comprehensive performance of the sunken depth, sunken green space area, the steady soil infiltration rater of the reconstructed sunken green space cannot be less than the value obtained in this paper. Otherwise, the requirements of annual total runoff reduction ratio of the sponge city cannot be met. Therefore, this study provides references for realizing the ratio of annual runoff collection and sponge city construction in similar urban areas. It can also be applied to optimal selection of sunken green space in some sponge city projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneously achieving economic development and environmental protection is a shared global challenge. While the positive effect of environmental regulations on protecting the environment has been widely recognized, the attention paid to low-carbon governance and corporate green transformation remains insufficient. Based on the two-stage least square regression model (2SLS) of instrumental variables, this paper utilizes panel data from China to identify the influence mechanism of government low-carbon governance on enterprise green development. It explores the effect of low-carbon governance on enterprise green development from the perspective of fiscal decentralization. The findings show that (1) Low-carbon governance significantly promotes corporate green development, primarily through improving industrial structure and technological innovation; (2) Low-carbon governance notably promotes the green development of private enterprises but has little effect on state-owned enterprises. There are also geographical differences, and the results are better in Eastern China than in the Central and Western parts of China; (3) Fiscal decentralization at both central and local levels inhibits the effect of low-carbon governance on driving corporate green development by causing a mismatch of human resources. Therefore, to promote corporate green development, low-carbon governance must prioritize green development, actively guide industrial structural upgrading and enterprise technological innovation, implement differentiated low-carbon governance measures tailored to different ownership enterprises, and optimize the assessment indicators for fiscal decentralization. This paper helps deepen the understanding of the relationship between government low-carbon governance and enterprise green development in developing countries. It can be used as a reference for government departments to formulate relevant policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After over 30 years of fast economic development and massive construction of infrastructures, China now owns the largest total length of tunnels in the world. However, many tunnels are overloaded with a large traffic volume and vulnerable to fire accidents in operation. Once a fire occurs in the tunnel, the occupants face a dangerous and confined environment and need to evacuate before reaching untenable conditions. Failure in fire evacuation will cause severe injuries and casualties under high-temperature and toxic fire smoke, and many past fire accidents have taught us lessons. Driven by the need for tunnel fire safety in China, many new researches are conducted related to fire evacuation in tunnel environments including full-scale experiments, and new evacuation strategies are carried out with sophisticated tunnel designs and regulations. Hence, this work aims to review these latest developments and studies in China towards better and safer evacuation in tunnel fires. In specific, the paper summarized the evacuation issues in tunnel fires generally and pointed out the unique issues in China. Aiming these issues, the paper then introduced recent evacuation strategies and evacuation research in China respectively. Typical tunnel fire accidents and full-scale tunnel fire evacuation tests in China were discussed in detail as case studies. Detailed evacuation strategies and the exposed issues were analyzed in those tunnel fire accidents emphatically, while evacuation findings of human behavior such as evacuation choices and trajectories were presented according to several field tunnel fire evacuations conducted by the authors. Finally, we highlight the research advances and challenges of fire evacuation in tunnels, as well as the need and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust-related issues have attracted much attention from researchers recently. In the studies on trust, little attention has been paid to its interrelations with cooperativity and reliability. This paper sheds light on the relationship among trust, cooperation, and reliability in a medical context. Through a discourse analysis of the conversations between doctors and patients (including the patients' relatives) in China, this paper finds that: (i) cooperativity will not directly lead to trust in a medical context; (ii) being cooperative or using strategies to disclaim responsibility will lead to high reliability and will indirectly construct trust; (iii) reliability is a premise for trust in the medical context, and it can be repaired through rapport management strategies, such as empathy discourse if that reliability has been broken down. The research findings in this paper possess both theoretical and practical signifi- cance because they will refresh our understanding of the interrelationship among trust, cooperation, and reliability and contribute to the maintenance or enhancement of trust relations between doctors and patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With China's urbanization entering a stage of high-quality development, refined urban governance has become an important part in the modernization of governance capacity, in which urban design plays a major role. This paper briefly reviews the background of urban design digitalization and discusses the issues that need to be addressed in digital management and control of urban design in China. On this basis, the paper summarizes the practice of digital management and control of urban design in Zhuhai in three aspects: building a rule base for digital management and control, developing a 3D quantitative analysis method for urban space from the macro, meso, and micro perspectives, and establishing a digital urban design management platform and storing 2D and 3D urban design schemes in the database according to unified standards, so as to realize the standardized management, intelligent review, and scientific decision-making of urban design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, in recent years it has become a prevailing trend to promote the spatial maturity and high-quality transformation of new towns, yet there are few quantitative methods to evaluate their urban morphological maturity. From the perspective of quantitative urban morphology, this paper integrates street view data and cutting-edge analytical techniques into classic urban morphological study and develops a quantitative index for evaluating urban morphological maturity that fits Chinese cities by adjusting the indicators in line with the unique characteristics of the built environment of Chinese cities. Focusing on five new towns, as well as a historic area, of Shanghai, the paper evaluates their urban morphological maturity with this quantitative index and verifies its validity by comparing the evaluation result with that of expert consensus. It then proposes some design guidelines that may provide robust support for the regeneration of these new towns. Given its reliance on the multi-source data of open access and ready availability, this index holds promise for evaluating the urban morphological maturity of other new towns, to provide support for urban form improvement from both holistic and detailed perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019), the Chinese government has taken strict measures to prevent and control the epidemic. Although the spread of the virus has been controlled, people's daily life and work have been affected and restricted to varying degrees. Thus people have different sentiments, these may affect people's implementation and compliance with the policies, thus affecting the effectiveness of epidemic prevention and control. At present, few pieces of literature have analyzed the relationships between people's feelings, policies, and epidemic trends. The object of this paper is to analyze the text content on social media, to find out the impact of the epidemic blockade policy on the public mood and the concerns expressed by the public about policies changes, and the interaction between policies and epidemic states at different stages of the epidemic. In this paper, we collected the posts of two cities where the epidemic occurred at the same time for analysis and comparative study. On the one hand, we revealed the changes in public attention and attitudes in the two regions during the epidemic, the other hand, it also reflects the differences in public sentiment between the two regions, as well as the correlation between emotions and policies and epidemic trends when different policies are adopted under different circumstances. The obtained results have a certain guiding significance for public health departments to formulate reasonable epidemic prevention policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of death, different ethnic groups have unique coping ways. The physical care and spiritual care for the dying can demonstrate the diversity and particularity of ethnic cultural thought. Taking two villages in the interlaced residential areas inhabited by Han, Tibetan, and Hui ethnic groups in Linxia and Wuwei of Gansu Province as examples, this paper focuses on the presentation and significance of multi-ethnic cultural integration in the process of end-of-life care, with a focus on spiritual care. One main point of this paper is that, although hospice care in the modern medical sense is not really implemented in the vast rural areas of China, local end-of-life care, based on the village medical system and religious rituals, equally plays an important role. This is mainly manifested through the implementation of the Narcotics Card System and the widespread spiritual care. The second main point of this paper is that the form of end-of-life care, which embodies the integration of ethnic cultures, contains a certain degree of nursing functions, while taking into account the spiritual care needed by the dying and the grief consolation needed by the bereaved family. Considering the lack of spiritual care and bereavement management in China's medical space, the religious approaches to end-of-life care, as delineated in this study, could serve as a source of inspiration for the country's efforts to integrate hospice services into its healthcare system. In short, compared with Western forms of hospice care, in which modern medicine constitutes the main body, China's local end-of-life care is more reflected in the diversity and integration of spiritual care for the dying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gray market emerges when some distributors divert products to unauthorized distributors/retailers to make sneaky profits from the manufacturers' differential channel incentives, such as quantity discounts. Traditionally, manufacturers rely heavily on internal audits to periodically investigate the flows of products and funds so as to deter the gray market; however, this is too costly given the large number of distributors and their huge volumes of orders. Owing to the advances in data analytics techniques, the ordering quantities of a distributor over time, which form multivariate time series, can help reveal suspicious product diversion behaviors and narrow the audit scope drastically. To that end, in this paper, we build on the recent advancement of representation learning for time series and adopt a sequence autoencoder to automatically characterize the overall demand patterns. To cope with the underlying entangled factors and interfering information in the multivariate time series of ordering quantities, we develop a disentangled learning scheme to construct more effective sequence representations. An interdistributor correlation regularization is also proposed to ensure more reliable representations. Finally, given the highly scarce anomaly labels for the detection task, an unsupervised deep generative model based on the learned representations of the distributors is developed to estimate the densities of distributions, which enables the anomaly scores generated through end-to-end learning. Extensive experiments on a real-world distribution channel data set and a larger simulated data set empirically validate our model's superior and robust performances compared with several state-of-the-art baselines. Additionally, our illustrative economic analysis demonstrates that the manufacturers can launch more targeted and cost-effective audits toward the suspected distributors recommended by our model so as to deter the gray market. History: Accepted by Ram Ramesh, Area Editor for Data Science & Machine Learning. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72031001, 72301017, 72371011, and 72242101]. Supplemental Material: The software that supports the findings of this study is available within the paper and its Supplemental Information (https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/suppl/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0155) as well as from the IJOC GitHub software repository (https://github.com/INFORMSJoC/2022.0155). The complete IJOC Software and Data Repository is available at https://informsjoc.github.io/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rank aggregation combines the preference rankings of multiple alternatives from different voters into a single consensus ranking, providing a useful model for a variety of practical applications but posing a computationally challenging problem. In this paper, we provide an effective hybrid evolutionary ranking algorithm to solve the rank aggregation problem with both complete and partial rankings. The algorithm features a semantic crossover based on concordant pairs and an enhanced late acceptance local search method reinforced by a relaxed acceptance and replacement strategy and a fast incremental evaluation mechanism. Experiments are conducted to assess the algorithm, indicating a highly competitive performance on both synthetic and real-world benchmark instances compared with state-of-the-art algorithms. To demonstrate its practical usefulness, the algorithm is applied to label ranking, a well-established machine learning task. We additionally analyze several key algorithmic components to gain insight into their operation. History: Accepted by Erwin Pesch, Area Editor for Heuristic Search & Approximation Algorithms. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72371157] and Shanghai Pujiang Programme [Grant 23PJC069]. Supplemental Material: The software that supports the findings of this study is available within the paper and its Supplemental Information (https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/suppl/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0019) as well as from the IJOC GitHub software repository (https://github.com/INFORMSJoC/2022.0019). The complete IJOC Software and Data Repository is available at https://informsjoc.github.io/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development of membrane structures in China. It begins with a historical review of the early applications of membrane structures in the country, highlighting pivotal events and engineering endeavors that contributed to the development. Subsequently, recent advancements in the realm of membrane structures in China are succinctly summarized. The past decade has witnessed notable progress in the implementation of membrane structures, particularly within expansive stadiums and indoor sports arenas. Additionally, cases exemplifying the diverse applications of membrane structures in various projects are presented. Noteworthy among these are the incorporation of membrane structures in building facades, suspended ceilings for indoor spaces, and the utilization of ETFT membrane structures. Furthermore, applications of air-supported membrane structures are explored, especially in the areas of sports facilities and environmental protections. Technical standards and specifications that have played an important guiding role in the development of membrane structures in China are introduced in the last. Finally, 8 issues for the future research and development of membrane structures are pointed out in the conclusion part. It is expected that this paper can serve as a catalyst for further advancement and practical implementation of membrane structures in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the development process of building cable structures in China over the past 70 years according to three stages: the initial, slow, and rapid development. It also summarizes the types of cable components and joints of building cable structures. The structural characteristics and representative projects of suspension, cable membrane, beam string (cable-supported), and cable dome structures are reviewed in this paper. Finally, the achievements and prospects of cable structures in China are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistent gender inequalities in higher education are an ongoing concern among academics. This paper investigates how male and female academics perceive the need for gender-related changes to support academic women's career advancement in China. Drawing on 40 interviews with male and female academics at a leading Chinese research university, this paper finds that attitudes among male academics were overwhelmingly negative toward the necessity for gender-related changes, whereas the female academics' responses varied. Two underlying issues cause the relatively similar degrees of unwillingness of men and women to make gender-related policy changes at universities. First, these academics had a strong belief in merit-based rules for promotion, which embedded gender blindness in the name of 'fairness'. Second, the power of individual choice was the determining factor for women's career progression, although both men and women acknowledged that their traditional cultural beliefs were rooted in processes and practices that systematically disadvantaged women. The findings expose academics' low expectations for the successful creation or implementation of institutional policies that support academic women's career development, considering that male academics did not support gender-related changes, and female academics were not united in their perspectives. In addition, socio-cultural norms were a critical obstacle. The findings suggest that the successful implementation of any gender policies must meet two conditions: they should stress equal opportunities for both sexes and should not jeopardize the perceived 'fair' meritocracy in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies, such as big data, the Internet, and artificial intelligence, are rapidly advancing. Photovoltaic building materials enterprises (PBMEs) have been leveraging digital transformation to enhance their technological innovation capabilities and gain a competitive edge. In the global context of transitioning towards a low-carbon economy, the deep integration of digital technology offers a new solution for the green transformation of PBMEs. The synergy between green traction digitalization and digitalization enables green practices, making collaborative integration crucial for the far-reaching development of PBMEs. Within the framework of China's "double carbon" policy, domestic PBMEs are experiencing exponential growth, where digital green innovation (DGI) has become their primary objective. In this DGI context, selecting the right partners is the first step that significantly impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of DGI implementation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assist PBMEs in selecting high-quality partners, promoting the DGI process, enhancing technological innovation capabilities, and gaining a competitive advantage. To achieve this, the paper proposes constructing a theoretical framework for evaluating the DGI cooperation ability of PBMEs using the theory of ecological reciprocity. Based on this framework, an evaluation index system is established to assess the DGI cooperation ability of potential partners The interval intuitionistic fuzzy evaluation method, combined with a double combination weighting approach, is employed to evaluate the DGI ability of selected partners. Furthermore, by applying field theory, a dynamic selection model for strategic alliance partners is developed to aid PBMEs in selecting high-quality partners for DGI and facilitating the DGI process. The research findings indicate that: i) The evaluation standard framework for DGI cooperation ability of PBMEs encompasses "symbiosis," "mutualism," and "regeneration," along with the crucial environmental element of mutual trust. ii) The evaluation method based on double combination weighting effectively assesses the comprehensive DGI capabilities of selected PBME partners. The application of field theory enables scientific and effective dynamic partner selection for PBMEs through resource complementarity. iii) The proposed framework and partner selection model can be employed in real partner selection scenarios for PBMEs, allowing them to choose high-quality partners, enhance their DGI capabilities, and attain practical selection outcomes. This paper presents novel partner selection model that integrates decision rules and resource complementarity, enabling PBMEs to efficiently select DGI partners from a pool of potential candidates and improve their innovation efficiency. The utilization of the double combination weighting method and field theory in the partner selection paradigm of D extends the theoretical foundation, while the establishment of the DGI capability evaluation index system for PBME partners contributes to empirical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed at comparing different formats of illustrations for children's books created by modern Chinese and Ukrainian artists. At the same time, it was not focused just on determining the leading format, but on identifying the attractiveness factors of each format. To this end, the study investigated children's illustration preferences drawing from the following three age groups: 5–6 years old (preschoolers), 7–8 years old (second‐graders), and 9–10 years old (fourth‐graders). According to the survey, children were most concerned with illustration colourfulness (this is true for paper and pop‐up books) and viewing convenience. There were no statistically significant differences found between Chinese and Ukrainian books in terms of these parameters. At the same time, Chinese e‐books appeared to outperform the Ukrainian texts in terms of feature management and illustration colourfulness. Publishers and artists of children's books can use these data for effective creative activity and making constructive decisions. At the same time, these findings may be of interest to parents, informing or guiding book selection for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore what the travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal about the changing geographies of mobilities and the making of homo sacer, the latter constituted through differentiated control of mobilities. Implemented to protect U.S. public health, travel restrictions imposed on travelers from Mainland China during the early days of the pandemic exemplify how sovereign power that declares a state of emergency and creates bare life can be readily applied to groups of people who previously had privileged access to global mobility. In this sense, bare life does not refer to fixed and disadvantaged social categories but is rather contingently and contextually constituted, through the works of hybrid sovereign regimes. At the same time, however, these travelers are not reduced to a state of zero-agency but reside within a liminal space between soft and hard cosmopolitanisms, as they can still deploy agency and cosmopolitan capital to achieve certain degrees of mobility. By examining how Chinese travelers navigated various travel restrictions and the constantly changing policies to travel to the U.S., this paper explores new spaces of exception and forms of bare life, and argues that homo sacer is dynamically, relationally and recursively constructed, both through apparatus of control and the agency of travelers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of information technology has created conducive conditions for the digital economy. The digital economy is regarded as a critical pathway for transforming traditional economic models. Green total factor productivity serves as an indicator for assessing the quality of economic development. During pivotal periods of economic transition, the digital economy and green total factor productivity have emerged as two prominent themes for achieving sustainable economic development. But the impact of digital economy on green total factor productivity is less discussed. Innovation environment refers to a confluence of conditions shaped by factors such as talent, funding, cultural atmosphere and government policies, all of which collectively support innovative activities within a region. The institutional environment encompasses the aggregate of economic, political, social, and legal rules. Currently, there is little discussion on bringing innovation environment and institutional environment into the impact of digital economy on green total factor productivity. To fill the research gap, this paper adopts the Slack based measure-Directional distance function model and Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index to measure green total factor productivity in each region based on the panel data collected from 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2019. Generalized Method of Moments method is constructed to carry out an empirical study on the impact of digital economy on green total factor productivity. This paper constructs a panel threshold model with innovation environment and institutional environment as threshold variables. In further analysis, this paper employs panel quantile regression for the empirical analysis of the impact of the digital economy on green total factor productivity. Further analysis elucidates the evident disparities in the influence of the digital economy on green total factor productivity at various levels. The research results can provide a guide for discussing the green value of the digital economy and its role in fostering the development of a green economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the digital revolution deepens, the digital economy (DE) is reshaping the global industrial structure (IS). This paper utilizes data from 280 Chinese cities between 2007 and 2020 to conduct an in-depth analysis of how DE propels the upgrading of IS and explores the role of human capital (HC) in this process. The research indicates that DE significantly fosters the optimization of IS. Additionally, it was discovered that the growth of HC plays a pivotal mediating role in this evolution, complementing existing research on the relationship between higher education and industrial upgrading. By adopting spatial econometric methods, this study unveils the spillover effects of DE in geographical space, identifying a positive influence on the industrial upgrading of surrounding regions. The paper also confirms the nonlinear characteristics of DE's impact on IS upgrading, which manifests as a pronounced inverted U-shaped trend, marking a novel discovery. Further findings suggest that in regions with more advanced artificial intelligence technologies, the impact of DE on industrial optimization is more significant, highlighting the role of regional disparities in the digital transformation. In conclusion, the paper proposes policy recommendations based on the research findings to facilitate the development of DE and the elevation of IS levels, thereby promoting high-quality economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anaerobic digestion is a prevailing technology for the treatment and utilization of municipal organic solid waste (MOSW). In this technology, the macromolecular organic matter in waste degrades into small molecular substances through the anaerobic decomposition of microorganisms, producing biogas that can provide enormous energy. This paper focuses on the research progress of anaerobic digestion of various organic wastes for biogas production. The principle and process of anaerobic digestion for biogas production are introduced, along with the key factors affecting anaerobic digestion efficiency, such as temperature, pH, and sealing conditions. At the same time, the current cycle treatment technology and comprehensive treatment system of MOSW are also summarized. Furthermore, the paper explores biogas purification technologies, including desulfurization, deoxidation, drying, and decarbonization. Finally, the state-of-the-art of the utilization of MOSW for biogas production in the world and the problems faced by the utilization of MOSW for biogas production in China are reviewed. By summarizing the anaerobic digestion technology of MOSW, this review hopes to provide some reasonable solutions for the high-value utilization of MOSW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been fruitful publications on thermal comfort of urban residential buildings in China. However, there is a lack of reviews on this topic to perform a comprehensive analysis and find opportunities to meet occupants' thermal comfort needs while improving building energy efficiencies. This paper addresses this issue by presenting a systematic review on the advancements in research on thermal comfort in urban residential buildings in China. Firstly, two common thermal comfort research approaches, i.e., field studies and laboratory studies, are discussed. Secondly, eleven main thermal comfort evaluation indicators are summarized. Finally, this paper analyzes the thermal comfort survey data from different researchers, discusses the impacts of adaptive behaviors on human thermal comfort, and provides recommendations for future research on urban residential thermal comfort. It was found that people have higher and higher requirements for their indoor thermal environment as time goes by, especially in the winter; the thermoneutral temperature is higher in warmer climate regions in the summer but lower in the winter than in colder climate regions; the thermoneutral temperature tends to increase with the indoor air temperature due to an adaptation to the indoor thermal environment. The outcomes of this paper provide valuable information on thermal comfort behaviors of urban residents in different climate zones in China, which can serve as a resource for the academic community conducting future research on thermal comfort and assist policymakers in enhancing building energy efficiencies without compromising the occupants' comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]