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Compared with financial information, whether corporate social responsibility disclosure has impacts on debt financing cost has obviously become a heated topic in the academic. This paper selects A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets of China from 2013 to 2017 as sample to study the impact of corporate social responsibility disclosure on debt financing cost, including bond financing cost and bank loan cost. In addition, this paper divides the sample into voluntary corporate social responsibility disclosure group and mandatory corporate social responsibility disclosure group and studies whether the effects of voluntary corporate social responsibility disclosure and mandatory corporate social responsibility disclosure on bond financing cost and bank loan cost are different. The empirical results are presented as follows: Firstly, enterprise disclosing high-quality corporate social responsibility report is more conducive to reducing the debt financing cost. Specifically, corporate social responsibility disclosure significantly lowers both the bond financing cost and bank loan cost. Moreover, the reduction impact of corporate social responsibility disclosure on bond financing cost is greater than that of bank loan cost. Secondly, enterprises voluntarily disclosing corporate social responsibility reports are more conducive to reducing the debt financing cost than that of enterprises mandatorily disclosing corporate social responsibility reports. Thirdly, non-state-owned enterprises are more conducive to reducing debt financing cost than that of state-owned enterprise. The enterprises with more market competition are more conducive to reducing the debt financing cost than the oligopolistic enterprises. Finally, this paper concludes and gives policy implications. This paper amplifies the literature regarding the economic consequences of corporate social responsibility disclosure and improves the understanding of the impact of corporate social responsibility disclosure on debt financing cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing a serious land resource mismatch problem, which will profoundly affect the acceleration of economic growth and technological innovation. Reform of the industrial land allocation system can solve the mismatch of land resources, and that also has an important impact on the promotion of economic and technological development. This paper selects the data of Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2007 to 2020 as the research sample, constructs a double machine learning model, and empirically investigates the impact of a new industrial land use policy on firms' green innovation behavior. The study shows that: (1) the new industrial land use policy significantly promotes firms' substantive and strategic green technological innovation, and the effect on substantive green technological innovation is greater than that on strategic green technological innovation. (2) The enhancement of R&D investment sustainability and the "talent pool" effect are important mechanisms through which the new industrial land use policy influences firms' substantive and strategic green technological innovation. Meanwhile, the new industrial land use policy is conducive to firms' green coinnovation. (3) There is heterogeneity in the effect of the new industrial land use policy, which can significantly promote green technological innovation of firms in the eastern region, while it does not play a significant role in the green innovation behavior of firms in the central and western regions. The above research results enrich the research in the field of industrial land and innovation, help to understand more comprehensively the mechanism of new industrial land affecting firms' green technological innovation, and provide policy insights for strengthening the application of industrial land allocation reform in firms' green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of Internet infrastructure construction on enterprise transformation and upgrading and the underlying mechanisms using a progressive double difference model based on a quasi-natural experiment of the Chinese government's "broadband China" policy by matching A-share listed companies and city panel data from 2008–2019 in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The conclusions show that the "broadband China" policy can significantly promote the transformation and upgrading of enterprises in pilot cities. However, its effect shows a diminishing marginal contribution, and the policy is more effective for traditional manufacturing industries during the implementation period. Enhancing human capital and reducing internal transaction costs are two important channels for Internet infrastructure construction to help enterprises transform and upgrade. Combined with the life cycle theory, we find that the "broadband China" policy has the most significant impact on changing and upgrading enterprises in the growth and maturity stages, especially those in the manufacturing industry, but not those in the maturity and decline stages of the service industry. Finally, a series of robustness tests using Monte Carlo simulation, entropy balance method, and instrumental variables method, excluding other factors, show that the findings are still robust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the intensification of urbanization, characterized by increasingly dense land use, the proliferation of high-rise residences has emerged as a predominant housing solution, particularly evident in developed cities like those in China. With a primary aim of enhancing the residential living environment within high-rise structures, this study advocates for a comprehensive whole life cycle perspective. By employing digital technology and conducting experiments centered on a representative case study, this paper focuses on optimizing the functional layout of public activity spaces within high-rise residential projects. Specifically, this article aims to address challenges such as the inadequate configuration and articulation of various public spaces, along with the underutilization of peripheral activity areas. Central to the optimization efforts is the utilization of the Kruskal algorithm, which enables the analysis of flow lines and functions, ultimately leading to the derivation of optimal solutions. Through a detailed analysis of our case study, this paper provides actionable insights into enhancing the feasibility and effectiveness of public spaces within high-rise residential projects. Recognizing the pivotal role of public space layout in shaping residents' living experiences, the importance of addressing this issue early in the design phase was emphasized. By integrating scientifically driven digital technology solutions, smart, inclusive, and convenient communities that cater to the diverse needs of their inhabitants are aspired to be created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, countries worldwide are embracing digital strategies, enabling enterprises to utilize digital technology, digital supply chains, blockchain, and additional digital measures to increase their competitiveness. This paper analyzed the correlation between the digital transformation of manufacturing export enterprises and their business and export performance, focusing on China's manufacturing export enterprises through empirical analysis. The study investigated the influence of digital transformation on enterprise performance. Using the Resource Based View theory and Trade theory, hypotheses were proposed and regression models were developed to analyze a sample of 1007 enterprises listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock markets from 2012 to 2019. The study conducted regression analysis, intermediate effect test, robustness test, stage lag, and heterogeneity analysis. The study found that (1) Manufacturing export enterprises listed in the stock market implemented digital transformation, leading to a significant positive impact on their overall performance. (2) Digital transformation led to cost reduction, improved R&D intensity, and enhanced human resources, among other benefits for enterprise performance. (3) According to the fractal analysis, non-state-owned enterprises exhibited more favorable effects on enterprise performance, and the digital transformation of manufacturing export companies in developed regions had a more significant impact on their performance. Finally, the study's empirical results yielded pertinent proposals for digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Recent research has played a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of cloisonné enamel production in China during the 19th and 20th centuries. However, Christian workshops, whether operating under missionary subcontracting or owned by the Catholic Church, have yet to be accurately identified and contextualized. This article delves into three significant contexts. Firstly, it identifies and contextualizes the Christian connections and interactions of the Decheng private cloisonné workshop, involving the French Lazarist Bishop Alphonse Favier, in Beijing. Secondly, it identifies the cloisonné workshop stablished by the Lazarists in the Beitang complex in Beijing and elucidates the role it played. Finally, this paper presents new evidence concerning cloisonné Christian objects crafted by the Tushanwan Jesuit workshop in Shanghai. Some of the primary works of these three workshops are identified for the first time. Additionally, this paper shows that certain cloisonné crosses, some of them thought to be originally Japanese, including those referred to as Namban, were, in fact, crafted in Beijing during the 1920s. These preliminary results will contribute to placing Chinese Christian cloisonné within the history of Chinese Art and its interactions at a global level in the context of evangelization in China, the production of the so-called export art, and the processes of indigenization carried out by the Lazarists and the Jesuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2012, China's economic growth rate has been much higher than the world average; its economic aggregate ranks second in the world, people's living standards have risen significantly, and absolute poverty has been historically eliminated, laying a solid foundation for solid promotion of common prosperity. However, China is still in the primary stage of socialism, and the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development has not been fundamentally solved. It is urgent to monitor the status of common prosperity construction in all regions. By constructing an evaluation index system of common prosperity, this paper uses spatial correlation analysis model and geographically weighted regression model to assess the comprehensive development level of common prosperity quantitatively, reveal the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and analyze the main influencing factors. The results show that the comprehensive development level of China's common prosperity has been continuously improved. It gradually presents a spatial distribution pattern with Beijing-Shanghai as the development pole and the eastern coastal area as the highland, and there is a significant positive spatial correlation, but the local spatial heterogeneity has increased. The development level of common prosperity is affected by multiple factors, and the increase in per capita GDP is the leading factor in promoting common prosperity. Therefore, we should focus on promoting high-quality economic development, coordinated regional development and expanding middle-income groups, so that all people can enjoy the fruits of reform and development and ultimately achieve common prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict between agricultural production and environmental protection, especially vegetable production, is one of the world's most prominent concerns. The acceptance degree and possible response of new agricultural operation subjects, represented by Farmers Professional Cooperatives (FPCs), to green production policies are a core issue that must be considered when designing environmental policies in the future. Based on field survey data of 192 FPCs of vegetables in Shanghai, China, this paper uses a choice experiment method to test the willingness of cooperatives to adopt green production behaviors under different policy settings and to identify the differences under different operation scales. The results show that both mandatory policies and incentive policies have an impact on the willingness of cooperatives to adopt green production behaviors, but significant differences exist among FPCs of different operation scales. Specifically, the willingness of large-scale FPCs to adopt green production behavior is affected by key technology training and income subsidies, whereas the willingness of small-scale FPCs is only affected by income subsidies; the willingness of medium-scale FPCs is simultaneously affected by key technology training, income subsidies, and penalties. Therefore, when formulating relevant policies in the future, policy-makers should consider local conditions, including the endowment heterogeneity of the production and operation subjects, so as to enhance the level of green production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the peer and economic effects of corporate poverty alleviation behavior. Using the data of A-share non-financial listed corporates in Shanghai and Shenzhen of China from 2016 to 2020, the empirical analysis of this study finds that: corporate poverty alleviation behavior has significant peer effects; the guidance of local poverty alleviation policies weakens the peer effects of corporate poverty alleviation behavior; compared to private enterprises, the poverty alleviation behavior of the peer firms has a more significant impact on state-owned enterprises; and corporate poverty alleviation behavior can result in the backflow of economic benefits and achieve the organic unity of economic and social benefits. The purpose of this paper is to explore the peer effects of corporate poverty alleviation behaviors through empirical analysis using available public data. The results of the study not only increase the motivation of corporate to participate in poverty alleviation from a peer effects perspective, but also reveal key factors for sustaining corporate poverty alleviation behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the establishment and rapid development of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), the scale of enterprises in the zone has grown rapidly. This paper takes the actual needs of the Shanghai FTZ as the background, extracts key information such as entities from the Big Data related to Internet enterprises, further constructs the enterprise knowledge graph, and applies it to the supervision and service of the FTZ. The enterprise knowledge graph is constructed using the Neo4j graph database. To verify the effectiveness of the named entity identification and relationship extraction methods proposed in this paper, experiments were conducted to validate them, and both achieved good results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ciliary body tumor is extremely rare and treatment is challenging. The aim of this study is to present our experience in treating this rare entity, especially large tumors with more than 5 clock hours of involvement, and to evaluate the surgical outcomes and complications of local resection via partial lamellar sclerouvectomy in four cases of ciliary body tumors in China. Methods: Four patients with ciliary body tumors underwent partial lamellar sclerouvectomy between October 2019 and April 2023 in Shanghai General Hospital, China. Tumor features, histopathologic findings, complications, visual acuity, and surgical outcomes were reviewed at a mean follow-up of 20.8 months. Results: Four patients with a mean age of 31.8 years were included in this study. The histopathological diagnosis was adenoma of non-pigmented ciliary epithelium (ANPCE), schwannoma, and multiple ciliary body pigment epithelial cysts. The mean largest tumor base diameter was 6.00 mm (range: 2.00–10.00) and the mean tumor thickness was 3.50 mm (range: 2.00–5.00). Preoperative complications included cataract in 3 (75%) eyes, lens dislocation in 2 (50%), and secondary glaucoma in 1 (25%). Temporary ocular hypotonia was observed in one case and no other postoperative complications were observed. At a mean follow-up of 20.8 months, the best corrected visual acuity increased in 3 eyes and was stable in 1 eye. Tumor recurrence was absent in all eyes. All patients were alive at the end of follow-up. Conclusions: Local tumor resection via PLSU is useful in the treatment of ciliary body tumors, including large tumors occupying more than five clock hours of pars plicata. Surgery-related complications were manageable with adequate preoperative assessment and careful operation during surgery. Key messages: What is known 1. Ciliary body tumor is a rare intraocular tumor that is difficult to detect and determine the malignancy, sometimes leading to overdiagnosis and overtreatment such as eyeball enucleation. 2. Partial lamellar sclerouvectomy (PLSU) is used as a local resection method for iridociliary tumors but surgical procedure is challenging and limited by tumor size. What this paper adds 1. PLSU can also be used in the treatment of large iridociliary tumors occupying more than five clock hours of pars plicata. 2. Surgery-related complications were manageable with adequate preoperative assessment and careful operation during surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the goal of achieving "carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060", as clearly proposed by China, the transportation sector will face long–term pressure on carbon emissions, and the application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will usher in a rapid growth period. However, true "zero carbon" emissions cannot be separated from "green hydrogen". Therefore, it is of practical significance to explore the feasibility of renewable energy hydrogen production in the context of hydrogen refueling stations, especially photovoltaic hydrogen production, which is applied to hydrogen refueling stations (hereinafter referred to "photovoltaic hydrogen refueling stations"). This paper takes a hydrogen refueling station in Shanghai with a supply capacity of 500 kg/day as the research object. Based on a characteristic analysis of the hydrogen demand of the hydrogen refueling station throughout the day, this paper studies and analyzes the system configuration, operation strategy, environmental effects, and economics of the photovoltaic hydrogen refueling station. It is estimated that when the hydrogen price is no less than 6.23 USD, the photovoltaic hydrogen refueling station has good economic benefits. Additionally, compared with the conventional hydrogen refueling station, it can reduce carbon emissions by approximately 1237.28 tons per year, with good environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waterfront intervention, as one of the post-industrial reuse paradigms, has flourished around the world and been studied as a global phenomenon. This paper investigates the application of a dual adaptive reuse strategy to industrial heritage waterfront buildings and explores its social significance. The case study is of the West Bund, a waterfront renovation in Shanghai, China. Insights are drawn from the qualitative research approach of triangulation, with evidence derived from document sources, archival records, direct participants and semi-structured interviews. This paper examines a series of galleries and landscapes created from former industrial buildings and facilities along the Huangpu River. It concludes that the West Bund exemplifies a dual strategy of adaptive reuse: art-led and landscape-led building reuse. This dual strategy can be viewed as an endeavour to balance urban gentrification and publicness in the megalopolis. It can also be argued, however, that the dual approach to adaptive reuse is unsustainable within the framework of an entrepreneurial state, and significantly so in the post-epidemic era when economic growth pressure increases. This study contributes to our understanding of the complex nature of industrial heritage in the rapidly shifting landscape of contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the fact that the high frequency of extreme weather events globally, in particular typhoons, has more of an influence on flood forecasting, there is a great need to further understand the impact of typhoon events on design storms. The main objectives of this paper are to examine the magnitude, occurrence, and mechanism of typhoon events in southeast coastal China and their contribution to the design storm study. We take Shanghai, which is a typical metropolitan region in the Yangtze River Delta, China, as an example. The impact of typhoons on the rainfall frequency analysis is quantitatively evaluated using stochastic storm transposition (SST)-based intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) estimates with various temporal and spatial structures under different return periods. The results show that there is significant variability in the storm magnitude within the transposition domain across different durations, highlighting the spatiotemporal heterogeneity over the coastal area. Moreover, the probability of random storm transposition exhibits an uneven distribution. The frequency of typhoon rainfall events within the transposition domain is notably high, and there is considerable variability in the structure of rainfall. Typhoon rainfall amplifies the intensity of design storms, and its contribution increases with return periods. The variability in design storms increases accordingly. Based on the advantages of SST, which retains the spatiotemporal structure of the rainfall in the generated scenarios, the overall framework provides an effective way to examine the impact of diverse characteristics of typhoon rainfall on frequency analysis and facilitate a deeper exploration of the direct impact of various types of extreme storms on the intensity, spatial, and temporal distributions of design storms amidst evolving environmental conditions over this metropolitan region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stock market plays a leading and crucial role in the market mechanism, which connects the savers and investors. So far, there is no uniform regulation on the disclosure requirement of environmental protection information in China. But companies are increasingly concerned about environmental protection and are committed to disclosing more information about environmental protection. It is important to analyze the information on stock market opening and environmental protection by computing technology. For the stock market, as voluntary disclosure of non-financial information, environmental protection information is an important supplement to financial information and is essential for the investors to make decisions. And it is the important content of capital market information. This article through the capital market opening opportunity: Shanghai (Shenzhen) Hong Kong stock connect (the stock market opening mentioned later in this paper all refers to the Shanghai (Shenzhen) Hong Kong stock connect), empirically investigates the stock market opening that affects the environmental protection information disclosure of the company. Our conclusion supports the views that the stock market opening improved the environmental protection information disclosure of the company and promotes the environmental protection behavior of enterprises. Through further analysis, this paper finds that after the officially carried out the stock market opening policy, the attention of many analysts and the participation of foreign institutional investors urge the management to take the initiative to reduce agency costs, which is an important influence mechanism for the stock market opening to affect the disclosure of enterprises' environmental protection information. The evidence of this study indicates that the stock market opening has an important impact on enterprises in China from the following aspects: improving the information disclosure of environmental protection, thus enhancing the company's awareness of environment protecting, and improving the information quality of stock market in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the data of China's A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2003 to 2014 and takes the pilot emission trading policy in 2007 for a quasinatural experiment to explore the role of the pilot emission trading policy in promoting enterprises' green technology innovation. The empirical research shows a Porter effect in the emission trading system in China. Specifically, first, the emission trading policy can significantly promote enterprises' green technology innovation in pilot areas. In addition, the incentive effect of emission trading policy on green technology innovation is significantly different due to the types of green patents. Second, the incentive effect of emission trading policy on enterprises' green technology innovation is different due to the nature and scale of enterprises. The incentive effect is greater in state-owned enterprises than in non-state-owned enterprises, and it is greater in large-scale enterprises than in small-scale enterprises. Finally, the incentive effect of emission trading policy on enterprises' green technology innovation has heterogeneity of regions. It has the greatest incentive effect in eastern region, followed by western region and then central region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of innovation dividends, whether investors, as the main participants in the capital market, can tolerate enterprise innovation activities is the key to whether the capital market can help enterprises innovate. This paper takes the listed companies of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares in China that disclosed quantitative performance forecasts from 2016 to 2021 as samples, obtains the market reaction of performance forecasts through the event study method and uses them as proxy variables of investors' short-term performance expectations, and uses multiple regression analysis to explore the impact of corporate R&D on investors' short-term performance expectations. The results are as follows: (1) corporate R&D investment significantly reduces investors' short-term performance expectations (that is, investors have a significant tolerance effect on enterprises with higher R&D investment); (2) the increase in the shareholding ratio of institutional investors weakens the tolerance effect; and (3) with the implementation of China's innovation-driven strategy, the tolerance effect of its capital market on enterprise R&D gradually increases, especially for high-tech companies, but has a low tolerance effect on state-owned companies' R&D risk. The results show that investors in China's capital market are not completely rational in their response to corporate R&D, and investors are willing to bear more short-term performance losses for high R&D investment, which is consistent with prospect theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining the supply of multiple ecosystem services of cultivated land is directly concerned to the sustainable development of human society. The ecological compensation of cultivated land is an important measure which has been major strategy to promote ecological protection of cultivated land and ensure food security in China. Although the cultivated land is immovable, when the grain transfer from surplus to poor areas, the cultivated land resources are reallocated and the corresponding ecosystem services are spilt. This paper constructs a model to quantify cultivated land resources flows hidden in the grain, calculates the compensation standard, and quantifies the compensation amount by building the eco-compensation mechanism. The typical integrated region in China, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) was selected as the study area. The results show that (1) cultivated land resources in the YRD appear the characteristics of outflow in 24 cities and inflow in 17 cities, which means the former is the recipient and the latter is the payer of eco-compensation. (2) Generally, the developed cities have much more outflow of cultivated land resources than the developing cities in the YRD. And the city of Shanghai and Hangzhou, which are the best economic developed cities in the YRD, transfers into most grain and cultivated land. (3) Paddy field and dry farmland have different eco-value, so the compensation is different, respectively. Our study can enrich the perspective of cultivated land eco-compensation and proposes policy implications for improving the eco-compensation mechanism and realizing multifunctional ecological protection of cultivated land in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's distinct rural revitalization process has attracted global attention due to its impressive speed, massive scale, and policy interventions. A relatively limited amount of research has been conducted on how rural transition characteristics and policy mechanisms are interrelated at the micro level. To fill this research gap, following the main research thread of dividing rural development stages, revealing transition characteristics and exploring policy mechanisms, this paper utilizes a participatory rural appraisal, a landscape metrics analysis, and in-depth interviews to analyze the spatial transition laws of Dayu Village. First, the results show that the village experienced three stages from 1990 to 2020: strict homestead control, village relocation, and land consolidation. Second, the village exhibits multidimensional transition characteristics. With a reduced rural settlement area, regular patch formation, and a dense interior subdivision of rural houses, the land use layout changed from homogeneous to multiple nests. As the industrial structure became more diversified, the villagers' livelihoods became more differentiated. Inflows of tourists and migrants changed the population structure, causing social relations to become defamiliarized. Moreover, mechanism research finds that policy can promote rural settlement transition by allocating land resources and regulating village behavior. The policy's scope expanded from a single settlement to the whole village, optimizing external forces, with village behavior effects acting as an internal force. The degree of matching between policy formulation and villagers' needs is the key to promoting the transition of rural settlements. This research deepens the understanding of the transition laws of suburban villages in megacities in developing countries at the micro scale and provides a reference for land policies in similar villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic development level of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is relatively high, and the modern agricultural production has brought serious pressure to the agricultural ecological environment. At present, there is no research on the sustainable status of agroecosystem in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, based on the emergy theory, this paper analyzes and evaluates the input–output structure and sustainable status of the Yangtze River Economic Belt by calculating the input–output factors and relevant emergy indexes from 2010 to 2018. The results show that the total input and output emergy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt shows an upward trend from 2010 to 2018. The input of non-renewable industrial auxiliary emergy is too high which has been more than 80%, and the structure of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery industry is unreasonable, which makes the net emergy yield rate of the system very low, its value was only 0.23 in 2018, far less than 1, and the agroecosystem is in an unsustainable state. Except for Shanghai, most provinces and cities of the Yangtze River Economic Belt are in an unsustainable state, and the status of the agricultural ecological environment is not optimistic. From 2010 to 2018, the overall ecological environment of the agricultural ecosystem in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is not optimistic. Among them, the most affected agricultural ecosystem's sustainable development index is the cash-crop area, total population, and agricultural fixed asset investment. Relevant departments and agricultural practitioners need to change the resource input structure of the agricultural ecosystem, reduce the dependence on industrial auxiliary energy, improve resource utilization efficiency, adjust the industrial structure of agricultural output and increase the production of high-emergy products, to realize sustainable development of the agricultural ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of urban rail transit and underground space construction, the advantages of the concealed excavation method are gradually highlighted in the urban center area affected by a complex engineering environment. At present, the pipe curtain method with a flexible section and wide application of the soil layer is being widely used in engineering, but the research on the stability of the excavation face during the construction of the pipe curtain method in soft soil areas still has not formed a complete system. Therefore, this paper analyzes the stability of the excavation face under different reinforcement conditions and the influence of different spacing, numbers, and strength of MJS (metro jet system) zones on the stability of the excavation face of the pipe curtain method based on the actual project of the Guiqiao Road Station of the Shanghai Metro, China, and gives a reference for the reinforcement of the palm face in the excavation process of the pipe curtain method in soft soil areas. The study shows that the safety coefficient of the excavation face decreases with the increase in the slope angle of the excavation face, with the increase in spacing of the MJS zone, and with the increase in height of the MJS zone arrangement, while the safety coefficient of the excavation face increases with the increase in strength of the MJS zones themselves and the increase in the strength of the soil between the MJS zones. Further, the machine learning model is applied to predict the stability of the excavation face under different cases, and the relevant fitting accuracy is above 0.9, which can predict the stability of the excavation better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote-sensing images of high spatial resolution (HSR) are valuable sources of fine-grained spatial information for various applications, such as urban surveys and governance. There is continuing research on positional errors in remote-sensing images and their impacts in geoprocessing and applications. This paper explores the combined use of multi-point geostatistics (MPS), machine learning—in particular, generalized additive modeling (GAM)—and computer-image correlation for characterizing positional errors in images—in particular, HSR images. These methods are employed because of the merits of MPS in being flexible for non-parametric and joint simulation of positional errors in X and Y coordinates, the merits of GAM in being capable of handling non-stationarity in-positional errors through error de-trending, and the merits of computer-image correlation in being cost-effective in furnishing the training data (TD) required in MPS. Procedurally, image correlation is applied to identify homologous image points in reference-test image pairs to extract image displacements automatically in constructing TD. To cope with the complexity of urban scenes and the unavailability of truly orthorectified images, visual screening is performed to clean the raw displacement data to create quality-enhanced TD, while manual digitization is used to obtain reference sample data, including conditioning data (CD), for MPS and test data for performance evaluation. GAM is used to decompose CD and TD into trends and residuals. With CD and TD both de-trended, the direct sampling (DS) algorithm for MPS is applied to simulate residuals over a simulation grid (SG) at 80 m spatial resolution. With the realizations of residuals and, hence, positional errors generated in this way, the means, standard deviation, and cross correlation in bivariate positional errors at SG nodes are computed. The simulated error fields are also used to generate equal-probable realizations of vertices that define some road centerlines (RCLs), selected for this research through interpolation over the aforementioned simulated error fields, leading to error metrics for the RCLs and for the lengths of some RCL segments. The enhanced georectification of the RCLs is facilitated through error correction. A case study based in Shanghai municipality, China, was carried out, using HSR images as part of generalized point clouds that were developed. The experiment results confirmed that by using the proposed methods, spatially explicit positional-error metrics, including means, standard deviation, and cross correlation, can be quantified flexibly, with those in the selected RCLs and the lengths of some RCL segments derived easily through error propagation. The reference positions of these RCLs were obtained through error correction. The positional accuracy gains achieved by the proposed methods were found to be comparable with those achieved by conventional image georectification, in which the CD were used as image-georectification control data. The proposed methods are valuable not only for uncertainty-informed image geolocation and analysis, but also for integrated geoinformation processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sci-tech and finance plays an increasingly important role and have become an important driving force in economic development. In China, the problem of insufficient financial support for sci-tech innovation is important to enterprises. According to the internal relationship between different stages of Sci-tech and the finance system, this paper is aimed at exploring the efficiency measurement method between sci-tech and finance systems. Firstly the multi-stage collaborative structure of sci-tech finance is built, where the system of sci-tech is divided into three stages including the R&D stage, transformation stage of sci-tech achievements and industrialization stage, and the financing channel is the input of the finance system into the sci-tech system at different stages. The measurement method of the multi-stage collaborative efficiency between sci-tech and finance systems is put forward by the framework of network DEA. Then, taking China as an example, we collect the information of 30 provinces and cities from 2009 to 2016 and measure the efficiency of each system and the collaborative efficiency of the both. The efficiency's spatial correlation is tested by means of Moran index. Finally, the influencing factors of the collaborative efficiency are analyzed based on the spatial econometric regression model, which considers the financing channels and human capital. To sum up, there are significant differences in the sci-tech finance collaborative efficiency among regions in China. Among them, the collaborative efficiency of Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu ranks in the top three. Comparing the different stages of the sci-tech system, the commercialization stage is a weak link in many regions of China. Human capital and financing channels of sci-tech finance have different degrees of positive impact on the sci-tech finance collaborative efficiency. Among them, human capital plays a greater role in promoting the sci-tech finance collaborative development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sheshan Geomagnetic Observatory (International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) code SSH), China was built in Xujiahui, Shanghai in 1874 and moved to Sheshan, Shanghai at the end of 1932. So far, the SSH has a history of nearly 150 years. It is one of the earliest geomagnetic observatories in China and one of the geomagnetic observatories with the longest history in the world. In this paper, we present the rescue and quality control (QC) of the historical data at the SSH from 1933 to 2019. The rescued data are the absolute hourly mean values (AHMVs) of declination (D), horizontal (H), and vertical (Z) components. Some of these data are paper-based records and some are stored in a floppy disk in BAS, DBF, MDB, and other file storage formats. After digitization and format transformation, we imported the data into the Toad database to achieve the unified data management. We performed statistics of completeness, visual analysis, outliers detects, and data correction on the stored data. We then conducted the consistency test of daily variation and secular variation (SV) by comparing the corrected data with the data of the reference observatory, and the computational data of the COV-OBS model, respectively. The consistency test reveals good agreement. However, the individual data should be used with caution because these data are suspicious values, but there is not any explanation or change registered in the available metadata and logbooks. Finally, we present examples of the datasets in discriminating geomagnetic jerks and study of storms. The digitized and quality-controlled AHMVs data are available at: 10.5281/zenodo.7005471 (Zhang et al., 2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing data from Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets for the period of 2019–2020, this paper examines the relationship between the degree of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on firms’ cash-holdings levels in China. We find that firms that are severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have higher current cash holdings levels, suggesting that the more positive (negative) the management tone in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic impact, the lower (higher) the firm’s current cash holdings. However, future corporate cash holdings decrease considerably irrespective of the corporate sentiment towards COVID-19. The positive sentiment of each firm’s management team towards the supply chain and the government policies results in a relative reduction of current cash holdings, whereas the severe impact on operating performance, especially the impact of the outbreak on the supply chain, demand, production and operations, and government policies, reduces the firm’ s future cash holdings. In addition, the impact of the pandemic has increased the current cash holdings of state-owned enterprises and reduced the future cash holdings of non-state-owned enterprises. Meanwhile, companies located in a city with a higher density of population or companies that experience relatively higher competition in the industry tend to undergo a severer impact on their current and future cash holdings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, this study sheds the light on stimulating the vitality of enterprise investment and promoting the domestic economic cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the factors influencing the passenger flow of rail transit stations in Shanghai of China are studied by using the entropy weight-grey correlation model. The model assumptions and the corresponding variables are proposed, including traffic accessibility, built environment, regional characteristics of the district to which the rail transit station belongs, conditions of the station and spatial location, which affect the passenger flow of rail transit stations. Based on the assumptions and the variables, the entropy weight-grey correlation model for analyzing the passenger flow of urban rail transit stations is presented. By collecting the data of passenger flow of rail transit stations and corresponding influencing factors in Shanghai, the results of the entropy weight-grey correlation model are obtained. It is shown that the influencing factors, such as the distances from the rail transit station to the adjacent third-class hospital and the adjacent large commercial plazas, district committees, parking areas and the transaction price of important plots, and the gross output value of the tertiary industry, have significant impacts on the passenger flow of a subway station. Finally, some suggestions are proposed for the local governments to formulate improved policies for rail transit development. The conclusions can provide a reference for the development of rail transit in other large cities and countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although clear cell sarcoma of kidney (CCSK) is rare, it is the second most common renal tumor in children after Wilms' tumor. NWTS and SIOP are two major groups which had made tremendous efforts on renal tumors, but the strategies are different, for NWTS follows the upfront surgery principle providing definite pathology and the SIOP follows the upfront chemotherapy principle, each has its own advantages. Here we aimed to evaluate the outcomes of CCSK in China following NWTS strategies to analyze the prognostic factors. Methods: For this multicenter retrospective study, a total of 54 patients were enrolled from three children's hospitals, between April 2003 and December 2021. Treatment comprised upfront radical nephrectomy, followed by radiotherapy and intensive chemotherapy. Clinical records were regularly updated. Prognostic factors and survival rates were evaluated. Results: The 54 enrolled patients had a median age of 37 months (range, 4 months to 11.4 years). The stage distribution was 16% stage I (n = 9), 30% stage II (n = 16), 39% stage III (n = 21), and 15% stage IV (n = 8). Among stage IV, metastasis sites included the lung (n = 6), bone (n = 1), and intra-orbital/cervical lymph node (n = 1). After a median follow-up of 5.6 years, the 5-year event-free survival (EFS) was 82.4±5.4%, and overall survival was 88.1±4.6%. The EFS was 100% for stage I, 93.8 ±6.1% for stage II, 71.1±10.0% for stage III, and 68.6±18.6% for stage IV. Univariate analysis revealed that staging (III/IV), tumor rupture, and inferior vena cava tumor thrombus were inferior prognostic factors. Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor rupture was independent poor prognostic factor (P = 0.01, HR 5.9). Among relapsed patients, relapse occurred a median of 11 months after diagnosis (range, 4–41 months), and 50% (4/8) achieved a second complete remission after multiple treatment. None of the six lung metastasis patients received lung RT, only one patient developed a relapse and was salvaged by RT after relapse. Conclusions: Tumor rupture was independent poor prognostic factor. Upfront surgery of NWTS strategies can make a definite pathology diagnosis, but how to reduce tumor rupture during surgery is important especially in developing countries. The outcomes of patients with stage I–III CCSK in China were comparable to findings in other developed countries. Better outcomes were achieved in stage IV CCSK by using an intensive chemotherapy regimen including carboplatin, which require further confirmation by AREN0321. Lung RT may be safely omitted in selected patients who achieve a compete radiographic response after 6 weeks of systemic treatment (including surgery). Treatment should be encouraged even in CCSK cases with metastasis and relapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The majority of insurance investment funds are derived from policy liability debt funds. It differs from other institutional investors in a number of ways, including investment size, horizon, duration, risk, and so on. However, only a small portion of the extant literature focuses on in-depth and extensive analysis of Insurance Institutional Investors' holdings (IIIs). This study analyses the impact of shareholding by insurance institutions on the value of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies in China's capital market. The paper offers three major contributions. First, we discovered that long-term equity-holding IIIs have both value selection and value creation functions. Second, the value creation function becomes more significant among long-term stock-holding IIIs with an increase in the period during which they retain the company's shares; Third, fast-in and fast-out (FIFO) IIIs have a value-inhibiting effect on the held company and serve a value selection role, rather than a value creation function. This study provides more insight on the lack of academic interest in insurance institutions and serves as a foundation and reference for the design of regulatory policies for insurance institutions' involvement in stock markets. It also gives empirical evidence for corporations to accurately analyze shareholding by insurance institutions. Furthermore, since this study concentrates on China's capital market, it can serve as a benchmark for other nations, particularly, those designated as developing market economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid global urbanization has caused habitat degradation and fragmentation, resulting in biodiversity loss and the homogenization of urban species. Birds play a crucial role as biodiversity indicators in urban environments, providing multiple ecosystem services and demonstrating sensitivity to changes in habitat. However, construction activities often disrupt urban bird habitats, leading to a decline in habitat quality. This paper proposes a framework for prioritizing habitat restoration by pinpointing bird hotspots that demand attention and considering the matching relationship between bird richness and habitat quality. Shanghai represents a typical example of the high-density megacities in China, posing a significant challenge for biodiversity conservation efforts. Utilizing the random forest (RF) model, bird richness patterns in central Shanghai were mapped, and bird hotspots were identified by calculating local spatial autocorrelation indices. From this, the habitat quality of hotspot areas was evaluated, and the restoration priority of bird habitats was determined by matching bird richness with habitat quality through z-score standardization. The results were as follows: (1) Outer-ring green spaces, large urban parks, and green areas along coasts or rivers were found to be the most important habitats for bird richness. Notably, forests emerged as a crucial habitat, with approximately 50.68% of the forested areas identified as hotspots. (2) Four habitat restoration types were identified. The high-bird-richness–low-habitat-quality area (HBR-LHQ), mainly consisting of grassland and urban construction land, was identified as a key priority for restoration due to its vulnerability to human activities. (3) The Landscape Shannon's Diversity Index (SHDI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) are considered the most significant factors influencing the bird distribution. Our findings provide a scientifically effective framework for identifying habitat restoration priorities in high-density urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between business strategy and sustainability of Chinese SMEs and how the environmental uncertainty may affect this relationship. It analyses the impact of active and passive business strategies on firms' sustainability and tests the potential moderating role of economic policy uncertainty in this relationship. The empirical analysis is performed by employing fixed-effect and GMM estimations on data collected from 937 Chinese A-share non-financial companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2021. The results show that the high-risk active business strategy of innovation and new market development is associated with greater business sustainability, and this relationship is stronger for SMEs than for non-SMEs in China. Moreover, higher economic policy uncertainty strengthens the positive relationship between active business strategy and firm sustainability, implying that in periods of higher environmental uncertainty firms which pursue active business strategy achieve greater business sustainability. These findings are useful for devising business strategy and can assist in formulating policy initiatives seeking to ensure sustainable development of SMEs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sepsis is a life-threatening medical condition that is characterized by the dysregulated immune system response to infections, having both high morbidity and mortality rates. Early prediction of sepsis is critical to the decrease of mortality. This paper presents a novel early warning model called Double Fusion Sepsis Predictor (DFSP) for sepsis onset. DFSP is a double fusion framework that combines the benefits of early and late fusion strategies. First, a hybrid deep learning model that combines both the convolutional and recurrent neural networks to extract deep features is proposed. Second, deep features and handcrafted features, such as clinical scores, are concatenated to build the joint feature representation (early fusion). Third, several tree-based models based on joint feature representation are developed to generate the risk scores of sepsis onset that are combined with an End-to-End neural network for final sepsis detection (late fusion). To evaluate DFSP, a retrospective study was conducted, which included patients admitted to the ICUs of a hospital in Shanghai China. The results demonstrate that the DFSP outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in early sepsis prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustained and stable external financing, affected by the financial environment, is a necessary condition to support the green technological innovation of enterprises. This paper focuses on the impact of bettering the financial environment of digital finance on enterprise green technological innovation, as well as the mediating role of financing costs and financial flexibility in this process. Using China's data on manufacturing enterprises listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2011 to 2018, the hypotheses are tested. The result suggests the following: (a) digital finance effectively promotes enterprises to carry out green technological innovation, specifically, the coverage and depth of digital finance can promote enterprises' green technological innovation, but the degree of digitization has no significant impact; (b) digital finance improves the financial environment by making up the shortage of traditional financial system through reducing financing problems such as "financing difficulty," "matching difficulty," and "supervision difficulty," which make effective contributions to enterprise green technological innovation; (c) financing costs negatively mediate the relationship between digital finance and enterprise green technological innovation, while financial flexibility positively mediates the relationship. Overall, our findings shed light on the role digital finance plays in shaping corporate environmental behavior—and ultimately innovation in sustainability—in financing constraint setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the green efficiency performance of the logistics industry in China's 30 provinces from 2008 to 2017. We first evaluate the green efficiency of the logistics industry through the non-directional distance function method. Then, we use the functional clustering method funHDDC, which is one of the popular machine learning methods, to divide 30 provinces into 4 clusters and analyze the similarities and differences in green efficiency performance patterns among different groups. Further, we explore the driving factors of dynamic changes in green efficiency through the decomposition method. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: (1) in general, the level of green efficiency is closely related to the geographical location. From the clustering results, we can find that most of the eastern regions belong to the cluster with higher green efficiency, while most of the western regions belong to the cluster with lower green efficiency. However, the green efficiency performance in several regions with high economic levels, such as Beijing and Shanghai, is not satisfactory. (2) Based on the analysis of decomposition results, the innovation effect of China's logistics industry is the most obvious, but the efficiency change still needs to be improved, and technical leadership should be strengthened. Based on these conclusions, we further propose some policy recommendations for the green development of the logistics industry in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on social capital theory, this paper aims to investigate the impact of member enterprises of alien merchant chambers on enterprise innovation, within A‐share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges of China from 2010 to 2020. Additionally, the study seeks to explore the role played by social capital resulting from participation in these alien merchant chambers. Furthermore, we delve into the moderating effects of the number of alien merchant chambers and the degree of marketization in the enterprise's location. Moreover, we analyze the influence of heterogeneity in firm ownership and firm type. Our findings reveal that member enterprises of alien merchant chambers can increase their social capital and consequently promoting innovation; both the quantity of alien merchant chambers and the level of marketization in an enterprise's location positively influence this enhancement. Furthermore, the impact of state‐owned enterprises and non‐high‐tech enterprises on enterprise innovation, following their engagement with alien merchant chambers, surpasses that of non‐state‐owned enterprises and high‐tech enterprises. This research bridges the gap in understanding the corporate governance implications of alien merchant chambers, provides empirical evidence concerning Chinese alien merchant chambers, and addresses inquiries regarding the influence of merchant chambers' social capital. Additionally, it proposes a novel approach for listed companies to overcome resource constraints and to collaboratively pursue development, especially in light of the challenges posed by the COVID‐19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the 2015 China Household Financial Survey (CHFS) this paper examines the effect of culture on the gender gap in financial literacy. We exploit geographical differences in culture in China, comparing outcomes between rural and urban areas and between areas in the east and west (Shanghai and Chongqing). Using the Blinder‐Oaxaca decomposition we show that, nationally, the gender gap in financial literacy is entirely the product of differences in the way men and women acquire financial literacy. It is a result consistent with cultural effects. When considering just women in Shanghai and Chongqing we observe a raw financial literacy differential of 13% (favoring Shanghai). This gap is also the product of differences in the way financial literacy is acquired. It provides additional evidence as to the importance of culture when it comes to understanding financial literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's flower industry is developing rapidly, and the size of the retail market is increasing year by year. Studying the factors influencing residents' flower purchasing behavior and understanding their flower needs can help promote the sustainable development of the flower industry. Based on customer satisfaction theory, this paper uses 838 consumer research questionnaires from 15 districts in Shanghai to analyze the influence of customer satisfaction on residents' flower purchasing behavior by conducting a binary logit model and to investigate the moderating effect of flower purchasing purpose on the influence of satisfaction. The results show that price satisfaction and satisfaction with promotional methods have a significant negative effect on flower purchasing behavior, service satisfaction has a significant positive effect on purchasing behavior, and different customer purchase purposes lead to different intensities of the effect of satisfaction on purchasing behavior. According to the conclusion of the study, three countermeasures are proposed: to popularize the knowledge of flower culture, guide the concept of flower consumption, and promote the transformation of flower consumption to daily consumption; to conduct regular research on consumers by flower merchants to clarify consumers' needs and improve their satisfaction; to clarify consumers' purchase intention, increase the investment in the research and development and cultivation of flower products, and improve the supply level of flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrative medicine is a multidisciplinary field of inquiry and practice based on the premise that medical care takes place in the context of stories. Research on narrative medicine training suggests that it conveys benefits such as improved communication skills and personal and professional growth to physicians, medical students, and other health care providers. Narrative medicine can promote empathy and trust between patients and physicians and foster self-care. In 2014, the author and a colleague started an ongoing inter-disciplinary narrative medicine program in the Children's Center of the Johns Hopkins Hospital called AfterWards. The program, which meets monthly, is open to all on a volunteer basis. Through literature, art, and writing, AfterWards nurtures empathy, encourages reflective practice, and builds community among a diverse group of health care providers. Through a series of lectures and workshops at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, and Fudan Hospital in Shanghai, the author has introduced AfterWards to Chinese medical educators and clinicians. Working with Dr. Marta Hanson, she created an AfterWards Facilitator's Guide for the use of Chinese practitioners. A recent White Paper on Chinese health care indicates that an infusion of humanities-based education, of which narrative medicine forms a part, can help rebuild patient-physician trust. Recently, there has been an increase in interest in narrative medicine in the United States and China. However, more research is needed to demonstrate the impact of programs like AfterWards. Challenges to the implementation of narrative medicine programs remain, most significantly in terms of expertise, resources, and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the Shanghai–Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHSC) scheme on voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in China. Using a difference‐in‐differences (DiD) design, we find that companies that participate in the SHSC scheme are more inclined to voluntarily issue CSR reports. This effect is more pronounced for companies that have limited access to international markets and those with weak corporate governance. Additional analyses show that SHSC‐connected firms also produce higher quality CSR reports and achieve a better CSR performance. Our findings imply that capital market liberalisation promotes voluntary corporate disclosure for investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the rise and fall of the Administrative Bureau of Prohibited Drugs in 1920s Shanghai. It identifies the factors associated with the endeavours of the central government to experiment with establishing a Bureau dedicated to regulating refined drugs and the reasons why the Bureau operated for just about two years. It argues that the concerns regarding the widespread of refined drugs and the expected profits of regulating the business pushed the central government to experiment establishing the Bureau. Moreover, this experiment was a tool with which the Beiyang government aimed to centralise its authorities on the issue of drug control. However, the room for manoeuvring the Bureau was limited, mainly because of the resilience of the drug economy and the politicised regulations. Struggling in the narrow space between the colonial powers, the merchant groups, and the local authorities acting under the influence of warlords, the Bureau was doomed to be short-lived. Its history reveals the resilience of both licit and illicit drug economy and the power struggles that resulted from efforts to regulate refined drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-rise building areas (HRBs) provide significant social and environmental services and play a crucial role in modern urbanization. The large-scale and long-term spatial distribution of HRBs is of great interest to many fields, such as urban planning and local climate analysis. While previous studies have confirmed the value of Sentinel-2 images in extracting HRBs and their changes, current work is limited to relatively local areas and short-term analysis. One reason is due to the fact that the earliest Sentinel-2 image can only date back to 2015. To address this research gap, this paper proposes an efficient procedure to intelligently extract HRBs and their changes from multitemporal Landsat-7 and Sentinel-2 images, using a specifically designed fully convolutional network. To validate the proposed method, we selected four typical cities in China, namely, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Zhengzhou, as study areas. We utilized Landsat-7 images acquired in 2000 and 2010, along with Sentinel-2 images acquired in 2020, as experimental data. We extracted and analyzed three periods of HRBs and their changes in the four cities, along with urban rail terminal data and gross domestic product (GDP) data in the same period. The results show that the proposed method can efficiently extract HRBs and their changes in the four cities over the past 20 years, with an overall accuracy of more than 90%. HRBs changes are primarily driven by urban planning policies and geographical factors. There is a strong positive correlation between the increase in HRBs and the increase in rail terminals, both in terms of quantity and spatial distribution. Additionally, there is a positive correlation between HRBs increase and GDP increase in terms of quantity, but the trend varies in different cities due to their diverse developing modes. Overall, the results indicate that the proposed method can be a potential operational tool to extract large-scale and long-term HRBs and their changes in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vernacular architecture has always captured professionals' attention for its unique approaches to construction, its typical way of integrating man and nature and the way it is used. Being a combination of traditional courtyard houses in China with townhouses in the West, Lilong houses or Shikumen houses are representatives of Shanghai vernacular housing. In terms of applying UAV oblique photogrammetry to preserving and documenting historic architectures, some studies have been done in China, but scant literatures are found on Lilong houses. This research is an attempt to preserve and document Lilong houses by adopting UAV in 3D modelling, to explore a rational approach for the application of UAV oblique photogrammetry to narrow lanes and to establish a collection of models to document the ongoing changes as well as nuances of each building more carefully. In this research, Meilan Lane is chosen as an example. Aided by AutoCAD drawings, flight routes and angles are designed. parameters for each flight are pre-set in GoodStation to send quantified instructions to the drone. A total of 4,531 photos are gathered and 4 models are built by ContextCapture Master. Two models with flight height at 40m and 115m are generated for macro-level study and two models with flight height from 20m to 32m are for micro-level study. Through this research, this paper elaborates the pros and cons of using UAV techniques in documenting Lilong residences and tries to find an applicable approach to building other Lilong complex models for more comprehensive studies in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressure upon local governments to redeem their debt could affect government fiscal ability. It could consequently affect their fiscal policies on corporations, which might distort corporate innovation. Based on the data of Chinese Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies and the local government implicit short-term debt financed by local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) in 31 provinces, this paper shows that local government debt (LGD) negatively affects corporate R&D investment in China, thereby suggesting a strong crowding-out effect. The crowding-out effect is more pronounced when the firm is a non-state-owned enterprise (NSOE), the firm's size is small, the firm's age is young, or the firm is in the lower market competition. This paper provide evidence by interacting the terms that local government actions, such as consumption of fiscal resources, strengthening tax collection efforts, or consumption of credit resources, might partially account for the crowding-out effect. This study illustrates the innovation costs of local government debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated the relationship between cultural distance, classroom silence, and the performance of culturally responsive and inclusive education (CRIE) using a survey of 1051 college students in Shanghai in 2022. We found a significantly positive association between migrant students' cultural distance and their perceived learning gains in class. Students' cultural distance increased their classroom silence as a form of protection but had no significant effect on their classroom silence as a sign of power. The classroom silence as protection decreased students' perceived learning gains. However, classroom silence as power could be used by both local and migrant students as a hold-up strategy to strengthen their influence in class discussions, which could improve their perceived learning gains. Teachers' CRIE played the most important role in migrant students' perceived learning gains, while the effectiveness of CRIE was also actually dependent on the different channels and mechanisms of cultural distance and classroom silence. A cautious identification of classroom silence will improve the effectiveness of CRIE. Suggestions are offered to lighten the practice of educators, administrators, and instructors who face classroom silence from subnational migrant students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microscopic traffic flow models enable predictions of traffic operations, which allows traffic engineers to assess the efficiency and safety effects of roadway designs. Modeling vehicle trajectories inside intersections is challenging because there is an infinite number of possible paths in a two-dimensional space, and drivers can simultaneously adapt their speeds as well. To date, human driver models for simultaneous longitudinal and lateral vehicle control based on the infrastructure characteristics and interactions with other drivers inside an intersection are still lacking. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it proposes an integrated microscopic traffic flow model to describe human-driven vehicle maneuvers under interactions. Drivers plan their heading and acceleration in the predicted future to minimize costs representing undesirable situations. The model works with a joint optimization for an interaction cost term. The weights associated with the interaction cost reflect how selfish or altruistic drivers are. Second, the proposed model endogenously gives the order of vehicles in case of crossing paths. Third, the paper develops a clustered validation method for microscopic traffic flow models with interacting vehicles, which account for interdriver variations. Results show that the model can accurately describe vehicle passing orders of interacting maneuvers, paths, and speeds against empirical data. The model can be applied to assess various intersection designs. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 71971140 and 52122215] and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai [Grant 20ZR1439300]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improvement of the walkability of the 15-min community life circle can enhance convenience for residents to obtain daily service facilities. In this paper, by obtaining the Point of Interest (POI) data of daily facilities used by Shanghai residents, we calculate the walk scores of community residents within 15-min walking distance using the walkability assessment tool and analyze the results with population density for spatial correlation. The results show that communities with high walk scores are concentrated in central areas, with low walk scores are scattered in the suburbs of the city. Walking scores are high for access from communities to bus stops and commercial services but low for access to parks and primary schools. The formation of a compact and accessible spatial layout can significantly improve the walkability of the community. Walkability is not only related to the construction of facilities in terms of quantity and space but is also influenced by the degree of spatial clustering in the community. It needs to be reasonably configured in conjunction with the spatial distribution of the community in order to effectively improve the utilization of facilities. Finally, community walkability is significantly and positively correlated with population density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction land reduction (CLR) was implemented in China to improve the efficiency of construction land use. CLR also limited the development of net reduction areas of CLR. By analyzing the Task-Quota-Financial-Benefit flow of CLR, this paper proposes three typical compensation schemes and uses the multivariate probit model to study residents' selection behavior for these schemes. It is found that (1) in order to compensate for the losses caused by CLR to the reduced direct subjects, there can be three types of possible schemes: direct economic compensation (Scheme I), in situ (Scheme II) and off-site (Scheme III) enhancement of development capacity. (2) The more reasonable the compensation standard, the greater the employment pressure in the township and the greater the township's location disadvantage, which is why more residents prefer Scheme III. (3) The higher their family income and their family support pressure, the more they prefer Scheme III. (4) At this stage, there is no significant difference in the choice of compensation schemes between cadres and non-cadres. (5) The net planning reduction area prefers Scheme I, while other areas prefer Scheme II. The conclusions may provide insight into the demand for more reasonable compensation policies to ensure the sustainability of CLR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Question: Do distinct subpopulations of decidual stromal cells (DSCs) exist and if so, are given subpopulations enriched in recurrent miscarriage (RM)?Summary Answer: Three subpopulations of DSCs were identified from which inflammatory DSCs (iDSCs) and glycolytic DSCs (glyDSCs) are significantly enriched in RM, with implicated roles in driving decidual inflammation and immune dysregulation.What Is Known Already: DSCs play crucial roles in establishing and maintaining a successful pregnancy; dysfunction of DSCs has been considered as one of the key reasons for the development of RM.Study Design, Size, Duration: We collected 15 early decidual samples from five healthy donors (HDs) and ten RM patients to perform single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). A total of 43 RM patients and 37 HDs were enrolled in the validation cohort.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: Non-immune cells and immune cells of decidual tissues were sorted by flow cytometry to perform scRNA-seq. We used tissue microarrays (TMA) to validate three distinct subpopulations of DSCs. The expression of inflammatory and glycolytic proteins by DSCs was validated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and multiplex immunohistochemistry (mIHC). Different subsets of decidual NK (dNK) cells and macrophages were also validated by multicolor flow cytometry and mIHC. Cell ligand-receptor and spatial analyses between DSCs and immune cells were analyzed by mIHC.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: We classify the DSCs into three subtypes based on scRNA-seq data: myofibroblastic (myDSCs), inflammatory (iDSCs) and glycolytic (glyDSCs), with the latter two being significantly enriched in RM patients. The distribution patterns of DSC subtypes in the RM and HD groups were validated by mIHC. Single-cell analyses indicate that the differentiation of iDSCs and glyDSCs may be coupled with the degrees of hypoxia. Consequently, we propose a pathological model in which a vicious circle is formed and fueled by hypoxic stress, uncontrolled inflammation and aberrant glycolysis. Furthermore, our results show that the inflammatory SPP1+ macrophages and CD18+ dNK cells are preferentially increased in the decidua of RM patients. Cell ligand-receptor and mIHC spatial analyses uncovered close interactions between pathogenic DSCs and inflammatory SPP1+ macrophages and CD18+ NK cells in RM patients.Large Scale Data: The raw single-cell sequence data reported in this paper were deposited at the National Omics Data Encyclopedia (www.biosino.org), under the accession number OEP002901.Limitations, Reasons For Caution: The number of decidual samples for scRNA-seq was limited and in-depth functional studies on DSCs are warranted in future studies.Wider Implications Of the Findings: Identification of three DSC subpopulations opens new avenues for further investigation of their roles in RM patients.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): This study was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program (No. XDB29030302), Frontier Science Key Research Project (QYZDB-SSW-SMC036), Chinese Academy of Sciences; National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFE0200600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31770960), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2019SHZDZX02, HS2021SHZX001), and Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology (17411967800). All authors report no conflict of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we perform a sensitivity analysis for the maximal value function, which is the optimal value function for a parametric maximization problem. Our aim is to study various subdifferentials for the maximal value function. We obtain upper estimates of Fréchet, limiting, and horizon subdifferentials of the maximal value function by using some sensitivity analysis techniques sophisticatedly. The derived upper estimates depend only on the union of all solutions and not on its convex hull or only one solution from the solution set. Finally, we apply the derived results to develop some new necessary optimality conditions for nonconvex minimax problems. In the nonconvex-concave setting, our Wolfe duality approach compares favorably with the first-order approach in that the necessary condition is sharper and the constraint qualification is weaker. Funding: L. Guo was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72131007, 72140006, and 12271161] and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai [Grant 22ZR1415900]. J. J. Ye was partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. J. Zhang was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 12222106], the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program [Grant RCYX20200714114700072], and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation [Grant 2022B1515020082]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]