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Kaihua paper is a type of precious hand-made paper in China that has been used throughout Chinese history. Due to its extraordinary whiteness and fine texture, it was adopted by the imperial palace in the reign of Emperor Kang Xi and Yong Zheng of the Qing Dynasty of China in the 17th and 18th century. It is stained by a special type of yellowish-brown spot after years of storage, which is called a "peachy spot." The formation of such spots remains unclear, although complicated physicochemical processes or microbial activities might be involved. We performed nondestructive sampling and high-throughput sequencing on peachy spot surfaces, unstained areas, and air samples in the stack room to analysis the the bacterial and fungal communities, and performed prediction of functional genes of the bacterial communities. The results showed that peachy spot formation was mainly related to bacterial communities rather than fungal communities. Significantly more potential acid-producing, acidophilic or cellulase-producing bacteria, such as, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, and Lysinibacillus, and pigment-producing bacteria, such as Methylobacterium and Rubrobacter, were identified in the peachy spot samples. Prediction of the functional genes of the bacterial community also suggested the production of acidic substance pigments. These findings provide new insights into the pigment formation mechanism in ancient paper and open an opportunity to develop new strategies to preserve the ancient paper documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late Qing Dynasty, religious periodicals by Western missionaries were made legal in China, and subsequently became an important manner of their missionary cause. Among them, Child's Paper 小孩月报 (1875–1881) by John Marshall Willoughby Farnham, a Protestant missionary from the United States, endeavoured to convert child readers by carrying children's stories of moral and emotional education. By concentrating on the educational elements of Child's Paper, this article inspects how conversion was achieved via the intertextual interpretation of Christian doctrines within these educational elements. Specifically, how the image of little Christians and urchins, respectively, represents salvation and redemption in Christian morals. This article holds that the missionaries' stress on the authority of Christian discourse in the education of Chinese children makes evident an increasing emphasis on the reformative effects of Christianity on Chinese children. Moreover, the conversion-education efforts by missionaries also construed helping Chinese children gain a cross-cultural perspective on Western religion, and arguably inspired later Chinese intellectuals' to create newspapers for the purpose of the pre-primary education of Chinese children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The advent of Personalized Medicine (PM) holds significant promise in revolutionizing healthcare by tailoring treatments to individual patients based on their data. However, its successful implementation requires the seamless integration of innovative technologies and presents formidable challenges in terms of sustainability. To tackle these challenges head-on, the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine (ICPerMed) was established, and the IC2PerMed project, as part of this consortium, seeks to foster collaboration between the European Union (EU) and China in the field of Personalized Medicine. Based on the results collected by the project, the objective of this study is to discern the key priorities for the implementation of Personalised Medicine concerning Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Big Data and digital solutions, with a particular emphasis on data management and protection. Methods: A Delphi survey was conducted to gather expert's consensus on the main priorities for actions on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Big Data and digital solutions in the field of Personalized Medicine. Results: The survey identified seven priorities in the area of Big Data and digital solutions, including data interoperability, standards, security measures, and international partnerships. Additionally, twelve priorities were identified for the innovation-to-market process, emphasizing cost-effectiveness, need assessment, and value definition in resource allocation. Conclusions: The effective implementation of new technologies in Personalized Medicine research and practice is essential for the advancement of healthcare systems in both the European and Chinese contexts. The identified priorities play a pivotal role in promoting the sustainability of health systems and driving innovation in the implementation of Personalized Medicine. Addressing challenges related to data interoperability, standards, security, international collaboration, cost-effectiveness, and value assessment is of utmost importance in order to propel the progress of Personalized Medicine in healthcare systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Over the last decade, the emergence and spread of personalized medicine (PM) have defined a substantial revolution in healthcare. In principle, healthcare system sustainability is challenged by the investments required for research and development, as well as the adoption of PM techniques in routine clinical care. The "Integrating China in the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine" (IC2PerMed) EU-funded project aims to integrate China into the "International Consortium for Personalized Medicine" (ICPerMed). IC2PerMed aims to align the EU and China's research agendas in this field to enable a swift development of approaches in the EU and China with strong leverage upon EU-Chinese collaborations. Methods: Within this project, we first mapped relevant policies on PM in both the EU and China, and then we involved European and Chinese experts in PM in workshops and Delphi surveys in order to identify relevant priorities for the implementation of PM in sustainable healthcare. Results: As a result of this process, we identified nine overarching priorities, each addressing specific aspects of the sustainability of healthcare systems and PM implementation, with the main goal of supporting policymakers in integrating PM approaches in the EU and China. Discussion/conclusion: The implementation of PM in health systems is appealing in terms of improved accuracy in diagnostics, treatment, and prevention of disease, as well as reduction of the side effects resulting from inefficient use of drugs. Research, development, and implementation of needed techniques require time and resources that can slow the adoption of PM in healthcare systems. The nine priorities we identified address some of the most critical points, trying to lay the foundations for a comprehensive approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • 28 out of 57 target PFAS were detected in paper products from China. • 9 groups of PFAS with 1–3 confidence levels were identified by non-target analysis. • Ethanol in food simulants can increase the migration of PFAS. • Long-chain PFAS in popcorn bags can be degraded by microwave heating. • PFAS in some paper products exceeded the recommended daily intake values. The contamination characteristics, migration patterns and health risks of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were investigated in 66 Chinese paper products by using target and non-target screening methods. Among 57 target PFASs, 5 and 6 PFASs were found in the hygiene paper products (

Accompanying China's accession to the World Trade Organization, the rapid development of the Chinese economy has led to increasingly serious environmental issues. However, the inherent mechanisms underlying the impact of Environmental Information Disclosure (EID) policy and trade on the environmental effects of Chinese paper enterprises remain unclear in the context of the era's requirement for a resource-conserving and environmentally-friendly society. The pollution problem in the papermaking industry has received attention worldwide, and how to balance the environmental and development issues of papermaking enterprises is an urgent issue that needs to be solved in the academic community. This study explores the impact mechanisms of EID policy and trade on the environmental effects of enterprises from the perspective of financial constraints. Utilizing the PSM-DID model, the study investigates the moderating effects of financial constraints on the EID policy and import-export trade. The findings reveal that both external and internal financial constraints have negative, detrimental effects on the environmental effects of the EID policy and trade. These constraints impede research and development investment and technological upgrades, hinder productivity improvement, and hamper the realization of "regulatory and trade innovation effects". This study enriches our understanding of the mechanisms by which trade affects the environmental effects of Chinese paper enterprises and further identifies the impacts of Chinese EID policy and trade on pollution emissions by enterprises, providing a theoretical basis and practical foundation for the government in formulating financial, environmental, and trade policies. • Analyzing the environmental effects of Chinese paper enterprises from the perspective of financing constraints. • This study validated the research hypothesis using three micro databases. • This study decomposes the impact mechanism into three aspects: scale effects, technical effects, and structural effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exponential growth of China's economy, coupled with the surge in online commerce, has led to a significant expansion of the logistics industry. In 2022, China's express delivery industry generated approximately 9 million tons of waste paper and 1.8 million tons of plastic. This study analyzed the current composition and utilization of logistics waste in China, with suggestions for recycling. Logistics waste can be defined as the packaging waste generated in the logistics industry. Corrugated paper and plastic waste were chosen as the objects for utilization. Due to its high cellulose content, corrugated paper can be utilized along with other paper waste for biomass resourcing. Biodegradable plastics can also be converted into biomass resources through the action of specific microorganisms. These polymers can be enzymatically depolymerized by certain bacteria and fungi, yielding valuable organic products. In general, logistics wastes all have potential for biomass resource recovery. By adopting appropriate recovery and conversion technologies, these waste streams can be transformed into high-value bio-based products, such as biofuels, biochemicals, and biopolymers, thus contributing to the development of a circular and sustainable economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Female empowerment can promote gender equality and realize women's comprehensive development, while the Internet has opened up an effective channel for female empowerment. Methods: Given the relative lack of women's rights in rural China and the rapid Internet development, this paper, based on the 2021 China Comprehensive Social Survey data, first analyses the effect of Internet embeddedness on rural women's non-farm employment using the Probit model. Then, it uses the mediation effect model to explore the role of women's rights perception in the mechanism between Internet embeddedness and women's non-farm employment. Finally, based on age and regional differences, we also analyze the impact of Internet embeddedness on female non-farm employment. Results: The paper draws the following conclusions: (1) Internet embedding can promote female non-farm employment, and the probability of female non-farm employment is 3.71% for each degree of Internet embedding. (2) Internet embedding can enhance women's perception of their rights and thus promote women's non-farm employment. (3) Internet embedding can enhance the perception of rights of young rural women, which can promote their nonfarm employment. However, the influence of internet embedding on middle-aged women's perception of rights is not significant. (4) Internet embedding in the eastern region can enhance women's perception of rights and realize women's non-farm employment; on the contrary, in the central and western regions, Internet embedding cannot enhance rural women's perception of rights. Discussion: Therefore, this paper proposes to release further the impact of the Internet in promoting rural women's non-farm employment to improve the deprivation of rural women's rights and promote gender equality and women's comprehensive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest in cereal-legume intercropping for sustainable agriculture. As a result numerous papers, including reviews, focus on this topic. Screening this large amount of papers, to identify knowledge gaps and future research opportunities, manually, would be a complex and time consuming task. Materials and methods: Bibliometric analysis combined with text mining and topic modelling, to automatically find topics and to derive a representation of intercropping papers as a potential solution to reduce the workload was tested. Both common (e.g. wheat and soybean) as well as underutilized crops (e.g. buckwheat, lupin, triticale) were the focus of this study. The corpus used for the analysis was retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus on 5th September 2022 and consisted of 4,732 papers. Results: The number of papers on cereal-legume intercropping increased in recent years, with most studies being located in China. Literature mainly dealt with the cereals maize and wheat and the legume soybean whereas buckwheat andlupinreceivedlittleattention from academic researchers. These underutilized crops are certainly interesting to be used as intercropping partners, however, additional research on optimization of management and cultivar's choice is important. Yield and nitrogen fixation are the most commonly studied traits in cereal-legume intercropping. Last decade, there is an increasing interest in climate resilience, sustainability and biodiversity. Also the term "ecosystem services" came into play, but still with a low frequency. The regulating services and provisioning services seem to be the most studied, in contrast terms related to potential cultural services were not encountered. Discussion: In conclusion, based on this review several research opportunities were identified. Minor crops like lupin and buckwheat need to be evaluated for their role as intercropping partners. The interaction between species based on e.g. root exudates needs to be further unraveled. Also diseases, pests and weeds in relation to intercropping deserve more attention and finally more in-depth research on the additional benefits/ecosystem services associated with intercropping systems is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With potential of deep learning in musculoskeletal image interpretation being explored, this paper focuses on the common site of rotator cuff tears, the supraspinatus. It aims to propose and validate a deep learning model to automatically extract the supraspinatus, verifying its superiority through comparison with several classical image segmentation models. Method: Imaging data were retrospectively collected from 60 patients who underwent inpatient treatment for rotator cuff tears at a hospital between March 2021 and May 2023. A dataset of the supraspinatus from MRI was constructed after collecting, filtering, and manually annotating at the pixel level. This paper proposes a novel A-DAsppUnet network that can automatically extract the supraspinatus after training and optimization. The analysis of model performance is based on three evaluation metrics: precision, intersection over union, and Dice coefficient. Results: The experimental results demonstrate that the precision, intersection over union, and Dice coefficients of the proposed model are 99.20%, 83.38%, and 90.94%, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed model exhibited significant advantages over the compared models. Conclusion: The designed model in this paper accurately extracts the supraspinatus from MRI, and the extraction results are complete and continuous with clear boundaries. The feasibility of using deep learning methods for musculoskeletal extraction and assisting in clinical decision-making was verified. This research holds practical significance and application value in the field of utilizing artificial intelligence for assisting medical decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of fast restoration reflects power system resilience and safety. This paper proposes a partitioning decision-making method for parallel restoration based on the label propagation algorithm and the cooperative game theory. The topological and physical characteristics of blackout systems are considered as the edge weight and the node importance simultaneously for formulating the partitioning model. By the label propagation algorithm, various labels representing different subsystems mark all buses. To accelerate the speed of convergence and prevent the label oscillation, this paper proposes a game strategy of cooperation between buses and subsystems by evaluating the Shapley value of buses. The partitioning constraints are integrated into each label propagation process to assess the feasibility of the partitioning strategy. Finally, case studies on the IEEE 39- and 118-bus test systems and an actual urban power system in South China verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a paradigm shift in work culture in the contemporary art sector due to digital transition and the introduction of AI. New ways of working with AI and digital software are embedded and normalized in everyday Chinese artistic practices. This work includes new forms of creativity and efficiency, yet, simultaneously includes new types of digital labour. This paper conceptualizes this as "digital art work," which draws attention to the often-overlooked aspects of artists' work, particularly their everyday artistic practices that increasingly include digital software and AI. What is the role and position of the artist in an environment where digital software and AI are becoming more central in artistic creation? How do artists creatively (mis)use AI? What does this paradigm shift in work culture mean for the future of the artist's role and the future of the contemporary art sector? This paper draws on 48 semi-structured interviews with visual artists and arts professionals, including painters, sculptors, mixedmedia, and internet artists as well as contemporary art gallery owners, museum project directors, curators, and culture policymakers living and working in China during 2023. The findings show how Chinese artists are mastering AI and opening up new spaces for creativity and how the contemporary art sector in China has already transitioned to a new "digital way" in artistic creation. These findings can help to create policy around AI globally and provide solutions for the sustainability of the artist profession and the future of the contemporary art sector. [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]

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]

Most Penman-Monteith-Leuning (PML) evapotranspiration (ET) modeling studies are dominated by consideration of meteorological, energy, and land use information, etc., but the dynamic coupling of soil moisture content (SM), especially in terms of improving accuracy through assimilation, lacks sufficient attention. This paper proposes a research framework for the dynamic coupling simulation of PML model and SM based on data assimilation, i.e., the remote sensing monitored SM is combined with soil evaporation of PML to obtain high-precision time-continuous SM data through data assimilation; simultaneously, dynamical soil evaporation coefficients are generated based on the assimilated SM to improve the simulation accuracy of the PML model. The new scheme was validated at a typical irrigation zone in north China and showed obvious improvements in both SM and ET simulations. Moreover, the effect of the assimilation of SM on the simulation accuracy of ET for different crop growth periods is further analyzed. This research provides a new idea for the coupling simulation of the SM and PML models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape engineering plays a crucial role in urban construction and the development of ecological civilization in China. It actively designs and modifies natural elements, such as water and mountains, acting as the primary living infrastructure. This field continually receives great recognition and praise. Recent academic research has prioritized the use of extended reality (XR) technology to create a real-time interactive visual environment to tackle the issues presented by the dynamic nature of landscape engineering. This paper utilizes the PRISMA method to filter out 68 research documents related to XR in landscape engineering construction and management for bibliometric analysis. A comprehensive review is conducted on the precise and efficient utilization of XR to solve various issues in the field of landscape engineering. Using Cite Space 6.2.R6 (a visual bibliometric software) to visualize knowledge structures and research topics, the analysis includes temporal and spatial examination, application scenario analysis, and technological hierarchy analysis. The paper summarizes the current challenges that XR still faces in the landscape engineering field and envisions extensible application scenarios for XR, providing a reference roadmap for the implementation of XR in landscape engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable agricultural economic development is the core task for achieving the objective of rural revitalization strategy in China, which cannot be separated from the support and guidance of fiscal policy, and agricultural industry integration is a key path for the fiscal promotion of sustainable agricultural economic development. This paper systematically examines the interaction mechanism between fiscal agricultural expenditures and sustainable agricultural economic development by using 31 provincial panel data in China from 2008 to 2020 and adopting a two-way fixed effect model, a panel quantile model, and a mediating effect model, respectively. The results show that the impact of fiscal agricultural expenditures on sustainable agricultural economic development is significantly positive, and appears a dynamic increasing trend with the agricultural development stage upgrading. Moreover, heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of fiscal agricultural expenditures is more obvious for the samples in the central region and with a high share of primary industry. Further, a mediating effect test finds that agricultural industry integration plays a mediating mechanism between fiscal agricultural expenditures and sustainable agricultural economic development. Therefore, this paper proposes constructing a long-term investment mechanism for fiscal agricultural expenditures, formulating differentiated fiscal support policies for agriculture, and prioritizing support for agricultural industry integration, which provides theoretical support and policy inspiration for promoting sustainable agricultural economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of China's economy and society, the innovation of grassroots social governance has become increasingly important. This paper constructs 35 grassroots social governance innovation samples. Using the TOE theoretical framework and a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this paper analyzes the joint effects and interactive relationships of multiple factors on grassroots social governance innovation performance from three dimensions: technology, organization, and environment. The research reveals that internal environmental openness is a necessary condition for achieving high innovation performance in grassroots social governance, and proposes four grouping models that affect the performance of grassroots social governance innovation. This paper explores the inner logic of grassroots social governance innovation from a histological perspective, and on this basis proposes an adaptive path to enhance the performance of grassroots social governance innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using daily data since 2017, we disentangle China-specific structural shocks driving Chinese financial markets and examine spillovers across global markets. The novelty of this paper consists of simultaneously identifying China shocks with shocks emanating from the United States and shocks to global risk sentiment - two major forces driving global financial markets - to ensure that China spillover estimates do not reflect common factors. Our results show that shocks originating in China have material impacts on global equity markets, although spillovers are much smaller than those following shocks in the United States, or those triggered by shifts in global risk sentiment. By contrast, shocks from China account for a significant proportion of variation in global commodity prices, more on a par with those of the United States. Nevertheless, spillovers from China can be significantly amplified in an environment of heightened global volatility, or when the shocks are large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing uncertainty of urban security, urban resilience construction with risk awareness and bottom-line thinking has become essential for promoting sustainable urban development. This paper measures China's urban resilience development index (CRDI) based on 284 cities in China (except Tibet) using the entropy method from four dimensions: economic, social, environmental, and infrastructure, and analyzes it by combining coupling coordination degree and barrier factor analysis. We find that: (1) At the national level, CRDI and its sub-dimensions show an increasing trend in time, a decreasing spatial layout from coastal to inland, and a "high-high-low-low" clustering feature in space. (2) At the regional level, the CRDI is from high to low in the east, middle, and west order. The sub-dimensions are from high to low in the order of east, middle, and west for economic, social, and infrastructure resilience and from high to low in the order of east, west, and middle for environmental resilience. (3) To coupling coordination degree, the CRDI index coupling coordination is increasing in time trend but is still on the verge of dissonance. (4) Social resilience is the main obstacle factor. In the indicator layer, human resources, innovation, education, security, living, and environmental protection are the areas where CRDI coordinated development is the key to improvement. Based on the above empirical evidence, this paper proposes countermeasures to optimize urban resilience construction from four perspectives: economic, social, environmental, and infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes changes in sacrifice by burning and the space inhabited by ghosts in ancient China from philological and linguistic perspectives. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, rulers believed that they could convey their offerings and reverence to their ancestors in heaven by burning firewood and sacrifices (尞). From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han dynasty, the ancient Chinese metaphors for naming the underground space inhabited by ghosts experienced a transformation from a natural space (Yellow Spring (黄泉)) to human settlements (li (里), big cities (都)) and then to government institutions for criminal penalty (government (府), prisons (狱)), which symbolized the gradual establishment of a living order in the space inhabited by ghosts based on the human society. When the new living order of the space inhabited by ghosts was established, the ancient Chinese began to reconstruct sacrifice by burning during the Wei and Jin dynasties, and the objects burnt were represented by joss paper. The use of the term "transforming (化)" to refer to sacrifice by burning suggests that people believed that burning with fire was a way to transfer objects from the real world to the world of ghosts. The act of burning joss paper not only embodied the Chinese concept of ancestor worship to "treat the dead as if they were alive" but also gave "fire (火)" rich religious connotations while greatly simplifying the process and cost of sacrificial rituals, thus gradually becoming popular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty has always been a global concern that has restricted human development. The first goal (SDG 1) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to eliminate all forms of poverty all over the world. The establishment of a scientific and effective localized SDG 1 evaluation and monitoring method is the key to achieving SDG 1. This paper proposes SDG 1 China district and county-level localization evaluation method based on multi-source remote sensing data for the United Nations Sustainable Development Framework. The temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of China's poverty areas and their SDG 1 evaluation values in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 have been analyzed. Based on the SDGs global indicator framework, this paper first constructed SDG 1 China's district and county localization indicator system and then extracted multidimensional feature factors from nighttime light images, land cover data, and digital elevation model data. Secondly, we establish SDG 1 China's localized partial least squares estimation model and SDG 1 China's localized machine learning estimation model. Finally, we analyze and verify the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of China's poverty areas and counties and their SDG 1 evaluation values. The results show that SDG 1 China's district and county localization indicator system proposed in this study and SDG 1 China's localized partial least squares estimation model can better reflect the poverty level of China's districts and counties. The estimated model R2 is 0.65, which can identify 72.77% of China's national poverty counties. From 2012 to 2018, the spatial distribution pattern of SDG evaluation values in China's districts and counties is that the SDG evaluation values gradually increase from western China to eastern China. In addition, the average SDG 1 evaluation value of China's districts and counties increased by 23% from 2012 to 2018. This paper is oriented to the United Nations SDGs framework, explores the SDG 1 localized evaluation method of China's districts and counties based on multisource remote sensing data, and provides a scientific and rapid regional poverty monitoring and evaluation program for the implementation of the 2030 agenda poverty alleviation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gaokao, also known as China's national college entrance exam, is a high-stakes exam for nearly all Chinese students. English has been one of the three most important subjects for a long time, and listening plays an important role in the Gaokao English test. However, relatively little research has been conducted on local versions of Gaokao's English listening tests. This study analyzed the linguistic features and corresponding functional dimensions of the three different text types in the Gaokao's listening test, investigating whether the papers used in three major regions of China were differentiated in terms of the co-occurrence patterns of lexicogrammatical features and dimensions of the transcripts. A corpus consisting of 170 sets of test papers (134,913 words) covering 31 provinces and cities from 2000 to 2022 was analyzed using a multidimensional analysis wherein six exclusive dimensions were extracted. The results showed that there were meaningful differences across short conversations, long conversations, and monologues with regard to the six dimensions' scores, and regions further had significant differences in three dimensions: Syntactic and Clausal Complexity, Oral versus Literate Discourse, and Procedural Discourse, while Time Period was not associated with any differences. Implications for language teaching and assessment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the exogenous shock of China's formal implementation of the environmental information disclosure system in 2008 to construct a quasi-natural experiment. Based on the panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019, the propensity score matching and difference in difference (PSM-DID) approach was used to systematically evaluate the impact of environmental information disclosure on energy efficiency. Overcoming the difficulties in measuring environmental information disclosure and the endogenous problem, this paper investigates the energy-saving effect of environmental information disclosure and illustrates its mechanism for the first time. The results show that environmental information disclosure significantly improved energy efficiency, and public participation played an important role in energy conservation, a conclusion that remained true after a series of robustness tests. The test of the impact mechanism shows that environmental information disclosure can achieve the goal of improving energy efficiency by promoting industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation. This paper enriches the discussion on the relationship between environmental information disclosure and energy efficiency, and provides useful policy inspiration for improving the level of energy efficiency and achieving sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The point cloud segmentation method plays an important role in practical applications, such as remote sensing, mobile robots, and 3D modeling. However, there are still some limitations to the current point cloud data segmentation method when applied to large-scale scenes. Therefore, this paper proposes an adaptive clustering segmentation method. In this method, the threshold for clustering points within the point cloud is calculated using the characteristic parameters of adjacent points. After completing the preliminary segmentation of the point cloud, the segmentation results are further refined according to the standard deviation of the cluster points. Then, the cluster points whose number does not meet the conditions are further segmented, and, finally, scene point cloud data segmentation is realized. To test the superiority of this method, this study was based on point cloud data from a park in Guilin, Guangxi, China. The experimental results showed that this method is more practical and efficient than other methods, and it can effectively segment all ground objects and ground point cloud data in a scene. Compared with other segmentation methods that are easily affected by parameters, this method has strong robustness. In order to verify the universality of the method proposed in this paper, we test a public data set provided by ISPRS. The method achieves good segmentation results for multiple sample data, and it can distinguish noise points in a scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore whether crowdfunding creators can learn from previous experiences to have a better financing performance of future crowdfunding projects. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses Python to capture the data of 6,267 crowdfunding projects from one of the largest crowdfunding platforms in China (JingDong Crowdfunding) and the author use the negative binomial regression model and the OLS model in this empirical study. Findings: The empirical results show that both the early-stage experience of creating a crowdfunding project and the early-stage experience of supporting projects of other crowdfunding creators can improve the financing performance of their newly launched projects. The social network of the previous projects and the "Blockbuster" projects initiated before can also make the newly initiated projects obtain better financing performance. Originality/value: Current research on entrepreneurial experience shows that serial entrepreneurs have significantly different success rates than novice or inexperienced entrepreneurs but there is limited literature on the learning effect of crowdfunding creators. This study adds to the literature on entrepreneurial learning and provides suggestions to crowdfunding creators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic policy uncertainty has had an important impact on trade and sustainable economic development. Especially in some specific industries, uncertainty has increased dramatically. The extant related literature mainly analyzes the nexus between uncertainty and trade across different industries and focuses less on a specific industry. Using Chinese customs data on HS 8-digit products over the period of 2000–2013, this paper first investigates the impact of both foreign economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and domestic intra-industry trade on China's mechanical and electrical product exports to 23 trading partners and applies pooled OLS regressions to conduct an empirical study. This paper finds that EPU has a significant inhibition effect on mechanical and electrical product exports; conversely, intra-industry trade can both significantly promote exports and alleviate the inhibition effect of EPU. In addition, the export impact of EPU varied with different trade patterns. It can significantly inhibit processing exports, while it has no effect on ordinary exports. The results of this paper indicate that in the context of increasing uncertainty, our findings could have far-reaching policy implications for China to build a new development pattern of domestic and international dual circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil hydraulic properties significantly affect the occurrence and development of collapsing gully walls. The effect of temperature on the hydraulic properties of soil in collapsing gully walls remains unclear. In this study, the hydraulic properties of the red soil layer, the sandy soil layer and the detritus layer in a collapsing gully wall were investigated using the filter paper method, and the soil water retention curves of the different soil layers at 25 and 40 °C were determined. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of temperature on the soil hydraulic properties of different soil layers in collapsing gully walls. The study found that when the water content in the red soil layer and sandy soil layer exceeded 20% and in the detritus layer exceeded 10%, the soil's matric suction significantly decreased as the temperature increased from 25 to 40 °C. Additionally, the parameters of θ s , α , n and m all exhibited a decreasing trend, and the soil water content in the detritus layer was primarily influenced by the temperature change, which resulted in a decrease of 38.10%. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of the detritus layer exhibited higher values than that of the sandy layer and red soil layer under identical temperature conditions. Moreover, the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of the red soil layer, sandy soil layer and detritus layer increased with increasing temperature. It was observed that the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of the detritus layer increased by 0.18 cm h−1 at a soil water content of 44%. This increase in conductivity was more pronounced than the corresponding changes in the red soil layer and sandy soil layer. An elevated temperature caused the water-holding capacity of the different soil layers of the collapsing gully wall to decrease and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity to increase. However, the influence of the clay particle content within the soil of the collapsing gully wall rendered the temperature effect more distinct. Therefore, the destabilizing deformation of the soil in the collapsing gully wall during the summer under high temperatures and precipitation may have played a key role in its collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To understand the current status of research in the field of metaverse, and to analyze the research progress and evolutionary trends in this field. Methods: Based on the bibliometric analysis, a total of 921 papers were obtained by searching the Web of science core database for the keyword "metaverse". CiteSpace was used to visualize and analyze the current status and trends of metaverse research in China. Results: Ireland is currently the country with the highest research impact. China is currently the country with the largest number of publications in this field, but the impact of the research is insufficient. The current research in the highly cited literature focuses on technical and history reviews of the metaverse as well as its development in the field of education. Artificial Intelligence and utaut2 are the underlying clusters of cited literature in this research area. Several research hotspots have been formed, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, digital twins and artificial intelligence. Conclusion: The current research on metaverse in various fields is basically in its infancy, but has a great potential for future development and will gradually penetrate into many different directions with many challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to study the relationship between regional logistics efficiency and economic development in 31 provinces of China and analyze their coupling coordination. To comprehensively evaluate the coordination between logistics and the economy, we introduced external indicators, such as carbon emissions, based on traditional evaluation indicators. We constructed an evaluation index system to coordinate regional logistics efficiency and economic development. The research approach used in this paper is the cross-DEA method, and data from 2010 to 2019 were selected for empirical calculation. The research findings indicate that Eastern and Northern regions of China show higher logistics efficiency, while Northwestern and Southwestern regions exhibit lower logistics efficiency. Coastal areas have relatively higher economic development levels compared to inland areas. Regarding the coupling coordination between logistics efficiency and economic development, different regions show temporal fluctuations and spatial disparities. Some regions demonstrate higher coordination between logistics efficiency and economic development, while others show lower coordination. Additionally, as the economy experiences rapid growth, logistics efficiency also improves, but the level of coordination varies among different provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Handwriting is a biometric behavioral characteristic with evident individual distinctiveness. With the rise of the deep learning trend and demands for forensic identification, handwriting identification has become one of the focal points of research in the field of pattern recognition. Research in handwriting identification for major global languages has matured. However, in China, there is limited attention in the field of writer identification for minority languages such as Mongolian, making it challenging to resolve criminal cases involving handwriting issues. This paper initiates an initial exploration of Mongolian handwriting identification by constructing a structurally simple convolutional neural network. This convolutional neural network, consisting of 12 convolution operations and designed for Mongolian handwriting identification, is referred to as MWInet-12. In this paper, the model evaluation experiments were conducted using a dataset comprising 156,372 samples contributed by 125 writers from the MOLHW dataset. The dataset was divided into training, validation, and test sets in an 8:1:1 ratio. The final results of the experiments reveal impressive accuracy on the test set, achieving a top-1 accuracy of 89.60% and a top-5 accuracy of 97.53%. Furthermore, through comparative experiments involving Resnet50, Fragnet, GRRNN, VGG16, and VGG19 models, this paper establishes that the proposed model yields the most favorable results for Mongolian handwriting identification. The exploratory research on Mongolian handwriting identification in this paper contributes to increasing awareness of information processing for minority languages. It aids in advancing research on classifying writers of Mongolian historical texts and provides technical support for judicial authentication involving handwriting issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Durability is one of the technical bottlenecks restricting fuel cell electric vehicle development. As a result, significant time and resources have been invested in research related to this area worldwide. Current durability research mainly focuses on the single cell and stack levels, which is quite different from the usage scenarios of actual vehicles. There is almost no research on developing durability test cycles on the fuel cell system level. This paper proposes a universal model for developing a durability test cycle for fuel cell system based on the China automotive test cycle. Large-scale comparison tests of the fuel cell systems are conducted. After 1000 h test, the output performance degradation of three mass-produced fuel cell system is 14.49%, 9.59%, and 4.21%, respectively. The test results show that the durability test cycle proposed in this paper can effectively accelerate the durability test of the fuel cell system and evaluate the durability performance of the fuel cell system. Moreover, the methodology proposed in this paper could be used in any other test cycles such as NEDC (New European Driving Cycle), WLTC (Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure), etc. And it has comprehensive application value and are significant for reducing the cost of durability testing of fuel cell systems and promoting the industrialization of fuel cell electric vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective forecasting of energy consumption structure is vital for China to reach its "dual carbon" objective. However, little attention has been paid to existing studies on the holistic nature and internal properties of energy consumption structure. Therefore, this paper incorporates the theory of compositional data into the study of energy consumption structure, which not only takes into account the specificity of the internal features of the structure, but also digs deeper into the relative information. Meanwhile, based on the minimization theory of squares of the Aitchison distance in the compositional data, a combined model based on the three single models, namely the metabolism grey model (MGM), back-propagation neural network (BPNN) model, and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, is structured in this paper. The forecast results of the energy consumption structure in 2023–2040 indicate that the future energy consumption structure of China will evolve towards a more diversified pattern, but the proportion of natural gas and non-fossil energy has yet to meet the policy goals set by the government. This paper not only suggests that compositional data from joint prediction models have a high applicability value in the energy sector, but also has some theoretical significance for adapting and improving the energy consumption structure in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of global urban development, there are urgent ecological security and environmental pollution problems, green development is the fundamental way for urban sustainable development, economic transformation and mitigation of ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 283 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyzes spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of urban green development efficiency (UGDE) and the peer effects of UGDE between cities of different grades. It is found that during the study period, in terms of temporal evolution, the average UGDE in China increased from 0.47 in 2003 to 0.61 in 2017, with a cumulative growth rate of 29.79%, showing a rising trend in general. In terms of spatial evolution, the number of low-efficiency cities and medium-efficiency cities continued to decrease. The eastern region has always been the main distribution area of higher-efficiency cities and high-efficiency cities; in the central region, UGDE in most cities improved significantly; in the western region, UGDE has always lagged behind that in the eastern and central regions. In addition, the center of gravity of UGDE presented a trend of northwest migration in general, with a total displacement of 100.07 km, and UGDE showed a spatial dispersion trend. The empirical results indicate that the improvement of UGDE in large cities has a driving effect on that in neighboring medium cities and small cities through the positive peer effect, and the growth of UGDE in medium cities has a promoting effect on that in neighboring small cities through the positive peer effect; the increase of UGDE in medium cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring large cities, and the growth of UGDE in small cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring medium cities; UGDE promotes each other between large cities through the positive peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Reducing carbon emissions from agriculture is essential to ensuring food security and human prosperity. As a country with approximately 20% of the global population, China has begun actively practicing the lowcarbon agricultural development conception. Against the backdrop of disruptive technologies that continue to be integrated into various industries, the massive application of agricultural robots has opened the way to intelligent agriculture. This paper tries to answer whether there is some non-linear nexus between the application of agricultural robots and agricultural carbon emissions in China. As an essential tool for carbon emission reduction in China, does environmental regulation moderate the nexus between agricultural robot applications and agricultural carbon emissions? If so, how does this effect manifest itself? Methods: This work takes China as an example by collecting macro-regional panel data from 30 provinces from 2006 to 2019. The environmental Kuznets curve theory is extended to agricultural carbon emissions, and we carried out empirical tests utilizing the panel fixed effects model and the moderating effects model. Results: This study verifies the inverted U-shaped nexus between agricultural robotics applications and agricultural carbon emissions in Chinese provinces, i.e., the agricultural carbon emissions (ACE)-Kuznets curve holds. The higher the level of formal environmental regulation, the larger the peak of the ACE-Kuznets curve and the more the inflection point is pushed back. The higher the level of informal environmental regulation, the lower the peak of the ACE-Kuznets curve and the later the inflection point. Discussion: The findings in this paper represent the first exploration of the environmental Kuznets curve in agricultural carbon emissions. It is noteworthy that the moderating effect of formal environmental regulation does not lower the peak of the curve as we expect. This appearance is attributed to the reality that China is still in a phase of rising agricultural carbon emissions, which is exacerbated by the overlapping positive effects of agricultural robotics applications and formal environmental regulations. Informal environmental regulation is more effective than formal environmental regulation in reducing agricultural carbon emissions at this stage. [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]

Introduction: With the rapid development of digital technology and its deep integration with environmental and ecological fields, the digital economy has become an effective way to guide the transition of cities to an eco-friendly model. However, empirical studies on the nonlinear spatial effects between digital economy and ecological welfare performance are still insufficient. Methods: Based on the panel data of 270 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper empirically examines the impact of the digital economy on the ecological welfare performance of cities and its mechanism of action using spatial econometric modeling. Results: The promotion effect of digital economy development on the ecological welfare performance of cities is characterized by the "J" shape of increasing marginal effect, and the spatial spillover effect on the ecological welfare performance of neighboring cities is the inverted "U" shape of inhibiting first and then promoting later. The mechanism test shows that the development of digital economy can enhance the ecological welfare performance of cities through the marginal incremental promotion of green technological innovation in local and neighboring cities and has a positive spatial spillover effect. The development of digital economy can have a direct U shape effect on local ecological welfare performance by influencing factor allocation efficiency and energy utilization efficiency. It also has an inverted U-shaped spatial spillover effect. Environmental regulation has an inverted U-shaped moderating effect on the local eco-welfare performance affected by the digital economy. As the level of rural revitalization increases, it produces a U-shaped moderating effect of inhibiting. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that digital economy development has a more significant facilitating effect and a positive spatial spillover effect on the ecological welfare performance of cities in central China. Discussion: This paper will provide a reference for the synergistic optimization of digital economy development and ecological welfare performance among regions. The findings of the study will promote the development of digital economy and accelerate the realization of the goal of "Beautiful China". [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 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]

Food reserve is the cornerstone of national strategic security. China strives to build a complementary reserve system between government and enterprises, and how to improve the efficiency of food reserves is a matter of great concern to the government and society. Based on the analysis of the connotation of food reserve efficiency, this paper constructs the revenue function and the cost function of food reserve in an emergency and uses the cost-benefit method to explore the best ratio of government reserve, corporate social responsibility reserve, and commercial inventory when maximizing the efficiency of food reserve. This ratio is closely related to the total food reserve, the scale of supply interruption, the reserve cost of food stored by enterprises, and the government's subsidy cost for the social responsibility reserve. The unit subsidy cost of government to social responsibility reserve is inversely proportional to the proportion of corporate social responsibility reserve to corporate reserve. Doing a good job in the social responsibility management of food enterprises is an effective way to improve the efficiency of food reserves. To expand the scale of social responsibility reserves and realize "storing food in enterprises," the subsidies given by the government for corporate social responsibility reserves should not be too high. Taking food social responsibility reserve as an important part of corporate social responsibility, it's the key to promoting enterprises to actively undertake food social responsibility reserves. The conclusion of this paper provides a theoretical basis and decision-making reference for how to improve the efficiency of food reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an ethnographic study of Chinese IT professionals who integrate a form of data culture into the digital platforms they design, maintain, and operate daily within one of China's tech giants, this paper reveals numerous overlaps and interrelations between the data practices of Chinese IT professionals and the broader social implications that arise from them. The aim is to foster a more productive dialogue between the social studies of quantification and platform studies. This original research proposes the backstage as a potent methodology for inquiring into the role of Chinese IT professionals and domestic tech giants in advancing measuring systems and audit culture. This paper concludes by suggesting that such an approach can also be applied to wider studies of the paradox in quantification between its general claims and specific effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Judicial improvement and trade structure optimization are important elements in achieving a high level of openness. This paper develops a theoretical framework on the impact of local protectionism on market integration and export technical complexity, and then empirically analyses the effect of judicial improvement on the technical complexity of urban product exports and its mechanism of action based on a quasi-natural experiment with the establishment of circuit courts. The study finds that the establishment of circuit courts significantly increases the technical complexity of product exports, and the findings remain valid after a series of robustness tests. Further analysis shows that the technology enhancement effect of the establishment of circuit courts is more pronounced in the group of cities with higher administrative levels, better location advantages, and less advanced rule of law. Mechanism Analysis shows that a superior institutional environment can have a two-sided effect on different types of firms. Overall, however, the productivity-enhancing effect of low-productivity firms exiting the market is lower than the productivity-reducing effect of higher-productivity firms' increased compliance costs, which in turn weakens the positive promotional effect of circuit courts. The above theoretical and empirical findings provide policy implications for maximizing the technology enhancement effect of the establishment of circuit courts on product exports, thereby promoting a high level of openness in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The construction of digital villages is widely acknowledged as a way to achieve the "dual goals" of high quality of the agricultural and rural economy and common prosperity under the digital China strategy. Studies have explored the socio-economic benefits of different aspects of rural digitization, but few have focused on the productivity role of rural broadband development in the context of the urban-rural broadband divide. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between rural broadband development and agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) and the intrinsic mechanism of action, and to provide empirical evidence on the productivity effect of promoting digital transformation in rural agriculture. Methods: Using panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper investigates the impact and mechanism of rural broadband development on agricultural TFP from the perspective of agriculture-related loans by setting up a two-way fixed effects model, a mechanism effects model and a threshold effects model. Results: The results find that rural broadband development has a significant role in enhancing agricultural TFP. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the productivity-enhancing effect of rural broadband development is remarkable only in the central region and the region with higher rural disposable income. Mechanism analysis points out that rural broadband development can increase agricultural TFP by influencing the share of farm-related loans. Threshold analysis further reveals that the role of increasing the share of farm-related loans on agricultural TFP is marked only after rural broadband development reaches a certain level. Discussion: These findings can provide practical guidance for other developing countries in accelerating the digital transformation of villages and optimizing factor allocation to achieve high-quality agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the unbalanced panel data of Chinese professional health insurance companies from 2011 to 2021, the paper constructs "PW+PCSE" model to empirically investigate the main factors affecting the commercial health insurance surrender in China from the company level. The results show that asset-liability ratio has a significant positive effect on health insurance surrender rate. The value preservation and appreciation rate of capital and R&D expenditure rate both have significant negative effects on health insurance surrender rate. These studies bring important enlightenment for domestic health insurance companies to avoid surrender risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the intensification of global economic competition, innovation has become one of the core elements of vigorous development in various regions. Improving the innovation ability of cross-regional central cities is the main factor influencing whether a region can achieve economic and social development. In this paper, an innovation primacy index system is designed according to the links of the innovation value chain, and the innovation advantages and empirical effects are comprehensively analyzed by using the point-to-point method, entropy weight method, gravity model and two-way fixed effect model. Based on the data of 8 cities in the core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone from 2010 to 2020 in China, Xuzhou's innovation primacy ranks first in the core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone, which accords with its status as the central city of the region. Its index has been rising, and its development trend is also good. However, the overall innovation ability of the core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone is unbalanced; the overall economic foundation is not solid enough. In terms of knowledge innovation, R&D innovation and industrial innovation, the industrialization level, around the activation of Xuzhou city vitality, enhances the Xuzhou innovation radiation drive, leading to a decrease in the Huaihai Economic Zone. Finally, some corresponding suggestions on innovation primacy have been proposed for the city of the Huaihai Economic Zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Grapes are prone to various diseases throughout their growth cycle, and the failure to promptly control these diseases can result in reduced production and even complete crop failure. Therefore, effective disease control is essential for maximizing grape yield. Accurate disease identification plays a crucial role in this process. In this paper, we proposed a real-time and lightweight detection model called Fusion Transformer YOLO for 4 grape diseases detection. The primary source of the dataset comprises RGB images acquired from plantations situated in North China. Methods: Firstly, we introduce a lightweight high-performance VoVNet, which utilizes ghost convolutions and learnable downsampling layer. This backbone is further improved by integrating effective squeeze and excitation blocks and residual connections to the OSA module. These enhancements contribute to improved detection accuracy while maintaining a lightweight network. Secondly, an improved dual-flow PAN+FPN structure with Real-time Transformer is adopted in the neck component, by incorporating 2D position embedding and a single-scale Transformer Encoder into the last feature map. This modification enables real-time performance and improved accuracy in detecting small targets. Finally, we adopt the Decoupled Head based on the improved Task Aligned Predictor in the head component, which balances accuracy and speed. Results: Experimental results demonstrate that FTR-YOLO achieves the high performance across various evaluation metrics, with a mean Average Precision (mAP) of 90.67%, a Frames Per Second (FPS) of 44, and a parameter size of 24.5M. Conclusion: The FTR-YOLO presented in this paper provides a real-time and lightweight solution for the detection of grape diseases. This model effectively assists farmers in detecting grape diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital economy has become a "new engine" that driving global economic growth. Nevertheless, numerous controversies persist regarding whether and how digital economy can facilitate the development of emerging industries. Thus, this paper investigates how digital economy affects creative industries development in China and whether innovation efficiency mediates this relationship. Drawing upon a panel data set containing 29 Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2019, an econometric model is constructed for empirical analysis. We find that digital economy significantly promotes creative industries development, and innovation efficiency plays a partial mediating role between digital economy and creative industries development. According to the influence mechanism, the digital economy of various regions could promote the creative industries development by improving the innovation efficiency. Finally, relevant suggestions were put forward from the expanding application paths, improving regional innovation efficiency, and creating an innovative environment. [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]

The stability of agricultural futures market is of great significance to social economy and agri-cultural development. In view of the complexity of the fluctuation of agricultural futures prices, it is challenging to make up for the shortcomings of the existing data preprocessing technology so as to improve the prediction accuracy of the model. This paper puts forward a new VMDSGMD-LSTM model based on improved quadratic decomposition technology and artificial intelligence model. First of all, in the data preprocessing part, VMD is used to decompose the original futures price data, and SGMD is used to further process the remaining components. Secondly, the LSTM model is used to predict a series of modal components, and the final result is obtained by synthesizing the predicted values of different components. Furthermore, based on the futures trading data of wheat, corn and sugar in China agricultural futures market, this paper makes an empirical study in the 1-step, 2-step and 4-step ahead forecasting scenarios, respectively. The results show that compared with other benchmark models, the VMD-SGMD-LSTM hybrid model proposed in this paper has better forecasting ability and robustness for different agricultural futures, which effectively makes up for the shortcomings of existing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]