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Using the digital economy to empower urban economic green growth provides essential opportunities for China to achieve high-quality growth. This paper assesses the level of digital economy and green growth in Chinese cities, seeking to explore the mechanisms and effects of the digital economy on urban green growth in a unified framework. The results indicate that the digital economy can drive cities' green growth. This conclusion still holds after a set of robustness tests. Meanwhile, the green value of the digital economy is fully released among the eastern cities, major urban agglomerations, and high-level cities. Further research shows that the digital economy can indirectly enhance urban green growth in the neighboring regions through spatial spillover effects. Moreover, labor resource mismatch, capital resource mismatch and green technology innovation are significant mediating mechanisms. The findings could guide policymakers on green growth in emerging economies from a digital economy perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides new opportunities and great space for China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) cooperation, as evidenced in 2018 when it financed US$15.64 billion in 56 countries along this burgeoning economic path, targeting Europe, Africa, and Asia as its hot spots. However, most of the countries along the Belt and Road are low-growth, middle-income, and developing economies, and their infrastructure, export trade, and other factors play an important role in the security and efficiency of OFDI. Therefore, this research selects 60 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa as the objects and uses the common boundary SBM model to calculate the investment efficiency of 7 indicators from 2013 to 2017. The results show a significant regional gap in the efficiency of China's total foreign investment. The efficiency scores of European countries are generally better than those of Asian and African countries, while the technology gaps of countries in Asia and Europe are higher than that in Africa. The efficiencies of three major indicators, FDI, infrastructure development indicator (IDI), and export trade (ET), exhibit four types of distribution. Therefore, it is necessary to coordinate and optimise the proper investment layout, enhance China's investment quality in countries along the Belt and Road, strengthen exchanges and cooperation between think tanks, and promote further construction of BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is one of the three major industries in China, and its level of development occupies an important position in the development of the national economy. At present, China vigorously promotes the strategy of rural revitalization, which provides new opportunities for agricultural modernization. Since modern agriculture and regional economy are coupled in a mutually influencing and constraining relationship, this paper constructs a coupled and coordinated evaluation index system of agricultural modernization and regional economic development. Using the entropy value method and coupled coordination degree model, the comprehensive development level and coordinated development degree of agricultural modernization and regional economic development of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and cities in China from 2011 to 2020 were evaluated, revealing the time evolution and spatial distribution characteristics of the two systems. The results show that: (1) In the past decade, China's agricultural modernization and regional economy have made some progress in terms of their respective development levels and the degree of coupling and coordination between them. (2) In terms of spatial evolution, there are obvious regional differences between the two systems, and the coupling coordination degree shows a "ladder" distribution pattern from the east to the central, northeastern, and western parts of the country. (3) Regions with a high level of regional economic development also have a relatively high degree of coupling and coordination between agricultural modernization and regional economic development. Our results provide insights into the economic effects of agricultural modernization in China and provide useful insights into the future direction of agricultural development programs in countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapeseed is the third largest oil crop in the world and the largest oil crop in China. The multi-functional development and utilization of rapeseed is an effective measure for the high-quality development of rapeseed industry in China. In this study, several basic nutrients of eight rapeseed sprouts and five bean sprouts (3–5 varieties each) were determined, including sugar, crude protein, crude fiber, vitamin E, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, and glucosinolates. Data analysis revealed that compared with bean sprouts, rapeseed sprouts were nutritionally balanced and were richer in active nutrients such as glucose, magnesium, selenium, vitamin E, and glucosinolate. Moreover, rapeseed sprouts exhibited reasonable amino acid composition and abundant unsaturated fatty acids (accounting for 90.32% of the total fatty acids). All these results indicated the potential of rapeseed sprout as a functional vegetable. Subsequently, three dominant nutrients including vitamin E, glucosinolate, and selenium were investigated in seeds and sprouts of 44 B. napus L. varieties. The results showed that germination raised the ratio of α-tocopherol/γ-tocopherol from 0.53 in seeds to 9.65 in sprouts, greatly increasing the content of α-tocopherol with the strongest antioxidant activity among the eight isomers of vitamin E. Furthermore, germination promoted the conversion and accumulation of glucosinolate components, especially, glucoraphanin with strong anti-cancer activity with its proportion increased from 1.06% in seeds to 1.62% in sprouts. In addition, the contents of selenium, vitamin E, and glucosinolate in rapeseed sprouts were highly correlated with those in seeds. Furthermore, these three dominant nutrients varied greatly within B. napus varieties, indicating the great potential of rapeseed sprouts to be further bio-enhanced. Our findings provide reference for the multi-purpose development and utilization of rapeseed, lay a theoretical foundation for the development of rapeseed sprout into a functional vegetable, and provide a novel breeding direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The energy generation efficiencies of thermal power and hydropower, which are the two main forces of electric power in China, are important factors affecting the energy conservation, emission reduction, and green development of the country's whole power industry. Methods: Considering regional differences and multiple efficient decision-making units (DMUs), this research uses the meta-Frontier super-efficiency slack-based measure (meta-SE-SBM) undesirable model to comprehensively evaluate the efficiencies of hydropower and thermal power generation in China. The CO2 emissions of thermal power generation are taken as the undesirable output. Results: The ranking of the average meta-efficiency of thermal power generation in China is Eastern China > Central China > Western China, and all regions show an upward trend. However, the ranking of the average meta-efficiency of hydropower generation is Western China > Central China > Eastern China, and all these regions present a downward trend. In 2017, the technology gap ratio (TGR) values for the thermal power generation efficiency of the eastern and western regions showed a rising trend, while that for the central region showed a declining trend. The TGR values of the hydropower generation efficiency of the western region continued to increase, while those of the central and eastern regions decreased. The development trends of the TGR values of the thermal power or hydropower generation efficiencies of the three regions were not consistent with each other, indicating that technological convergence has not been achieved. In the three regions, the technology gaps in hydropower have slightly expanded, but the technology gaps in thermal power have gradually narrowed. The undesirable output CO2 of the thermal power energy efficiency of the three regions is in a surplus, and the generation of hydropower in the eastern and central regions is insufficient. Conclusions: The government and power industry managers should fully consider regional heterogeneity in the efficiency of hydropower and thermal power to reduce the technology gap in China. The thermal power industry is relatively mature, but its CO2 emissions should be controlled. The hydropower industry needs further policy support to promote an efficiency improvement in it under the condition of resource endowments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a large agricultural sector, China is greatly affected by natural disasters caused by extreme weather events. Because the occurrence of natural disasters is closely related to the sharp increased consumption of energy and the massive emissions of carbon dioxide, this research examines relevant data from 2013 to 2017 in four major regions of China that cover 30 provincial administrative regions. Using the two-stage dynamic DEA model, we evaluate total efficiency value, two-stage efficiency value, and the efficiencies of energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and crop disaster areas, setting CO2 as the link between the production stage (first stage) and the crop damage stage (second stage). The research findings show that overall efficiency in China is generally low, whereby the total efficiencies of eastern and northeastern China are higher than those of central and western China. The efficiency value of the first stage (production stage) is greater than that of the second stage (crop damage stage), and the efficiency of most administrative regions' second stage is below 0.3, which is the main reason for the country's low overall efficiency. There is little difference between China's CO2 and energy consumption efficiency scores, but the efficiency values of crop disaster areas fluctuate greatly. The efficiency scores of various indicators in the eastern region are generally higher and more balanced, and the total efficiency scores exhibit a decreasing trend from east to west. Therefore, it is necessary to implement the environmental policy of controlling energy consumption and early warning of natural disasters in the central and western regions, and promote the R&D industry and technological innovation of carbon dioxide emission reduction and disaster control in the economically developed eastern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper selects energy consumption data of 11 provinces in YRB and 19 provinces and cities in non-YRB from 2014 to 2016 and constructs a shared border Metafrontier non-radial directional short model, adding CO2 and AQI indicators as undesirable factors, in order to evaluate the total efficiency and the input and output efficiencies of these two regions. The results are as follows. (1) From the changes in the score and ranking of the two regions' total environmental efficiency, only two provinces in YRB show a slight decrease, while most of them show a stable or rising trend; seven provinces in non-YRB have a low rising rate. This means during the study period that YRB made more progress at energy conservation, emission reduction, and pollution control than other provinces and cities in non-YRB. (2) The efficiency scores of energy consumption, GDP, CO2, and AQI emissions are different in each province. Overall, the situation of YRB is better than that of non-YRB. Not only is the efficiency score of each index higher, but the efficiency difference between provinces and cities within the region is small, which is conducive to the linkage effect of the region and the realization of green coordinated development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency and emission reduction in construction industry has been concerned in the world. Green building become the focus of academic research in recent years. To fundamentally realize the green development of construction industry, it is necessary to systematically analyze the influencing factors of green building development. On the basis of science and technology investment, industrial size, industry potentiality, and policy incentives, this paper introduced the green financial supportive factor and established a multi-layer green building influencing factors index system. Radial basis function neural network is adopted to improve the Weighted Influence Non-linear Gauge System (WINGS) model, namely RBF-WINGS model, and direct strength-influence matrix is determined. This method objectively analyzed the weights of the green building development influencing factors. The result indicates that science and technology input is the fundamental influencing factor, while industrial size and green financial support are the main influencing factors for the development of green building. This study provides theoretical evidence for the development of green buildings in China and offers decision-making reference for government departments. • Green finance factors are introduced in the green building influencing factors index system. • The analysis is conducted using WINGS algorithm by adopting the RBF neural network. • Green building development is mainly influenced by investment in science and technology. • Green financial support can boost the development of green building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most promising renewable energy sources, the amount of solar photovoltaics has reached 104.1 GW in 2018. China not only has the natural advantages of abundant solar energy resources, but the photovoltaic industry under the government's support has also become the main driving force for global development. Facing the structural adjustment of solar photovoltaic parity online and the important contribution of solar power generation to energy conservation and emission reduction, this paper based on the radial and non-radial comprehensive consideration of EBM (Epsilon-Based Measure) DEA (Data envelopment analysis) model from the input-output perspective on solar photovoltaic industry CO2 emission reduction and efficiency analyze. It is concluded that the total efficiency of the solar photovoltaic industry in China's six regions shows a growing trend, but the regional differences are obvious. The overall efficiency of the northwest region is superior. Among the index efficiency, CO2 emission reduction efficiency is better than cumulative installed capacity efficiency, solar energy utilization hour efficiency is the lowest, and CO2 emission reduction and cumulative installed capacity efficiency all show a consistent trend. It shows that the efficiency of cumulative installed capacity has a positive impact on CO2 emission reduction, but the efficiency of solar power generation needs to be improved. • Evaluating the efficiency of china's solar photovoltaic industry from the input-output perspective. • Using the EBM model based on linear and nonlinear factors. • Discussing the contribution of China's solar photovoltaic industry to CO 2 emission reduction. • The efficiency of cumulative installed capacity has positive impact on CO2 emission reduction, but need to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing prefabricated house building is an important strategy to realize sustainable construction of urban human settlement environment. The frequent occurrence of poor construction time performance in practice has become a major obstacle to the development of prefabricated house building. However, we do not know much about the key factors and internal mechanisms that affect the construction time performance of prefabricated house building. To fill the gap, we examined six cases in China to identify the underlying influencing factors and their internal mechanisms by using a multi-case study method. The results show that project technology system and project delivery system are the two key factors affecting the construction time performance of prefabricated house building. In particular, we find that different types of project complexity (i.e., product, process and organizational complexity) may play a mediating role in the relationships. The results also show that construction time performance differences across modes of project technology system and project delivery system are associated with their management of prefabricated house building project complexity. The findings advance our understanding of time performance and project complexity management of prefabricated house building project in theory, and provide useful implications for policy-making and project practices to promote the development of prefabricated building in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]