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The rapid industrialization has contributed to the miracle of economic growth in China, while also caused a series of environmental problems. As one of the most concerning urban disease in China, the aggravation of haze pollution is closely related to the accelerating urbanization and industrialization process in recent years, and the strong spatial diffusion makes the negative externality of haze pollution more harmful. This characteristic of haze pollution is closely related to the spatial structure of industrial sectors, especially the agglomeration of industrial sectors. This paper established a spatial economic framework to investigate the spillover effect of industrial agglomeration on haze pollution based on satellite raster map data of PM 2.5 and location entropy index, and further discuss the question that whether industrial agglomeration can achieve a balanced development for both economic growth and environmental quality. The results indicated that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between industrial agglomeration and haze pollution, and the indirect effect from spatial spillover dominated this impact. Industrial agglomeration has a single threshold effect on the knowledge spillover and the utilization of pollution disposal infrastructure of industrial sectors. Only when the agglomeration level reaches the threshold value, the scale effect can be realized to promote the air quality. The resource allocation efficiency and knowledge spillovers of industrial agglomeration need to be promoted in order to reach the inflection point and realize the win-win situation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We confirm that no conflict of interest exists in the submission of this manuscript (Industrial Agglomeration and Haze Pollution: Evidence from China), and manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described is original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

As the main form of the new urbanization strategy, urban agglomeration promotes inter-regional economic development, population flow, and industrial cooperation. It is not only an important platform for the country to participate in international competition, but also an important carrier to explore the multiple influencing factors of urbanization. Based on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, the temporal and spatial characteristics of its evolution from 1990 to 2020 are analyzed by using the models of urban evolution and industrial transfer. The results show that at the level of urban land use evolution intensity, Beijing > Tianjin > Hebei, and the evolution of urban land use showed an obvious pattern of concentration of resources in central cities (districts) and weak development in sub-central cities (counties). The overall level of urban sprawl showed a downward trend, and only 0.50% of districts and counties were in the stage of high sprawl. Before 2010, the urban sprawl of Beijing, Tangshan, and southern Hebei province remained at a high level, and after 2010, the urban sprawl of central Hebei province remained at a high level. In terms of comprehensive development, the index of cities decreased, including Beijing, Tianjin, and Tangshan, while the index of cities increased including Shijiazhuang, Handan, Xingtai, and Baoding. There is a trend of agglomeration and diffusion of regional industries in geographical space. Middle- and high-end manufacturing industry and service industry gather in the first city, and middle- and low-end processing industry, labor-intensive industry, and agriculture move to surrounding cities. The research results can provide policy suggestions for the coordinated development of regional integration in developing countries., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The transformation of resource-based cities and coordinated regional development are of great value to global urbanization and sustainable economic development in developing countries. Based on Landsat satellite monitoring data and urban economic data, statistical analysis and geospatial model were used to analyze the characteristics of urban development in urban agglomeration in Northeast China from 2000 to 2020, and the influencing mechanism was quantitatively revealed. The results show that the expansion of urban agglomerations rate reached its peak from 2005 to 2010, and then the expansion rate continued to decline. The resources of central cities were concentrated, while the development of sub-central cities was weak. The overall urbanization rate slows down, the scale difference between high-order cities and low-order cities expands, and the regional urban system shifts from balanced development to polarized development. The overall development of urban agglomerations shows a centripetal agglomeration characteristic centered on the Harbin Changchun-Daqing and Central and southern Liaoning Economic belt. Its west expands faster than the East, and its south expands faster than the north. The driving factors of urban agglomeration development are mainly administrative power, followed by market power, external power and weak internal power. From the point of time and space, the external power is on the rise, while the internal power is affected by the industrial adjustment and lacks the staying power. In view of the coordinated development of resource-based cities, this paper proposes to establish the linkage and coordination mechanism of integrated development of urban agglomeration, speed up the construction of unified market system, carry out transformation positioning according to market demand and implement differentiation policy., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

China and other emerging market countries have suffered from the problem of environmental pollution while developing rapidly in the past few decades. In recent years, many countries have introduced strict environmental regulations in order to achieve sustainable development. This paper discusses the relationship between environmental regulations and corporate green innovation from the perspective of regional leaders' promotion pressure. The empirical results show that direct policy regulation within the region stimulates green innovation on the part of enterprises, and the promotion pressure of city leaders has a further positive moderating effect on the positive correlation between environmental regulations and enterprises' green innovation. The conclusion of the study proves that a strict environmental policy can promote the effectiveness of an environmental performance appraisal system in the sustainable development plans of cities and enterprises. This paper not only reveals the influence path of official promotion pressure on the sustainable development of enterprises in the administrative area from the micro perspective but also sheds some light that may improve government governance and promote the transformation of enterprises.

Objectives: The outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Wuhan, China, has subsided after being hard hit by the disease and subsequent city lockdown. Information on the number of people involved in Wuhan is still inadequate. This study aimed to describe the screening results of 61 437 community members in Wuchang District, Wuhan., Methods: In mid-May 2020, Wuhan launched a population-scale city-wide SARS-CoV-2 testing campaign, which aimed to perform nucleic acid and viral antibody testing for citizens in Wuhan. Here we show the screening results of cluster sampling of 61 437 residents in Wuchang District, Wuhan, China., Results: A total of 1470 (2.39%, 95% CI 2.27-2.52) individuals were detected positive for at least one antiviral antibody. Among the positive individuals, 324 (0.53%, 95% CI 0.47-0.59) and 1200 (1.95%, 95% CI 1.85-2.07) were positive for immunoglobulin IgM and IgG, respectively, and 54 (0.08%, 95% CI 0.07-0.12) were positive for both antibodies. The positive rate of female carriers of antibodies was higher than those of male counterparts (male-to-female ratio of 0.75), especially in elderly citizens (ratio of 0.18 in 90+ age subgroup), indicating a sexual discrepancy in seroprevalence. In addition, viral nucleic acid detection using real-time PCR had showed 8 (0.013%, 95% CI 0.006-0.026) asymptomatic virus carriers., Discussion: The seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan was low. Most Wuhan residents are still susceptible to this virus. Precautions, such as wearing mask, frequent hand hygiene and proper social distance, are necessary before an effective vaccine or antiviral treatments are available., (Copyright © 2020 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Urban trees have been assumed to effectively clean air particulate matter (PM), while the inter-species differences are not yet well defined, especially the PM chemical composition. In this study, PM from leaf surface and wax layer of 3 evergreen tree species (Juniper: Juniperus rigida; Black pine: Pinus tabuliformis var. mukdeais; Spruce: Picea koraiensis) were used for finding differences in PM adsorption and its compositional traits (characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrum and Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry). Possible improvement in PM removal was also evaluated by a detail whole city tree census and different scenarios of species adjustment data. We found that: 1) the amount of PM on juniper leaves was 5.73 g m -2 , 2-2.5-fold higher than black pine and spruce (p < 0.05). Of them, 38.73%, 38.22%, and 23.11% were in the wax layer. 2) Compared with the explicit interspecies differences in PM quantity, more complex interspecies difference showed different patterns for different compositional traits. In general, leaf surface PM had higher O, Si, Al, Fe, N, Pb, Cu, Ni, Cr, and Cd, while the wax PM had higher C and Na contents (p < 0.05). 3) Association ordination found that the smaller leaf size, lower leaf water content, higher leaf area per unit mass, higher wax content, and larger stomatal openness aligned with the more PM adsorption by leaf, together with the higher amounts of CO stretching, O, Si, Al, N, heavy metals of Pb, Cu, Ni, Cr, and Cd in PM. 4) Compared with the other 2 species, increase of juniper percentage in urban forests is more effective for maximizing PM removal from air, accompanying more heavy metal removal but less crystalized minerals in PM. Our findings highlight that proper species configuration in urban afforestation could maximize the air PM removal capacity., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

As we all know, geochemical data usually contain outliers and they are heterogeneous, which will severely affect the use of receptor models based on classical estimates. In this paper, an advanced modified RAPCS-RGWR (robust absolute principal component scores-robust geographically weighted regression) receptor model was introduced to analyze the pollution sources of eight heavy metals (Cd, Hg, As, Pb, Ni, Cu, Zn) in a city of southern China. The results showed that source identification and source apportionment are more consistent by this advanced model even though the soil types and farming patterns are diverse. Moreover, this model decreased the occurrence of negative values of the source contribution. For these reasons, the pollution sources were classified into five types by the new model in the study area: agricultural sources, industrial sources, traffic sources, comprehensive sources, and natural sources. (1) The contributions of agricultural sources to Cr and Ni were 243.36% and 242.61%, respectively; (2) the contribution of industrial sources to Cd was 79.25%; (3) the contribution of traffic sources to Cu was 100.31%; (4) the contributions of comprehensive sources to Hg, Pb, and Zn were 253.90%, 242.31%, and 93.32%, respectively; and (5) the contribution of natural sources to As was 208.21%. Overall, the RAPCS-RGWR receptor model improved the validity of the receptor models. It is of great realistic significance to understand and popularize the advanced model in soil source apportionment in agricultural land.

This study investigated the content, distribution, and contamination levels of toxic metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn) in street dust in Lanzhou, an industrial city in Northwest China. Meanwhile, the risk these metals posed to the urban ecosystem and human health was also evaluated using the potential ecological risk index and human exposure model. Results showed that concentrations of these metals in the dust are higher than the background value of local soil, with Cu having the highest levels. The districts of Anning and Xigu had the most extreme levels of contamination, while Chengguan and Qilihe districts were lightly contaminated, which can be partly attributed to human activities and traffic densities. In comparison with the concentrations of selected metals in other cities, the concentrations of heavy metals in Lanzhou were generally at moderate or low levels. Heavy metal concentration increased with decreasing dust particle size. The pollution indices of Cr, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn were in the range of 0.289-2.09, 0.332-2.15, 1.38-6.21, 0.358-2.59, and 0.560-1.83 with a mean of 1.37, 1.49, 3.18, 1.48, and 0.897, respectively. The geo-accumulation index (I geo ) suggested that Zn in street dust was of geologic origin, while Cd, Cr, Pb, and Cu were significantly impacted by anthropogenic sources. The comprehensive pollution index showed that urban dust poses a high potential ecological risk in Lanzhou. Non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic effects due to exposure to urban street dust were assessed for both children and adults. For non-carcinogenic effects, ingestion appeared to be the main route of exposure to dust particles and thus posed a higher health risk to both children and adults for all metals, followed by dermal contact. Hazard index values for all studied metals were lower than the safe level of 1, and Cr exhibited the highest risk value (0.249) for children, suggesting that the overall risk from exposure to multiple metals in dust is low. The carcinogenic risk for Cd and Cr was all below the acceptable level (< 10 -6 ).