DIVORCE AND HOUSING PRICE IN 31 PROVINCES OF CHINA

We investigate the long-run relationship between housing price and divorce in China using panel data for 31 provinces over the period 1997-2015. We find that housing price does have a long-run positive effect on divorce, especially a bidirectional relationship in the Eastern region

A pilot study of a group mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral intervention for smartphone addiction among university students

Background and aims: Mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) has been applied in behavioral addiction studies in recent years. However, few empirical studies using MBI have been conducted for smartphone addiction, which is prevalent among Chinese university students. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a group mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral intervention (GMCI) on smartphone addiction in a sample of Chinese university students. Methods: Students with smartphone addiction were divided into a control group (n = 29) and an intervention group (n = 41). The students in the intervention group received an 8-week GMCI. Smartphone addiction was evaluated using scores from the Mobile Phone Internet Addiction Scale (MPIAS) and self-reported smartphone use time, which were measured at the baseline (1st week, T1), post-intervention (8th week, T2), the first follow-up (14th week, T3), and the second follow-up (20th week, T4). Results: Twenty-seven students in each group completed the intervention and the follow-up. Smartphone use time and MPIAS scores significantly decreased from T1 to T3 in the intervention group. Compared with the control group, the intervention group had significantly less smartphone use time at T2, T3, and T4 and significantly lower MPIAS scores at T3. Discussion and conclusion: This pilot study demonstrated that the GMCI could significantly alleviate smartphone addiction among university students

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Is green finance capable of promoting renewable energy technology? Empirical investigation for 64 economies worldwide

Research background: As an outcome of a global consensus on combating climate change, green finance is expected to play an important role in promoting green growth and innovation progress. Some studies note that green credit policy yields a negative influence on green innovation, while how green finance affects renewable energy innovation has received scant attention in academia. This study focuses on the impact of green finance on renewable energy innovation. Purpose of the article: This research investigates the influence of green finance on an economy's renewable energy innovation by using green bond data from the Climate Bonds Initiative. This research further tests whether it varies for different kinds of energy types and economic development levels. Given that policies are key to renewable energy technology development, this research checks whether government stability changes the relationship between green finance and renewable energy innovation. Methods: Using the panel fixed effects model and big-scale data from 64 economies worldwide during the period 2014-2019, we investigate green finance's impact on renewable energy innovation. In the robustness test, the dynamic panel model and the panel Tobit model are employed. Findings & value added: This research finds that green finance has a positive effect on renewable energy innovation. This effect is prominent in non-OECD economies as well as middle-income and low-income economies. Government stability enhances the influence of green finance on renewable energy innovation. Moreover, the results indicate that green finance mainly promotes innovation progress for wind energy and produces little effect for other renewable energies. The subsample analysis also sheds light on the heterogeneity of the role of green finance in promoting renewable energy innovation

The transaction behavior of cryptocurrency and electricity consumption

Abstract Rapidly increasing cryptocurrency prices have encouraged cryptocurrency miners to participate in cryptocurrency production, increasing network hashrates and electricity consumption. Growth in network hashrates has further crowded out small cryptocurrency investors owing to the heightened costs of mining hardware and electricity. These changes prompt cryptocurrency miners to become new investors, leading to cryptocurrency price increases. The potential bidirectional relationship between cryptocurrency price and electricity consumption remains unidentified. Hence, this research thus utilizes July 31 2015–July 12 2019 data from 13 cryptocurrencies to investigate the short- and long-run causal effects between cryptocurrency transaction and electricity consumption. Particularly, we consider structural breaks induced by external shocks through stationary analysis and comovement relationships. Over the examined time period, we found that the series of cryptocurrency transaction and electricity consumption gradually returns to mean convergence after undergoing daily shocks, with prices trending together with hashrates. Transaction fluctuations exert both a temporary effect and permanent influence on electricity consumption. Therefore, owing to the computational power deployed to wherever high profit is found, transactions are vital determinants of electricity consumption

The Surface Crack Extraction Method Based on Machine Learning of Image and Quantitative Feature Information Acquisition Method

In order to effectively control the damage caused by surface cracks to a geological environment, we need to find a convenient, efficient, and accurate method to obtain crack information. The existing crack extraction methods based on unmanned air vehicle (UAV) images inevitably have some erroneous pixels because of the complexity of background information. At the same time, there are few researches on crack feature information. In view of this, this article proposes a surface crack extraction method based on machine learning of UAV images, the data preprocessing steps, and the content and calculation methods for crack feature information: length, width, direction, location, fractal dimension, number, crack rate, and dispersion rate. The results show that the method in this article can effectively avoid the interference by vegetation and soil crust. By introducing the concept of dispersion rate, the method combining crack rate and dispersion rate can describe the distribution characteristics of regional cracks more clearly. Compared to field survey data, the calculation result of the crack feature information in this article is close to the true value, which proves that this is a reliable method for obtaining quantitative crack feature information

Facile in-situ synthesis of floating CeO2@ expanded graphite composites with efficient adsorption and visible light photocatalytic degradation of phenol

A facile solution to obtain efficient, stable and cheap photocatalysts was conducted in this work. CeO2@ expanded graphite (CeO2/EG) composites were in-situ synthesized with a new strategy, in which CeCl3 molecules inserted the graphite intercalation compound (GIC) and converted into CeO2 as GIC changed into EG via instant calcination. The introduction of EG has accelerated the adsorption of contaminant molecules, promoted the charge transfer and improved the photocatalytic efficiency. The best sample, containing 80.75 wt% CeO2 particles of nanometer scale, has achieved the highest pollutant removal efficiency of 97.3% for phenol, displaying the highest reaction rate constant of 0.0262 min(-1), which was 35.4 times higher than CeO2. Besides, it possesses good stability and keeps floating in water pollution treatment, showing great advantages to work in natural water body. Phenol and its degradation intermediates were identified using HPLC/MS, and appropriate reaction pathways were proposed

Innovative technology for defluorination of secondary aluminum dross by alkali leaching

Secondary aluminum dross (SAD) contains harmful fluorides, so it requires a harmless treatment before recy-cling. In this paper, an innovative SAD defluorination technology was developed. It extracts all the soluble so-dium fluoride and active cryolite of SAD; besides, it can also stabilize the harmful fluorides towards deep detoxification. The defluorination process gave a novel idea for the comprehensive wet processing treatment of SAD. A NaOH solution was used to leach active fluorides, including cryolite and soluble fluorides, from SAD. The Effects of NaOH concentration, temperature, liquid-to-solid ratio, and leaching time on the fluoride leaching rate were investigated. The leaching rate of active fluorides was 95.8% at a NaOH concentration of 10 wt%, a leaching temperature of 80 degrees C, a liquid-to-solid ratio of 4, and a leaching time of 20 min. The kinetic analysis showed that the fluoride leaching occurred according to the hybrid control model of solid product layer in -diffusion and interfacial chemical reaction. The apparent activation energy was 39.64 kJ/mol. Meanwhile, 99.9% of fluoride ions in the alkaline solution were converted into CaF2 by adding CaO, stabilizing the active fluorides. The concentration of fluorides in the alkaline solution was 5.944 mg/L, satisfying the Chinese National Standard