Peak cement-related CO2 emissions and the changes in drivers in China

In order to fight against the climate change, China has set a series of emission reduction policies for super‐emitting sectors. The cement industry is the major source of process‐related emissions, and more attention should be paid to this industry. This study calculates the process‐related, direct fossil fuel–related, and indirect electricity‐related emissions from China's cement industry. The study finds that China's cement‐related emissions peaked in 2014. The emissions are, for the first time, divided into seven parts based on the cement used in different new building types. The provincial emission analysis finds that developed provinces outsourced their cement capacities to less developed regions. This study then employs index decomposition analysis to explore the drivers of changes in China's cement‐related emissions. The results show that economic growth was the primary driver of emission growth, while emission intensity and efficiency were two offsetting factors. The changes in the construction industry's structure and improvement in efficiency were the two major drivers that contributed to the decreased emissions since 2014

Psychological resilience and work engagement of Chinese nurses: a chain mediating model of career identity and quality of work life

AimTo investigate how nurses’ psychological resilience affects their work engagement and the resulting pathways, namely, the intermediary effect of career identity and quality of work life.BackgroundPsychological resilience is the ability to adapt to new circumstances and overcome difficulties. Work engagement is a positive, perfect emotional and cognitive state in the work process, which has a positive effect on nurses’ physical and mental health and career development. The importance of psychological resilience in nursing is growing in popularity. However, few studies have explored the relationship between psychological resilience and nurses’ work engagement.DesignThis is a cross-sectional study.MethodsFrom March to April 2023, 356 nurses in the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinzhou Medical University in China received valid questionnaires. The study was surveyed using the Connor-Davidson, Resilience Scale, the Nursing Career Identity Scale, the Work-Related Quality of Life Scale, and the 15-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Process version 3.5 plug-in SPSS 25 was used to test the mediating effect.Results(1) Psychological resilience was significantly and positively correlated with career identity, quality of work life, and work engagement (r = 0.702–0.803, p < 0.001). (2) Career identity and quality of work life partially mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and work engagement, with effect sizes of 0.2382 and 0.0958, respectively. (3) There was a chain mediation model between psychological resilience and work engagement that had a value of 0.1219.ConclusionCareer identity and quality of work life played a chain-mediating role between psychological resilience and work engagement. Thus, in order to enhance the work engagement of clinical nurses, it is necessary for nursing managers to take measures to enhance not only psychological resilience but also their career identity and the quality of work life

Demand-driven air pollutant emissions for a fast-developing region in China

Guangdong is one of many fast-developing regions in China that are confronting the challenges of air pollution mitigation and sustainable economic development. Previous studies have focused on the characterization of production-based emissions to formulate control strategies, but the drivers of emission growth and pattern changes from the consumption side have rarely been explored. In this study, we used environmentally extended input-output analysis with well-established production-based emission inventories to develop a consumption-based emission inventory for seven pollutants in the years 2007 and 2012. The results showed that the demands of construction, transport and other services dominated the emissions from the consumption perspective, followed by electric power and some machinery and light industries. The varying trends of air pollutants from 2007 to 2012 were associated with production-based control measures and changes in economic structure and trading patterns. From the consumption perspective, due to the stringent control of SO2 in power plants and key industries, the SO2 emissions underwent substantial declines, while the less controlled PM10, PM2.5, VOC and CO emissions continued to grow. The contributions of the cleaner (that is, with lower emission intensity) service sectors (third-sector industries, excluding transport, storage and post) to all seven pollutants increased. This increase could be a consequence of the expansion of the service sector in Guangdong; in this five-year period, the service sector grew by 41% in terms of its contributions to Guangdong's gross domestic product. Meanwhile, exports accounted for more than half of the emissions, but their share had started to decrease for most pollutants except VOC and CO. The results suggest that Guangdong moved towards a cleaner production and consumption pathway. The transformation of the industrial structure and increase in of urban demand should help to further reduce emissions while maintaining economic development

Socioeconomic impact assessment of China's CO2 emissions peak prior to 2030

China is the largest emitter of carbon emissions in the world. In this paper, we present an Integrated Model of Economy and Climate (IMEC), an optimization model based on the input-output model. The model is designed to assess the tradeoff between emission deceleration and economic growth. Given that China's projected average growth rate will exceed 5% over the next two decades, we find that China may reach its peak CO2 emissions levels by 2026. According to this scenario, China's carbon emissions will peak at 11.20 Gt in 2026 and will then decline to 10.84 Gt in 2030. Accordingly, approximately 22 Gt of CO2 will be removed from 2015 to 2035 relative to the scenario wherein China's CO2 emissions peak in 2030. While this earlier peaking of carbon emissions will result in a decline in China's GDP, several sectors, such as Machinery and Education, will benefit. In order to reach peak CO2 emissions by 2026, China needs to reduce its annual GDP growth rate to less than 4.5% by 2030 and decrease energy and carbon intensity levels by 43% and 45%, respectively, from 2015 to 2030

Targeting RNA Polymerase Primary σ70 as a Therapeutic Strategy against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus by Antisense Peptide Nucleic Acid

BACKGROUND: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causes threatening infection-related mortality worldwide. Currently, spread of multi-drug resistance (MDR) MRSA limits therapeutic options and requires new approaches to "druggable" target discovery, as well as development of novel MRSA-active antibiotics. RNA polymerase primary σ⁷⁰ (encoded by gene rpoD) is a highly conserved prokaryotic factor essential for transcription initiation in exponentially growing cells of diverse S. aureus, implying potential for antisense inhibition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By synthesizing a serial of cell penetrating peptide conjugated peptide nucleic acids (PPNAs) based on software predicted parameters and further design optimization, we identified a target sequence (234 to 243 nt) within rpoD mRNA conserved region 3.0 being more sensitive to antisense inhibition. A (KFF)₃K peptide conjugated 10-mer complementary PNA (PPNA2332) was developed for potent micromolar-range growth inhibitory effects against four pathogenic S. aureus strains with different resistance phenotypes, including clinical vancomycin-intermediate resistance S. aureus and MDR-MRSA isolates. PPNA2332 showed bacteriocidal antisense effect at 3.2 fold of MIC value against MRSA/VISA Mu50, and its sequence specificity was demonstrated in that PPNA with scrambled PNA sequence (Scr PPNA2332) exhibited no growth inhibitory effect at higher concentrations. Also, PPNA2332 specifically interferes with rpoD mRNA, inhibiting translation of its protein product σ⁷⁰ in a concentration-dependent manner. Full decay of mRNA and suppressed expression of σ⁷⁰ were observed for 40 µM or 12.5 µM PPNA2332 treatment, respectively, but not for 40 µM Scr PPNA2332 treatment in pure culture of MRSA/VISA Mu50 strain. PPNA2332 (≥1 µM) essentially cleared lethal MRSA/VISA Mu50 infection in epithelial cell cultures, and eliminated viable bacterial cells in a time- and concentration- dependent manner, without showing any apparent toxicity at 10 µM. CONCLUSIONS: The present result suggested that RNAP primary σ⁷⁰ is a very promising candidate target for developing novel antisense antibiotic to treat severe MRSA infections

Methodology and applications of city level CO2 emission accounts in China

China is the world's largest energy consumer and CO2 emitter. Cities contribute 85% of the total CO2 emissions in China and thus are considered as the key areas for implementing policies designed for climate change adaption and CO2 emission mitigation. However, the emission inventory construction of Chinese cities has not been well researched, mainly owing to the lack of systematic statistics and poor data quality. Focusing on this research gap, we developed a set of methods for constructing CO2 emissions inventories for Chinese cities based on energy balance table. The newly constructed emission inventory is compiled in terms of the definition provided by the IPCC territorial emission accounting approach and covers 47 socioeconomic sectors, 17 fossil fuels and 9 primary industry products, which is corresponding with the national and provincial inventory. In the study, we applied the methods to compile CO2 emissions inventories for 24 common Chinese cities and examined uncertainties of the inventories. Understanding the emissions sources in Chinese cities is the basis for many climate policy and goal research in the future