The Effect of Chinese Imports on European Innovation Activities in the Medium-Long Term Period

Studies have been conducted about the role of foreign trade-driven technology transfer in the achievement of the Chinese miracle; however, when focusing on the opposite direction, the literature is not uniform: how are Western businesses affected by trade dealings which China? To what extent does this impact apply to the innovation cycle? In this research we focused on the linear correlation between innovation in European countries (proxied by patent applications) and imports from China, over the 15-year time period following China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. Patent applications are used as a measure of innovation, integrated in an economic model inspired by the "Trapped Factors" model, that makes it possible to account for escape-competition effects. The model analyzes the 2002-2016 period across 22 European countries. Apart from evaluating the impact of Chinese imports on European innovation, our study provides a review of the major contributions that have characterized this research area in the most recent years, trying to categorize and to present them from a proactive and comprehensive point of view. Keywords: innovation, import, China, Europe, patent applications DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-12-03 Publication date: April 30th 202

Redesigning spectroscopic sensors with programmable photonic circuits

Optical spectroscopic sensors are a powerful tool to reveal light-matter interactions in many fields, such as physics, biology, chemistry, and astronomy. Miniaturizing the currently bulky spectrometers has become imperative for the wide range of applications that demand in situ or even in vitro characterization systems, a field that is growing rapidly. Benchtop spectrometers are capable of offering superior resolution and spectral range, but at the expense of requiring a large size. In this paper, we propose a novel method that redesigns spectroscopic sensors via the use of programmable photonic circuits. Drawing from compressive sensing theory, we start by investigating the most ideal sampling matrix for a reconstructive spectrometer and reveal that a sufficiently large number of sampling channels is a prerequisite for both fine resolution and low reconstruction error. This number is, however, still considerably smaller than that of the reconstructed spectral pixels, benefitting from the nature of reconstruction algorithms. We then show that the cascading of a few engineered MZI elements can be readily programmed to create an exponentially scalable number of such sampling spectral responses over an ultra-broad bandwidth, allowing for ultra-high resolution down to single-digit picometers without incurring additional hardware costs. Experimentally, we implement an on-chip spectrometer with a fully-programmable 6-stage cascaded MZI structure and demonstrate a 200 nm bandwidth using only 729 sampling channels. This achieves a bandwidth-to-resolution ratio of over 20,000, which is, to our best knowledge, about one order of magnitude greater than any reported miniaturized spectrometers to date. We further illustrate that by employing dispersion-engineered waveguide components, the device bandwidth can be extended to over 400 nm

Spatio-temporal characteristics and determinants of anthropogenic nitrogen and phosphorus inputs in an ecologically fragile karst basin: Environmental responses and management strategies

Excessive nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to land and subsequent export to water via runoff leads to aquatic ecosystem deterioration. The WRB is the world’s largest karst basin which is characterized by a fragile ecosystem coupling with high population pressure, and the transformation of intensive agriculture. Quantifying different sources of pollution in karst regions is challenging due to the complexity of landscape topography and geology coupled with high transmissivity and connectivity of subsurface hydrological systems. This results in large uncertainty associated with nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) flow pathways. This combination of factors contributes to the WRB being a high priority for quantitatively understanding the contribution of regional nutrient inputs and those of other major water quality determinants. Here we applied the latest statistical data (2000–2018) and simple quasi-mass-balance methods of net anthropogenic nitrogen and phosphorus inputs (NANI and NAPI) to estimate spatio-temporal heterogeneity of N and P inputs. The results show that while NANI and NAPI are first decreasing, this is followed by an increasing trend during 2000–2018, with average values of 11262.06 ± 2732 kg N km− 2 yr−1 and 2653.91 ± 863 kg P km−2 yr−1 respectively. High N and P concentrations in the river drainage network are related to the spatial distribution of excessive inputs of N and P. Rapid urbanization, livestock farming and the conflicts between economic development and lagged-environmental management are the main reasons for the incremental regional N and P inputs. Management decisions on nutrient pollution in karst regions need careful consideration to reduce ecological impacts and contamination of karst aquifers. This study provides new insight for policy and decision making in the WRB, highlighting policy options for managing nutrient inputs and providing recommendations for closing the science-policy divide

AMS measurement of 53Mn and its initial application at CIAE

The determination of cosmogenic 53Mn in terrestrial archives has important applications, such as burial ages, exposure age and erosion rates. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is the most sensitive technique to detect minute amounts of 53Mn. 53Mn measurements were developed at the China Institute of Atomic nergy (CIAE) using the DE-Q3D equipped AMS system. This approach was recently optimized with the goal to reach the sensitivity required for AMS measurements of 53Mn in deep-sea ferromanganese crust (DSFC) samples. Based on these improvements of sample preparation, current beam transmission and so on, 53Mn in two samples of DSFC was measured by AMS. The ratios of 53Mn/Mn corresponding to an age of 3.77 ± 0.42 and 13.73 ± 2.74 Ma by 129I dating method are (5.01 ± 2.15) 10 13 and (1.90 ± 0.96) 10 13. The ratios are close to the experimental reference values, deduced from the previous research. The experimental progress, performances and results are presented in this contribution.This work was mainly supported by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (NSFC), under Grant No. 11075221, and a partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 10705054, 41073044 and 11265005

Impact of Environmental Regulation and Technical Progress on Industrial Carbon Productivity: An Approach Based on Proxy Measure

This research aims to study the main influencing factors of China’s industrial carbon productivity by incorporating environmental regulation and technical progress into an econometric model. The paper focuses on data from 35 of China’s industrial sectors and covers the period from 2006 to 2014, in order to examine the impact of environmental regulation and technical progress on carbon productivity. Methods applied include panel fixed effect model, panel random effect model and two stage least squares with instrumental variables (IV-2SLS). The effect of environmental regulation and technical progress has industrial heterogeneity. The paper subdivides industrial sectors into capital and technology intensive, resource intensive and labor intensive sectors according to factor intensiveness. The estimation results of the subgroups have uncovered that for capital and technology intensive and resource intensive sectors, environmental regulation has a more significant impact than technical progress; while for labor intensive sectors, innovation more significantly influences carbon productivity. In addition, foreign direct investment (FDI) and industrialization level facilitate improving carbon productivity for the full sample. By contrast, industrial structure inhibits the overall industrial carbon productivity. The industry-specific results indicate that for capital and technology intensive sectors, optimizing of the industrial structure can improve carbon productivity; for resource intensive sectors, FDI and energy consumption structure should be emphasized more; for labor intensive sectors, industrialization levels help enhance carbon productivity. Finally the industrial sector-specific policy suggestions are proposed

The Effect of Environmental Regulation on Employment in China: Empirical Research Based on Individual-Level Data

This paper argues that the scale effect and substitution effect in the labor demand for environmental regulations should not be ignored in the pursuit of environmental improvements. It is necessary to analyze the influential mechanism of environmental regulations on employment. Based on the pooled cross-section data combined by CHIP (Chinese Household Income Project) data and macro data at the city level, this paper investigates the impacts of environmental regulations on an individual’s employment probability in China. The results show that there exists a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulations and an individual’s employment probability. The employment effect on workers from different regions and industries or with different hukou (Household Registration System) is heterogeneous. Specifically, the regulations are more stringent in the east, more significant in secondary and tertiary industries, and stronger on urban workers’ employment. The findings are robust to alternative measures

Effects of Intercropping on Fractal Dimension and Physicochemical Properties of Soil in Karst Areas

Suitable soil structure and nutrient security are important for plant growth and development. The fractal dimension of soil, along with the distribution of physical and chemical properties and their interactions, plays an important role in studying the stability of soil structures and water and fertilizer cycles. As a sustainable management model, intercropping has positive benefits for erosion control, the spatial optimization of resources, and improving system productivity. The effects of four intercropping methods on the fractal dimension and physicochemical properties of soil were investigated by intercropping Salvia miltiorrhiza with forage and S. miltiorrhiza with forest under typical karst rock desertification habitats in Guizhou. The results showed that the soil nutrient content when intercropping was significantly higher than that of monoculture. The organic carbon content of soil grown under forest is higher than other treatments, and there was a non-significant change in soil water content when intercropping compared with monoculture. The soil fine-grained matter when intercropping was significantly higher than that of monoculture, while the soil fractal dimension showed a tendency to become larger with an increase in fine-grained matter. Intercropping planting, due to its component types and spatial and temporal configurations, leads to differences in soil water and fertilizer interactions, which can be combined with other ecological restoration measures to optimize the composite model and jointly promote the restoration and development of ecologically fragile areas

Metro passenger’s path choice model estimation with travel time correlations derived from smart card data

Smart card data provides a new perspective for estimating a metro passenger’s path choice model in a large-scale urban rail transit network with multiple alternative paths between origin-destination pairs. However, existing research does not consider correlations of path travel times among alternative paths when using smart card data for estimation purposes, leading to biased estimations. This paper proposes an approach to estimating the path choice model considering path travel time correlations. In particular, a simplified form of measuring path travel time correlations caused by shared links is proposed to improve estimation efficiency. Then a framework for a linking path choice model and smart card data is developed based on a Gaussian mixture model; an expectation maximization-based estimation algorithm is also provided. Finally, taking the Guangzhou Metro in China as an example, the superiority of estimations based on smart card data considering correlations is observed in both statistical terms and predictions

Eco-sewerage system design for modern office buildings: Based on vacuum and source-separation technology

This study aimed to construct an on-site eco-sewerage system for modern office buildings in urban area based on combined innovative technologies of vacuum and source-separation. Results showed that source-separated grey water had low concentrations of pollutants, which helped the reuse of grey water. However, the system had a low separation efficiency between the yellow water and the brown water, which was caused by the plug problem in the urine collection from the urine-diverting toilets. During the storage of yellow water for liquid fertilizer production, nearly all urea nitrogen transferred to ammonium nitrogen and about 2/3 phosphorus was lost because of the struvite precipitation. Total bacteria and coliforms increased first in the storage, but then decreased to low concentrations. The anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic MBR had high elimination rates of COD, ammonium nitrogen and total nitrogen of the brown water, which were 94.2%, 98.1% and 95.1%, respectively. However, the effluent still had high contents of colority, nitrate and phosphorus, which affected the application of the effluent for flushing water. Even though, the effluent might be used as dilution water for the yellow water fertilizer. Based on the results and the assumption of an ideal operation of the vacuum source-separation system, a future plan for on-site eco-sewerage system of modern office buildings was constructed. Its sustainability was validated by the analysis of the substances flow of water and nutrients

Factors Affecting the Crystal Size of Struvite-K Formed in Synthetic Urine Using a Stirred Reactor

The crystallization of struvite-K (MgKPO·6HO) can simultaneously recover phosphate and potassium from source-separated urine. However, its crystal size has been rarely reported despite significantly affecting the crystallizer performance. Experimental results show that the average size of struvite-K was 15-63 μm in ammonium-depleted synthetic urine under the examined conditions with a stirred reactor. A low supersaturation ratio (S) or the same S induced by low pH and high Mg:P ratio resulted in large crystal size. Large crystals also formed at high agitation speed, small feed volume, or feeding close to the stirring impeller. The size distribution of struvite-K crystals was predicted using the coupling resolution of the population balance equation to on-site turbidity measurement. The estimated kinetic parameters quantitatively described the nucleation and crystal growth of struvite-K under different conditions of supersaturation, feeding, and mixing. This work proposes approaches to obtain large crystals while reducing fines of struvite-K