Managerial Areas of Construction and Demolition Waste: A Scientometric Review

In past decades, the massive generation of construction and demolition waste (CDW) was increasingly threatening the public environment and humanity health worldwide. A large amount of research has been devoted to the CDW from difference perspectives. However, few scholars have attempted to summarize and review the extant studies, especially in the managerial areas of CDW (MA-CDW). This paper fills this gap via a systematic and quantitative review in the CDW management field. Employing the scientometric analysis method, a total of 261 articles published from 2006 to 2018 were collected to construct the knowledge map and comprehensive framework for MA-CDW. Results show that the overall evolutionary trend of MA-CDW was from basic management concepts to internal and external challenges analysis, to organizational strategy and innovative management practices. The major MA-CDW knowledge domains were identified and summarized into four pillars, namely: (1) factor and challenge; (2) composition and quantification; (3) assessment and comparison; and (4) technology and method. Based on the trend, knowledge gaps and future research directions were found out and discussed. This study contributes to the existing MA-CDW knowledge by presenting a comprehensive knowledge framework. Furthermore, these findings can provide the researchers and practitioners with an in-depth understanding for the sustainable governance of CDW

Assessment and Decomposition of Regional Land Use Efficiency of the Service Sector in China

High land use efficiency is the key to improving total factor productivity, and also an important force behind achieving sustained economic growth. Existing studies have mainly focused on the land use efficiency of the industry sector. Yet, the issue of land use efficiency of the service sector (SLUE) has been largely overlooked. This study examines regional differences and efficiency decomposition by using a slack based model (SBM) of undesirable output, and the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) under a data envelopment analysis framework. The results reveal that: (1) In China, the land use efficiency of the service sector is unbalanced, showing an inverted growth law of “low in developed areas and high in backward areas”. (2) The land use efficiency of the service sector can be decomposed into technical progress, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency. From the decomposition results, the growth rate of pure technical efficiency presents a trend of “low in the east and high in the west”; the scale efficiency also falls into the situation of weak group growth. Technological progress has maintained steady improvement. (3) The coordinated improvement of land use efficiency of the service sector needs to focus on resolving the “beggar-thy-neighbor” issue caused by existing large regional differences. In this article, the puzzle of land use efficiency differences in the service industry is well solved, and thus provides valuable enlightenment for the benign growth of service industries in countries and regions around the world

Drought Assessment and Projection under Climate Change: A Case Study in the Middle and Lower Jinsha River Basin

To gain an insight into the spatiotemporal variability of drought events and to assess trends under future climate change scenarios are fundamental for making sound mitigation and adaptation strategies. A new drought index, standardized supply-demand water index (SSDI), has been proposed in this research. The SSDI describes drought from the view of water supply-demand relations using a simple water balance model. It was used to assess historical drought events in the middle and lower Jinsha river basin (MLJRB) located in the southwest China and applied to address the drought conditions in the MLJRB under current and future climates. The results showed the following: (1) The average drought area during 2001 to 2011 reached up to 9.9 × 103 km2, accounting for 35.4% of the whole farmland area in the MLJRB, which was about twice as the drought area during 1961 to 2000. The region for greater drought severity with more drought events and longer duration was mainly distributed in Dali, Chuxiong, Kunming, and Yuxi. (2) For the period 2021 to 2050, total drought area was projected to increase by 43.2%. The drought-prone regions could move further towards the northwest of the MLJRB

Identification and Characterization of Antigenic Properties of Schistosoma japonicum Heat Shock Protein 90α Derived Peptides

It is known that schistosome-derived antigens induce innate and adaptive immune responses that are essential for the formation of hepatic immunopathology. Here, we screened and synthesized four peptides derived from Schistosoma japonicum (S. japonicum) heat shock protein 90α (Sjp90α-1, -2, -3, and -4), which is widely expressed in adults and eggs of the genus S. japonicum and induces remarkable immune reactions. To define the antigenicity of these peptides, we stimulated splenocytes with peptides, and the results showed that only the Sjp90α-1 peptide could predominately induce the activation of dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages as well as alter the proportion of follicular helper T (Tfh) cells. Next, CD4+ T cells were purified and cocultured with mouse bone-marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) with or without Sjp90α-1 peptide stimulation in vitro, and the results showed that Sjp90α-1-stimulated BMDCs can significantly induce CD4+ T-cell differentiation into Tfh cells, while the direct stimulation of CD4+ T cells with Sjp90α-1 did not induce Tfh cells, indicating that the Sjp90α-1 peptide promotes Tfh cell differentiation depending on the presence of DCs. Furthermore, we selected and prepared an Sjp90α-1-peptide-based antibody and illustrated that it has excellent reactivity with the immunizing peptide and detects a single band of 29 kDa corresponding to the Sjp90α protein. The immunolocalization results showed that the protein recognized by this Sjp90α-1-peptide-based antibody is present in the mature eggs and the tegument of adults, implying that the parasite-derived peptide has a potential interaction with the host immune system. Finally, we evaluated antipeptide IgG antibodies and revealed a significantly higher level of anti-Sjp90α-1 peptide IgG antibodies in mice 3 weeks after S. japonicum infection. In conclusion, we illustrate that these synthetic peptides warrant further investigation by evaluating their antigen-specific immune response and their ability to efficiently induce Tfh cells. Moreover, they may constitute a potentially helpful method for the laboratory diagnosis of schistosomiasis japonica