What effects of COVID-19 on regional economic resilience? Evidence from 31 provinces in China

After the 2008 global financial crisis, more and more scholars began to focus on economic resilience. In 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 made the public aware of the importance of regional economies to resist and adapt to external shocks. Based on cross-sectional data from 2020 and 2021, this paper uses causal inference counterfactual to assess the regional economic resilience of various Chinese provinces under the COVID-19 pandemic, and analyzes the determinants of regional economic resilience through geographic detector models. It is found that (1) from the regional perspective, the eastern and central regions are the first to be affected by the epidemic, and their economic resistance is lower than the national average, but the eastern and central regions can stabilize the development trend of the epidemic earlier; (2) from the perspective of provinces, developed provinces are more vulnerable to the epidemic in the early stages than backward provinces; (3) government forces and social environment play an important role in regional economic resistance and adaptation in the initial stage of epidemic impact. Therefore, at the critical moment of China's post-epidemic economic recovery, it should be noted that the regional response to the epidemic depends on the path of action and the specific environment, and cannot be “one-size-fits-all.” Pay close attention to the key role of government and the management of risk prevention. The region has established sound public health policies, systems and mechanisms

Renal cell carcinoma of different pathological types in bilateral native kidneys of a kidney transplant recipient: A case report and literature review

Patients after kidney transplantation have a much higher risk of developing malignant tumors than the general population. And the native kidney is an organ relatively susceptible to malignant tumors after renal transplantation. However, the simultaneous development of bilateral renal tumors is very rare; especially the bilateral native kidneys harbor different pathological types of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We report a case of a patient who developed malignant tumors in both native kidneys nearly 19 years after renal transplantation. This patient underwent bilateral laparoscopic radical nephrectomy, and postoperative pathological examination showed clear cell RCC on the left native kidney and papillary RCC on the right one. And the early detection and surgical treatment resulted in a good prognosis. The literature related to the diagnosis and treatment of bilateral RCC after renal transplantation is also reviewed

Review of advanced road materials, structures, equipment, and detection technologies

As a vital and integral component of transportation infrastructure, pavement has a direct and tangible impact on socio-economic sustainability. In recent years, an influx of groundbreaking and state-of-the-art materials, structures, equipment, and detection technologies related to road engineering have continually and progressively emerged, reshaping the landscape of pavement systems. There is a pressing and growing need for a timely summarization of the current research status and a clear identification of future research directions in these advanced and evolving technologies. Therefore, Journal of Road Engineering has undertaken the significant initiative of introducing a comprehensive review paper with the overarching theme of “advanced road materials, structures, equipment, and detection technologies”. This extensive and insightful review meticulously gathers and synthesizes research findings from 39 distinguished scholars, all of whom are affiliated with 19 renowned universities or research institutions specializing in the diverse and multidimensional field of highway engineering. It covers the current state and anticipates future development directions in the four major and interconnected domains of road engineering: advanced road materials, advanced road structures and performance evaluation, advanced road construction equipment and technology, and advanced road detection and assessment technologies

How Do Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones along the Belt and Road Affect the Economic Growth of Host Countries?

Based on the data of countries along the “One Belt and One Road” from 1998 to 2017, this paper uses the progressive Difference-in-Difference to analyze the impact of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones on the economic growth of host countries, which shows that the establishment of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones significantly promotes the economic development of host countries. Additionally, the specific mechanism of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones to promote the economic growth of the host country is analyzed using the mediating effect model, and the study shows that the overseas economic and trade cooperation zones can encourage the economic development of the host countries by attracting foreign investment inflows. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that overseas economic and trade cooperation zones have stronger economic boosting effects on countries with lower income levels and poorer business systems. Different types of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones have other economic boosting effects on host countries. Among them, the economic impact of industrial, agricultural, and high-tech zones is significant, while the influence of logistics and comprehensive industrial zones is not yet significant. Finally, the paper carries out further discussion based on the above findings

Investigation on the high-temperature stability and fatigue behavior of cold mixed epoxy asphalt mixture with different gradations

Cold mixed epoxy asphalt mixture (CMEAM) is widely applied on steel deck bridge pavements due to its excellent high temperature and fatigue resistance. However, previous studies investigated above two properties through destructive test or without considering water-damage factor, respectively, which is far away from real servicing condition. To distinguish above two properties of EA-05 and EA-10 (mixture with nominal maximum particle size of 4.75 mm and 9.5 mm), uniaxial static creep tests, dynamic modulus test and four-point bending beam fatigue test were applied in this paper. At the same time, to comprehensively acquire elastic, viscous-elastic and plastic performance of CMEAM, four kinds of constitutive models were also put forward. Results showed that seven-element viscous-elastic-plastic creep model has the highest correlation coefficients which proves there exists plastic deformation in CMEAM. Meanwhile, EA-10 is likely to present viscous-elastic deformation while EA-05 is more likely to show plastic deformation. Dynamic modulus among different gradation type mixture at 40 °C is not so apparent. But with the increase of frequency and testing temperature, this difference would be clear. The middle gradation of EA-10 has the most excellent high temperature stability under dynamic load. In terms of the resistance to fatigue damage of control or freeze-thaw treated samples, EA-05-U(the upper limit of EA-05 gradation type) always takes the first place and has the lowest sensitivity to the change of stress level and water damage

Low Temperature Performance Characteristics of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) Mortars with Virgin and Aged Soft Binders

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has many advantages and is utilized to improve the high temperature properties of asphalt mixtures. Low temperature cracking is a predominant distress in asphalt pavements containing RAP materials. Thus, the evaluation of fracture resistance for asphalt mixtures containing RAP is of interest. The objective of this research is to explore the low temperature performance characteristics of RAP mortars containing sieved RAP and soft binders at three aged states. The stiffness values and m-values from bending beam rheometer (BBR) tests at three test temperatures of −18 °C, −12 °C and −6 °C were obtained to conduct the minimum low temperature grades. RAP mortar with a higher aged binder content had a higher minimum low temperature regardless of RAP source. In addition, RAP mortars with virgin soft binder had the best low temperature resistance followed by the RAP mortars with rolling thin film oven (RTFO) and pressure-aged vessel (PAV) binders

Research on the anti-aging mechanism of SBS-modified asphalt compounded with multidimensional nanomaterials based on atomic force microscopy

Styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS)-modified asphalt binders age during road service, affecting the road performance. To improve the anti-aging performance of SBS-modified asphalt, layered silicates (organically expanded vermiculite (OEVMT) and organic montmorillonite (OMMT)), which can reduce the oxidation behavior of asphalt, and nanometer-scale titania (nano-TiO2), which has good anti-ultraviolet aging properties, were selected for the preparation of composite modifiers due to their properties. The composite modifiers are multidimensional nanomaterials, OEVMT/TiO2 and OMMT/TiO2. The asphalt samples were aged by a thin film oven (TFOT) test, pressure aging vessel (PAV) test, and ultraviolet aging test. Through physical performance tests, rheological performance tests, and atomic force microscopy, the performance of asphalt samples before and after aging was analyzed, and the action mechanism of multidimensional nanomaterials was discussed. The test results showed that OEVMT/TiO2 or OMMT/TiO2 increased the viscosity and high-temperature performance of asphalt. The dispersibility and stability of the SBS modifier in asphalt were also improved. The addition of multidimensional nanomaterials to SBS-modified asphalt not only inhibited the oxidation rate of the asphalt but also reduced the impact of ultraviolet light on the asphalt during aging. As the degree of aging increased, the area of the “bee structure” in the asphalt gradually increased, and the surface roughness gradually decreased. However, the addition of OEVMT/TiO2 or OMMT/TiO2 to SBS-modified asphalt inhibited the increase in the area of the “bee structure” and improved the surface roughness of the aged asphalt. The comprehensive analysis found that the multidimensional nanomaterials improved the thermal-oxidative aging resistance and ultraviolet aging resistance of SBS-modified asphalt

Chemical characteristics analyze of SBS-modified bitumen containing composite nanomaterials after aging by FTIR and GPC

To improve the thermal-oxidation aging resistance and anti-ultraviolet (UV) aging of SBS-modified bitumen. Nanometer-titania (nano-TiO2) was compounded with organically expanded vermiculite (OEVMT) and organic montmorillonite (OMMT) to prepare composite nanomaterials (OEVMT/TiO2 and OMMT/TiO2). The results showed that OEVMT/TiO2 and OMMT/TiO2 improved the anti-deformation ability of SBS-modified bitumen. Under the same aging conditions, the carbonyl index (CI) and butadiene index (BI) of the composite nanomaterials modified bitumen had smaller changes than the original bitumen. At the same time, it was found that OEVMT/TiO2 and OMMT/TiO2 significantly reduced the LMS growth rate of original bitumen, which effectively inhibited the transfer rate of small and medium molecular size to LMS during the aging process

A Systematic Review on the Role of Repeat Transurethral Resection after Initial en Bloc Resection for Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer

International guidelines recommend repeat transurethral resection of bladder tumors (reTURB) for selected patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer to remove possible residual tumors, restage tumors and improve the therapeutic outcome. However, most evidence supporting the benefits of reTURB is from conventional TURB. The role of reTURB in patients receiving initial En bloc resection of bladder tumor (ERBT) is still unknown. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were systematically searched. Finally, this systematic review and meta-analysis included twelve articles, including 539 patients. The rates of residual tumor and tumor upstaging detected by reTURB after ERBT were 5.9% (95%CI, 2.0%–11.1%) and 0.0% (95%CI, 0.0%–0.5%), respectively. Recurrence-free survival, tumor recurrence and progression were comparable between patients with and without reTURB after initial ERBT. The pooled hazard ratios of 1-year, 2-year, 3-year and 5-year recurrence-free survival were 0.74 (95%CI, 0.36–1.51; p = 0.40), 0.76 (95%CI, 0.45–1.26; p = 0.28), 0.83 (95%CI, 0.53–1.32; p = 0.43) and 0.83 (95%CI, 0.56–1.23; p = 0.36), respectively. The pooled relative risks of recurrence and progression were 0.87 (95%CI, 0.64–1.20; p = 0.40) and 1.11 (95%CI, 0.54–2.32; p = 0.77), respectively. Current evidence demonstrates that reTURB after ERBT for bladder cancer can detect relatively low rates of residual tumor and tumor upstaging and appears not to improve either recurrence or progression

Investigation on the relations of operating parameters of a thermodynamic cycle energy storage system

In the background of carbon neutrality targets, energy for power generation is being converted from fossil to renewable sources. Energy storage has become particularly more and more important because it is a key tech-nology to solve the instability of renewable energy. An energy storage method coupled with a heat pump and power cycle named thermodynamic cycle energy storage, which uses a heat pump and power cycle to run alternately for energy storage and has attracted the attention of international researchers because of its char-acteristics of green development, flexible application and convenience for large scale. The relations of operating parameters of the thermodynamic cycle energy storage are very important for operating this system sufficiently. Therefore, an optimization model of thermodynamic cycle energy storage was established for the CO2 tran-scritical thermodynamic cycle, with hot water as a hot storage medium and NaCl brine as a cold storage medium. The relations of its operating parameters were analyzed by pinch point temperature difference and control variable method. The results showed that turning of some parameter curves occurs with changing the position of pinch point and largest temperature difference points. The round-trip efficiency generally increases firstly and then decreases with increasing the high-temperature side pressure of the power cycle. In the calculation range, when the evaporating pressure of the heat pump is 2.00 MPa, the high-temperature side pressure of the heat pump is 20.00 MPa, and the CO2 temperature of the air cooler outlet is 20 degrees C, the peak value of round-trip efficiency is the largest, the maximum round-trip efficiency is 56.9 %