Does green finance promote the social responsibility fulfilment of highly polluting enterprises? – empirical evidence from China

This study explores whether and how the development of green finance can facilitate the social responsibility of highly polluting enterprises. We conducted a quasi-natural experiment in 2017 in five Chinese provinces (districts), based on the establishment of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones. The research samples were China’s A-share heavy pollution-industry-listed companies from 2013 to 2020, and the difference in differences model was used to examine the relationship between green finance and social responsibility fulfilment of highly polluting firms. The mediating and moderating effects of financial constraints and media monitoring were also discussed. The findings indicate that the advancement of green finance significantly improves the level of social responsibility fulfilment of highly polluting firms, particularly in the area of environmental responsibility. Furthermore, strengthened financing constraints partially mediate the aforementioned relationship, and media monitoring positively moderates the facilitation effect of green finance development on highly polluting firms’ social responsibility fulfilment. Our study demonstrates that a higher degree of financing constraints is an important channel for establishing a green finance reform and innovation pilot zone to force enterprises to fulfilment their social responsibility, and provides theoretical support for governments and enterprises to better understand the policy effects

Study on Growth and Change of Solid Particles with Water Flow in Oilfield Water-Injection Pipeline

The solid particles in oilfield water-injection pipelines with water flow will continuously grow and change, and the oversized solid particles may block the pores of the formation and reduce the oilfield recovery efficiency. Therefore, the study on the growth and change to solid particles during transportation has become a question of interest in oilfields. However, there is little research on this question currently. Therefore, on the basis of the liquid-solid two-phase flow model and the particle population balance model, a growth and change model of solid particles in long-distance water-injection pipelines flowing along water was established in this paper in consideration of the injected water temperature drop along the path, as well as the growth, coalescence, breakage and deposition of particles. Comparison of the field test results indicated that the average error of the particle size distribution fitting degree calculated by the model is 6.9%, and the average error of median diameter is 4.1%. This model was used for analyzing the impact of the flow rate, temperature and median diameter of the united station outlet in a block oilfield of Shengli Oilfield on the solid particle size of the wellheads, and the critical flow rate, temperature and median diameter of the united station outlet were predicted when the median diameter at the wellheads meets the injection requirement (< 2 μm). The establishment of this model cannot only be used for the study on the growth and change to solid particles in water-injection pipelines flowing along water, but also provides a technical reference for the study on the growth and change to low-concentration solid particles accompanying flow in long-distance liquid/gas phase pipelines

Demonstration of the first monolithically integrated self-rolled-up tube based vertical photonic coupler

We demonstrated the first monolithically integrated self-rolled-up SiN_x tube based vertical photonic coupler on top of a planar ridge waveguide. The coupling efficiency between the elements is >10 times higher than similar non-integrated device

Equipping Federated Graph Neural Networks with Structure-aware Group Fairness

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have been widely used for various types of graph data processing and analytical tasks in different domains. Training GNNs over centralized graph data can be infeasible due to privacy concerns and regulatory restrictions. Thus, federated learning (FL) becomes a trending solution to address this challenge in a distributed learning paradigm. However, as GNNs may inherit historical bias from training data and lead to discriminatory predictions, the bias of local models can be easily propagated to the global model in distributed settings. This poses a new challenge in mitigating bias in federated GNNs. To address this challenge, we propose $\text{F}^2$GNN, a Fair Federated Graph Neural Network, that enhances group fairness of federated GNNs. As bias can be sourced from both data and learning algorithms, $\text{F}^2$GNN aims to mitigate both types of bias under federated settings. First, we provide theoretical insights on the connection between data bias in a training graph and statistical fairness metrics of the trained GNN models. Based on the theoretical analysis, we design $\text{F}^2$GNN which contains two key components: a fairness-aware local model update scheme that enhances group fairness of the local models on the client side, and a fairness-weighted global model update scheme that takes both data bias and fairness metrics of local models into consideration in the aggregation process. We evaluate $\text{F}^2$GNN empirically versus a number of baseline methods, and demonstrate that $\text{F}^2$GNN outperforms these baselines in terms of both fairness and model accuracy

Abrupt climatic events recorded by the Ili loess during the last glaciation in Central Asia: Evidence from grain-size and minerals

The loess record of Central Asia provides an important archive of regional climate and environmental changes. In contrast to the widely investigated loess deposits in the Chinese Loess Plateau, Central Asian loess-paleosol sequences remain poorly understood. Here, we present an aeolian loess section in the southern Ili Basin. Based on granularity and mineralogical analyses, we reconstruct climatic changes during the last glaciation. The results indicated that most of the abrupt climatic events (such as Dansgaard-Oeschger events and Heinrich events) were imprinted in this loess section, although their amplitudes and ages showed some differences. Compared with the millennial oscillations recoded in loess and stalagmites in East Asia, the arid Central Asia responded more sensitively to the warming events than to the cooling events. The shifting trajectory of westerlies across Central Asia played an important role in dust deposition during the stadials. The North Atlantic climatic signals may have been transmitted from Central Asia to the East Asian monsoon regions via the westerlies

Overlapping Leigh Syndrome/Myoclonic Epilepsy With Ragged Red Fibres in an Adolescent Patient With a Mitochondrial DNA A8344G Mutation

We present the case of a 16-year-old boy with a family history of epilepsy who presented with acute respiratory failure, limb weakness, diabetes mellitus, sinus tachycardia, lactic acidosis, and pneumonia. He went on to develop cranial nerve palsy, myoclonus, generalized seizures, ataxia, recurrent pneumonia, and hypotension. Biochemical investigation revealed elevated lactate, pyruvate, and glucose levels. Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed bilateral, symmetric, high-intensity T2-weighted signals in the thalamus, brainstem, and gray matter of the spinal cord. Histochemical analyses revealed ragged red fibers (RRF) and decreased cytochrome oxidase activity. Blood and muscle-derived DNA demonstrated a high level (95% and 96%, respectively) of the m.8344A&gt;G mutation, while almost all of his maternal relatives (n = 17, including his mother) carried the same point mutation. The point mutation level of his mother (who had short stature, high blood lactate levels, and epilepsy) was 77% (blood-derived DNA). Although this mutation has been identified in approximately 30 individuals with these disorders, to our knowledge, this is the first reported case of overlapping Leigh syndrome/myoclonic epilepsy with RRF in an adolescent patient, and the largest reported pedigree of mitochondrial DNA A8344G mutation

The Technology and Application of Improving Bearing Capacity of Deep Peat Soil Subgrade

Peat soil is widely distributed in more than 500 countries around the world, covering an area of over 4 million square kilometers, among which the distribution area in China is about 40000 square kilometers, and most of Peat soil is distributed in swamps and forests. Peat soil is with high content of organic matter, poor engineering properties and low bearing capacity, which is very unfavorable to the safety and functionality of infrastructure construction. The Belt and Road, and the other two parts of the peat soil are studied in this paper. The key technologies of peat soil foundation are studied through literature review and comparative study. This will provide theoretical and technical support for repairing bridges, roads and houses in the distribution area of peat soil, and provide the theoretical basis and technical foundation for the construction of the “peat” Road area. Chinese Library Classification: TU0

Association of Short Tandem Repeat Polymorphism in the Promoter of Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 Gene with the Risk of Prostate Cancer

BACKGROUND: PCA3 (prostate cancer antigen 3) gene is one of the most prostate cancer-specific genes at present. Consequently, the prostate-specific expression and the sharp up-regulation of PCA3 mRNA in prostate cancer suggest a unique transcriptional regulation, which possibly can be attributed to promoter polymorphism. In our study, we evaluated whether there is polymorphism in PCA3 promoter region and also assess the association of the polymorphism with prostate cancer. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We designed a specific primer set to screen the promoter of PCA3 gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based cloning and sequencing with the DNA extracted from peripheral blood samples of prostate cancer (PCa) cases (n = 186) and healthy control cases (n = 135). Genotype-specific risks were estimated as odds ratios (ORs) with associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by chi-square test. Possible deviation of the genotype frequencies from controls and PCa cases expected under Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was assessed by the chi-square test. Short tandem repeat polymorphism of TAAA was found in the promoter region of PCA3 gene, five polymorphisms and eight genotypes were identified. The eight genotypes were divided into three groups: ≤10TAAA, 11TAAA, ≥12TAAA. The group 11TAAA and ≥12TAAA were associated with higher relative risk for prostate cancer than group ≤10TAAA (OR = 1.76, 95%CI = 1.07-2.89[for group 11TAAA]; OR = 5.28, 95%CI = 1.76-15.89[for group ≥12TAAA]). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The presence of the (TAAA)n short tandem repeat polymorphisms in the PCA3 promoter region may be a risk factor for prostate cancer in the Chinese population