Projected Urbanization Impacts on Surface Climate and Energy Budgets in the Pearl River Delta of China

The climate impacts of future urbanization in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in China were simulated with the Dynamics of Land Systems (DLS) model and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in this study. The land use and land cover data in 2000 and 2020 were simulated with the DLS model based on the regional development planning. Then the spatial and temporal changes of surface air temperature, ground heat flux, and regional precipitation in 2020 were quantified and analyzed through comparing simulation results by WRF. Results show that the built-up land will become the dominant land use type in the PRD in 2020. Besides, the near-surface air temperature shows an increasing trend on the whole region in both summer and winter, but with some seasonal variation. The urban temperature rise is more apparent in summer than it is in winter. In addition, there is some difference between the spatial pattern of precipitation in summer and winter in 2020; the spatial variation of precipitation is a bit greater in summer than it is in winter. Results can provide significant reference for the land use management to alleviate the climate change

Risky Asset Holding and Labour Income Risk: Evidence from Italian Households

Household portfolio choice problem has been in debate for a long time, and it be- comes more relevant nowadays. Substantial works have been done to understand the relationship between labour income risk and risky asset holding, despite that inconsistent empirical relationships are revealed. In this paper, we investigate the age-variant effects of labour income risk on households participation decision and risky asset share with data from the Italian Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW). The results under the narrow definition of risky assets suggest that the risky asset share of the middle-aged households are less influenced by labour income risk, compared to the young and the elderly households. These results are robust to alternative measure of labour income risk

The effect of platelet-rich plasma injection on chronic Achilles tendinopathy and acute Achilles tendon rupture

Several clinical trials exploring the effect of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on Achilles tendon rupture (ATR) or Achilles tendinopathy (AT) have been published. However, current evidence is limited to small-sized trials. This study aims to evaluate whether PRP improves the outcomes of ATR or AT. PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched to identify randomized controlled trials comparing PRP injection versus placebo for ATR or AT. Eleven studies with 574 patients were included. Quantitative synthesis suggested that compared with placebo, AT patients in PRP group had higher VISA-A score improvement at six-week follow-up (mean difference (MD) = 2.64; 95% CI) = 1.12 to 4.15). However, there was no significant difference between two groups for VISA-A score improvement at three-month follow-up (MD = 0.93; 95% CI = −2.75 to 4.62), or 6-month follow-up (MD = 5.46; 95% CI = −1.19 to 12.11). In ATR patients, quantitative synthesis suggested that no significant difference was seen between PRP and control group at 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year follow-up. In addition, no significant difference was detected between the two groups in improving tendon thickness and pain for AT patients, and no significant difference was seen in improving heel-rise work, maximum heel-rise height, dorsal and plantar flexion, rate of returning to sports activities, and complication for ATR patients. To conclude, no evidence indicates that PRP injection can improve the patient-reported/clinical/functional outcomes of AT or ATR. The increasing times of PRP injection could improve the outcomes, and further clinical randomized controlled trials are expected to be conducted to verify this hypothesis

OFDI Agglomeration and Chinese Firm Location Decisions under the “Belt and Road” Initiative

This paper established a combined dataset from 2004 to 2015 for 129 host countries and matched them with 1193 Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) events by Chinese listed firms. Four variables were designed to proxy the agglomeration effects of Chinese OFDI at both an industry and country level. Probit and FGLS estimation methods were used to analyze whether the Chinese listed firm location choices were affected by the agglomeration level. It was found that the agglomeration effect of Chinese OFDI on host country selection was obvious, as Chinese firms were often found to follow other Chinese firms and invest in host countries where Chinese investment was concentrated; however, it was also found that Chinese firms did not choose countries where there was a high concentration of non-Chinese FDI. The agglomeration effect on Chinese OFDI industry selection was also significant. Firms were found to invest in industries that already had large Chines OFDI agglomeration or high host-country industrial agglomeration. Further investigations found that the “Belt and Road„ Initiative (BRI) was effective in guiding location decisions. Firms were found to invest more along the “Belt and Road„ route after the BRI was launched; however, large State-owned listed firms with higher leverage but lower productivity and profitability were found to more often invest along the BRI routes

Ethnic community’s perception of benefit-sharing and participation intentions in national park tourism in China: An asymmetric modeling approach

While tourism brings employment opportunities to ethnic communities surrounding national parks, striking a balance between economic development and environmentalcultural preservation is paramount for ensuring long-term sustainability. In 2021, the first mountain cog rail transit project for poverty alleviation and tourism development started to be built in western China. It will pass through the pilot area of the Giant Panda National Park, bringing development opportunities and challenges for the local Tibetan community. Based on a questionnaire survey of 395 Tibetan residents in the park vicinity, this study utilizes asymmetrical approach so as to explore the multifaceted elements shaping benefit-sharing, tourism support and community participation intentions. The findings reveal residents’ heightened emphasis on the economic benefits of tourism over environmental and cultural considerations. This inclination is rooted in the enduring impact of stringent ecological conservation measures over the past 50 years, significantly constraining regional economic development. Notably, young females who did not fully benefit from tourism express a high level of support for tourism, particularly when economic, cultural, and facility benefits align. Paradoxically, higher economic benefits are associated with lower community participation intentions in tourism decision-making, underscoring that only low economic benefits trigger such intentions. Active community participation predominantly manifests among young males, suggesting that residents express participation intentions when their benefit-sharing needs are not adequately met. This study provides valuable insights into the coordinated development of transportation, community benefit-sharing, and the preservation of national parks

Dynamic assembly of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles

Manipulation of specific binding and recycling of materials are two important aspects for practical applications of molecularly imprinted polymers. In this work, we developed a new approach to control the dynamic assembly of molecularly imprinted nanoparticles by surface functionalization. Molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles with a well-controlled core-shell structure were synthesized using precipitation polymerization. The specific binding sites were created in the core during the first step imprinting reaction. In the second polymerization step, epoxide groups were introduced into the particle shell to act as an intermediate linker to immobilize phenylboronic acids, as well as to introduce cis-diol structures on surface. The imprinted polymer nanoparticles modified with boronic acid and cis-diol structures maintained high molecular binding specificity, and the nanoparticles could be induced to form dynamic particle aggregation that responded to pH variation and chemical stimuli. The possibility of modulating molecular binding and nanoparticle assembly in a mutually independent fashion can be exploited in a number of applications where repeated use of precious nanoparticles is needed

Green Innovation and Supply Chain Financing–Evidence from China

Based on the stakeholder theory, this study investigates the relationship between green innovation and supply chain financing using the data of 3490 Chinese listed firms from 2012 to 2019. The results show that green innovation of firms could promote their supply chain financing. And the channel mechanism test indicates that green innovation could improve the peer recognition gained by firms from the industry, thus it would be more convenient for green-oriented firms to obtain financing along the supply chain, especially SOEs. Moreover, after launch of the Green Credit Guideline, the positive relationship between green innovation and supply chain financing became more significant. These findings remain consistent after robustness tests including instrumental variables (IV), propensity score matching (PSM) and replacing variable metrics. Further results present that green innovation in non-heavy pollution firms and firms with high-level environmental disclosure can significantly benefit supply chain financing. Our findings have important implications on how firms’ green efforts affect their short-time financing ability through the supply chain

Bayesian hierarchical spatial count modeling of taxi speeding events based on GPS trajectory data.

Speeding behavior, especially serious speeding, is more common in taxi driver than other driving population due to their high exposure under traffic environment, which increases the risk of being involved in crashes. In order to prevent the taxi and other road users from speed-related crash, previous studies have revealed contributors of demographic and driving operation affecting taxi speeding frequency. However, researches regarding road factors, and spatial effect are typically rare. For this sake, the current study explores the contributions of 10 types of road characteristics and two kinds of spatial effects (spatial correlation and spatial heterogeneity) on taxi total speeding and serious speeding frequency. Taxi GPS trajectory data in a Chinese metropolis were used to identify speeding event. The study then established four kinds of Bayesian hierarchical count models base on Poisson and negative binominal distribution to estimate the contributor impacts, respectively. Results show that Bayesian hierarchical spatial Poisson log-linear model is optimum for fitting both total and serious speeding frequency. For the analysis, it is found that drivers are more likely to commit speeding on long multilane road with median strip, and road with non-motorized vehicle lane, bus-only lane and viaduct or road tunnel. Roads with low speed limit, and work zone are associated with increasing speeding as well. In terms of serious speeding, bus-only lane is not a contributor, while road speed camera number and one-way organization are significantly positive to the speeding frequency. Furthermore, it reveals that two spatial effects significantly increase the occurrence of speeding events; the impact of spatial heterogeneity is more critical