The primary objective of this study is to empirically examine the effect of stock market growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on CO2 emissions. Further, this study investigates the ...impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions and economic output in a panel of the G20 countries. The empirical analysis was carried out on the full sample as well as on sub-samples of developed and developing economies of the G20 member countries. The results confirm a significant long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables across the panels. Further, the long-run elasticities suggest that FDI significantly reduces CO2 emissions in the full sample and developing economies while stock market growth reduces in developed economies. Similarly, the renewable energy consumption substantially reduces CO2 emissions and increases economic output across the panels. Our findings have important policy implications. For instance, the policy makers have to initiate effective policies to promote the renewable energy sources to meet the increasing demand for energy by replacing the use of conventional energy such as coal, gas and oil. This will therefore help to reduce the CO2 emissions and also ensure sustainable economic development in the G20 nations.
•Impact of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions and economic output•The effect of stock market growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on CO2 emissions in G20 countries•Provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship for G20 countries
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
•To investigate the role of financial deepening and green technology on emissions•Study uses yearly data, 1991-2016, and panel econometric techniques•The results suggest that green technology reduces ...emissions•The financial deepening further raises carbon emissions in the OECD economies•Study offers important policy suggestions to condense carbon emissions
This paper investigates the role of financial deepening, green technology, foreign direct investment (FDI), per capita income and trade openness on carbon emissions in a panel of 25 OECD economies. The paper uses robust panel econometric techniques and yearly data, 1991–2016. The empirical evidences from augmented mean group and group-mean estimators reveal that green technology, FDI inflows and trade openness reduce carbon emissions, while financial deepening and per capita income positively contribute. Overall, it implies that green technology, along with FDI and trade, is the major factor that helps to reduce the carbon emissions in the OECD economies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
China's rapid urbanisation has induced large numbers of rural residents to migrate from their homes in the countryside to urban areas in search of higher wages. As a consequence, it is estimated that ...more than 60 million children in rural China are left behind and live with relatives, typically their paternal grandparents. These children are called Left Behind Children (LBCs). There are concerns about the potential negative effects of parental migration on the academic performance of the LBCs that could be due to the absence of parental care. However, it might also be that when a child's parents work away from home, their remittances can increase the household's income and provide more resources and that this can lead to better academic performance. Hence, the net impact of out-migration on the academic performance of LBCs is unclear. This paper examines changes in academic performance before and after the parents of students out-migrate. We draw on a panel dataset collected by the authors of more than 13,000 students at 130 rural primary schools in ethnic minority areas of rural China. Using difference-in-differences and propensity score matching approaches, our results indicate that parental migration has significant, positive impacts on the academic performance of LBCs (which we measure using standardised English test scores). Heterogeneous analysis using our data demonstrates that the positive impact on LBCs is greater for poorer performing students.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Prestressed steel strands in prestressed structures offset or reduce the tensile stress caused by external loads, making them the primary load-bearing components. Great concerns have been raised ...about prestress monitoring due to the growing use of structural health monitoring (SHM). Piezoceramic (PZT) active sensing methods are commonly used in this field. However, there appears to be a problem of “energy saturation” in the utilization of piezoceramic active sensing methods. In this study, a smart anchor washer with semi-cylinders was developed to alleviate the saturation problem. An intelligent monitoring system is formed by combining the upper and lower annular cylinders with two piezoelectric patches. The piezoelectric patch on the upper annular cylinder is used as an actuator to emit signals through the contact interface of the smart anchor washer, which are then received by the piezoelectric patch on the lower annular cylinder. Based on wavelet packet decomposition, we investigate the correlation between the energy of the received signal and the applied tension force. Finally, a prestressing force index is developed for monitoring prestressing force using Shannon entropy. It is found that the index decreases with the increase in tension. The proposed design and index are also sensitive to early monitoring of prestressing force and can be used to monitor the entire prestressing process of steel strands.
We established myocardial injury models in vivo and in vitro to investigate the cardioprotective effect of gomisin D obtained from Schisandra chinensis. Gomisin D significantly inhibited ...isoproterenol-induced apoptosis and hypertrophy in H9C2 cells. Gomisin D decreased serum BNP, ANP, CK-MB, cTn-T levels and histopathological alterations, and inhibited myocardial hypertrophy in mice. In mechanisms research, gomisin D reversed ISO-induced accumulation of intracellular ROS and Ca
2+
. Gomisin D further improved mitochondrial energy metabolism disorders by regulating the TCA cycle. These results demonstrated that gomisin D had a significant effect on isoproterenol-induced myocardial injury by inhibiting oxidative stress, calcium overload and improving mitochondrial energy metabolism.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
Accumulation of human capital is indispensable to spur economic growth. If students fail to acquire needed skills, not only will they have a hard time finding high-wage employment in the future but ...the development of the economies in which they work may also stagnate owing to a shortage of human capital. The overall goal of this study is to try to understand if China is ready in terms of the education of its labour force to progress from middle-income to high-income country status. To achieve this goal, we seek to understand the share of the labour force that has attained at least some upper secondary schooling (upper secondary attainment) and to benchmark these educational attainment rates against the rates of the labour forces in other countries (e.g. high-income/OECD countries; a subset of G20 middle-income/BRICS countries). Using the sixth population census data, we are able to show that China's human capital is shockingly poor. In 2010, only 24 per cent of China's entire labour force (individuals aged 25–64) had ever attended upper secondary school. This rate is less than one-third of the average upper secondary attainment rate in OECD countries. China's overall upper secondary attainment rate and the attainment rate of its youngest workers (aged 25–34) is also the lowest of all the BRICS countries (with the exception of India for which data were not available). Our analysis also demonstrates that the statistics on upper secondary education reported by the Ministry of Education (MoE) are overestimated. In the paper, we document when MoE and census-based statistics diverge, and raise three possible policy-based reasons why officials may have begun to have an incentive to misreport in the mid-2000s. 人力资本积累是促进经济发展至关重要的因素。如果劳动力的人力资本不足, 不仅难以找到高收入的工作, 国家经济发展也会因此停滞。本研究的主要目的是通过衡量和比较中国和其他国家 (经合组织成员国等高收入国家以及二十国集团和金砖四国等中等收入国家) 劳动力的中等教育水平 (包含高中和职高), 来了解中国目前的劳动力教育水平是否能够支持中国经济从中等收入向高等收入迈进。我们利用第六次人口普查数据分析显示中国的人力资本水平极低。 2010 年中国只有24%的劳动力 (25 到 64 岁人口) 上过高中或职高, 不足经合组织成员国的三分之一。中国总体劳动力中上过高中或职高的比例和相对年轻的劳动力 (25 到 34 岁人口) 中上过高中或职高的比例也是在金砖四国当中最低的 (因数据缺失该比较不含印度)。我们的分析也指明中国教育部过高估计了劳动力中等教育的普及程度。本文也探索了人口普查数据和教育部统计数据之间出现差异的时间截点以及出现这种对劳动力教育程度过高估计的原因。
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BFBNIB, CEKLJ, INZLJ, NMLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PNG, PRFLJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
The purpose of this paper is to describe current practices of medical waste management, including its generation, investments, collection, storage, segregation, and disposal, and to explore the level ...of support from upper tiers of the government and health care system for medical waste management in rural China.
The authors draw on a dataset comprised of 209 randomly selected rural township health centers (THCs) in 21 counties in three provinces of China: Anhui, Shaanxi and Sichuan. Surveys were administered to health center administrators in sample THCs in June 2015.
The results show that the generation rate of medical waste was about 0.18 kg/bed, 0.15 kg/patient, or 0.13 kg/person per day on average. Such per capita levels are significant given China's large rural population. Although investments of medical waste facilities and personnel in THCs have improved, results show that compliance with national regulations is low. For example, less than half of hazardous medical waste was packed in sealed containers or containers labeled with bio-hazard markings. None of the THCs segregated correctly according to the categories required by formal Chinese regulations. Many THCs reported improper disposal methods of medical waste. Our results also indicate low levels of staff training and low rates of centralized disposal in rural THCs.
Medical waste is a serious environmental issue that is rising on the agenda of policymakers. While a large share of THCs has invested in medical waste facilities and personnel, it appears that actual compliance remains low. Using evidence of low rates of training and centralized disposal, we surmise that a lack of support from upper tiers of management is one contributing factor. Given these findings, we recommend that China's policymakers should enhance support from upper tiers and improve monitoring as well as incentives in order to improve medical waste management.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is a high profile initiative to narrow the inequality of access to ICT and improve educational performance. However, there is little empirical evidence on its impacts. In ...order to assess the effectiveness of OLPC, we conducted a randomized experiment of OLPC with Chinese characteristics involving 300 third-grade students in Beijing migrant schools. Our results show that the program improved student computer skills by 0.33 standard deviations and math scores by 0.17 standard deviations. The program also increased student time spent using educational software and decreased student time spent watching TV. Student self-esteem also improved.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Virus is the most menacing factor for plant, which causes enormous economic losses in agriculture worldwide. Tobacco mosaic virus is most hazardous virus among the plants that can spread through ...biological and non-biological sources. TMV is ancient virus that causes huge economic losses to pepper cucumber ornamental crops and tobacco. It can be controlled by reducing the population of vector through pesticide application. However, the rapid usage of synthetic chemicals causes environmental pollution and destroys our ecosystem. Consequently, different approaches just like natural derivatives should be adopted for the environmental friendly management for TMV. This in vitro study demonstrated the potential role of natural metabolites such as poultry manure and plant extracts such as salicylic acid and citric acid for the control of TMV. Two different concentrations of poultry manure 60G and 30G were used. Poultry manure was mixed with the soil at the time of sowing. Disease severity was minimum at maximum concentration as compared to the control. Meanwhile, two different concentrations of salicylic acid and citric acid 60% and 90% were applied by foliar sprayer after three-leaf stages. Disease severity was observed after 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 days after disease inoculation. Here also maximum concentration showed the minimum disease severity and higher concentration of both animal and plants extracts were used for following experiment. Quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) results demonstrated that different plant defense-related genes such as PR1a, PAL, PR5, NPR1, PRIb, and PDF1.2 were up-regulated. Furthermore, applications of each treatment-induced systemic resistance against a wide range of pathogen including TMV and fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
As an important equipment in the construction field, cuplock scaffold plays an important role in the construction process. As a scaffold connecting member, cuplock joint is of great importance. In ...order to explore the rotational stiffness non-linear characteristics changing features of different structural forms of cuplock joint in different tightening torque condition under different condition of load, ANSYS is used to establish four kinds of cuplock joint models with different forces to simulate the real force situation. By setting the different applying condition, that is, the cuplock is loaded at a certain distance from the cuplock joint in a certain direction until the cuplock is damaged, and considering the gap between the cross bar joint and the vertical bar, the differences in the influence of the structural form and tightening torque on the rotation stiffness of the cuplock under different load conditions are compared. It is significantly important to improve the accuracy of calculating bearing capacity and stability of the cuplock steel tubular scaffolding.
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