As the most important emerging transportation technology, high-speed rail (HSR) can reshape regional economic development patterns and exert an important effect on the ecological environment. Using a ...panel data set of 275 Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above from 2003 to 2014, this study is the first to adopt a continuous spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model to investigate the effect and its mechanism of HSR service intensity on CO2 emissions. A series of robustness tests are performed, including the placebo test and using the propensity score matching method combined with the SDID (PSM-SDID) model. We also conduct a heterogeneity analysis using a spatial difference-in-difference-in-differences (SDDD) model. The results show that an increase in HSR service intensity significantly reduces urban CO2 emissions, resulting from the effects of transportation substitution, market integration, industrial structure, and technological innovation. Meanwhile, such an increase inhibits CO2 emissions in neighboring cities with a spatial attenuation boundary of 1000 km. On average, for every addition of 100 HSR trains in a city, the total CO2 emissions can be reduced by 0.14%. Moreover, the CO2 emission reduction effect of HSR is more significant in eastern China, large cities, and resource-based cities. However, higher levels of HSR service intensity in large cities and resource-based cities are not conducive to reducing CO2 emissions in neighboring cities. These findings can help to accurately evaluate the social benefits of expanding HSR networks and provide an important decision-making reference for climate governance during the era of HSR.
•We explore the effect and its mechanism of high-speed rail (HSR) on CO2 emissions.•We use a continuous spatial difference-in-differences model and China's urban data.•An increase in HSR service intensity significantly reduces urban CO2 emissions.•HSR curbs neighboring CO2 emissions with an attenuation boundary of 1000 km.•Every addition of 100 HSR trains in a city can reduce total CO2 emissions by 0.14%.
Abstract
On the world stage of the humanities and social sciences (HSS), ethnic Chinese scholars and their scholarship as a whole are arguably not yet considered mainstream. However, a growing number ...of ethnic Chinese HSS scholars have become internationally recognized in their respective fields, producing scholarship of global and lasting influence. These scholars are referred to in this study as globally high-achieving scholars. Enquiring into how certain ethnic Chinese HSS scholars become globally high achieving, this study aims to unravel the trajectories, struggles, and achievements of these scholars; contribute to the literature on scholars’ academic development and on Chinese scholars; and provide recommendations for scholarly training in higher education in and beyond Greater China. It uses a narrative research design to explore the life and academic trajectories of globally high-achieving scholars, and reveals reasons associated with their achievements. In particular, the article highlights the scholars’ possession of strong resilience, engagement with Chinese traditional cultures and knowledges, development of multiple lenses, and realization of the state of ‘
zide
(自得)’, meaning staying true to oneself. This study is one of the first empirical attempts to explore this topic, and it makes both conceptual and practical contributions to the field.
In existing studies, no consensus has been reached on the relationship between natural resource dependence and human capital accumulation. To narrow the divergence, this paper carries out a normative ...research to explain the co-existence of the phenomena of the resource curse and the resource blessing based on an organic combination of conceptual and mathematical models. It first establishes a conceptual model to analyse the potential effects of the government׳s policy preference and natural resource development activities on human capital accumulation and economic growth. Furthermore, it develops an endogenous growth model to normatively illuminate the effects in the conceptual model and to explore the condition for the occurrence of the resource curse. The conceptual model analysis indicates that the rate of return on education investment and government behaviours play the crucial role in promoting the formation of the economic virtuous circle at the micro-level and macro-level, respectively, while resource development activities exert dual impacts on the circle. The main mechanisms in the conceptual model can be validated in the mathematical model. The rise in the subjective discount rate, the elasticity of intertemporal substitution, and resource goods price are adverse to the economic virtuous circle, while high-quality education and the institutional environment giving priority to manufacturing can become the necessary condition and sufficient condition for forming the circle, respectively. The allocation efficiency of production factors plays a decisive role in whether the blessing occurs, whereas sufficient human capital is an essential guarantee for evading the curse.
•We conduct normative research combining a conceptual model and a mathematical model.•We discuss the potential impact of resource dependence on human capital and growth.•We explain the co-existence of the resource blessing and resource curse phenomena.•Allocation efficiency of production factors is a critical factor to evade the curse.•Sufficient human capital is an essential guarantee to evade the curse.
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 outbreak, an emergency policy initiative called "Suspending Classes Without Stopping Learning" was launched by the Chinese government to continue teaching ...activities as schools across the country were closed to contain the virus. However, there is ambiguity and disagreement about what to teach, how to teach, the workload of teachers and students, the teaching environment, and the implications for education equity. Possible difficulties that the policy faces include: the weakness of the online teaching infrastructure, the inexperience of teachers (including unequal learning outcomes caused by teachers' varied experience), the information gap, the complex environment at home, and so forth. To tackle the problems, we suggest that the government needs to further promote the construction of the educational information superhighway, consider equipping teachers and students with standardized home-based teaching/learning equipment, conduct online teacher training, include the development of massive online education in the national strategic plan, and support academic research into online education, especially education to help students with online learning difficulties.
Incorporating a third element in the active layer of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices is a promising strategy towards improving the efficiency and stability of this technology while maintaining ...relatively low costs. While ternary organic solar cells (TOSCs) have been widely studied during the last decade, there has been a meteoric rise in TOSC research after a breakthrough efficiency of 14.1% was reported in 2017. Such values of efficiency make TOSC a promising third-generation solar technology, prompting worldwide research efforts into the inclusion of a third element for high-performance TOSCs. These efforts have further boosted their efficiency, which is currently approaching 19%, and improved the stability of OPVs. This review discusses the role of the third component in improving efficiency and stability, emphasizing the period after 2016, which witnessed huge increases in efficiency and the boom that ensued. Since their introduction in 2008 for applications in photovoltaics and optoelectronics, colloidal quantum dot solar cells (CQDSCs), among other third-generation technologies, have recently experienced a level of success comparable to TOSCs. Finally, we compare the performance of TOSCs to CQDSCs, a complementary third-generation solar technology.
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•Third element incorporation in OPVs is rapidly becoming a promising route for improvement in device performance.•Ternary organic solar cells (TOSCs) allow for the synthesis or choice of potentially novel low-cost materials.•The third component increases TOSCs’ absorption intensity and/or range among other parameters, leading to high efficiency.•TOSCs are explored for potential enhancement in stability in OPVs.
High speed rail (HSR) services shorten space-time distances between cities and induce the reallocation of production resources between regions (cities). Based on the data of 25 cities in China's ...Yangtze River Delta region during 1995–2014, this paper uses the (continuous) difference-in-differences model to investigate the influence of HSR on urban service industry agglomeration. The results show that HSR has a positive effect on the urban service industry agglomeration of the cities located along the rail lines. Compared with cities not located along the rail lines, HSR does not weaken the service industry agglomeration of the medium and small-sized cities that are also situated along the rail lines and around the core city. The service intensity of HSR, which is measured by train service frequency, also exhibits a significant effect on the service industry agglomeration of those cities located along the rail lines. Higher levels of HSR service intensity have a greater effect on urban service industry agglomeration. In addition, we further subdivide the category of service industry into producer service, consumer service, and public service industries. We find that HSR has a significant impact on producer service industry agglomeration, but HSR's influences on consumer service industry and public service industry are insignificant.
•We explore the effect of high speed rail (HSR) on service industry agglomeration.•We construct the traditional and continuous difference-in-differences (DID) models.•HSR promotes the service industry agglomeration of the cities with HSR services.•Higher HSR service intensity has a greater effect on service industry agglomeration.•HSR has a significant influence on producer service industry agglomeration.
Since the industry is economic backbone and the largest sector in energy-related CO2 emissions, whether it can coordinate industrial growth and CO2 emissions plays a vital role in achieving economic ...sustainable development. Using the global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index method, this paper estimates and decomposes the total factor CO2 emission performance (TFCEP, i.e., the environmentally sensitive productivity growth considering CO2 emissions as an undesirable output) of 32 industrial sub-sectors in Shanghai (China) over 1994–2011 for the first time. Furthermore, it adopts the system generalized method of moments (SGMM) to investigate the determinants of the TFCEP. We find that the environmentally sensitive productivity of overall industry in Shanghai keeps improved in recent years. Technical progress rather than efficiency promotion is the main contributor to ameliorate the TFCEP. Enhancing R&D intensity, optimizing energy consumption structure, and improving energy efficiency and labor productivity are beneficial to enhance the TFCEP, while capital deepening is the detriment of the TFCEP. Encouraging green technological innovation and adoption by combining the government intervention with market mechanism is significant to promote the TFCEP.
•We investigate Shanghai's industrial total factor CO2 emission performance (TFCEP).•We use the global Malmquist–Luenberger index method to estimate the TECEP.•We adopt the generalized method of moments to examine the determinants of the TECEP.•Technical progress is the main contributor to improve the TFCEP.•Motivating green technological innovation and adoption is vital to promote the TFCEP.
A smart window is fabricated from a composite consisting of elastomeric poly(dimethylsiloxane) embedded with a thin layer of quasi‐amorphous silica nanoparticles. The smart window can be switched ...from the initial highly transparent state to opaqueness and displays angle‐independent structural color via mechanical stretching. The switchable optical property can be fully recovered after 1000 stretching/releasing cycles.
Livestock manure is a major reservoir of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). This study investigated the distribution characteristics of ARB, ARGs in fresh and ...composted manures of traditional breading industry in rural areas in China. Samples collected were naturally piled without professional composting, and will be applied to farmland. The real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) results showed the presence of ten target ARGs and two mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in the tested manure samples. The relative abundance of tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance genes (TRGs and SRGs) was generally higher than that of macrolide resistance genes (MRGs), followed by quinolone resistance genes (QRGs). There were significant positive correlations between the abundance of sul1, sul2, tetW and MGEs (intl1, intl2). In addition, the distribution of target ARGs was associated with the residual concentrations of doxycycline (DOX), sulfamethazine (SM2), enrofloxacin (ENR) and tylosin (TYL). Overall, a total of 24 bacterial genera were identified. The resistance rates of ARB were 17.79%–83.70% for SM2, followed 0.40%–63.77% for TYL, 0.36%–43.90% for DOX and 0.00%–13.36% for ENR, which showed a significant dose-effect. This study also demonstrated that the abundance of clinically relevant ARB and ARGs in chicken, swine and cow fresh manures significantly greater than that in composted manures, and chicken and swine manures had higher proportion of ARB and higher abundance of ARGs than that in cow manures.
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•Chicken and swine manures have higher abundance of ARB and ARGs than cow manures.•The abundance of ARB and ARGs in fresh manures was significantly higher than that in composted manures.•Detected antibiotics and MGEs were significantly correlated with some of the target ARGs.•Acinetobacter lwoffii and Psychrobacter pulmonis are multiple resistant bacteria.
The energy rebound effect has been a significant issue in China, which is undergoing economic transition, since it reflects the effectiveness of energy-saving policy relying on improved energy ...efficiency. Based on the IPAT equation and Brookes' explanation of the rebound effect, this paper develops an alternative estimation model of the rebound effect. By using the estimation model and latent variable approach, which is achieved through a time-varying coefficient state space model, we estimate China's economy-wide energy rebound effect over 1954-2010. The results show that the rebound effect evidently exists in China as a result of the annual average of 39.73% over 1954-2010. Before and after the implementation of China's reform and opening-up policy in 1978, the rebound effects are 47.24% and 37.32%, with a strong fluctuation and a circuitously downward trend, respectively, indicating that a stable political environment and the development of market economy system facilitate the effectiveness of energy-saving policy. Although the energy-saving effect of improving energy efficiency has been partly realised, there remains a large energy-saving potential in China.
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