Does innovative city pilot policy improve carbon reduction? Quasi-experimental evidence from China.

A new direction for China in exploring sustainable development is the Innovative City Pilot Policy (ICPP), which provides policy guidance for accelerating carbon peaking and carbon neutrality by reducing carbon emissions. With data from 282 cities spanning 2006-2018, this paper examines ICPP's effect on carbon intensity (CI) through a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model, as well as exploring the mediating effect, moderating effect, heterogeneity, and spatial spillover effects. The results show that ICPP reduces CI significantly by enhancing technology innovation (TI), and when industrial structure (IS) is added, the effect of ICPP is expanded.

How does new energy demonstration city pilot policy affect carbon dioxide emissions? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China.

Energy transition policies are of great significance in adjusting the structure of energy supply and demand and coping with climate change. The new energy demonstration city pilot (NEDCP) policy, as an important pilot project in China's energy transition process, lacks a scientific assessment of the carbon reduction effect of the NEDCP policy and an in-depth explanation of the mechanism of the NEDCP. Based on panel data of 209 Chinese cities at the prefectural and higher levels from 2007 to 2019, this study takes the NEDCP policy as a quasi-natural experiment, using a difference-in-differences model combined with firm-level data to identify the impact of the NEDCP policy on urban carbon dioxide (CO) emissions.

Three new species of (Urticaceae) from Thailand.

Three new species of (Urticaceae) from Thailand, Triyutth. & L.F.

 (Gesneriaceae), a new genus and species from Guangdong, South China.

, a new genus from southern China, is described and colorfully illustrated with a single species, . This new genus is morphologically most similar to and , nevertheless, it can be easily distinguished from the latter two by the following characteristics, such as leaves in whorls of three, all closely clustered at the top; corolla bowl-shaped, 5-lobed, actinomorphic; capsule hard, oblong-ovoid, short, 3-4 mm long, densely appressed villous, wrapped by persistent densely pubescent calyx lobes, style persistent. The new genus and related genera were sequenced using the next-generation sequencing technique.

 (Urticaceae), a new species in the Danxia landform from Guangdong, China including a description of the entire chloroplast genome.

L.F.Fu, A.

Emission trading scheme, technological innovation, and competitiveness: Evidence from China's thermal power enterprises.

As flagship climate policy instruments, emission trading schemes (ETSs) are spreading, accelerating and strengthening globally. This study aims to explore whether the Porter hypothesis is present in China's ETS. Using the most recent data from 351 thermal power enterprises, the proposed agent-based model (ABM) creates a virtual decision-making and trading mechanism to identify ETS policy effects on enterprise technological innovation and competitiveness.

The value of social media tool for monitoring and evaluating environment policy communication: a case study of the 'Zero-waste City' initiative in China.

The construction of a 'zero-waste city' is a flagship policy to accelerate the development of a green, low-carbon circular economy system in China. Enhancing social participation is an important dimension to evaluate the effect of 'zero-waste city' policy construction and an effective way to promote the full achievement of correct waste classification, management, and supervision of solid waste. Based on policy communication theory, this paper aims to take advantage of social media to quantitatively measure the environment policy communication effect and provide a comprehensive panoramic measurement from dynamic characteristics and trend, communication scope, attributes of communicators, and contents dimensions.

Concerned or Apathetic? Using Social Media Platform (Twitter) to Gauge the Public Awareness about Wildlife Conservation: A Case Study of the Illegal Rhino Trade.

The illegal wildlife trade is resulting in worldwide biodiversity loss and species' extinction. It should be exposed so that the problems of conservation caused by it can be highlighted and resolutions can be found. Social media is an effective method of information dissemination, providing a real-time, low-cost, and convenient platform for the public to release opinions on wildlife protection.

Leaf epidermal micromorphology in (Asparagaceae): diversity and taxonomic significance.

Micromorphological characters of leaf epidermis were investigated in 69 species of using scanning electron microscopy. Sculpture of epidermis varies from smooth to verrucose and rugose in the genus. The abaxial epidermis of some species bears papillae, whereas the adaxial surface uniformly lacks the papillae.

Water lock-in within China's economic industry based on the input-output method and social network analysis.

As one of the countries with the most severe water resource problems, China faces enormous challenges in the intensive use of water resources. Rapid economic development has led to serious waste of water resources in the industry, resulting in path dependence on water-consuming technologies, namely the concept of 'water lock-in'. This study aims to estimate the water lock-in effects in various industries in China from 1997 to 2017.

Effects of PM on People's Emotion: A Case Study of Weibo (Chinese Twitter) in Beijing.

PM not only harms physical health but also has negative impacts on the public's wellbeing and cognitive and behavioral patterns. However, traditional air quality assessments may fail to provide comprehensive, real-time monitoring of air quality because of the sparse distribution of air quality monitoring stations. Overcoming some key limitations of traditional surface monitoring data, Web-based social media platforms, such as Twitter, Weibo, and Facebook, provide a promising tool and novel perspective for environmental monitoring, prediction, and evaluation.

Pathways to progress sustainability: an accurate ecological footprint analysis and prediction for Shandong in China based on integration of STIRPAT model, PLS, and BPNN.

The world has been challenged by achieving the plausible goal of sustainable development. This study aims to evaluate the ecological footprint and ecological carrying capacity and their driving factors of Shandong province in China from 1994 to 2017. Back propagation neural network method is adopted to predict the ecological footprint from 2018 to 2030.

(Urticaceae), a new species from limestone karst in Guangxi, China.

L.F. Fu, A.

Complete chloroplast genome sequence of Jacq. (Passifloraceae).

This study was the first report for the complete chloroplast genome of Jacq. (Passifloraceae). The cp genome was 149,683 bp in length contained two inverted repeats (IRs) of 25,470 bp, which were separated by large single-copy (LSC) and small single-copy (SSC) of 86,252 bp and 13,491 bp, respectively.

Substantial Nitrogen Oxide Pollution Is Embodied in the Bilateral Trade between China and the European Union.

Against the backdrop of globalization and trade facilitation, the products consumed by a country are more and more relying on the importation of those products from other countries. Therefore, the pollutant emissions of products associated are transferred from consuming countries to exporting countries, which significantly changes the spatial distribution of global pollutant emissions. The objective of this research is to analyse the embodied nitrogen oxide (NO) emissions in the trading process between China and the European Union (EU) and to further trace the interindustry and intercountry transfer paths.

Mapping the Illegal International Ivory Trading Network to Identify Key Hubs and Smuggling Routes : Illegal International Ivory Trading Network from 1975 to 2017.

Biodiversity loss is on the list of the most challenging issues the world sustainability faces. This study aims to examine the global illegal ivory trades, identify key hub countries and map the key smuggling routes in the worldwide illegal ivory trading network. A social network analysis (SNA) and a set of network indicators are used to investigate CITES's (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) ivory trading data from 1975 to 2017.

China's Provincial Eco-Efficiency and Its Driving Factors-Based on Network DEA and PLS-SEM Method.

This study aims to estimate the eco-efficiencies of China at provincial levels. The eco-efficiencies of production and treatment stages are disentangled by the network data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. The key driving factors are identified by the integrative use of driving force-pressure-state-impact-response frame model (DPSIR) model and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method.

Infectious or Recovered? Optimizing the Infectious Disease Detection Process for Epidemic Control and Prevention Based on Social Media.

Detecting the period of a disease is of great importance to building information management capacity in disease control and prevention. This paper aims to optimize the disease surveillance process by further identifying the infectious or recovered period of flu cases through social media. Specifically, this paper explores the potential of using public sentiment to detect flu periods at word level.

, a new species of Gesneriaceae from Guangxi, China.

Y.G. Wei & R.

(Gesneriaceae), a new lithophilous dwelling genus and species with zigzag corolla tube from southern Vietnam.

, a new genus from southern Vietnam is described with a single species, . The new genus is morphologically most similar to and but it differs from the latter two by having four fertile stamens. Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and plastid intron spacer () DNA sequence data from the new genus and eighty-seven species representing 42 genera within tribe Didymocarpeae are used to resolve its generic placement.

Complete chloroplast genome sequence of (Gesneriaceae).

The complete chloroplast genome of (Yan Liu, H.S. Gao, and W.

The rediscovery and delimitation of W.T.Wang (Urticaceae).

Of the 280 species of documented in China, 189 are known only from a single collection. is one such species, having been known only from the type collection for nearly half a century, until recent field investigations in Guangxi. Due to its morphological similarity to and , we undertook a critical review of all three species using morphological and molecular evidence.

Predicting population age structures of China, India, and Vietnam by 2030 based on compositional data.

The changing population age structure has a significant influence on the economy, society, and numerous other aspects of a country. This paper has innovatively applied the method of compositional data forecasting for the prediction of population age changes of the young (aged 0-14), the middle-aged (aged 15-64), and the elderly (aged older than 65) in China, India, and Vietnam by 2030 based on data from 1960 to 2016. To select the best-suited forecasting model, an array of data transformation approaches and forecasting models have been extensively employed, and a large number of comparisons have been made between the aforementioned methods.

Checklist to the (Urticaceae) of Vietnam including 19 new records, ten new combinations, two new names and four new synonyms.

(Urticaceae) comprises several hundred herbaceous species distributed in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania. The greatest species richness occurs on limestone karst in Southeast Asia. Taxonomic revisions of are largely out of date and contradict each other with respect to the delimitation of and Most herbaria in SE Asia and worldwide contain significant amounts of unidentified material.

Molecular phylogeny and morphology of Elatostema s.l. (Urticaceae): Implications for inter- and infrageneric classifications.

Elatostema s.s. (Urticaceae) comprises approximately 500 species of herbs and subshrubs distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia, Australasia, and Africa.