High-dimensional partially linear functional Cox models.

As a commonly employed method for analyzing time-to-event data involving functional predictors, the functional Cox model assumes a linear relationship between the functional principal component (FPC) scores of the functional predictors and the hazard rates. However, in practical scenarios, such as our study on the survival time of kidney transplant recipients, this assumption often fails to hold. To address this limitation, we introduce a class of high-dimensional partially linear functional Cox models, which accommodates the non-linear effects of functional predictors on the response and allows for diverging numbers of scalar predictors and FPCs as the sample size increases.

Energy-poverty-inequality SDGs: A large-scale household analysis and forecasting in China.

Affordable and clean energy, eliminating poverty, and reducing inequality are important goals of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper examines the role of access to clean cooking fuels in promoting income growth and reducing income inequality. Using data from Chinese households, we show that a 10% increase in the adoption of clean cooking fuels would result in an increase in total annual household income of US$37 billion nationwide.

Intellectual capital, environment-related absorptive capacity and environmental performance: Firm-level evidence from China's E&E sector.

Much of the existing literature on environmental performance has focused on human capital and intangible assets such as environmental policies and strategies, the role of intellectual capital has largely been overlooked. This study aims to investigate the impact of intellectual capital on environmental performance at the firm level, specifically in the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector in China. By considering human, relational, and structural capital as integral elements of intellectual capital, we assess their direct influence on environmental performance and explore how these components interact with other factors in driving environmental outcomes.

Spatiotemporal dynamics and spatial correlation patterns of urban ecological resilience across the Yellow River Basin in China.

Addressing the need to harmonize environment conservation and sustainable economic development within the Yellow River Basin (YRB) requires a profound comprehension of the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban ecosystem resilience. This study developed an index system utilizing the resistance-adaptability-recovery framework to measure these dynamics. By applying the advanced multi-attribute boundary area comparison method and a spatial autocorrelation model, we investigated the spatiotemporal variations and spatial correlation patterns of urban ecological resilience across the YRB.

The impact of transient air pollution exposure on worker performance in Chinese soccer players.

Using a unique dataset on the performance of soccer players in China (retrieved from 632 matches involving 24 teams during the 2014 to 2016 seasons), we investigate the effect of air pollution on different performance indicators that rely on different mixtures of the physical and cognitive inputs of players. To ensure a causal interpretation, we implement an instrumental variable (IV) approach using thermal inversion as the instrument for air pollution. We found that players' performance indicators, especially those more related to cognitive factors, are more strongly influenced by air pollution.

Examining the impact of globalization and natural resources on environmental sustainability in G20 countries.

The G20 countries are responsible for around 75% of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including the use of natural resources. In this regard, the role of globalization in achieving environmental sustainability is a relatively new topic of concern. As a result, the present study considers how globalization and natural resources affect GHG emissions, as well as the roles that renewable energy consumption and urbanization play in the G20 countries between 1990 and 2020.

Agreement between self-reported and objectively measured hypertension diagnosis and control: evidence from a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in China.

Background: As the population ages, hypertension has become the leading risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and premature deaths worldwide. Accurate monitoring of CVD risks and planning community-based public health interventions require reliable estimates of hypertension prevalence and management. While the validity of self-reporting in assessing hypertension prevalence has been debated, the concordance between self-reports and clinical measurements of hypertension control remains underexplored, particularly in large, community-based older populations.

Age-friendly community environments and the age trajectories of long-term care dependency among Chinese older adults.

In the context of rapid global aging, the importance of age-friendly community environments for promoting healthy aging and "aging in place" continues to increase. Using data from the 2011-2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this study investigated the impact of an age-friendly community environment on the age trajectories of late-life long-term care (LTC) dependency among older Chinese adults aged 60+ years. Age-friendly community environments were defined according to three levels (poor, moderate, or good) based on the World Health Organization's age-friendly city and community framework, and LTC dependency was classified as level 1 (high), level 2 (medium), or level 3 (low) according to activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living scores.

To test or not to test? A new behavioral epidemiology framework for COVID-19.

Evidence from clinical research suggests that in the first two waves of COVID-19, the virus spread rapidly through a large number of undocumented asymptomatic infections. These 'silent' infections camouflaged the actual incidence of the disease, leading to downward biases in the rates of transmission, disease prevalence, and fatality. These, in turn, had implications for how people and policymakers responded to changing infection prevalence.

Study on the influence of global tourism development on the upgrading of county industrial structure.

Taking the global tourism as an important grasp, promoting the tourism to the industrial structure optimization and economic development of the driving force, is conducive to the high-quality development of China's county economy. Based on the panel data of 255 demonstration counties of global tourism in 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2020, and on the basis of analyzing the correlation between the two, this paper empirically tests the relationship between the development of global tourism and the upgrading of county industrial structure by using static panel model and systematic GMM estimation method. It is found that the development of global tourism has a positive and significant impact on the upgrading of county industrial structure, and there are significant differences in this effect between the eastern, central and western regions of China.

[Carbon Sequestration Zoning and Management in Megacities from a Sustainable Perspective: A Case Study of Beijing].

To address the contradiction between the development of megacities and ecological restoration, as well as the carbon sequestration capacity guarantee, this study was based on the sustainable development framework and adopted the research approach of "clarifying carbon sequestration characteristics, evaluating carbon sequestration suitability, and comprehensively dividing carbon sequestration areas" to propose carbon sequestration zoning and management measures for Beijing under the sustainable development framework. First, we used the improved Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach （CASA） model and soil microbial respiration equation to quantitatively estimate the net ecosystem productivity （NEP） of vegetation in Beijing from 2001 to 2020. The spatiotemporal distribution pattern and evolution characteristics were analyzed and trend, volatility, and continuity were used as evaluation indicators for carbon sequestration characteristics.

Mitigating the Impact of Intergenerational Risk Factors on Stunting: Insights From Seven of the Most Food Insecure Districts in South Africa.

A large body of research investigates the determinants of stunting in young children, but few studies have considered which factors are the most important predictors of stunting. We examined the relative importance of predictors of height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) and stunting among children under 5 years of age in seven of the most food-insecure districts in South Africa using data from the Grow Great Community Stunting Survey of 2022. We used dominance analysis and variable importance measures from conditional random forest models to assess the relative importance of predictors.

Amplifying youth voices: young people's recommendations for policy and practice to enhance vaccine acceptability.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for increased vaccine availability and uptake, with vaccine hesitancy posing a significant barrier, particularly among young adults. Evidence from various countries highlight high levels of hesitancy among young people, necessitating targeted interventions. Engaging young adults as key stakeholders in shaping public health strategies is crucial, as their perspectives can enhance vaccine acceptance.

A novel hybrid forecasting system for crude oil futures prices: A dual perspective of deterministic forecasting and uncertainty analysis.

The crude oil market occupies a crucial place in the composition of the global economy, however, the high level of uncertainty in crude oil prices makes it a challenging task to construct reliable forecasting techniques to obtain reliable expected results. Therefore, to effectively cope with the high uncertainty and the technical limitations of existing forecasting studies, this study constructs a hybrid forecasting system from the dual perspectives of deterministic forecasting and uncertainty analysis. With the concept of "denoising-integration" as the core, the system integrates several denoising techniques, econometric methods, and artificial intelligence methods, and establishes a hybrid forecasting model with high accuracy and robustness with the assistance of multi-objective optimization theory.

Research on two-way ecological compensation strategy for transboundary watershed based on differential game.

Water pollution control in transboundary watersheds can improve the water environment quality, alleviate water resource conflicts, and is an important guarantee for achieving healthy and stable development of watersheds. Ecological compensation is an important measure to solve the problem of water pollution in transboundary watersheds and has been widely applied in China. We constructed differential game models for water pollution control in transboundary watersheds under four scenarios: (1) no ecological compensation scenario, (2) upstream one-way ecological compensation scenario, (3) downstream one-way ecological compensation scenario, and (4) upstream and downstream two-way ecological compensation scenario.

Interregional imbalance in the Yellow River Basin: Insights from flood-sediment transport, socioeconomic, and environmental subsystems.

The ecological environment, resource endowment, and the level of socioeconomic development vary extensively amongst regions in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). To ensure the basin's sustainable development, the supply and demand relationship of ecosystem services (ESs) within the basin was analysed from the perspective of three subsystems: flood-sediment transport, socioeconomics, and ecological environment. The supply, demand, and the ratio of supply to demand of typical ESs were initially computed for 385 counties and districts within the YRB.

Chinese minimum wages and health.

Variation in the timing of changes in the minimum wage across provinces in China is exploited using individual/household longitudinal survey data from 2010 to 2018 to examine potential health effects on working age individuals in households that are likely affected by minimum wages. Minimum wage increases are estimated to improve self-reported health particularly by reducing the incidence of self-reported overall poor health. There is also reasonably strong evidence that they reduce unhappiness and lower dissatisfaction with less robust evidence that they improve mental health and lower recent discomfort.

The double-edged effect of bank liquidity creation efficiency on systemic risk: Evidence from China.

Bank liquidity creation fosters economic growth while entailing liquidity mismatch risk. This study explores whether improving bank efficiency during liquidity creation can mitigate systemic risks. We propose a bank liquidity creation efficiency measure based on a stochastic frontier approach to analyze Chinese commercial listed banks from 2000-2021.

Institutions matter: The role of institutions in the relationship between decision-making power and contraceptive autonomy.

Several academic papers have shown that the distribution of household decision-making power has a positive influence on women's contraceptive autonomy. This paper considers the role of the social or institutional environment (as captured by place of residence) in ameliorating or contributing to this relationship. Our study focuses on the context of Nigeria, a country with diverse gender norms and religious practices, often determined by geographic location.

Lost in translation: the lack of agreement between surgeons and scientists regarding biomaterials research and innovation for treating bone defects.

Background: With over 2 million grafts performed annually, bone ranks second only to blood in the frequency of transplants. This high demand is primarily driven by the persistent challenges posed by bone defects, particularly following trauma or surgical interventions such as tumour excision. The demand for effective and efficient treatments has increased exponentially in the twenty-first century.

One hundred-year secular trends of overweight and obesity in China: effects of age, period, and cohort.

Objective: Obesity has become a major public health problem worldwide and particularly in China. This study examined the secular trend of overweight and obesity in China over the past 100 years.

Methods: Nationwide data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey and the Chinese General Social Survey were used.

The impact of data factor-driven industry on the green total factor productivity: evidence from the China.

Data factors have become an essential factor of production in today's digital era, and provided renewed energy for China's green and high-quality development. This study analyses the impact of data factor-driven industries on green total factor productivity (GTFP) and the underlying mechanisms using panel data of 277 Chinese cities from 2008 to 2020. The results show that: First, the urban data factor-driven industry can enhance GTFP.

Social discounting in a symmetric giving and taking frame: An artifactual field experiment with young South African adults.

In the dictator game, the evidence that giving is equivalent to taking is mixed. The purpose of this study was to investigate framing effects (giving/taking) on social-discounting rates among young African adults from an informal settlement in South Africa. Employing a within-participant design, these young adults completed a series of incentivized dictator games with an isomorphically equivalent giving and taking frame at each of eight social distances.