Identifying the nexus among environmental performance, digital finance, and green innovation: New evidence from prefecture-level cities in China.

Globally, nations are increasingly focusing on green innovation in their environmental protection efforts as part of sustainable development, and digital finance is playing a vital role in enhancing green innovation. Employing annual data from 220 prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2019, we empirically analyze the connections among environmental performance, digital finance, and green innovation via the Karavias panel unit root test with structural breaks, the Gregory-Hansen structural break cointegration test and pooled mean group (PMG) estimation. The following four points are the key conclusions: (1) The results support cointegration links between these variables when structural breaks are considered. (2) The PMG estimation outcomes indicate that green innovation and digital finance may have a favorable long-term effect on environmental performance. (3) For better environmental performance and more green innovation, the level of digitalization of digital finance is crucial. (4) The potential of digital finance and green innovation to improve environmental performance has not been fully realized in the western region of China.

Does China's outward direct investment improve green total factor productivity in the "Belt and Road" countries? Evidence from dynamic threshold panel model analysis.

Following the "Belt and Road" (B&R) initiative, China has significantly increased its outward direct investment (ODI). Although these investments help to boost these countries' productivity, their impacts on the environment are still controversial and deserve careful investigation. This study for the first time examines whether China's ODI has improved the green total factor productivity (GTFP), a comprehensive index for environmental quality and productivity. Moreover, a new data set composed of ICRG, World Bank WDI, Heritage Foundation, and Wind databases is used to match the panel data of 46 B&R countries for the period of 2003-2016. A newly developed dynamic threshold panel model with GMM characteristics is utilized to explore the possible nonlinear relationship with full consideration of heterogeneity. The empirical results indicate that there is no pollution shelter effect on China's ODI. With the increase in China's ODI, the GTFP of the B&R countries has been significantly improved. Additionally, China's ODI has a greater role in promoting GTFP in B&R countries with higher institutional quality. The positive effects of China's ODI on the GTFP of B&R countries depend on the institutional qualities of the countries, and the enhancement effect becomes greater when the countries have better institutions. There is also evidence that China's ODI significantly promoted the GTFP of countries in the East Asia and Pacific region, South Asia, Central Asia and Europe, while China's ODI did not significantly promote the GTFP of countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

WEHI-3 cells inhibit adipocyte differentiation in 3T3-L1 cells.

By investigating the anti-adipogenic effects of WEHI-3 cells - a murine acute myelomonocytic leukemia cell line - we sought to improve the efficiency of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Analysis of Oil Red O staining and the expression of adipogenic genes, including PPARγ, C/EBPα, FAS and LPL, indicated that WEHI-3 cells significantly inhibited 3T3-L1 mouse preadipocyte cells from differentiating into adipocytes. In vivo, fat vacuoles in mice injected with WEHI-3 cells were also remarkably reduced in the murine bone marrow pimelosis model. Moreover, the key gene in the Rho signaling pathway, ROCKII, and the key gene in the Wnt signaling pathway, ß-catenin, were both upregulated compared with the control group. siRNA-mediated knockdown of ROCKII and ß-catenin reversed these WEHI-3-mediated anti-adipogenic effects. Taken together, these data suggest that WEHI-3 cells exert anti-adipogenic effects and that both ROCKII and ß-catenin are involved in this process.