Analysis of Spatiotemporal Changes of Ecological Environment Quality and Its Coupling Coordination with Urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration, China.

It is inevitable that urban agglomeration will have a coercive impact on the regional Ecological Environment Quality (EEQ) as a consequence of high-speed urbanization. Balancing the EEQ and urbanization development has become a problem worthy of attention. In order to objectively evaluate the EEQ of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) and explore the impact of the urbanization process on it, this paper is based on the Modified Remote Sensing Ecological Index (MRSEI) and the Comprehensive Night Light Index (CNLI), respectively, and conducts a quantitative assessment of the YRDUA in China from 2000 to 2020. The results show that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the MRSEI of the YRDUA first decreased and then increased, and the ecological environment quality degraded first and then improved; however, there were significant differences between regions. The ecological environment quality in the south is obviously better than that in the north, and the ecological environment quality in the north changes more drastically, and the low value area of MRSEI will gradually move downstream as time changes; (2) During the study period, the YRDUA formed a hierarchical and progressive urbanization pattern. The inland urbanization process expanded from east to west along the Yangtze River, and the urbanization process of coastal cities expanded from Shanghai as the center to the north and south with high-intensity urbanization cities concentrated in Shanghai and its surrounding cities and low-intensity urbanization cities distributed in the western part of the urban agglomeration; (3) The Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD) between urbanization and EEQ in the YRDUA has continuously improved with an increase of 28.57% in the past 21 years, and the number of cities with high level coupling continues to rise, while the number of medium level coupling cities and low level coupling cities has declined. As a large-scale and long-term analysis of changes in the EEQ and the urbanization process, this study can provide theoretical support for policymakers to formulate mesoscale development planning, EEQ monitoring, and environmental protection policies.

The development of the Negative Bias in Prospection Scale: A novel assessment of dysfunctional prospection in depression.

"Prospection" refers to the ability to mentally simulate one's future episodes. Negative bias in prospection, which includes both reduced positivity and enhanced negativity, is considered to be closely related to the development and maintenance of depression. However, there is a relative paucity of measures that adequately assess negative bias in prospection in depressed people. The current study developed and initially validated the Negative Bias in Prospection Scale (NBPS) using a nonclinical sample (n = 959). The validity and reliability of the NBPS were investigated in several ways. Results suggested the 14 NBPS items loaded onto three factors, namely the "Increased negativity," the "Reduced positivity," and the "Overgeneralization." The NBPS demonstrated decent internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Further, the NBPS was strongly associated with severity of depressive symptoms. Moreover, the NBPS was correlated in a theoretically meaningful way with other measures of future-oriented cognitions or negative biases. In conclusion, the NBPS has promising preliminary psychometric properties. It will be an efficient tool for exploring dysfunctional prospection in depression and provides a novel measure for mechanism of change in prospection-based interventions.