Untangling the causal mechanisms and spatial dynamics of digital financial development's impact on energy intensity: insights from panel data of Chinese provinces.

The prime focus of the present investigation delves into the linkage between digital financial services and energy intensity within the geographic confines of China, utilizing provincial-level panel data spanning from 2011 to 2021. Digital finance has rapidly developed due to changes in information technology, and its role in achieving green transformation, reducing energy consumption, and lowering energy intensity in Chinese society is critical. By conducting empirical analysis utilizing diverse models, we have tested our hypotheses and found that digital finance's improvement can contribute to the reduction in energy intensity at the regional level while still considering endogeneity concerns. This effect is mediated by the promotion of technological innovation and the facilitation of green development in industries. Digital finance's impact on energy intensity is contingent upon resource endowments, such as the level of traditional financial development and the degree of information. Moreover, digital finance's adverse impact on energy intensity becomes more pronounced beyond certain threshold values. However, digital finance can increase energy intensity in neighboring regions through spatial spillover effects. Drawing upon our findings, we recommend bolstering the development of digital finance, augmenting the capability for autonomous innovation, and devising specialized strategies for digital finance advancement to fully harness the potential of digital finance in curbing energy intensity. This study interprets the value of digital finance from the new perspective of energy intensity. By exploring the internal links between digital finance and energy intensity, the study enriches the research results on the impact of digital finance on energy intensity.

Analysis of financial support efficiency and influencing factors of listed seed companies from the perspective of energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The seed industry has a prominent role in strengthening ecological stability and national food security as it provides the basic ground for agriculture sector. In the current research, the effectiveness of financial support provided to listed seed enterprises and its influencing factors from the perspectives of energy consumption and carbon emissions are examined using a three-stage DEA-Tobit model. The dataset for the underlined study variables mainly comes from the financial data published by 32 listed seed enterprises and the China Energy Statistical Yearbook from 2016 to 2021. In order to make the results more accurate, the influence of external environmental factors such as economic development level, total energy consumption, and total carbon emission on listed seed enterprises are excluded. The results revealed that the mean value of financial support efficiency of listed seed enterprises increased significantly after excluding the influence of external environmental and random factors. External environmental factors such as regional energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission played an important role in the process of the financial system supporting the development of listed seed enterprises. The development of some listed seed enterprises with high financial support efficiency came at the cost of high local carbon dioxide emission and high energy consumption. Internal factors such as operating profit, equity concentration, financial structure, and enterprise size are the key intra-firm factors that affect the efficiency of financial support for listed seed enterprises. Thus, it is suggested that enterprises must pay attention to the environmental performance to reach a win-win situation in reducing and improving the energy consumption and financial performance, respectively. Similarly, the improvement of energy use efficiency through endogenous and external innovation should be prioritized to achieve sustainable economic development.

The role of the K+ channel in the inhibition of the human lung adenocarcinoma cell proliferation by rmhTNF / 中国肺癌杂志

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>With the development of patch clamp and molecular biology technique, and the application of them in the investigation of tumor cellular membrane ion channnel, the ion channel is becoming the hot spot of the tumor base research gradually. The aim of this study is to investigate the electrophysiological properties of human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A-549 and the role of K+ channel in inhibition of cell proliferation by the recombinant mutant human tumor necrosis factor (rmhTNF).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Ionic currents were recorded using the whole-cell patch clamp recording technique. The proliferation activity of A-549 cells was measured by MTT assay. The cell cycle and apoptosis rates of the carcinoma cells were measured by flow cytometric analysis (FCM).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Whole-cell patch clamp recording revealed a voltage-gated K+ current in A-549 cells, which could be blocked by the K+ channel blocker, TEA and CsCl. The amplitude of K+ current was markedly diminished in all cells incubated with different concentration of rmhTNF (P < 0.01). Obvious inhibitive effect of rmhTNF on proliferation of the cells was found in vitro in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.01), the maximal inhibitory rate was 38.68% when the concentration was 400U/mL. The rmhTNF inhibited the cell cycle shifting from G1 phase to S phase and promoted apoptosis as determined by FCM analysis. The proportion of G1 cells increased from 53.02% to 72.93%, and the apoptosis rate increased from 2.08% to 8.68%. The difference were significant between the control and the high concentration groups ( 200U/mL and 400U/mL) (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>rmhTNF exerts its cytotoxic effects on A-549 cells through inhibiting cell cycle shifting and inducing apoptosis. The K+ channels on the A-549 cell membrane can be blocked by rmhTNF partly, and the effect of inhibiting proliferation and activating apoptosis on A-549 cells is a result of depression of the K+ channel.</p>