Social integration as a mediator of the association between housing tenure and health inequalities among China's migrants: A housing discrimination perspective.

Due to the housing affordability crisis and institutional discrimination embedded in China's housing system, which refers to the unequal rights between homeowners and renters, migrant renters face greater social exclusion and health inequalities compared to migrant homeowners. Although housing tenure is considered an important determinant of health, along with other socioeconomic factors, the pathways underlying the association between housing tenure and health remain overlooked. Using data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey of 62,268 participants, this study examined the mediating effects of social integration between housing tenure and self-rated health, and whether housing affordability moderated the mediating effects. Simple mediation models showed that social integration partly mediated the association between housing tenure and self-rated health. Moderated mediation models revealed that housing affordability moderated the association between housing tenure and social integration, and did not moderate the association between social integration and self-rated health. Compared with migrants living in affordable housing, the mediating effect of social integration was significantly smaller among migrants living in unaffordable housing. The results add knowledge to previous literature by uncovering the underlying mechanisms between housing tenure and health and linking housing studies to social inequalities in health. Our study suggested that diminishing housing discrimination and improving housing affordability could not only be beneficial for migrants' health but also be helpful to narrowing the health inequalities among migrants.

The effect of housing tenure on health status of migrant populations in China: are health service utilization and social integration mediating factors?

BACKGROUND: Current research suggests that there is an association between housing tenure and the health status of migrant populations, but the potential mediators of this association remain to be explored. We aimed to examine the effect of housing tenure on migrant populations' health in China and how this effect is mediated by health service utilization and social integration. METHODS: Data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey of 47,459 participants was used. Logistic regression models were used to explore the effects of housing tenure, health service utilization, and social integration on the health status of migrant populations. Mediated effects models were used to explore the association among them. This study used the bootstrap method and KHB method to test the mediating effect of health service utilization and social integration. RESULTS: Compared to private renters, owners with mortgages (OR: 0.828, 95% CI: 0.765-0.896) were significantly associated with a higher risk of poor health. Compared with private renters, outright owners were associated with a lower risk of poor health (OR: 1.016, 95% CI: 0.935, 1.104), but the association was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Moreover, health service utilization (OR: 1.422, 95% CI: 1.268, 1.594) and social integration (OR: 4.357, 95% CI: 3.555, 5.341) were both significantly associated with a higher probability of good health (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Among migrant populations, homeowners with mortgages had a lower likelihood of good health than private renters, while there was no significant difference in the health status between outright owners and private renters. Moreover, health service utilization and social integration mediate the effect of housing tenure on the health status of migrant populations. Policies and interventions can be designed to improve the health service utilization and social inclusion of migrant populations to reduce health disparities across housing tenure types.

Do urban agglomeration planning policies promote the discharge reduction of industrial wastewater: Evidence from the Yellow River Basin in China.

The environmental effects of the urban agglomeration planning policy (UAPP) are an exploration by rapidly developing China and a concern for countries seeking development and urban reform around the world. This paper takes the three regional urban agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) as the research object and collects the panel data of 106 prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2019 to study the reduction effects of UAPP on the industrial wastewater discharge (IWD). The empirical results from Difference-in-Differences models indicate that UAPP can significantly inhibit IWD. UAPP reduces IWD by promoting green innovation, and the development of service industries can strengthen this effect. UAPP shows a stronger IWD reduction effect in the northeast YRB than that in the southwest region. Compared to urban agglomerations with a single provincial jurisdiction, UAPP exerts stronger IWD reduction effects on urban agglomerations with multiple jurisdictions. Moreover, there exist spatial spillover effects of UAPP on IWD. These findings provide support and references for urban reform and the development of green cities in countries around the world, especially in developing countries.

The impacts of casual environmental regulation on carbon intensity in China: Dual mediating pathways of energy low-carbon reconstitution and industrial structure upgrading.

In the new era of global net zero, how to reduce carbon intensity became a hot topic, while few attentions had been paid to the impacts of casual environmental regulation, especially in the emerging economy such as China. In this regard, this study uses the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2019 to study the impacts of causal environmental regulation on the carbon intensity, with the adoption of multiple econometric models. The empirical results show that causal environmental regulation has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon intensity, while at current stage, causal environmental regulation cannot inhibit carbon intensity through the mediating of green innovation and renewable energy production. Fortunately, energy low-carbon reconstitution and industrial structure upgrading are proved to effectively act as the intermediary channels. In addition, the spatial spillover effects and the spatial heterogeneity are supported in the empirical analysis. In a summary, this study starts with the case of China to provide a realistic reference case for the international community, enriches the theory, policy and practice related to environmental regulation, and provides a realistic reference example for emerging economics in a developing country.

One-dimensional and three-dimensional long-range orientated superstructures of PbSe nanocrystals.

We report the 1D linear, 2D square, 2D honeycomb, and 3D topo-epitaxy long-range superstructures of oriented attached PbSe NCs. In particular, we discovered novel 1D linear and 3D superstructures, which implied different formation mechanisms compared with the PbSe superstructures previously reported. Our study not only demonstrates stronger design capability for oriented-attached PbSe superstructures, but also reveals important information about the interfacial behavior of the PbSe NCs during the self-assembly.

Versatile fabrication of metal sulfide supraparticles by an in situ decomposition-assembly strategy.

Supraparticles (SPs) are of great importance in both fundamental and applied studies due to their emerging collective properties, synergistic effects, and various applications. Metal sulfide nanomaterials are of vital importance in biomedicine, catalysis, battery materials, and other fields. Herein, an in situ decomposition-assembly strategy for the versatile fabrication of metal sulfide SPs is developed. In the fabrication, cysteine molecules and metal cations first react and form coordination polymers, which are then decomposed by heating to produce small-sized metal sulfide nanocrystals. Driven by elimination of the high surface energy of NCs generated by thermal decomposition and the van der Waals attraction, the resulting nanocrystals in situ self-assemble each other and form SP products. In addition to homogeneous Cu2S, CdS, and ZnS products, the proposed system can even be extended to fabricate hybrid Cu2S/Fe2O3 SPs. Furthermore, the SP size can be easily tuned from 10 to 100 nm by adjusting the proportion of cysteine and metal ions. The SPs not only exhibit various properties including photothermal conversion, fluorescence, and magnetism, depending on their composition, but can also combine these properties by the formation of hybrid structures.