Factors influencing illegal dumping of hazardous waste in China.

In recent years, illegal dumping of hazardous waste (IDHW) in China has become a recurring problem. Effective identification and exploration of the factors influencing illegal dumping are crucial for incident prevention and hazardous waste management, but its analysis has rarely been reported. Thus, this study focused on 568 cases of IDHW officially reported by the government. Through regular expressions, the categories of dumped wastes and the provinces where the incidents occurred were extracted. Furthermore, a comprehensive set of influencing factors was constructed by text mining for the case content and by the integration from the existing literature. On this basis, the unstructured and structured data were integrated using a Boolean dataset to respectively explore the association rules of influencing factors for the overall IDHW and for major waste categories, in conjunction with the extracted province information. Subsequently, a Bayesian network was constructed by utilizing the results of association rules mining and the key factors were identified through corresponding analysis. The findings of this study reveal a close connection between various influencing factors, with distinct key factors identified for different categories of hazardous waste. Among them, law-enforcement emerges as a crucial factor in most IDHW cases, while the factor of public monitoring for metallic hazardous waste and the factor of government supervision for distillation residue waste and other waste play a key role in their respective cases of illegal dumping. These findings offer a fresh research perspective for investigating the factors influencing IDHW and present helpful insights for developing effective strategies to prevent and control such incidents.

Factor allocation efficiency of environmental protection industry in China-Based on the perspective of micro enterprises.

The Environmental Protection Industry (EPI) has expanded tremendously in response to rising environmental awareness and governmental assistance. EPI development has been hampered by the disordered and unbalanced allocation of production factors caused by the complex and diverse industry mix. In this study, a micro perspective is adopted to dissect the EPI into three departments: technology, manufacturing, and management. A measuring model for determining the misallocation of factors in the EPI is constructed using a three-department Cobb-Douglas production function. The model assesses the effectiveness of factor allocation in China's national and regional EPI while taking into account provincial industrial structures. The findings demonstrate disparate performances between various factors and departments and highlight noteworthy variances in the effectiveness of factor allocation within China's EPI. In particular, capital misallocation is far worse than labor misallocation, with manufacturing misallocation being noticeably worse than other departments. The excessive concentration of factors within the manufacturing department and the severe lack of inputs in the other two departments are mostly to blame for Central and Northwest China's low factor allocation efficiency. Additionally, capital tends to cluster inside the manufacturing department, while labor tends to move toward dominant departments. Finally, relevant policy suggestions are made based on the empirical findings.

Carbon reduction behavior of waste power battery recycling enterprises considering learning effects.

The carbon reduction behavior of waste power battery recycling (WPBR) enterprises is essential for promoting resource conservation and environmental protection. Introducing the learning effects of carbon reduction research and development (R&D) investment, this study constructs an evolutionary game model between local governments and WPBR enterprises to study the behavior choice of carbon reduction. The paper explores the evolutionary process and factors affecting carbon reduction behavior choices of WPBR enterprises from internal R&D motivation and external regulation perspectives. The critical results reveal that the existence of learning effects significantly reduces the probability of environmental regulation by local governments while effectively increasing the probability of WPBR enterprises implementing carbon reduction. The learning rate index positively correlates with the likelihood of enterprises implementing carbon emissions reduction. In addition, carbon reduction subsidies considerably maintain considerably negative relation with the probability of enterprise carbon reduction behavior. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) The learning effect of carbon reduction R&D investment is the intrinsic driving force for WPBR enterprises' carbon reduction behavior, which can promote enterprises to proactively implement carbon reduction under fewer constraints of government environmental regulation; (2) Pollution fines and carbon trade prices in environmental regulation can promote enterprises carbon reduction, while carbon reduction subsidies inhibit their reduction behavior; (3) There exists an evolutionarily stable strategy between government-enterprise game only under the dynamic mechanism. The research provides insights for decision-making on enterprises' carbon reduction R&D investment and local government environmental regulation policy under carbon reduction targets.

Effect of carbon trading scheme and technological advancement on the decision-making of power battery closed-loop supply chain.

Optimising the decision-making of a power battery closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) and establishing a well-organised recycling system of waste power batteries are key to avoiding environmental pollution and wastage of resources, as well as realising green and sustainable development of a power battery CLSC. Combined with game theory and system dynamics, we explore the impact of the carbon trading scheme (CTS) and technological advancements on the power battery CLSC model. The results show the following: 1). At the initial stage of introducing CTS, more free carbon quotas increase the production of power batteries and social welfare. However, recycling and echelon utilisation are impeded, and carbon emissions of power battery CLSC increase. Reduced free carbon quotas and the rise of carbon trading prices promote recycling and echelon utilisation of waste power batteries, and carbon emissions reduce, but the production of power batteries and social welfare suffer a lot. 2). Technological advancement is more effective than CTS to promote recycling and echelon utilisation and reduce carbon emissions. 3). When technology becomes mature, it is appropriate to introduce CTS. At that moment, the combination of CTS, mature technology, and moderate competition recycling market is the best way to optimise the decision-making of power battery CLSC.

The CUSUM statistic of change point under NA sequences.

In this paper, we investigate the CUSUM statistic of change point under the negatively associated (NA) sequences. By establishing the consistency estimators for mean and covariance functions respectively, the limit distribution of the CUSUM statistic is proved to be a standard Brownian bridge, which extends the results obtained under the case of an independent normal sample and the moving average processes. Finally, the finite sample properties of the CUSUM statistic are given to show the efficiency of the method by simulation studies and an application on a real data analysis.

The evolution of a collaboration network and its impact on innovation performance under the background of government-funded support: an empirical study in the Chinese wind power sector.

To accelerate the transformation and application of basic research results, the Chinese government has repeatedly mentioned in a government work report that it is necessary to support research and innovation collaborations between knowledge research institutions and enterprises. However, few studies have focused on the evolution of collaborations between these organizations and the impact of collaborations on innovation performance (IP) in the field of renewable energy under the background of government-funded support (GFS). Based on scientific publications, we construct a GFS collaboration network in the wind power field to investigate the evolution of network structure characteristics, attribute proximity variables, and applied research collaboration (ARC), and we study the impact of network evolution on the IP of actors. The results show that the focal actor of the collaboration network prefers to engage in ARC with partners who are familiar and have the same knowledge base in different provinces. This collaboration tendency will reduce geographical proximity and increase the direct ties, indirect ties, technological proximity, and ARC of the ego network. Among them, direct ties have an inverted U-shaped effect on IP, geographical proximity has a significantly negative impact on IP, and the remaining variables have positive impacts on IP. Taken together, when the direct ties is within a certain range, these collaboration tendencies in a GFS collaboration network positively affect the IP of research institutions and enterprises.

What factors determine the survival of green innovative enterprises in China? -- A method based on fsQCA.

Increasingly serious environmental problems have generated a large number of small and medium-sized green innovative enterprises. Against the background of rapid technological changes and increasingly fierce market competition, survival is the main problem faced by these enterprises. Exploring the mechanisms and core elements that determine the survival of green innovation enterprises is of great practical significance for improving the survival probability of green innovation enterprises and achieving environmental improvement through green innovation. In this paper, twenty-nine enterprises that have won the title of "Top 10 Green Innovative Enterprises" in China are considered the research objects, and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method is used to examine the path combinations that affect the survival of enterprises from the perspectives of resource-based and dynamic capabilities. The findings are as follows. First, government support is key to the survival of green innovative enterprises; second, China's green innovative enterprises have a research and development dilemma, and only matching high R&D capacity with product competitiveness can enhance their survival capabilities; and third, the lack of resource base capacity is the key factor affecting the failure of green enterprises, and dynamic capacity is the key factor for the survival of green innovative enterprises. The main contribution of this paper to the field of management is that enterprises must always pay attention to the coordinated development of internal resource-based capability and external dynamic capability. Conversely, the Chinese government should provide high R&D support to enterprises with competitive products so that these enterprises can rapidly grow into leading enterprises through continuous innovation and drive the sustained and rapid development of China's green innovation industry.

Can environmental innovation benefit from outward foreign direct investment to developed countries? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing enterprises.

Environmental innovation is an important way to low-carbon economic growth. Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) can produce reverse technology transfer to promote innovation. This study aims to examine whether OFDI to developed countries can transfer reverse green technology and promote the environmental innovation of manufacturing enterprises in emerging economies (EEs). Based on the technology gap theory, resource bricolage theory, resource-based view, and Potter hypothesis, this study constructs a conceptual model including the direct effect of OFDI on environmental innovation and the moderating effects of the knowledge level of the host country, multinational strategy, absorptive capacity, and environmental regulation. To verify the model, we also use a panel dataset of 424 Chinese manufacturing enterprises during 2010-2017, and the results indicate that OFDI to developed countries can produce reverse green technology transfer and promote parent companies' environmental innovation. The knowledge level of the host country and multinational strategy can further improve the impacts on environmental product innovation. However, absorptive capacity and environmental regulation in EEs do not play a significant moderating role. Consequently, this study expands the application scope of existing theories and enriches the theoretical basis of the relationship between OFDI and environmental innovation.

Ecological security assessment of Chaohu Lake Basin of China in the context of River Chief System reform.

In the face of the increasingly severe water environment, establishing an effective water environment management mechanism is a major concern of governments around the world. The River Chief System attempts to match water environment management to the performance of the main leaders of the local party and government and represents an institutional innovation to solve the problem of river and lake management in China. However, there is still a lack of systematic research on the performance of the River Chief System and how to promote its overall effectiveness. This paper took Chaohu Lake Basin, with a concentrated and complicated water environment, as the research object and divided it into eastern and western halves. The water ecological security before and after the implementation of the River Chief System was comprehensively evaluated, and the obstacles to ecological security were diagnosed. The implementation effect of the River Chief System and the weak links of the corresponding river chiefs' work performance were analyzed. The results show the following: (1) Since the implementation of the River Chief System in 2013, the overall water ecological security of Chaohu Lake Basin has been raised from the lower limit to the upper limit of the generally healthy category, initially reflecting the effect of the River Chief System. (2) For the eastern half of the lake, the threat to water ecological security mainly comes from the development of industry. Industrial water use intensity is the primary obstacle to the ecological security of the eastern half of the lake in recent years. (3) For the western half of the lake, the threat to water ecological security mainly comes from the process of urbanization. The wetland area, urban domestic water use intensity, and artificial afforestation area are the main factors hindering the ecological security of the western half of the lake. The above analysis results can be used as the basis for future work to improve the performance of the relevant river chiefs in Chaohu Lake Basin.

Light emitting diode irradiation protect against the amyloid beta 25-35 induced apoptosis of PC12 cell in vitro.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Whether light emitting diode (LED) irradiation has effects on "beta-amyloid (A beta) induced apoptosis," a leading hypothesis of the cause of Alzheimer's disease (AD), or not? STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: Monolayer cell cultures of PC12 were subjected to A beta or/and LED irradiation at various intensity. Cell apoptosis was confirmed by morphological criteria, DNA fragmentation assay, and FAScan flow cytometer assay. RESULTS: Treatment of the cells with LED irradiation significantly diminished A beta induced apoptosis within 24 hours. CONCLUSIONS: The LED irradiation, when utilized at power of 0.9 W/m(2) and 60 minutes has significantly diminished A beta induced apoptosis of PC12 cells.