Search Results (557)

Achieving marine sustainable development goals requires improving the quality of the marine economy. In this study, we constructed a multi-dimensional evaluation index system to quantify the high-quality development of the marine economy (HDME) and digital economy for China’s 11 coastal regions between 2012 and 2020, and systematically explored the mechanisms between the digital economy, marine industrial structure upgrading, and high-quality development of the marine economy. We further empirically analyzed the influence of the digital economy and marine industrial structure upgrading on the HDME by using the static and dynamic spatial Durbin model and threshold model. We found that the digital economy improved the HDME of local and neighboring regions, and the sub-dimensional indicators had a significant heterogeneous effect. The marine industrial structure upgrading only positively affected the quality of the marine economy in neighboring areas. Furthermore, the digital economy and marine industrial structure upgrading also had synergistic effects on improving the marine economy, which mainly depended on digital infrastructure and digital industrialization. There also existed digital infrastructure and digital industrialization thresholds within marine industrial structure upgrading, affecting the HDME. Our results provide new insights for the green and sustainable development of the marine industry and marine economy from a broader technical perspective in the digital age. Governments should recognize the spatial spillover and synergistic effects of the digital economy and marine industrial structure between different regions and implement policies considering their impacts to achieve the marine sustainable development goals. Full article

Breakthrough green innovation acts as a critical leverage point and a fundamental driver of the development of new productive forces. This study employs a sample of 108 cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2011 to 2021 to investigate the impact of digital infrastructure on urban breakthrough green innovation and its underlying mechanisms. The findings are as follows: (1) Digital infrastructure construction facilitates urban breakthrough green innovation, with a notably more substantial impact on strategic breakthrough green innovation. This result is validated through robustness and endogeneity tests. (2) Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the enhancement effect of digital infrastructure on breakthrough green innovation is more prominent in non-resource-based cities, cities with higher levels of marketisation, and those with weaker environmental regulations, with a particularly significant influence on substantive breakthrough green innovation. (3) Mechanism analysis reveals that upgrading industrial structures, optimising market resource allocation, and increasing public environmental awareness are critical mechanisms through which digital infrastructure strengthens urban breakthrough green innovation capacity. Additionally, as improvements occur in industrial structure, market resource allocation efficiency, and public environmental awareness, the impact of digital infrastructure on urban breakthrough green innovation capacity displays a nonlinear effect. Full article

Given the growing concerns over environmental degradation and the demand for sustainable development, the Chinese government has implemented several fiscal incentive policies to enhance environmental governance. Taking the phased comprehensive demonstration cities of the Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Fiscal Policy (ESERFP) as an exogenous shock, this study uses a staggered difference-in-differences method to evaluate the impact of the fiscal incentive policy on pollution control using panel data from 268 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2017. The results indicate that the industrial pollutant emissions in the demonstration cities significantly decreased compared with those in the non-demonstration cities under the influence of the ESERFP. Specifically, industrial wastewater discharges in the demonstration cities decreased by 15.5% while industrial sulfur dioxide emissions decreased by 19.5%. Moreover, promoting industrial structure upgrades and green technology innovations are the main mechanisms of the ESERFP in reducing industrial pollution emissions. Furthermore, the emission-reduction effect of the ESERFP is more significant in areas with more fiscal resources, lower promotion incentives based on local economic performance, greater emphasis on environmental protection, and those with no old industrial bases. Further analysis shows that the positive effect of the ESERFP on pollution control in the demonstration cities remains relatively effective after the demonstration period ends, and the policy does not sacrifice economic dividends. Overall, this study explores the impact of fiscal incentive policies designed to achieve environmental improvements via pollution control, offering valuable fiscal policy insights for China and other developing economies seeking solutions to environmental pollution, including fiscal incentive policy formulation and implementation, fiscal incentives to support regional green transformations, improving the differentiation and precision of fiscal incentives and enhancing environmental performance assessment. Full article

There are conflicts between the increasingly complex operational requirements and the slow rate of system platform upgrading, especially in the industry of railway transit-signaling systems. We attempted to address this problem by establishing a model for migrating computing units and data under resource-constrained conditions in this paper. By decomposing and reallocating application functions, optimizing the use of CPU, memory, and network bandwidth, a hierarchical structure of computing units is proposed. The architecture divides the system into layers and components to facilitate resource management. Then, a migration strategy is proposed, which mainly focuses on moving components and data from less critical paths to critical paths and ultimately optimizing the utilization of computing resources. Specifically, the test results suggest that the method can reduce the overall CPU utilization by 27%, memory usage by 6.8%, and network bandwidth occupation by 35%. The practical value of this study lies in providing a theoretical model and implementation method for optimizing resource allocation in scenarios where there is a gap between resource and computing requirements in fixed-resource service architectures. The strategy is compatible for distributed computing architectures and cloud/cloud–edge-computing architectures. Full article

With the increasing public awareness and strength of industrial heritage protection, industrial heritage plays an increasingly important role in tourism after transformation and upgrading. The influence of built environment factors and visitors’ participation on satisfaction has been fully confirmed, but the primary and secondary relationships between the two variables remain unclear. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between the built environment, tourist participation, and tourism satisfaction, and compare the actual loads of different routes to find the dominant variable. The data of this study came from three industrial heritage renovation projects in Shanghai with remarkable transformation results. Field investigations and questionnaire surveys were conducted on them, and a total of 362 valid samples were received. Descriptive statistical analysis and structural equation models were used to analyze the data. Two paths of “built environment–tourism satisfaction” and “tourist participation–tourism satisfaction” are compared and demonstrated. The path coefficient of the former is 0.63, while that of the latter is 0.77, and the influence of the latter is more significant than that of the former. The study creatively found the audience orientation of both sexes for different types of experience activities, confirmed the mediating effect of subjective perception, and provided the following suggestions for managers of built industrial cultural heritage. Interactive experiences and guided tours deepen visitors’ understanding of the historical and cultural value of industrial heritage. Virtual reality and augmented reality technologies can be introduced to provide an immersive visit experience and attract a wider audience to participate, effectively enhancing the attractiveness of and satisfaction with industrial heritage tourism. Full article

China’s carbon emissions trading policy represents a significant institutional innovation designed to advance the country’s economic and social development towards sustainability and low-carbon growth. This study investigates the effects of China’s carbon emissions trading policy by employing the difference-in-differences model and spatial Durbin model, using provincial panel data spanning from 2005 to 2020. We find that the carbon emissions trading policy can inhibit per capita carbon emissions in the pilot areas. This work is primarily driven by green technological innovation and the upgrade of industrial structure. Furthermore, the carbon emissions trading policy exhibits a positive spatial spillover effect, inhibits per capita carbon emissions in the areas adjacent to the pilot through demonstration effect and competition effect, and does not cause carbon leakage. These findings reveal the policy’s effectiveness in emissions reduction, and may be useful reference for promoting sustainable economic and social development. This is of great practical significance for exploring how to optimize environmental governance measures, avoid carbon leakage, and achieve balance and fairness in responsibilities in achieving low-carbon sustainable development. Our study proposes policy recommendations for synergizing the national trading market in China. Full article

To explore the impact mechanisms of China’s low-carbon pilot policies on urban carbon emissions, this paper employs the propensity-score-matched difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) methodology, in conjunction with a dynamic marginal effect analysis, to examine the mechanisms through which China’s low-carbon pilot policies, initiated in three phases at disparate points in time, influence urban carbon emissions. The analysis is based on urban panel data from 2009 to 2020. The case demonstrates that the low-carbon pilot policies have had a considerable positive impact on the reduction of urban carbon emissions. Improving the efficiency of energy use and promoting the transformation of the industrial structure towards modern services are pivotal to curbing the intensity of carbon emissions. While the impact on the secondary industry is not statistically significant, these policies do have a significant impact on the restructuring of the tertiary industry. Increasing the amount of carbon sink in urban green spaces likewise has no discernible impact on lowering carbon emissions. Consequently, it is recommended that low-carbon technological innovation be further strengthened, including industrial upgrading, energy consumption control, and renewable energy development. Through these strategies, not only can carbon emissions be effectively reduced, they can thereby facilitate the creation of an environmentally friendly and resilient low-carbon city. Full article

New quality productive forces are the fundamental driving force for the progress of human civilization. To deeply explore the relationship between new quality productive forces and agricultural modernization, data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022 were selected to construct the index system of new quality productive forces and agricultural modernization, carry out scientific measurement, and conduct empirical analysis using the fixed effect model. The results show that new quality productivity can significantly promote agricultural modernization. The new quality productive force has a significant effect on the modernization of agriculture in the eastern, middle, and western regions of China, but the effect is more prominent in the middle and western areas. New productive forces are significantly and positively associated with agricultural modernization in both main grain-producing and non-main grain-producing areas, but the effect is greater in main grain-producing areas. The upgrading of the agricultural industrial structure plays a mediating effect between new productive forces and agricultural modernization. There is a single-threshold effect of the new productive forces empowering agricultural modernization. Accordingly, to better utilize new productive forces to empower agricultural modernization, we should fully activate the talent engine and cultivate modern “new farmers”; strive to build efficient agriculture by taking scientific and technological innovation as the driving force; and promote the sustainable development of agriculture by taking agricultural green production as the orientation. Full article

The process of sustainable urban development faces complex and severe environmental problems. Therefore, enhancing urban ecological resilience (UER) has become an urgent and critical goal. In this study, the establishment of national forest cities (NFCs) in China is regarded as an exogenous shock event, and the impact of NFCs on UER and its mechanisms are investigated based on data from 292 cities spanning 2003 to 2021 using a difference-in-difference method. It is found that NFCs can significantly enhance UER, and this conclusion holds after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that NFCs can effectively strengthen environmental regulations, upgrade industrial structures, promote green innovation, and thus enhance UER. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effect of NFC on UER is more significant in low-carbon non-pilot cities, cities with higher levels of industrial development, and cities in central and western China. Spatial spillover analysis shows that NFCs can effectively improve the ecological resilience of neighboring cities. Therefore, NFCs should be continuously implemented and optimized to establish a long-term mechanism for urban forests to enhance ecological resilience. Full article

The coordinated development of ecological protection and socioeconomics in the Tibetan Plateau is of great significance. This study examines the coupling coordination of urban ecosystems and economic development across 15 municipal administrative units in Qinghai Province and the Tibet Autonomous Region, the core areas of the Tibetan Plateau. The findings reveal that a larger proportion of the Qinghai and Tibet ecosystems are classified above the medium vulnerability level, primarily due to inherent natural geographic conditions. Additionally, the area of the two provinces and regions below the medium development level is larger, which is mainly influenced by indicators of economic strength and industrial structure. The degree of coupling coordination between the ecosystem and economic system in Qinghai and Tibet is predominantly driven by economic factors. Given the existing natural environmental conditions, the eastern regions of Qinghai and Tibet still possess certain development potential, while the economic development in the western areas is somewhat constrained by the natural environment. Based on this, further policy recommendations have been proposed to adjust and upgrade the industrial structure, aligning ecological protection with economic development in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. These recommendations aim to facilitate the formulation of strategies and policies for sustainable urban construction and social development in such high-ecological-value regions as the Tibetan Plateau. Full article

In recent years, the digital economy and the green economy have become integral parts of China’s economy. Chinese government has been actively expanding its support for the development of these sectors. However, there are still several obstacles hindering the progress of the digital economy and the green economy in China. The objective of this study is to delve into the impact mechanism of the digital economy on the green economy. Moreover, this paper innovatively integrates industrial structure and technological innovation into this impact process. We elucidate the significant roles played by these two mediating variables. Simultaneously, we employ the bidirectional fixed-effect model, baseline regression, and robustness tests to analyze the data from 31 provinces in China between 2012 and 2021. The conclusions of this study are as follows: (1) The development of the digital economy in China contributes to the improvement of the level of the green economy. (2) When the digital economy influences the green economy, the upgrading of industrial structure and technological innovation play significant roles. (3) The impact of the digital economy on the green economy varies across diverse regions in China. This study reveals the impact mechanism of the digital economy on the development of the green economy using variables of industrial structure and technological innovation. It enriches the research content in this field and extends the application scenarios of related research methods. The conclusions provide valuable references for promoting the development of both the digital economy and the green economy in China. Full article

The fat covered by fat globule membrane is scattered in a water phase rich in lactose and milky protein, forming the original emulsion structure of milk. In order to develop low-fat milk products with good performance or dairy products with nutritional reinforcement, the original emulsion structure of milk can be restructured. According to the type of lipid and emulsion structure in milk, the remolded emulsion structure can be divided into three types: restructured single emulsion structure, mixed emulsion structure, and double emulsion structure. The restructured single emulsion structure refers to the introduction of another kind of lipid to skim milk, and the mixed emulsion structure refers to adding another type of oil or oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion to milk containing certain levels of milk fat, whose final emulsion structure is still O/W emulsion. In contrast, the double emulsion structure of milk is a more complicated structural remodeling method, which is usually performed by introducing W/O emulsion into skim milk (W₂) to obtain milk containing (water-in-oil-in-water) W₁/O/W₂ emulsion structure in order to encapsulate more diverse nutrients. Causal statistical analysis was used in this review, based on previous studies on remodeling the emulsion structures in milk and its gelling products. In addition, some common processing technologies (including heat treatment, high-pressure treatment, homogenization, ultrasonic treatment, micro-fluidization, freezing and membrane emulsification) may also have a certain impact on the microstructure and properties of milk and its gelling products with four different emulsion structures. These processing technologies can change the size of the dispersed phase of milk, the composition and structure of the interfacial layer, and the composition and morphology of the aqueous phase substance, so as to regulate the shelf-life, stability, and sensory properties of the final milk products. This research on the restructuring of the emulsion structure of milk is not only a cutting-edge topic in the field of food science, but also a powerful driving force in promoting the transformation and upgrading of the dairy industry to achieve high-quality and multi-functional dairy products, in order to meet the diversified needs of consumers for health and taste. Full article

This work presents a versatile and cost-effective spray setup that integrates both compressed air spray and electrospray techniques, specifically designed for small-scale laboratory use. This setup provides researchers with an accessible tool to explore spray methods for growing battery electrodes. While these techniques hold significant industrial promise, affordable and simple methods for their use in research settings have been limited. To address this, the setup includes custom control software and detailed information on costs and materials, offering an easy-to-implement solution. The system was tested with three samples per technique, using identical settings, to evaluate the repeatability of each method and gain insights into the uniformity and structure of the resulting films. The structural and morphological characteristics of the samples were analyzed using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The air-spray samples showed greater consistency and repeatability, whereas the electrospray samples exhibited better deposition results in terms of material coverage and higher crystallinity films. Cracking was observed in the air-spray samples, which was related to thermal stress, and both techniques exhibited solvent evaporation issues. The issues encountered with the setup and samples are summarized, along with possible solutions and the next steps for future upgrades and research. Full article

This study uses four dimensions, namely social resilience, economic resilience, infrastructure resilience, and ecological resilience, to construct an index system for urban resilience. The subject data came from the panel data of 282 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2020. We selected a multiperiod double-difference model to study the effects of smart city pilot policies on macro-urban resilience. By conducting parallel-trend tests and selecting appropriate robustness tests, this study drew the following relevant conclusion: smart city pilot policies can have a positive effect on the urban resilience level. These policies exert their influence by facilitating industrial structure upgrading, which plays a partial mediating role. Considering different city area distributions and city scales, smart city pilot policies can have significant heterogeneity in their enhancement of urban resilience. The effect is pronounced in the “east > central > west” states and is more likely to have a significant impact on small- and medium-sized cities. Therefore, promoting the scope of smart city pilots, strengthening the intermediary role of industrial structure upgrading, and implementing differentiated policies for different regions and city sizes are important for sustainable urban development. Full article

The digital economy’s transformative impact on agriculture presents both opportunities and challenges for China’s pursuit of high-quality agricultural and rural development. This study investigates the complex interplay between digital economy, industrial structure transformation, and agricultural advancement using panel data from 31 Chinese provinces spanning 2012–2021. We employed mediation analysis and threshold effect models to uncover several key findings: (1) The digital economy influences high-quality agricultural and rural development through the dual-mediating mechanisms of industrial structure intensification and upgrading in China. (2) These mediating effects exhibit heterogeneous patterns: while industrial intensification positively channels the digital economy’s impact, industrial upgrading shows an initial negative indirect effect, suggesting potential short-term disruptions. (3) The relationship between digital economy and agricultural development is nonlinear, characterized by significant threshold effects. The digital economy’s positive impact becomes more pronounced as industrial structure surpasses certain sophistication and advancement thresholds. Our findings reveal the nuanced dynamics of digital-driven agricultural transformation, highlighting the need for targeted policies that leverage industrial-structure changes while mitigating potential adverse effects. This research contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of how digitalization can be harnessed to promote sustainable and high-quality agricultural and rural development in China, with implications for other developing economies navigating similar transitions. Full article