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The price of photovoltaics (PV) has been steadily decreasing over the last decade, and many reports suggest that PV has become considerably cheaper than conventional electricity sources. In this paper, we critically evaluate the PV grid parity and use China as a case study. China is an interesting case study due to the wealth of data combined with the recent decrease in financial subsidies. Electricity costs are commonly compared in the literature using levelized costs of electricity (LCOE). However traditional LCOE analyses neglect important cost factors that are specific to PV, in particular the cost of grid integration. Here, we demonstrate that system LCOE calculation more accurately estimates the grid parity of PV. We find that the integration costs account for 15% of the total system costs, which cannot be neglected with the higher penetration of PV in the electricity system. Further, provincial grid parity indexes are greater than 1, indicating that the grid parity from a system LCOE perspective has not yet been achieved. The learning rate of Chinese PV is still relatively small, and we estimate that grid parity for PV in China will be achieved between 2020 and 2032, depending on the region. These findings shed new light on assessing grid parity of PV systems by considering relevant local parameters and thereby offer an assessment method framework and prediction modeling for assessing grid parity of PV installations. • This paper assesses PV's commercial feasibility in the current electricity market. • Grid parity is estimated using a new approach of system LCOE and learning curve. • The impacts of system LCOE and electricity price on grid parity are investigated. • The additional grid integration costs amount for 15% of total PV system costs. • Grid parity from a system LCOE perspective will be achieved between 2020 and 2032. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional higher education growth in non-federal states has not attracted much academic attention. This paper is one of the first attempts to explore China's latest higher education expansion and its systematic and regional impact from the perspective of multi-level governance. This article argues that the state had explicitly utilized the Commanding Heights Strategy to diffuse the higher education authority to sub-national level and promote regional growth. The Central authorities allowed the Ministry of Education establishing a vertical elite coalition to command the heights of tertiary institutional hierarchy and key resources for tertiary development. In addition, the state used both financial incentives and sectoral incentives to mobilize resources for regional expansion. The Commanding Heights Strategy shapes China's response to the higher education trilemma of costs, access, and quality. Under this strategy, the unprecedented tertiary expansion has expanded college access, but at the expense of affordability, quality, and a large and increasing regional variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterocytozoon bieneusi has been considered as the most frequently diagnosed microsporidian species in humans and various animal species, accounting for more than 90% of the cases of human microsporidiosis. Spores of this pathogen excreted from both symptomatic and asymptomatic hosts into environment also would be an important source of waterborne outbreak of microsporidiosis. Due to limited effective drugs available but with too much side effects to mammals (eg. toxic), accurate characterization of E. bieneusi in both humans and animals is essential to implement effective control strategies to this pathogen. In China, E. bieneusi infection was presented in humans and some animals with high prevalence. Analysis of genetic variations of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences found 361 genotypes in China, and some novel genotypes were identified in some specific hosts. Additionally, associations between infections and some risk factors were also observed. In the present article, we reviewed the current status of prevalence, genotypes, multilocus genotypes (MLGs) in humans, various animals and waters in China. These findings will provide basic information for developing effective control strategies against E. bieneusi infection in China as well as other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how humor usage (including positive and negative humor styles) influences employees' responses to the same stressful events, namely, the auto‐correlation between stress experiences at two time points. Moreover, it examines differences between Australian and Chinese employees in such effects via bicultural comparisons. Results from a two‐wave survey of 109 Australian and 141 Chinese employees indicated that humor usage moderated the StressTime1 – StressTime2 relationship for Australian employees but not for Chinese employees. Specifically, the positive relationship between the two stress measures became weaker for Australians who were higher in humor than those lower in humor. Similarly, Positive humor mitigated the relationship between StressTime1 and StressTime2 only for the Australians but not the Chinese. However, Negative humor exerted no influence on the focal relationship in either sample. Organizations should encourage employees to use humor in effective ways, thereby improving stress coping skills and reducing workplace stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2012, symptoms of irregular mosaic stripe and mottle were observed on maize leaves in field in Beijing, China. The causal pathogen was identified to be Cucumber mosaic virus ( CMV) based upon reverse transcription- PCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Western blotting and fulfilment of Koch's postulates. The isolate was named ZMBJ- CMV. Full sequence of ZMBJ- CMV RNA3 was determined, and it had the highest identity to that of strain K- CMV (95.03%) and SD- CMV (94.96%). Phylogenetic analysis revealed ZMBJ- CMV clustered with K- CMV and SD- CMV in subgroup IB. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the natural infection and phylogenetic analysis of CMV on maize in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional measures of mainstreaming wetlands biodiversity conservation such as counting relevant regulations and policies produce little insight into the success or failure of mainstreaming or of the potential for impact on wetlands biodiversity of sectoral laws and policies. The authors developed a semi-quantitative process to evaluate the regulatory framework at national and provincial levels that can effectively promote discussions with sectoral ministries on change of legal/regulatory texts that would improve the management of wetlands. The paper outlines the methodology, how the results are interpreted, and some of the key concerns in implementing the methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) exert great potential in reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing the dependence on petroleum products, and are also essential in realizing the social transformation toward a low-carbon society. Since public are the principal users and stakeholders of NEVs, it's vital to understand their acceptance of NEVs and discuss the influencing factors of public acceptance, so as to promote the development of NEVs. Based on the survey data of Gansu Province, this paper analyzes the public perception and acceptance of NEVs in underdeveloped regions, and explores main factors affecting their acceptance by adopting Structural Equation Model. The results show that the public acceptance of NEVs is relatively higher, with only 51.99% residents are willing to accept NEVs. And there are differences of public acceptance of NEVs among different groups. The acceptance of females, young and less educated public are relatively higher, decreases with aging and increases with education attainment. Perceived risk and perceived cost are significantly negative correlated with public acceptance of NEVs, while subjective norm and the quality of NEVs positively correlated with public acceptance. In addition, support policy is significantly positively correlated with perceived cost while perceived cost is positively corelated with perceived risk. Finally, this paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions on improving the public acceptance of NEVs in underdeveloped regions. • We conducted the NEVs acceptance of 1356 residents in Chinese underdeveloped regions. • 51.99% of the public in underdeveloped regions of China were willing to accept NEVs. • Perceived risk, perceived cost, and NEVs' quality are the key influencing factors. • Support policy, knowledge have significant indirect impact on acceptance of NEVs. • Enhancing subsidies and supporting facilities were effective ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that materialism is related to environmentalism, but unstable findings still exist. To clarify the relationships between materialism and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, the present study addressed some methodological issues and provided both individual- and regional-level evidence from China. Using data from the World Value Survey and the Chinese General Social Survey, we observed that materialism was negatively associated with pro-environmental attitudes (Study 1, n = 2,300; Study 2, n = 3,672) and pro-environmental behaviors (Study 2). Moreover, we found that pro-environmental attitudes partially mediated the association between materialism and pro-environmental behaviors in Study 2. We further searched for additional regional evidence in Study 3, and we found that the more materialistic regions are, the more energy is consumed. Results indicate that materialism is associated with decreases in pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]