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Carbon emissions trading (CET) is now one of China's key policy tools for achieving the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. To comprehensively explore the consequences of China's CET policy, the study first evaluated the content validity of CET policies across China's 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities falling directly under the central government using policy strengths, tools, and measures from 2011 to 2020. The spatiotemporal drivers of regional carbon efficiency improvements from aspects of actual policy effect, average policy content validity effect, and policy quantity effect were also evaluated via the logarithmic mean Divisia index. This analysis revealed that the policy content validity was increasing in general and was higher in pilot regions. On average, the policy quantity effect was the primary driver of carbon efficiency improvements in both pilot and non-pilot regions, but the actual policy effect failed to promote carbon efficiency in both regions. Beijing's carbon emissions reduction effect was superior to that of other pilot regions, and where actual policy effect and policy quantity effect were the primary and secondary drivers of local carbon efficiency improvements, respectively. These findings suggest that when formulating CET policies, each region should not only focus on improving policy content validity, but also pay attention to the actual carbon emissions reduction effects produced by policies as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality lays out a grand blueprint for carbon emission reduction and climate governance in China. How to reduce energy consumption is the key to achieving this goal. The economic development and energy consumption show a very large gap at the provincial level, and this paper divides China into six regions (North, Northeast, East, Mid-South, Southwest, and Northwest) and analyzes the dynamic changes and reveals the driving factors that have affected CO2 emission changes from 1997 to 2017. Then, the driving forces including energy intensity, energy structure, energy efficiency, economic activity, and population scale were discussed employing the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) based on provincial panel data. The results show that CO2 emissions from energy consumption show an upward trend, from 4145 Mt in 1997 to 13,250 Mt in 2017, with an annual average growth rate of 1.06%; coal consumption is the main source of CO2 emission. The regions with the highest proportion of CO2 emissions are the East and North, which account for 50% of total emissions. China's CO2 emissions from energy consumption, coal consumption, and output have shown significant spatial autocorrelation at the provincial scale. According to coal consumption, energy consumption CO2 emissions are divided into three stages: phase I (1997–2002), the increase in CO2 emissions in six regions was attributed to significant and positive impacts of energy intensity, economic activity, and population scale, the effects of which exceeded those of the energy structure and energy efficiency; phase II (2003–2012), the economic activity effect on CO2 emissions was highest in the East region, followed by the North and Mid-South regions; phase III (2013–2017), the East, Mid-South, and Southwest regions of China were dominated by the positive effects of energy intensity, economic activity, and population scale. The major driver of CO2 emissions is economic activity; the energy efficiency effect is an important inhibitory factor. Regional economic development and energy consumption in China are unbalanced; we conclude that differentiated emission reduction measures should be of particular concern for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, concern has been increasing regarding the carbon emissions generated by mining activities. China is an extremely large coal producer (3695 Mt/2015) and consumer (3698 Mt/2015), and Shanxi Province (i.e., a major coal-producing province in China) is a crucial element in China's energy conservation and emission reduction goals. In this study, the Pingshuo mining area (PMA) in Shanxi Province was chosen as a case to analyze the dynamic changes in carbon emissions based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method, and the factors influencing carbon emissions were analyzed via the IPAT equation. Carbon emission sources in opencast mines mainly included fuel and explosive use, coal mine methane escape, coal and gangue spontaneous combustion, and electricity consumption. The carbon emission of the PMA increased from 4 × 104 Mg in 1986 to 1.05 × 106 Mg in 2015, with an average annual increase of 11.64%. In the PMA, 4.71 × 106 Mg of carbon emissions from fuel consumption accounted for 41.79% of carbon emissions, and 5.26 × 106 Mg of carbon emissions from methane emissions accounted for 46.66%. Carbon emissions from explosives and electricity use were 4.1 × 105 Mg and 8.8 × 105 Mg, respectively. In this mining area, the factors influencing carbon emissions included population, GDP, and coal output. The results of this study not only provide a reference for cleaner production in mining areas but also lay a foundation for the study of global opencast coal mining carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pediatric urolithiasis is a less common disease with a steadily increasing incidence of 10.6 % per year. The comprehensive management of pediatric urolithiasis is more challenging than in adults, and published studies of endourological treatment in children have small sample sizes and older mean ages, which may not be representative of the overall pediatric population, especially in infants and toddlers. This study aimed to report results of retrograde ureteroscopy for treating pediatric ureteral stones in infants and toddlers (<3 years) from a single center in China., Methods: Demographic and surgical data of infants and toddlers with ureteral stones who underwent retrograde URS were retrospectively analyzed from January 2015 to September 2022., Results: The mean age of 100 infants (73 boys and 27 girls) was 19.6 ± 7.6 months and stone burden was 0.27 (0.11-0.52) cm³. 111 procedures were performed for all children due to 11 patients with bilateral ureteric stones were simultaneously treated. Among them, 70.3 % were semi-rigid URS, 12.6 % were Micro-URS and 17.1 % were flexible URS. SFR was up to 96 %, the median operation time and hospitalization days were 35.0 (25.0-50.0) minutes and 6.0 (5.0-6.0) days, respectively. 15 (15.0 %) infants had postoperative fever (Grade I), and complications above grade I were not observed., Discussions: This research reported the largest sample size of infant and toddler ureteric stones (under 3 years old) and shared optimal management strategies for these special populations. Compared to other related studies, we had a higher SFR due to diverse management strategies and reasonable application of pre-operative ureteric stents. The most important potential reason why our complication rate was relatively higher might be the younger population under 3 years old. In additionally, the reason of long hospitalization was maybe some patients underwent staged surgeries during one hospitalization. Those results indicated the robust effectiveness of URS for infants. This study has limitations, including its retrospective single-center design, absence of long-term follow-up data, and potential variability in surgical outcomes due to differences in surgeons' experience., Conclusions: The experience of endourologic procedures for 100 infant and toddler patients with ureteric stones from a Chinese single center was reported. And URS showed its effectiveness and safety for those special populations based on its high SFR and low complication rate., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Carbon neutrality lays out a grand blueprint for carbon emission reduction and climate governance in China. How to reduce energy consumption is the key to achieving this goal. The economic development and energy consumption show a very large gap at the provincial level, and this paper divides China into six regions (North, Northeast, East, Mid-South, Southwest, and Northwest) and analyzes the dynamic changes and reveals the driving factors that have affected CO 2 emission changes from 1997 to 2017. Then, the driving forces including energy intensity, energy structure, energy efficiency, economic activity, and population scale were discussed employing the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) based on provincial panel data. The results show that CO 2 emissions from energy consumption show an upward trend, from 4145 Mt in 1997 to 13,250 Mt in 2017, with an annual average growth rate of 1.06%; coal consumption is the main source of CO 2 emission. The regions with the highest proportion of CO 2 emissions are the East and North, which account for 50% of total emissions. China's CO 2 emissions from energy consumption, coal consumption, and output have shown significant spatial autocorrelation at the provincial scale. According to coal consumption, energy consumption CO 2 emissions are divided into three stages: phase I (1997-2002), the increase in CO 2 emissions in six regions was attributed to significant and positive impacts of energy intensity, economic activity, and population scale, the effects of which exceeded those of the energy structure and energy efficiency; phase II (2003-2012), the economic activity effect on CO 2 emissions was highest in the East region, followed by the North and Mid-South regions; phase III (2013-2017), the East, Mid-South, and Southwest regions of China were dominated by the positive effects of energy intensity, economic activity, and population scale. The major driver of CO 2 emissions is economic activity; the energy efficiency effect is an important inhibitory factor. Regional economic development and energy consumption in China are unbalanced; we conclude that differentiated emission reduction measures should be of particular concern for policymakers., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: To investigate the choroidal vascularity index (CVI) as a prognostic factor for the visual efficacy of antivascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment in diabetic macular edema (DME)., Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 92 DME eyes receiving anti-VEGF treatment, which were stratified as responders (≥5 letters gained) and nonresponders (<5 letters gained or lost). Baseline systematic features and optical coherence tomography features, including the CVI, adjusted ellipsoid zone (EZ) reflectivity, subretinal fluid (SRF), and disorganization of the retinal inner layers (DRIL), were evaluated between the two groups., Results: The baseline CVI was significantly lower in nonresponders than in responders (0.66 ± 0.05, 0.69 ± 0.05, and 0.72 ± 0.05, p = 0.014). After adjusting for other factors, the baseline CVI, DRIL, SRF, and adjusted EZ reflectivity were significantly associated with visual outcomes (CVI: odds ratio (OR) = 0.17, p = 0.006; adjusted EZ reflectivity: OR = 0.56, p = 0.007; DRIL: OR = 6.71, p = 0.001; and SRF: OR = 0.29, p = 0.008)., Conclusion: DME patients with a higher CVI, higher adjusted EZ reflectivity, the presence of SRF, and the absence of DRIL at baseline were more likely to gain >5 letters in visual acuity after anti-VEGF treatment. CVI may serve as a novel biomarker for visual response to anti-VEGF treatment in DME., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Ningxin Dou et al.)