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Exploring the allometric relationship between carbon emission and economic development can provide guidance for policy-makers who hope to accelerate carbon emission reduction and achieve high-quality development. First, based on the established DMSP/OLS and NPP/VIIRS nighttime light datasets, this study simulated the carbon emissions of the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2020. Second, our research analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of carbon emissions. Third, adopting allometric growth model, we explored the allometric relationship between economic development and carbon emissions in Yangtze River Delta. The main conclusions are as follows. First, four prediction models, namely, linear fitting, support vector machine, random forest, and CNN-BiLSTM deep learning, were compared to simulate the accuracy of carbon emissions. Consequently, the CNN-BiLSTM deep learning estimation model presented the best accuracy. Second, both the carbon emissions in YRD as a whole showed an increasing trend, with the largest growth rate appearing in Shanghai and the smallest growth rate occurring in Lishui. Moreover, the high-carbon emission areas were mainly distributed in the core city cluster, which are enclosed by Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. Finally, the allometric relationship between economic development and carbon emissions was dominated by one-level negative during the sample period, and the relative growth rate of carbon emissions is lower than that of the economic development, which made the YRD at a basic coordinate stage of weak expansion of economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing domestic solid waste (DSW) is becoming one of the most serious challenges for city and regional environment. As an epitome of the society, the investigation on the influencing factors and reduction of DSW of university students can not only provide policy suggestions for the waste management in the university campus, but also can achieve demonstration effect to other communities due to its high social status and wide impacts. This research combined direct weighing, questionnaire surveys, and regression analysis to quantify the influencing factors of DSW at East China Normal University's dormitory in Shanghai. Direct weighting and questionnaire survey were conducted in 112 randomly selected dormitory rooms. Totally 523 valid questionnaires were collected. It is found that the average waste generation was 0.275 kg/day/cap, in which residual waste accounted for 64% of total, followed by household food waste (29%), and recyclable waste (7%). Regressions based on ordinary least square method suggested that students' attitude towards waste played the most important role in affecting the waste reduction with its elasticity − 0.195. Lower educational level and better financial condition would lead to more waste generation, whose elasticity was 0.148 and 0.098 respectively. The influences of gender and major varied from waste types. Policies implications for university administration departments for sustainable waste and resource management include developing personalized and humanized waste management policies, enhancing environmental awareness through diverse educational activities, and expanding the publicity role of campus cultural activities on waste reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressure upon local governments to redeem their debt could affect government fiscal ability. It could consequently affect their fiscal policies on corporations, which might distort corporate innovation. Based on the data of Chinese Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies and the local government implicit short-term debt financed by local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) in 31 provinces, this paper shows that local government debt (LGD) negatively affects corporate R&D investment in China, thereby suggesting a strong crowding-out effect. The crowding-out effect is more pronounced when the firm is a non-state-owned enterprise (NSOE), the firm's size is small, the firm's age is young, or the firm is in the lower market competition. This paper provide evidence by interacting the terms that local government actions, such as consumption of fiscal resources, strengthening tax collection efforts, or consumption of credit resources, might partially account for the crowding-out effect. This study illustrates the innovation costs of local government debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impaired in utero fetal growth trajectory may have long term health consequences of the newborns and increase risk of adulthood metabolic diseases. Prenatal exposure to air pollution has been linked to fetal development restriction; however, the impact of exposure to ambient air pollutants on the entire course of intrauterine fetal development has not been comprehensively investigated. During 2015–2018, two cohorts of mother-infant dyads (N = 678 and 227) were recruited in Shanghai China, from which three categories of data were systematically collected: (1) daily exposure to six air pollutants during pregnancy, (2) fetal biometry in the 2nd (gestational week 24, [GW24]) and 3rd trimester (GW36), and (3) neonatal outcomes at birth. We investigated the impact of prenatal exposure to air pollutant mixture on the trajectory of fetal development during the course of gestation, adjusting for a broad set of potential confounds. Prenatal exposure to PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 and O 3 significantly reduced fetal biometry at GW24, where SO 2 had the most potent effect. For every 10 μg/m3 increment increase of daily SO 2 exposure during the 1st trimester shortened femur length by 2.20 mm (p = 6.7E-21) translating to 5.3% reduction from the average of the study cohort. Prenatal air pollution exposure also decreased fetal biometry at GW36 with attenuated effect size. Comparing to the lowest exposed quartile, fetus in the highest exposed quartile had 6.3% (p = 3.5E-5) and 2.1% (p = 2.4E-3) lower estimated intrauterine weight in GW24 and GW36, respectively; however, no difference in birth weight was observed, indicating a rapid catch-up growth in the 3rd trimester. To our knowledge, for the first time, we demonstrated the impact of prenatal exposure to ambient air pollutants on the course of intrauterine fetal development. The altered growth trajectory and rapid catch-up growth in associated with high prenatal exposure may lead to long-term predisposition for adulthood metabolic disorders. Image 1 • Impaired in utero fetal growth trajectory may have long term health consequences. • Two cohorts were recruited to study prenatal exposure to air pollution on the course of intrauterine fetal development. • Prenatal exposure to PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 and O 3 significantly reduced fetal biometry at gestational week 24. • Prenatal exposure causes growth restriction in the 2nd gestational trimester, and rapid catch-up grow in the 3rd trimester. • The air pollution induced growth restriction is asymmetric, disproportionally affecting the trunk development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spread of SARS-CoV-2 led to a global pandemic, and there remains unmet medical needs in the treatment of Omicron infections. VV116, an oral antiviral agent that has potent activity against SARS-CoV-2, was compared with a placebo in this phase 3 study to investigate its efficacy and safety in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. This multicentre, double-blind, phase 3, randomised controlled study enrolled adults in hospitals for infectious diseases and tertiary general hospitals in China. Eligible patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio using permuted block randomisation to receive oral VV116 (0·6 g every 12 h on day 1 and 0·3 g every 12 h on days 2–5) or oral placebo (on the same schedule as VV116) for 5 days. Randomisation stratification factors included SARS-CoV-2 vaccination status and the presence of high-risk factors for progression to severe COVID-19. Inclusion criteria were a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, an initial onset of COVID-19 symptoms 3 days or less before the first study dose, and a score of 2 or more for any target COVID-19-related symptoms in the 24 h before the first dose. Patients who had severe or critical COVID-19 or who had taken any antiviral drugs were excluded from the study. The primary endpoint was the time to clinical symptom resolution for 2 consecutive days. Efficacy analyses were performed on a modified intention-to-treat population, comprising all patients who received at least one dose of VV116 or placebo, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid, and did not test positive for influenza virus before the first dose. Safety analyses were done on all participants who received at least one dose of VV116 or placebo. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT05582629 , and has been completed. A total of 1369 patients were randomly assigned to treatment groups and 1347 received either VV116 (n=674) or placebo (n=673). At the interim analysis, VV116 was superior to placebo in reducing the time to sustained clinical symptom resolution among 1229 patients (hazard ratio [HR] 1·21, 95% CI 1·04–1·40; p=0·0023). At the final analysis, a substantial reduction in time to sustained clinical symptom resolution was observed for VV116 compared with placebo among 1296 patients (HR 1·17, 95% CI 1·04–1·33; p=0·0009), consistent with the interim analysis. The incidence of adverse events was similar between groups (242 [35·9%] of 674 patients vs 283 [42·1%] of 673 patients). Among patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, VV116 significantly reduced the time to sustained clinical symptom resolution compared with placebo, with no observed safety concerns. Shanghai Vinnerna Biosciences, Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, and the National Key Research and Development Program of China. For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric chlorine (Cl)- and nitrogen (N)-containing species such as Cl 2 , ClNO 2 , and N 2 O 5 participate actively in atmospheric chemistry by triggering radical reactions that lead to the formation of secondary pollutants. Despite of their importance in atmospheric chemistry, the measurements of these species are scarce, due to analytical challenges. Herein, we report observation results of Cl 2 , ClNO 2 , and N 2 O 5 from measurements using high-resolution time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ToF-CIMS) in Shanghai and Changzhou in the highly industrialized and populated Yangtze River Delta (YRD) of East China. In Changzhou, the maximum concentrations of N 2 O 5, ClNO 2 , and Cl 2 , were 0.4, 1.3, and 0.5 ppbv (1-min averages), respectively, while they were 0.5, 5.7, and 1.1 ppbv, respectively, in Shanghai. Much higher ClNO 2 levels were found in Shanghai compared to Changzhou, although the concentrations of the precursor (N 2 O 5) are similar, indicating different heterogenous N 2 O 5 uptake and Cl activation efficiency at these two sites. The diurnal variation of Cl 2 in Shanghai shows a strong daytime peak, which is contradictory to its fast lost by photolysis during daytime; the diurnal pattern of Cl 2 in Changzhou shows a prominent night peak and a much smaller daytime peak than that in Shanghai. The heterogeneous uptake of ClNO 2 and the photolysis of O 3 on chloride-containing aerosols are believed to contribute to efficient Cl 2 formation at night and day, respectively. The estimated heterogeneous uptake coefficient of O 3 is 0.004 ± 0.007, with a maximum of 0.034. Further analysis on these heterogeneous reactions with the help of aerosol composition data (chloride, liquid water content, pH etc.) was also performed to ascertain the role of the secondary formation of Cl 2 in daytime Shanghai. Through simple estimation methods, the maximum daytime production rate of Cl 2 was estimated to be 0.95 ppbv h−1, while daytime photolysis of Cl 2 contributed to 98% of Cl formation. Our results indicate that there is a large secondary source of Cl 2 in the YRD region during the day, which can contribute substantially to Cl formation and requires more investigations. [Display omitted] • Highly time-resolved concentrations of Cl 2 , ClNO 2 , and N 2 O 5 in the Yangtze River Delta of East China were measured. • Uptake coefficients of N 2 O 5 and production yield of ClNO 2 were estimated. • A large source of Cl 2 during the day in urban Shanghai was revealed and discussed. • Daytime Cl production rates from Cl 2 and ClNO 2 were estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]