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85% of China's GHG emissions are attributed to urban economic activities, and this share is expected to rise given China's fast urbanization process. This paper provides estimates of city-level industrial CO2 emissions and their growth rates for all 287 Chinese prefecture-level and above cities during the years 1998–2009. We decompose the CO2 emission changes into scale, composition and technique effects. The decomposition results show that these three effects differ significantly across the three tiers of cities in China. The scale effect contributes to rising CO2 emissions, while the technique effect leads to declining CO2 emissions in all cities. The composition effect leads to increasing CO2 emissions in the third-tier cities, while it reduces CO2 emissions in the first and second-tier cities, due to the relocation of energy-intensive industries from the latter to the former type of cities. Based on these decomposition results, we identify the separate channels through which the inflow of FDI and the environmental regulations affect city-level CO2 emissions. The decomposition framework in our paper can help policy makers and scholars to better understand Chinese cities’ trade-offs between economic growth and environmental goals.

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Aims: The current evidence demonstrates that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) hold therapeutic potential for ischemic stroke. However, it remains unclear how changes in the secretion of MSC cytokines following the overexpression of heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) impact excessive inflammatory activation in a mouse ischemic stroke model. This study investigated this aspect and provided further insights. Methods: The middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) mouse model was established, and subsequent injections of MSC, MSCHO‐1, or PBS solutions of equal volume were administered via the mice's tail vein. Histopathological analysis was conducted on Days 3 and 28 post‐MCAO to observe morphological changes in brain slices. mRNA expression levels of various factors, including IL‐1β, IL‐6, IL‐17, TNF‐α, IL‐1Ra, IL‐4, IL‐10, TGF‐β, were quantified. The effects of MSCHO‐1 treatment on neurons, microglia, and astrocytes were observed using immunofluorescence after transplantation. The polarization direction of macrophages/microglia was also detected using flow cytometry. Results: The results showed that the expression of anti‐inflammatory factors in the MSCHO‐1 group increased while that of pro‐inflammatory factors decreased. Small animal fluorescence studies and immunofluorescence assays showed that the homing function of MSCsHO‐1 was unaffected, leading to a substantial accumulation of MSCsHO‐1 in the cerebral ischemic region within 24 h. Neurons were less damaged, activation and proliferation of microglia were reduced, and polarization of microglia to the M2 type increased after MSCHO‐1 transplantation. Furthermore, after transplantation of MSCsHO‐1, the mortality of mice decreased, and motor function improved significantly. Conclusion: The findings indicate that MSCs overexpressing HO‐1 exhibited significant therapeutic effects against hyper‐inflammatory injury after stroke in mice, ultimately promoting recovery after ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peptide-like molecule cyanoformamide (NCCONH2) is the cyano (CN) derivative of formamide (NH2CHO). It is known to play a role in the synthesis of nucleic acid precursors under prebiotic conditions. In this paper, we present a tentative detection of NCCONH2 in the interstellar medium with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) archive data. 10 unblended lines of NCCONH2 were seen around 3σ noise levels toward Sagittarius B2(N1E), a position that is slightly offset from the continuum peak. The column density of NCCONH2 was estimated to be 2.4 × 1015 cm−2, and the fractional abundance of NCCONH2 toward Sgr B2(N1E) was 6.9 × 10−10. The abundance ratio between NCCONH2 and NH2CHO is estimated to be ∼0.01. We also searched for other peptide-like molecules toward Sgr B2(N1E). The abundances of NH2CHO, CH3NCO and CH3NHCHO toward Sgr B2(N1E) were about 1/10 of those toward Sgr B2(N1S), while the abundance of CH3CONH2 was only 1/20 of that toward Sgr B2(N1S). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isotopic ratios are good tools for probing stellar nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution. We perform high-sensitivity mapping observations of the J = 7–6 rotational transitions of OCS, OC34S, O13CS, and OC33S toward the Galactic Center giant molecular cloud Sagittarius B2 with the IRAM 30 m telescope. Positions with optically thin and uncontaminated lines are chosen to determine the sulfur isotope ratios. A 32S/34S ratio of 17.1 ± 0.9 was derived with OCS and OC34S lines, while a 34S/33S ratio of 6.8 ± 1.9 was derived directly from the integrated intensity ratio of OC34S and OC33S. With independent and accurate measurements of the 32S/34S ratio, our results confirm the termination of the decreasing trend of 32S/34S ratios toward the Galactic Center, suggesting a drop in the production of massive stars at the Galactic Center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the relation between NH2D and its physical environment, we mapped ortho-NH2D |$1_{11}^s-1_{01}^a$| at 85.9 GHz toward 24 Galactic late-stage massive star-forming regions with Institut de Radioastronomie Millim |${\rm \acute{e}}$| trique (IRAM) 30-m telescope. Ortho-NH2D |$1_{11}^s-1_{01}^a$| was detected in 18 of 24 sources. Comparing with the distribution of H13CN 1-0 as a dense gas tracer and radio recombination line H42α, ortho-NH2D |$1_{11}^s-1_{01}^a$| present complex and diverse spatial distribution in these targets. 11 of the 18 targets, present a different distribution between ortho-NH2D |$1_{11}^s-1_{01}^a$| and H13CN 1-0, while no significant difference between these two lines can be found in other 7 sources, mainly due to limited spatial resolution and sensitivity. Moreover, with H42α tracing massive young stellar objects, ortho-NH2D |$1_{11}^s-1_{01}^a$| seems to show a relatively weak emission near the massive young stellar objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]