Exploring the spatial effects and influencing mechanism of ozone concentration in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations of China.

Ground-level ozone (O3) pollution has emerged as a significant concern impacting air quality in urban agglomerations, primarily driven by meteorological conditions and social-economic factors. However, previous studies have neglected to comprehensively reveal the spatial distribution and driving mechanism of O3 pollution. Based on the O3 monitoring data of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2014 to 2021, a comprehensive analysis framework of spatial analysis-spatial econometric regression was constructed to reveal the driving mechanism of O3 pollution. The results revealed the following: (1) O3 concentrations in the YRD exhibited a general increasing and then decreasing trend, indicating an improvement in pollution levels. The areas with higher O3 concentration are mainly the cities concentrated in central and southern Jiangsu, Shanghai, and northern Zhejiang. (2) The change of O3 concentration and distribution is the result of various factors. The effect of urbanization on O3 concentrations followed an inverted U-shaped curve, which implies that achieving higher quality urbanization is essential for effectively controlling urban O3 pollution. Traffic conditions and energy consumption have significant direct positive influences on O3 concentrations and spatial spillover effects. The indirect pollution contribution, considering economic weight, accounted for about 35%. Thus, addressing overall regional energy consumption and implementing traffic source regulations are crucial paths for O3 pollution control in the YRD. (3) Meteorological conditions play a certain role in regulating the O3 concentration. Higher wind speed will promote the diffusion of O3 and increase the O3 concentration in the surrounding city. These findings provide valuable insights for designing effective policies to improve air quality and mitigate ozone pollution in urban agglomeration area.

Driving impact and spatial effect of the digital economy development on carbon emissions in typical cities: a case study of Zhejiang, China.

The digital economy (DE) not only drives economic innovation and development but also has significant environmental effects by promoting lower carbon emissions. To investigate the spatial effects of DE on urban carbon emissions, this study comprehensively measures the level of DE development based on the panel data from 11 typical cities in Zhejiang Province from 2011 to 2020, by comparing analysis using different regression models. The following conclusions are obtained: (1) The total carbon emissions (TC) of Zhejiang cities in general show a fluctuating change trend of first increasing and then slowly decreasing, while carbon emission intensity and carbon emission per capita in general show a fluctuating change trend of decreasing. Cities with high TC are primarily concentrated in the Hangzhou Bay city cluster, accounted for 62 ~ 65% of the province's carbon emissions. The development of the DE in Zhejiang cities shows steady growth, but there are large differences among cities, with Hangzhou and Ningbo standing out as particularly prominent. (2) There is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between the DE and the level of carbon emissions in Zhejiang Province. The influence coefficient of the DE on the primary term of TC is 0.613, and the influence coefficient of the quadratic term of TC is - 1.008. (3) In terms of the spatial spillover effect of the DE on carbon emissions, the study finds that compared to the direct effect, the spatial spillover effect is not significant. However, the allocation of transport resources shows a positive spatial spillover effect (increasing carbon emissions, coefficient value is 0.138), while technological progress shows a somewhat negative spatial spillover effect (decreasing carbon emissions, coefficient value is - 0.035). (4) The study also finds that the smart city pilot policy significantly reduces urban carbon emissions. Moreover, the effect of the DE on carbon emissions is confirmed through the significance test of the quadratic term when replacing the geographical and economic distance weight matrices. This indicates that the empirical findings are robust to these tests. Finally, several countermeasures to reduce carbon emissions are proposed from the perspective of DE development.

Efficacy analysis of enhanced recovery after surgery in laparoscopic-assisted radical resection of type I choledochal cyst.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of laparoscopic-assisted radical resection of type I choledochal cyst (CC) guided by the principles of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS). Methods: A retrospective cohort study of type I CC admitted to our hospital between May 2020 and December 2021 were analyzed, a total of 41 patients with choledochal cyst underwent surgery during this period and 30 cases were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patients (n = 15) who received the traditional treatment from May 2020 to March 2021 were included in the traditional group. Patients (n = 15) who received ERAS from April 2021 to December 2021 were included in the ERAS group. Both groups underwent surgery performed by the same surgical team. Preoperative data of the two groups were recorded, and relevant data were statistically analyzed and compared. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the dose of opioids. Significant differences were observed between the ERAS and traditional groups in the results of the FLACC pain assessment scale on the 1st and 2nd day after surgery, time of gastric tube, urinary catheter and abdominal drainage tube removal, time of first defecation after operation, time of first eating after operation, time to reach full food intake, results of CRP, ALB, and ALT on the 3rd and 7th postoperative day, postoperative hospital stay, and total treatment cost. No significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of gender, age, body weight, cyst size, preoperative CRP, ALB, ALT, intraoperative blood loss, operation time, and the number of cases converted to laparotomy. Neither the FLACC pain assessment scale on the 3rd day after surgery, the incidence of postoperative complications, nor the rate of readmission within 30 days showed significant differences. Conclusions: Laparoscopic-assisted radical resection of type I CC guided by the principles of ERAS is safe and effective for children. The ERAS concept demonstrated advantages over traditional laparoscopic surgery, including reduced opioid use, shorter time to first postoperative defecation, earlier resumption of postoperative feeding, shorter time to reach full feeding, shorter postoperative hospital stay, and lower total treatment cost.

A review of the flood management: from flood control to flood resilience.

Climate change and socioeconomic developments are increasing the frequency and severity of floods. Flood management is widely recognized as an effective way to reduce the adverse consequences, and a more resilient and sustainable flood management approach has been the goal in recent studies. This study used a detailed bibliometric analysis of keywords, terms and timelines in the research field of the flood research. It provides new insight into the flood research trends, by examining the research frontiers from 2000 to 2021. We conclude that the trend of flood research has experienced a transition from flood control to flood resilience. The review shows that flood research has moved from traditional flood management, which provides mitigation strategies, to flood risk management, which provides an adaptation approach-adjusting mitigation measures, to flood resilience management, which provides a more resilient and sustainable plan to cope with flood disasters. We also present a detailed overview of the field of flood research, and review the definition of risk, risk analysis methods, flood management, flood risk management, flood resilience, and corresponding implementation strategies. We conclude that integrating the concept of resilience into the framework of risk management is a better approach in future flood management directions. Consequently, appropriate options and decisions prior to disaster, during disaster, and post-disaster will effectively reduce the adverse consequences using the theory of risk, resilience, and sustainability.

Influencing factors and trend prediction of PM2.5 concentration based on STRIPAT-Scenario analysis in Zhejiang Province, China.

The government's development of eco-environmental policies can have a scientific foundation thanks to the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) medium- and long-term change forecast. This study develops a STRIPAT-Scenario analysis framework employing panel data from 11 cities in Zhejiang Province between 2006 and 2020 to predict the changing trend of PM2.5 concentrations under five alternative scenarios. The results reveal that: (1) urbanization development (P), economic development (A), technological innovation investment (T) and environmental regulation intensity have a significant inhibitory effect on PM2.5 concentration in Zhejiang Province, while industrial structure, industrial energy consumption and the number of motor vehicles (TR) have a significant increase on PM2.5 concentration. (2) Under any scenario, the PM2.5 concentration of 11 cities in Zhejiang Province can reach the constraint target set in the 14th Five-Year plan. The improvement in urban PM2.5 quality is most obviously impacted by the high-quality development scenario (S4). (3) Toward 2035, PM2.5 concentrations of 11 cities in Zhejiang Province can reach the National Class I level standard in most scenario models, among which Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Shaoxing are under high pressure to reduce emissions and are the key areas for PM2.5 management in Zhejiang Province. However, most cities cannot reach the 10 µg/m3 limit of WHO's AQG2005 version. Finally, this study makes recommendations for reducing PM2.5 in terms of enhancing industrial structure and funding science and technology innovation.

The influence mechanism of household waste separation behavior among college students in the post COVID-19 pandemic period.

College students are one of the most important groups of participants and promoters of household waste separation. Taking Ningbo as a case study, an online + offline questionnaire survey among more than 1700 students in 10 colleges is conducted to identify the main factors and pathways influencing waste separation behavior in the post COVID-19 pandemic period. The results show that the KMO statistic is 0.926, Bartlet test is p < 0.001, indicating that questionnaire sample data is suitable for factor analysis. The modified Structural Equation Model test indicates that waste separation behavior of college students mainly results from the combined effect of eight subjective intrinsic factors and seven external situational factors. Among them, the convenience of recycling facilities, the convenience of sorting facilities and the publicity and education of sorting knowledge are the top three factors with the most significant influence. The mean value of epidemic impact factors is 0.277, which is slightly lower than conventional influence factors (0.289). Environmental Norms and Constraints are an essential component in the analysis framework of college students' waste separation behavior. In the future, society and colleges should give full play to the positive influence of the epidemic factor on college students' waste separation behavior. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10163-022-01363-3.