Spatio-temporal pattern assessment of China's environmental performance and its spatial drivers: evidence from city-level data over 2003-2019.

A comprehensive assessment of China's environmental performance (EP) and an investigation into its driving factors are essential prerequisites for advancing environmental protection efforts. However, existing studies have often exhibited a one-sided EP evaluation approach and lacked a systematic perspective. Consequently, this study has adopted a holistic approach by integrating environmental protection and pollution within the same theoretical framework. We have employed the "P-S-R" model to comprehensively assess the EP of 272 cities from 2003 to 2019. Concurrently, we have applied the spatial Durbin model to analyze EP drivers utilizing three spatial matrices. The findings of this study reveal several vital insights. Firstly, the mean EP value for China is 0.1138, indicating a low level, but it demonstrates a consistent upward trend over the years. When comparing cities with high EP, they are predominantly situated in northern China, northeastern China, and certain areas along the southeastern coast. Secondly, from a spatial perspective, the directionality of EP exhibits a trend from "northeast to the southwest," with the center of gravity located in and around Zhumadian, Henan Province, gradually shifting towards the northeast. The majority of cities fall within the H-H and L-L clusters, displaying significant positive spatial autocorrelation effects. Thirdly, EP drivers encompass a wide range of factors, including economic development, urbanization, resource dependence, industrial structure, infrastructure construction, environmental regulation, government regulatory capacity, scientific and technological innovation, and foreign direct investment. These drivers also exhibit significant spillover effects. Finally, the characteristics of EP development vary between resource-based cities (RBCs) and non-resource-based cities (non-RBCs), as well as among the eastern, central, and western regions. Moreover, there are disparities in the driving factors' direct, indirect, and overall effects. Consequently, we must propose tailored strategies and recommendations to enhance EP, considering the heterogeneous effects of influencing factors across different city types, regions, and collaboration approaches.

The spatial spillover effect and nonlinear relationship analysis between land resource misallocation and environmental pollution: Evidence from China.

Compared with other countries, China's local governments often adopt the land supply strategy of "low price and sufficient supply" for industrial land and "high price and limited supply" for commercial land in the allocation of land resources. The allocation of land resources is an important means to promote the rapid development of China's economy, and the impacts of land resource misallocation (LRM) on environmental pollution are increasingly apparent. This paper uses panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2018 to discuss the relationship between LRM and environmental pollution. The ratio of the average price of commercial land to the average price of industrial land is used to measure the degree of LRM. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), spatial Durbin model (SDM), threshold model, and mediation effect model are used to study the direct effect, spatial spillover effect, nonlinear relationship, and conduction mechanism of LRM on environmental pollution. The results show that LRM significantly aggravated environmental pollution. This conclusion still holds after robustness tests including the substitution of dependent variables and IV estimates. The LRM aggravates environmental pollution through industrial structure and technological progress. Interestingly, the impact of LRM on environmental pollution also has a significant positive spatial spillover effect in adjacent regions. In addition, there is also evidence that the adverse effect of LRM on environmental pollution is nonlinear at different levels of industrial structure and technological progress. The threshold model shows that with the optimization of the industrial structure, the impact of LRM on environmental pollution shows a weakening trend of "inverted V-shaped", and with the advancement of technology, the impact of LRM on environmental pollution presents an "S-shaped" changing trend of "strong-weak-strong".

Overexpression of GNA13 correlates with poor prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after esophagectomy.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore the expression and clinical implication of guanine nucleotide-binding protein alpha 13 (GNA13) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). METHODS: We first employed western blot analysis to test the GNA13 protein expression level in ESCC tissues. Subsequently, we used immunohistochemistry assays to detect the GNA13 in ESCC specimens from 173 patients who underwent esophagectomy. Survival analysis was performed to define the impact of GNA13 expressions on the prognosis of the ESCC patients based on the clinical and follow-up data. RESULTS: The GNA13 protein was shown to be considerably higher in ESCC tissues than in normal esophageal tissues. The level of expression was closely related to the tumor, node, TNM stage, and tumor size. More importantly, ESCC patients with high GNA13 expression carried an increased risk of tumor recurrence compared to those with low GNA13 expression. In addition, a high GNA13 expression level could independently predict worse overall survival and disease-free survival in ESCC. CONCLUSIONS: GNA13 could be a novel prognostic biomarker for ESCC patients after esophagectomy.