Low-hanging Fruit Research Articles

The upper atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune.

We review the current understanding of the upper atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, and explore the upcoming opportunities available to study these exciting planets. The ice giants are the least understood planets in the solar system, having been only visited by a single spacecraft, in 1986 and 1989, respectively. The upper atmosphere plays a critical role in connecting the atmosphere to the forces and processes contained within the magnetic field. For example, auroral current systems can drive charged particles into the atmosphere, heating it by way of Joule heating. Ground-based observations of H3+ provides a powerful remote diagnostic of the physical properties and processes that occur within the upper atmosphere, and a rich dataset exists for Uranus. These observations span almost three decades and have revealed that the upper atmosphere has continuously cooled between 1992 and 2018 at about 8 K/year, from approximately 750 K to approximately 500 K. The reason for this trend remain unclear, but could be related to seasonally driven changes in the Joule heating rates due to the tilted and offset magnetic field, or could be related to changing vertical distributions of hydrocarbons. H3+ has not yet been detected at Neptune, but this discovery provides low-hanging fruit for upcoming facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the next generation of 30 m telescopes. Detecting H3+ at Neptune would enable the characterization of its upper atmosphere for the first time since 1989. To fully understand the ice giants, we need dedicated orbital missions, in the same way the Cassini spacecraft explored Saturn. Only by combining in situ observations of the magnetic field with in-orbit remote sensing can we get the complete picture of how energy moves between the atmosphere and the magnetic field. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Future exploration of ice giant systems'.

A New Rationale for Not Picking Low-Hanging Fruits: the Separation of Ownership and Control

Recent attempts at explaining the energy-efficiency gap rely on considerations related to organizational and behavioral/cognitive failures. In this paper, we build on the strategic delegation literature to advance a complementary explanation. We show that strategic market interaction may encourage business owners to instill a bias against energy efficiency in managerial compensation contracts. Since managers respond to financial incentives, their decisions will reflect this bias, resulting in a lack of investment.

RoomTetris: an optimal procedure for committing rooms to reservations in hotels

RoomTetris: 酒店中极佳分房程序研究目的很多酒店, 特别是私人、家庭经营型、或者精品酒店, 在客人预定后立刻分派指定的房间给客人。这往往是因为独立房间售卖（没有特殊房型概念）或者因为客人在预定时, 工作人员手动指派房间, 亦或者是因为预订系统与渠道管理系统链接, 直接在预定后指派房间号。这种早期的分派程序是不优化的, 往往在酒店住房率高的时候, 会造成一些不必要的房间预定失败, 继而带来的利润损失。本论文旨在研究不同房间指派参数配置, 包括最优系统（RoomTetris）, 使得酒店达到更高住房率的同时产生高利润。研究设计/方法/途径本论文采用理论讨论和实验等研究方法, 并展示了提出的RoomTetris参数的最优性。本论文还将其参数放在不同的情景中做实验, 以显示其提高酒店针对随机或者次优化分派的最佳启发式策略中的住房率。研究结果研究结果表明智能型分派参数能够大大降低预定失败率（预定需求不能符合酒店房型供给）, 并且提高住房率和利润。住房时间并不是必须的参数, 极具个性化服务, 比如让客人选房间号, 可能导致利润损失（因为最优房间分派无法实现）, 房型的设计也应该参与到最优房间分派的效果中来。研究理论限制/启示预定取消和超额预定的情况也应该加入到分析中来。第二种对于拥有不止一种房型的酒店来说, 可能增加房间分派的情况在于为客人升级房型, 这样可以将客人转到其他适合房型以解决房间分派问题。此外, 更复杂系统兼容财务管理系统应该被考量, 有的时候, 房间的成本取决于客人的数量。研究实践启示由于最优算法的住房率区别在于旺季和高预定时段, 也就是高房间价格和高预定量, 本论文提出的最佳算法将提高主要财务指标, 比如RevPAR（平均客房收益）。由于房间分配系统可以完全实现自动化, 那么采用智能分派系统无疑是有效酒店管理中的优质选择。研究原创性/价值据作者所知, 此文章是首篇关于此类话题的研究优质算法（且被证实其最佳）。

Low-hanging fruit for getting back on your feet: A critical review of diet and exercise interventions for depression

• Diet and exercise interventions are evidence-based treatments for depression. • People with depression should eat more fruits/vegetables and less sweets. • Although exercise may have independent antidepressant effects, adherence rates are low.

Coronaviruses and Nature's Pharmacy for the Relief of Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Current challenges to the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 should open new prospects in the search for novel drugs from medicinal plants and other natural products. This paper provides details of natural agents that inhibit human coronavirus entry into cells, general replication, and specific chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro)-mediated replication. Medicinal plants, fungi, and marine organisms as remedies for human coronaviruses in China, Lebanon, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa are described. Common species include Alnus japonica (Thunb.) Steud., Artemisia annua L., Artemisia apiacea Hance, Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge, Cinnamomum cassia (L.) J.Presl, edible brown algae Ecklonia cava Kjellman, Euphorbia neriifolia L., Glycyrrhiza glabra L., Lonicera japonica Thunb., Pelargonium sidoides DC., Polygonum cuspidatum Siebold & Zucc., Sanguisorba officinalis L., Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, Toona sinensis (Juss.) M.Roem., and Torreya nucifera (L.) Siebold & Zucc. At least fifty natural compounds, including alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, anthraquinones, lignins, and tannins, which inhibit various strains of human coronaviruses, are presented. Given the scarcity of efficacious and safe vaccines or drugs for coronavirus disease 2019, natural products are low-hanging fruits that should be harnessed as the new global frontier against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.Graphical abstract

Hepatitis C micro-elimination among people on opioid agonist therapy is a low-hanging fruit

People who use drugs are badly affected by chronic hepatitis C. As a result of the pragmatic national drug policy in Switzerland, the majority of persons with an opioid dependency are on opioid agonist therapy (OAT) and therefore in the healthcare system. For years, national guidelines have recommended that all OAT patients be regularly tested for hepatitis C and, if tested positive, referred for treatment.

Abstract PR06: Geocoding and integrating multiple environmental exposomics sources: Assessing population hazard to lung carcinogens in 421 zip codes of a cancer center catchment area

Abstract To assess risk factors that contribute to lung cancer burden in the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) catchment area, we integrated geospatial data of exposure to pollutants from publicly available EPA and NASA datasets. The study area covers the 421 zip codes that make up the 12 counties of the catchment area from which most of the ACC patients come. The counties include 5 that surround Philadelphia, 6 in New Jersey, and 1 in Delaware. Environmental exposure data, sourced from US-EPA Air Quality System (AQS) Data Mart, were focused on air pollutants since air pollution is recognized by the International Agency on Cancer (IARC) as a Group 1 human carcinogen. Exposomics data included: hourly, daily, and annual (1980 -2018) PM2.5, PM10, NO2; Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPS); Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs); (Air Quality Index) AQI; NONOxNOy monitoring; and annual Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) air emissions by chemical classifier and point source (1987 -2017). Annual NASA satellite-derived grids were incorporated for PM2.5 (1998-2016; 1 km resolution) and NOx (1997 - 2012; 10 km resolution). ESRI’s ArcGIS was used to develop programming scripts to automate the process of data integration, geocoding, and classifying chemical parameters by (1) status as a lung carcinogen with sufficient evidence of lung carcinogenesis; (2) status as one of the priority 16 EPA polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as a surrogate marker of exposure to carcinogens; (3) status in the IARC rankings for Cancer Group; (4) status as a component of diesel exhaust; and (5) status as a VOC. 1-km search radius kernel density grids were generated for each air pollutant. We sliced the density estimates into ordinal rankings ranging from “10 = high” to “1 = low.” A hazard index may be generated by summing data layers of cumulative environmental exposomics in a process called map algebra. Spatial sorting and merging of exposome releases by facility, year, chemical and zip code concentration allow for addressing “low-hanging fruit” through summary statistics. Although the focus of this investigation is on lung cancer, the utility of the methodology may be applied to probe exposures related to other cancers. Incorporating more years or larger geographic areas of study may make exploring the risk of exposure possible for less prevalent cancers. In future studies, we are conducting statistical analysis to determine whether geocoded exposure data predict lung cancer risks in those vulnerable zip codes using electronic health record data of geolocations of lung cancer patients. This novel approach will help determine whether geocoded exposomics data are associated with cancer incidence. The hazard index was used to identify zip codes that are the most vulnerable to carcinogen exposure. Zip codes 19720, 19061, 08066, 08027, 19153, and 19145 scored highest on the hazard index based on cumulative exposure. (Supported by P30-CA-016520 and P30-ES013508.) This abstract is also being presented as Poster A08. Citation Format: Thomas P. McKeon, Vicky Tam, Wei-Ting Hwang, Paul Wileyto, Karen Glanz, Trevor M. Penning. Geocoding and integrating multiple environmental exposomics sources: Assessing population hazard to lung carcinogens in 421 zip codes of a cancer center catchment area [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Modernizing Population Sciences in the Digital Age; 2019 Feb 19-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PR06.

Abstract 1518: A single-cell transcriptomic atlas of lung adenocarcinoma and adjacent normal-appearing tissue

Abstract Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most frequently diagnosed histological subtype of lung cancer and accounts for most smoking-related cancer deaths, warranting strategies for early intervention. Earlier work revealed genome-wide aberrations in LUADs and the adjacent premalignant field, known as “field carcinogenesis”, that are pertinent to LUAD pathogenesis. Yet, we still poorly understand the cellular and molecular architecture of LUAD and its nearby “field”. To fill this void, we performed, using the 10X Genomics system and NovaSeq 6000 platform, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis of 4 early-stage resected LUADs as well as 11 matched normal lung tissues with differing spatial proximity from the tumors. We first analyzed 15,739 cells from a LUAD and matched tumor-adjacent and -distant normal tissues from patient 1. The resulting fraction of EPCAM+ cells from this analysis was approximately 4%. For deeper single-cell resolution of LUAD, we thus performed scRNA-seq of separately sorted/enriched epithelial cells (EPCAM+; n = 50,883) and non-epithelial cells (EPCAM-; n= 91,093) from patients 2, 3 and 4, each with an early-stage LUAD and three matched spatially-distributed normal-appearing tissues. Overall, we achieved on average approximately 150,000 reads and 1,956 genes detected per cell. Divergent populations of malignant and non-malignant cells and multiple epithelial and immune subsets clustered in an overall spatially modulated pattern according to proximity to the tumor. Hierarchical clustering revealed multiple distinct populations of airway lineage cells, including alveolar type 1 (AT1), alveolar type 2 (AT2), AT1/AT2 bipotential cells, club, goblet, basal and ciliated cells, with cells from the resected LUAD present in some but not all clusters. By analysis of epithelial-enriched fractions, we were also able to identify and interrogate rare cell subpopulations including CFTR-expressing ionocytes. By inference of copy number variation along with analysis of key oncogene expression patterns, we also identified epithelial cells that represent potential tumor cells-of-origin. Spatial reprogramming of field carcinogenesis encompassed immune cell populations including tumor-exclusive FOXP3+ regulatory T cells with marked over-expression of the major immune checkpoints CTLA4 and TIGIT. In contrast, for at least some of the cases, tumors were nearly devoid of natural killer cells, and abundance of CD8+ T cells dampened with increasing proximity to the tumor. Our single-cell surveys offer insights into novel cues in LUAD pathogenesis. Efforts are underway to interrogate the single-cell epithelial and immune landscape of additional LUADs and matched nearby normal-appearing lung, including those from non-smokers, to better understand the evolution of the disease and, thus, identify a low-hanging fruit of targets for early management of this fatal malignancy. Citation Format: Ansam Sinjab, Guangchun Han, Warapen Treekitkarnmongkol, Patrick Brennan, Kieko Hara, Kyle Chang, Elena Bogatenkova, Beatriz Sanchez-Espiridion, Carmen Behrens, Jianjun Zhang, Boris Sepesi, Tina Cascone, Don L. Gibbons, Jichao Chen, George Eapen, Edwin J. Ostrin, Junya Fujimoto, Avrum E. Spira, Paul A. Scheet, Ignacio I. Wistuba, Linghua Wang, Humam Kadara. A single-cell transcriptomic atlas of lung adenocarcinoma and adjacent normal-appearing tissue [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 1518.

Cardiac Surgery-Enhanced Recovery Programs Modified for COVID-19: Key Steps to Preserve Resources, Manage Caseload Backlog, and Improve Patient Outcomes

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the importance of delivering high-quality healthcare while preserving limited or depleted resources. This is particularly true in cardiac surgery, which depends on the same equipment, hospital capacity, and personnel that have been re-directed to COVID-19 care. Enhanced recovery programs promote standardized, consistent perioperative care, with an emphasis on incorporating evidence-based measures to optimize the patient experience, improve outcomes and utilize resources efficiently. Developing and implementing a program in the current COVID-19 environment is a daunting task. The Society for Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERAS® Cardiac), representing an international, multi-disciplinary group of experts, provides the rationale, supportive evidence, and a proposed outline for a sustainable modified program within the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is feasible to launch in the current healthcare climate and is designed to preserve resources, reduce case backlog, and protect patient and provider safety while improving patient care and preserving institutional quality metrics. The program can also create the foundation for future growth.

Improving Coherence in a Cross-Border Public Transport System: Lessons from the Greater Copenhagen Region

Greater Copenhagen is often cited as a good example of cross-border cooperation. Shared historical contexts and socio-political willingness have meant that considerable resources have been invested into the development of infrastructure in this region. The Öresund fixed link constitutes the most important element of this infrastructure, facilitating a cross-border public transport system which ties the region together. This public transport system in turn underpins the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the cross-border region. The aim of this study is to investigate the issues at play with respect to improving the coherence of this cross-border public transport system, in relation to ticketing and public transport information in particular. This study comprises the compilation and analysis of the perspectives of the actors involved in and affected by the development of the cross-border transport system. In total, twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted. Six predominant themes emerged from the analysis of the empirical material: “Focus on the customer”, “The Other Side”, “Tidying up at home first”, “Political challenges”, “Back to basics” and “The low-hanging fruits”. It became apparent that the prioritization of internal and organizational issues in the first instance could mean compromises, not only for cross-border cooperation but also for the customer’s (the passenger’s) experience. Results suggest that improvements to coherence in this transport system will most likely take the form of incremental changes and adopting common standards. This is opposed to the development of common systems, or of a significant departure from existing systems.

Do urban carbon reduction practices under China’s institutional arrangement go beyond “low-hanging fruits”? Empirical evidence from Guangzhou

There has been increasing interest in whether low carbon cities developed under Chinese institutional arrangements can facilitate a transformative change. Unlike their western counterparts, Chinese low carbon cities are mainly developed through a top-down approach characterized by strong regulatory influences and centrally-led pilots. Inspired by insights from institutional theory, this paper assessed the progress that has been made in Chinese low carbon cities through understanding urban actors’ willingness and capacity to pursue more radical changes. Based on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, it is found that due to the low recognition of the intrinsic value of carbon reduction, low carbon transition was largely represented as a practical discussion around national binding targets and local economic development. Following this, it is suggested that any attempt to speed up urban low carbon transition should consider strengthening incentive structures for cultural or paradigm change.

Performance of local level planning policies for reducing greenhouse gases: insight from new buildings in Scotland

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to assess performance of local level planning policies that required new buildings to avoid a specified and rising proportion of projected greenhouse gases (GHGs) from their use; it is calculated based on the approved design and plans for the specific development and through the installation and operation of low and zero-carbon generating technologies (LZCGTs).Design/methodology/approachData were extracted from a random sample of 911 new builds from 403 planning applications and related documents, across five Scottish local planning authorities (LPAs) who adopted GHG reduction policies. The data included GHG reduction, LZCGT installation and performance, use of plan designs to meet GHG reductions and exemptions from the GHG policies. Descriptive statistics using SPSS software, complimented by qualitative responses from questionnaires, helped to explain observed performance.FindingsThe policies performed poorly, at the level of delivering low-hanging fruits, with significant room for improvement. Design-led opportunities in the GHG policies were not actively pursued; most LZCGT installation was exempted from GHG policies and the policies were poor in targeting the relationship between building unit size, GHG emission and reductions.Research limitations/implicationsThe source documents, where the data came from, had varying quality and completeness and some LPAs are over-represented in the data. The study applied limited criteria to evaluate policy performance.Practical implicationsAreas for policymakers to further focus on when exploring how to enhance role and performance of LZCGT are highlighted, including practical suggestions.Originality/valueOne of the few studies assessing policy performance and distilling lessons, from early adopters of GHG policies at local level planning, offer performance benchmarks and raise points of concern for policymakers.

The effect of card payments on VAT revenue in the euro area: evidence from a panel VECM

PurposeA growing amount of micro-data analyses has highlighted the importance of information trails, such as generated by card transactions, for improving tax compliance. Yet, time series evidence indicating a positive effect of card payments on VAT revenue performance has been scarce. This paper revisits the question of the effect of card payments on VAT revenue by using annual and quarterly panel data for the 19 euro area member states, covering the period 2000–2016.Design/methodology/approachA panel VECM is employed in order to address endogeneity issues and to account for common stochastic trends, which, is shown to be crucial in revealing the anticipated positive effect of card use on the performance of VAT.FindingsThe analysis confirms that a higher share of card payments in private consumption increases VAT revenue and the efficiency of revenue collection. Higher gains are estimated for countries with above average self-employment.Originality/valueThe contribution of the paper is twofold. First, to our knowledge it provides the first confirmation of the well-established literature on information trails using aggregate macroeconomic time series in a multi-country setting. Second, it has very timely policy implications, as low-hanging fruit are identified in euro-area economies with much to gain from strengthening the credibility of their fiscal performance, such as Greece.

An aurora of natural products-based drug discovery is coming

Natural products (NPs), a nature's reservoir possessing enormous structural and functional diversity far beyond the current ability of chemical synthesis, are now proving themselves as most wonderful gifts from mother nature for human beings. Many of them have been used successfully as medicines, as well as the most important sources of drug leads, food additives, and many industry relevant products for millennia. Most notably, more than half of the antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs currently in use are, or derived from, natural products. However, the speed and outputs of NP-based drug discovery has been slowing down dramatically after the fruitful harvest of the “low-hanging fruit” during the golden age of 1950s-1960s. With recent scientific advances combining metabolic sciences and technology, multi-omics, big data, combinatorial biosynthesis, synthetic biology, genome editing technology (such as CRISPR), artificial intelligence (AI), and 3D printing, the “high-hanging fruit” is becoming more and more accessible with reduced costs. We are now more and more confident that a new age of natural products discovery is dawning.

Reduction of global warming potential vis-à-vis greenhouse gases through traditional agroforestry systems in Rajasthan, India

Tree-based systems in arid region of India are an integral part of livelihood and environment security. Traditionally, the maintenance of scattered trees on farm to reap several tangible and intangible benefits is a way of life. Presently, these systems are often known as low-hanging fruit and become a key weapon to fight climate change evil by offsetting greenhouse gas (GHG) emission through carbon sequestration. Therefore, to quantify the offsetting potential of GHG emission and area occupied by these tree-based systems in Rajasthan was undertaken. The study was carried out into two major aspects: estimation of agroforestry area using satellite remote sensing data, and to estimate the carbon sequestration potential of existing agroforestry by using dynamic CO2FIXv3.1 model for a simulation period of 30-years in five districts (20% sampling), namely, Bikaner, Dausa, Jhunjhunu, Pali and Sikar from Rajasthan, India. The estimated area under agroforestry in Rajasthan was 1.49 million ha. The findings revealed that the major tree species existing on farmer’s field were Prosopis cineraria, Tecomella undulata, Capparis decidua, Acacia tortilis, Prosopis juliflora, Azadirachta indica and Ziziphus mauritiana with an observed number of trees in selected districts varied from 1.40 to 14.90 ha−1(with average tree density of 9.71 ha−1). The total biomass (tree + Crop) varied from 2.22 to 19.19 Mg ha−1, whereas the total biomass carbon ranged from 1.00 to 8.64 Mg C ha−1. The soil organic carbon ranged from 4.51 to 16.50 Mg C ha−1. The average estimated carbon sequestration and mitigation potential of the agroforestry were 0.26 Mg C ha−1 year−1and 0.95 Mg CO2 eq ha−1 year−1 on farmers' field of Rajasthan. At the state level, the reduction of GHG emission potential of agroforestry was found to be 1.42 million tonnes annually, which helps to cut carbon footprint and achieve targets of Paris agreement.

ASO Author Reflections: It Is Not a Low-Hanging Fruit: Center Experience Plays an Important Role in Improving Outcomes in Liver Transplantation for Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma

ASO Author Reflections: It Is Not a Low-Hanging Fruit: Center Experience Plays an Important Role in Improving Outcomes in Liver Transplantation for Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma

Scaling Up Global Collaborations for Neurosurgical Education and Care Capacity Development in West Africa: Are There Low-Hanging Fruits Where It Tolls?

Six decades after birth, the path to sustainable neurosurgical education and care in West Africa remains slow paced. We highlight plain sailing local attributes and global interventions for accelerated progress. This was a 20-year study of neurosurgical practice and training status from 1999 to 2018. We prospectively evaluated development of neurosurgical units between 2009 and 2018 and compared with retrospective data both from 1999 to 2018 and from the origin of West African neurosurgery in1962. The number of neurosurgeons rose from 1 in 1962 to 221 in 2018 with a mean of 3.95 neurosurgeons per year. Between 1998 and 2018, the subregional annual neurosurgeon birthrate varied significantly between 0.72 and 3.95. In 1998, 7 countries contributed to a neurosurgeon population of 26. In 2018, 13 countries contributed to a total of 221 neurosurgeons. The period 2009-2018 recorded the highest growth of neurosurgeons with a neurosurgeon birthrate of 7.5. Nigeria accounts for 51.6% (200.9 million) of the West African population and has 57% (11) of the 19 fully accredited training centers, while Ghana and Senegal account for 7.7% and 4.3% of the West African population, respectively, and each has 11% of the training centers. The 10-year unit procreativity index for the period 2009-2018 was 1.3, with Nigeria accounting for 0.7 (53.8%). The low unit procreativity index across West Africa, a major cause of the low neurosurgeon birthrate, can be resolved using tailored kindling and procreative strategies.

Factors influencing sustainability certification among plantation companies in Malaysia: a panel approach

The adoption of palm oil sustainability standards remains limited, especially among plantation companies. This is a concern since plantation companies are pivotal for the palm oil industry, not only because of their own production but because they form an important nucleus for smallholders. Using a panel technique, this study investigates the drivers underlying the certification of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard by plantation companies in Malaysia. We examine the period between 2007 and 2016. Panel logistics analysis allows for changes in variables, including company capacity (proportion of planted area and debt-to-equity ratio) and the time-dependent price of crude palm oil. Despite the fact that these variables influence adoption, our findings reveal that adoption is found to be elastic to changes only in proportion to the planted area. Plantation companies that have undertaken conservation efforts may present “low-hanging fruits”. Given the currently limited response to adoption, a partially targeted approach encompassing education and technical assistance, financial assistance, and regulation is recommended to create a more inclusive and enabling environment.

Laboratory Hood Energy Savings: The Low-Hanging Fruit

Laboratory safety and energy savings are currently occupying the same space in many engineering conversations regarding lab design and construction. Exhaust from lab hoods is particularly prominent in such conversations. There are a wide variety of strategies that can be applied to save energy by reducing hood exhaust, from the inexpensive approach of lowering face velocities to the more expensive variable air volume (VAV) lab hood exhaust systems. Whatever energy-saving strategy is chosen, it should maintain good hood containment. Once this central truth is accepted, energy savings with established containment becomes straightforward to measure. Overall energy-savings techniques can be subdivided into separate components and analyzed for effectiveness. Low-exhaust technologies are not additively cumulative, but multiplicative in nature. Each strategy can reduce total energy use by a percent of the whole; the next strategy has a lower “whole” from which to produce savings and so forth. Since each savings strategy has an up-front cost, it only makes sense to use the least expensive strategies first, followed by the costlier strategies. Using this approach, smaller lab hoods, lower face velocities, lower operating sash openings, and nonoccupied hood exhaust setbacks produced much more significant and less expensive savings than more expensive approaches like heat reclamation and VAV. Of course, like any generalized strategy, there are some important qualifications that may shift more expensive strategies to a higher priority.

What comes after picking pollution intensive low-hanging fruits? Transfer direction of environmental regulation in China

Environmental regulation has played an important role in energy conservation and emissions reduction. In the context of a worsening environment, the Chinese government has realized the disadvantages of extensive development and has launched a full range of actions for energy-intensive and heavy-polluting industrial sectors, which are called “low-hanging fruits.” However, this principle has challenges, such as bottlenecks in emissions reduction and development restrictions in certain sectors. To solve these problems, this paper divides 37 industries into heavy-, middle-, and low-polluting industrial sectors according to a pollution intensive index. Subsequently, three types of environmental regulation measurements (mandatory control environmental regulation, market incentive environmental regulation, and voluntary compliance environmental regulation) are applied to verify the heterogeneous effects of environmental regulations on the green total factor productivity. In this study, super-epsilon-based measure model and global Malmquist-Luenberger index are used to calculate the green total factor productivity of these industries. Thus, a better understanding of environmental regulations in regards to polluting industrial sectors is provided. The results show that different types of environmental regulations exhibit heterogeneous effects on the green total factor productivities of different polluting industrial sectors. The relationship between the mandatory control environmental regulation/market incentive environmental regulation and the green total factor productivity for heavy-polluting industries is shown to be an inverse U shape that crosses an inflection point, indicating that the environmental regulation intensity of heavy-polluting industry is sufficient, perhaps even excessive. Notably, the relationship between the three environmental regulations and the middle-polluting industries all present a U shape, and the environmental regulation intensities are far away from the inflection point. In that regard, excessive regulation may lead to high operating costs and may burden low-polluting industrial sectors. In such cases, strengthening the environmental regulations for middle-polluting industries should be an efficient and reasonable way to achieve a win-win direction for both environmental protection and economic development.