West Of China Research Articles

Impact of Thermal Forcing over the Southeast of the Tibetan Plateau on Frequency of Tropical Cyclones Affecting Guangxi during Boreal Summer

Tropical cyclones entering coastal areas adversely affect southern China. However, changes in the frequency of tropical cyclones affecting the west of southern China remain unclear. Our study reveals the possible impact of the thermal forcing anomaly over the southeast Tibetan Plateau (TP) on the frequency of tropical cyclones affecting Guangxi formed within the west of 120° E during boreal summer. Further analysis indicates that the cooling over the southeast TP is accompanied by local descending motions over southeastern TP and compensating ascending motions over eastern Indochina Peninsula and results in a reduced 850–200 hPa vertical wind shear over the north of 15° N in South China Sea (SCS), which is conducive to the westward development of tropical cyclones and favorable conditions for the formation of TCs affecting Guangxi over the SCS. Finally, the results from a linear baroclinic model experiment also verify that the changes in the 850–200 hPa vertical wind shear over southern SCS and compensating vertical motions over eastern Indochina Peninsula are associated with the thermal forcing anomaly over the southeast TP. Our results imply that in summer the thermal forcing anomaly over TP should be emphasized when interpreting and predicting the frequency of tropical cyclones affecting local areas in southern China.

Does green economy contribute towards COP26 ambitions? Exploring the influence of natural resource endowment and technological innovation on the growth efficiency of China's regional green economy

The COP26 conference pointed out that, in order to tackle climate change and promote global economic recovery, it is necessary to maintain a multilateral consensus, focus on practical actions, and accelerate green transformation. Whether a green economy can help achieve the goals of the COP26 has become the focus of attention of governments worldwide. Based on the data of 30 regions in China from 2009 to 2020, this study used the super-efficiency SBM model to evaluate green economy growth efficiency (GEGE) in China and also used the system GMM model to explore the impact of natural resource endowment and technological innovation on GEGE. The conclusions are as follows: (1) From 2009 to 2020, China's GEGE level was 0.606, which is a low-medium level. During the research period, the GEGE level showed an upward trend as a whole, with obvious regional differences, showing a decreasing trend from the eastern to central regions and the western region. (2) Natural resources can promote national GEGE. The “resource curse” was found to not exist from a country-wide perspective, and there was no inverted U-shaped relationship. Natural resources were found to inhibit the GEGE of the eastern and central regions with no inverted U-shaped relationship, but they were found to promote GEGE in the west of China with an inverted U-shaped relationship. (3) Technological innovation can improve the GEGE of the whole country and the three regions, and the effect is the largest in the western region. (4) In the eastern region, environmental regulation was found to promote GEGE, but inhibited the GEGE of the whole country and the other two regions. Economic development was found to have a positive effect on GEGE in all the regions. FDI can improve the GEGE of the whole country and the eastern and central regions, but had a negative impact on the west of China. Green finance was found to promote GEGE in the whole country and the eastern and western regions; although this was positive in the central region, it was not significant. The research in this paper has important theoretical reference significance for achieving the regional COP26 targets by using the green economic growth mode.

Social trust and income of rural residents: Evidence from China

ABSTRACT We examine the relationship between social trust and residential income in rural China by using two microeconomic survey datasets. Social indicators of trust are measured from three dimensions: personalized trust, or trust in relatives and friends; generalized trust, or trust in people other than relatives and friends and public trust, or trust in the state and public officials. Our results show that personalized trust can increase rural residents’ income, while generalized trust may reduce their income. In addition, a significant positive relation is found between public trust and income only in the West and East of China. Three underlying economic mechanisms are also identified: health effects, organizational learning effects, and insurance effects. Furthermore, we empirically assess the impact of the different types of social trust on sources of residential income. The results indicate that personalized trust enhances residents’ financial assets income, generalized trust raises business income, and public trust contributes to salary income.

Using composite system index to identify China's ecological and socio-economic transition zone.

Regions with synthetic geographical gradients tend to exhibit distinct ecological transitions. As a compound ecosystem, transition zone can provide a basis for decision-making in the sustainable ecological management by investigating its boundary and complexity. To determine the characteristics of the transition zone where natural ecological and socio-economic factors interact, a conceptual framework and a quantitative identification method for the ecotone of coupled human and natural systems have been proposed. The composite system index can be used to ascertain the coupling intensity, coupling direction, and ecological transition of the system. Taking China as an example, this study showed evidence of the existence of a tremendous amount of ecological and socio-economic transition zone (complex coupled areas) between the east and west of China, and sporadic ecotone in other regions of the country. This transition zone accounted for about 1/4 of China's land surface area, and had a fragile environment that faced challenges of environmental protection and economic development. In the area across the Hu Line, human and natural factors jointly explain a low proportion of the variance in ecological and socio-economic transition zone (the complexity of coupled systems, with 62.01% of unexplained proportion higher than that in other regions). In this region, the topographic position index was the critical element associated with the transition zone, and accounted for nearly 20% of the variation of composite system index. The discovery and characterization of the ecological and socio-economic transition zone is crucial for understanding its uncertainty and diversity and the complex of coupled ecosystems.

Spatial heterogeneity of internal migration in China: The role of economic, social and environmental characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the spatial heterogeneity of internal migration in China and to discuss the influence of economic, social and environmental characteristics on this demographic process. The overall results suggest that migration in China occurred from inland to coastal areas and from rural areas to urban areas. By stepwise regression, we identified that 9 out of 15 factors with potential influence on internal migration were retained, and the multicollinearity among them was reduced. In addition, we used the OLS and GWR regression analysis to discuss the global and local effects of relevant factors on internal migration. Economic scale (GDP), population concentration (population density) and demographic dividend (labour force proportion) were the three main driving forces of internal migration. In turn, internal migration further widened the gap of economic scale, population agglomeration and demographic dividend between counties and cities. Internal migration in southern coastal areas of China was most affected by economic aspects and demographic dividend. In the central China, the population was more concentrated in high-density cities, while in the eastern regions, areas with high level of education were conducive to immigration, thus forming talent reserve highlands. In the west, areas with highly educated level faced out-migration, which might cause brain drain and widen further the gap in talent reserves between the east and the west in China. From the perspective of location, the net immigration of the provincial capital was accompanied by the net immigration of the surrounding area, which was conducive to the formation of city clusters or urban sprawl. On the other side, the net immigration in prefecture-level cities often meant the net out-migration in surrounding areas. The correlation is particularly strong in eastern coastal provinces.

Regional Differences and Key Influencing Factors of Fertilizer Integrated Efficiency in China

Overuse and low efficiency of chemical fertilizers have caused severe non-point source pollution in China. The investigation of regional difference and the key influencing factors of fertilization intensities (FI) and efficiency can provide references for decision-makers to establish efficient policies for fertilizer use. Using simple models of fertilizer allocation efficiency (FAE) and fertilizer integrated efficiency (FIE), it was found that the east of China excessively used fertilizers, and both the middle and west showed both excessive and insufficient fertilizer use. The average values of the FIE in the east, middle and west of China were 0.69, 0.68 and 0.64, respectively, all of which were at low efficiency. The inter-provincial differences of FIE throughout the country ranged from 0.47 in Shannxi to 0.94 in Shanghai. The population aging rate (PAR), effective irrigation rate (EIR), natural disasters affected rate (DAR) and disaster damaged rate (DDR) are considered the key factors influencing the FIE, based on the new concept of cumulative weight (CW). PAR and EIR are the positive factors, while DAR and DDR are negative. The average FIE is now 0.67 in China, which implies that the increase of chemical fertilizer use efficiency or the reduction of chemical fertilizer amount has a potential of approximate 33%, with the current grain yield and other inputs unchanged. The increase of fertilizer use efficiency should be conducted under local conditions. Optimized intensification of grain production should be given more attention in the east, and implementing disaster prevention and reduction technologies and water-saving irrigation technologies are the preference in the middle and west of China.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of dry‐wet abrupt alternation events in China during 1960–2018

AbstractThe dry‐wet abrupt alternation (DWAA) can lead to consecutive drought–flood hazards with high socioeconomic losses. Over the past decades, China has suffered huge economic losses of more than $15 billion due to drought and flood hazards. With the rapid socio‐economic development, the damages caused by DWAA are expected to be more serious. However, the spatiotemporal patterns of DWAA were poorly known at the continental scale. In this study, DWAA was identified by the short‐cycle dry‐wet abrupt alternation index (SDWAI) across eight eco‐regions of China from 1960 to 2018. Results showed that DWAA mainly occurred in humid/semihumid region (III), subtropical humid region (V), and tropical humid region (VI). Seasonally, DWAA is mostly concentrated in summer, with the highest frequency in June and July. Meanwhile, 67% of the total DWAA events were observed in nonsummer seasons. From 1960 to 2018, the intensity of dry to wet (DTW) events has increased by 0.015/10 year. The north and west of China (except region III, V, VI, and VII) experienced an increasing trend in DTW intensity, but a decreasing trend in WTD intensity. DWAA events in some parts of China were frequently observed, which was related to the variability in precipitation patterns caused by climate change. The identification of local hotspots and seasonal distribution of DWAA will support decision‐making for warning and mitigating the drought and flood hazards.

Possible future movement of the Hu line based on IPCC CMIP6 scenarios

Whether the Hu line will move into west China is a serious issue that has implications for socioeconomic development, human geography and the environment. Based on the data related to four different levels of radiative forcing detailed in CMIP6, in this study, we analyzed the trends in precipitation and NPP (net primary productivity) on both sides of the Hu line and the ‘Central Spine of Beautiful China’ and calculated how far the 400 mm iso-precipitation line and the equivalent NPP line will shift westward to explore the possibility of Hu line movement. The results show that, under all four scenarios, both the precipitation and NPP on the west side of the Hu line will increase significantly. The central spine could help to connect the eastern and western parts of the China and reduce the development imbalance between them. The 400 mm iso-precipitation line and the equivalent NPP line will move westward significantly by 2100 (Average moving distance more than 150 km for precipitation and 300 km for NPP) and lie across the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau; the increases in precipitation and NPP within the ‘Central Spine of Beautiful China’ will be greater than those in the west of China. In addition, using population data under four SSPs, we also analyzed the population distribution changes based on Hu line under the influence of futural socioeconomic developments. All these results demonstrate that there will be a possibility of the Hu line moving into west China in the future.

Forward Modeling of Natural Fractures within Carbonate Rock Formations with Continuum Damage Mechanics and Its Application in Fuman Oilfield

Accurate information about the distribution of natural fractures is a key factor for the success of the exploration and development of oil and gas in carbonate rock formations. Forward modeling of natural fractures generated by tectonic movement within carbonate rock formations was investigated by jointly using the continuum damage model and finite element numerical technology. Geological analysis of natural fractures was used as the basis of the geomechanical finite element calculation. A workflow of numerical calculations for natural fractures was proposed. These achievements were applied to investigate natural fractures’ distribution within Ordovician carbonate rock formations of the Fuman Oilfield, Xinjiang, in the west of China. Finite element sub-modeling technology was used to further investigate natural fractures within key target reservoir formations with a finer mesh. The contour of natural fractures represented by the localization band of continuum damage variables was obtained. A comparison of the numerical results of the natural fractures’ distribution represented by continuum damage variables with those of natural fractures interpreted from seismic data shows that: (1) the numerical solution of natural fractures matches the measured data, and their orientations are in good accordance; (2) their distribution and locations are basically the same, with some small differences in local details; (3) the numerical results indicate that the maximum value of the damage variable SDEG within the zones of natural fractures is 0.2686, and the widths of the bands of natural fractures/faults are in the range of 500 m to 1000 m. Validation of the results of the distribution of natural fractures was performed indirectly via the distribution of the minimum horizontal stress gradient ShG.

A cross cultural comparison of brand love in consumer brand relationships: Is ‘transmissive brand love’ a potential platform for developing brand equity?

This article examines ‘brand love’ in a cross-cultural sample from New Zealand and China. Rather than interpersonal love, Howden’s model of spiritual love was applied in this research. Two groups of tertiary students, in New Zealand and China, were interviewed on their brand relationships using a semi-structured format and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The results showed that all four components of Howden’s model could be used to describe spiritual relationships, and that three were applicable to brand relationships. The Chinese and New Zealand samples were strongly differentiated on two of these components, which were consistent with individual love in the West and collective love in China. A new unified model of ‘transmissive’ brand love, where the brand acts as a conduit rather than a destination for human love, is developed from these results. This model addresses many of the theoretical issues that arise from brands not being properly responsive partners in ‘love’ relationships. The model is also jointly compatible with interpersonal love as expressed in Western societies, and collective love as expressed within Chinese culture. It therefore offers a significant contribution to our understanding of how brands can actively increase their equity as significant facilitators of human love relationships.

Spatio-Temporal Variation and Influencing Factors of the Coupling Coordination Degree of Production-Living-Ecological Space in China.

Territorial space is a multi-functional complex. The coordinated production-living-ecological space (PLES) effectively coordinates the man-land relationship, promotes regional sustainable development, and maximizes territorial space. How to build a high-quality national spatial layout and support system for development has become a hot topic of concern in all sectors of society. However, few studies have explored the coupling coordination considering the various production-living-ecological functions of land use type and its influencing factors of PLES at the county scale in China. To address the gap, based on the connotation of PLES theory, this study established a classification and evaluation system for PLES and analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics, coupling coordination degree, spatial autocorrelation, and influencing factors of PLES in China from 2000 to 2020. The results are as follows: (1) The production space index and living space index in China showed a continuous increase tendency, while the ecological space indexs decreased continuously during the study period. The production space and living space were concentrated in the east of Hu Line, and the ecological space indexes in mountainous areas were significantly higher than those in plain areas during the study period. (2) The gravity centers of PLES all migrated to the west of China to different degrees during the study period. (3) From 2000 to 2020, the basically balanced category was the main coupling coordination type, and the number of seriously unbalanced categories accounted for the least. In the west of the Hu Line, the seriously unbalanced category was dominant, while in the east of the Hu Line were the moderately unbalanced categories and above. (4) During the study period, the low-low type was the main relationship type, widely distributed in western China, followed by the high-high type, mainly situated in the North China Plain, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Jianghan Plain, Chengdu Plain, Northeast China Plain, and some provincial capital cities. (5) Regression results showed that natural factors were the main reason restricting the coordinated development of PLES, and socioeconomic factors could effectively promote the coordinated development of PLES. Landscape pattern also significantly influenced the coordinated development of PLES, but varied greatly. The findings of this study can provide a scientific reference for the optimization of territorial space layout and the promotion of high-quality development of territorial space.

Research on the Construction of the Training Mechanism for International Students in Colleges and Universities—Taking the Cultivation of International Students in China from a “Double First-Class” University in the West of China as an Example

The development of my country’s higher education is inseparable from the training of international students in China. In recent years, my country’s attractiveness to foreign students has increased, and the scale of students studying in China has gradually expanded. However, in the practice of training international students in my country, there are still problems that need to be solved urgently, such as unreasonable teaching forms and insufficient standardization of training procedures. Reconstructing the training mechanism of law majors in China by innovating training norms, establishing quality certification for studying in China, etc., will provide new ideas for the training of international students in my country, and promote the healthy and orderly training of international students in China. develop.

The Impact of Urbanization Growth Patterns on Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Evidence from Guizhou, West of China

Little attention has been paid to the impact of future urban expansion patterns on carbon emissions based on the existing urban pattern of a region. This study used the Central Guizhou Urban Agglomeration as the study area, and the relationships between regional urbanization and CO2 emissions in the study area were analyzed based on historical data. Urban growth patterns were then simulated in four scenarios that focused on the next 15 years, and they were based on the cellular automaton model. In each different scenario, the CO2 emissions were predicted, and some implications regarding the impact of those emissions were provided. The results showed that as urban land-use intensity increases, CO2 emissions first increase then decrease; however, the rate of decline for CO2 emissions is much slower than the rate at which it rises. Moreover, in the next 15 years, urban expansion will lead to a significant increase in CO2 emissions. The CO2 emissions were found to be lowest in the spatial agglomeration scenario and highest in the spatial dispersion scenario. The spatial agglomeration scenario was conducive to understanding how CO2 emissions eventually peak; however, different cities in the study area should adopt different urban expansion patterns. These research results can provide a reference guide for the government with regard to urban planning.

Heterogeneous Dynamic Correlation Research among Industrial Structure Distortion, Two-Way FDI and Carbon Emission Intensity in China

The increase in carbon emissions year by year poses a severe challenge to the high-quality development and sustainability of China’s economy. How to reduce the intensity of carbon emissions has become a prominent issue to promote green growth. Based on the provincial panel data from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA), the spatial econometric model and intermediary effect test as analysis methods. The following results are drawn. Firstly, China’s industrial structure distortion index shows a downward trend. The industrial structure distortion index is the highest in the west of China, followed by the middle of China and is the lowest in the east of China. Secondly, the distortion of the industrial structure will not only lead to the increase in local carbon emission intensity but also produce reverse spillover to adjacent areas. Thirdly, the results of intermediary effect analysis show that industrial structure distortion can affect the transmission mechanism of carbon emission intensity by affecting two-way FDI. This paper has a profound practical significance for promoting the process of industrial upgrading by insisting on developing foreign trade to achieve carbon emission reduction. The main innovation of this paper is to put forward the concept of industrial structure distortion and bring it into a unified research framework with two-way FDI and carbon emission intensity.

Would the Urban Environmental Legislation Realize the Porter Hypothesis? Empirical Evidence Based on Panel Data of Chinese Prefecture Cities

The Porter hypothesis suggests that well-designed environmental regulation can trigger regional technological innovation that helps gain competitiveness. Little attention has been paid to whether China’s urban environmental legislation supports Porter hypothesis (PH). An empirical test was conducted based on panel data of 218 prefecture-level cities during 2003–2017 to examine the effects of urban environmental legislation on innovation and green total factor productivity (green TFP). The findings reveal that the urban environmental legislation increased the number of local green patents, which means that the weak Porter hypothesis was established. However, the urban environmental legislation did not lead to an increase in green TFP so that the strong version of PH did not hold. Further analysis showed that the urban environmental legislation led to the decline of green TFP and the increase of green patents in the west of China, but in the east and central cities, the changes were not visible. Besides, the legislation did not promote green TFP improvement through green innovation in the short term, which means it did not realize process compensation.

The morphological structure and influence factors analysis of China's domestic civil aviation freight transport network

Civil aviation freight transport (CAFT) in China plays an important role in social and economic development. However, research on the morphological structure of China's CAFT network and its influence factors remains rare. In this paper, we focus on this topic by using a new data set of China's domestic routes from 2015 to 2019. With the complex network theory, we make an empirical study on the morphological structure of China's domestic CAFT network, and try to explore the nexus between the attributes of the network and the influence factors. The results show that China's domestic CAFT network is in line with the small world network model, which has a low average path length and a high clustering coefficient. The centrality of the network presents a saddle distribution with dense in the east and west, while sparse in the central. The results also indicate that there are many localized networks dominated by a few core airports. A number of regional hub cities exist, which are mainly located in the west of China. The development of China's CAFT highly depends on the civil aviation passenger transport (CAPT) network, and is highly affected by GDP, the industrial structure and the geographical location of cities. Finally, we give several policy suggestions, including developing the freight dedicated airports, establishing independent freight transport network system, vigorously developing core and intermediate hub cities, as well as constructing the regional network.

Self-efficacy and negative silence in the classroom: The mediating role of fear of negative evaluation

BackgroundNegative silence in the classroom is a usual passive behavior, which means students tend to keep silent and are unwilling to participate in the teaching interaction. It hinders the classroom teaching quality severely. Previous studies have shown both self-efficacy and fear of negative evaluation are related to silent behavior. However, little research has explained whether self-efficacy affects negative silence in the classroom through fear of negative evaluation. PurposeTo investigate the relationships between self-efficacy, fear of negative evaluation and negative silence in the classroom. MethodsA cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling was conducted to collect data from 568 undergraduate nursing students from a higher medical institution in Guizhou Province, west of China, from October to November 2021. the T-Test or analysis of variance was used as a univariate analysis and the Bootstrap test was applied to verify the mediating effect. FindingsNursing students' self-efficacy was negatively related to both fear of negative evaluation and negative silence in the classroom（r = −0. 188, P＜0. 05; r = −0. 298, P＜0. 05, respectively; fear of negative evaluation was positively related to negative classroom silence（r = 0. 392, P＜0. 05; mediation analysis showed the mediating effect of fear of negative evaluation accounted for 23. 53% of the total [Effect Value= −0. 08, 95%CI（− 0. 12，− 0. 03]. DiscussionFear of negative evaluation partially mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and negative silence in the classroom. Therefore, reducing nursing students' negative evaluation fear can be used as a target for interventions to address nursing students' negative classroom silence issue, promoting the quality of classroom teaching and learning.

Spatiotemporal evolution of the coupling coordination between inheritance of local culture and new-style urbanization in China

The rapid new-style urbanization process in China has had a significant impact on the inheritance and protection of local culture. This paper quantitatively analyzes the spatiotemporal difference regarding the coupling coordination between the inheritance of local culture and the new-style urbanization process in China. It is found that during the period between 1991 and 2017, the coexistence of inheritance of local culture and new-style urbanization in China has successively undergone three stages, and at present, the coupling coordination between these two processes is still at a relatively low level, featuring significant differences across various regions and a progressive decrease in the degree of coupling coordination from east to west in China. However, the economically underdeveloped regions, especially ethnic minority regions, are under far greater pressure in terms of coordinated coexistence of both the inheritance of local culture and new-style urbanization.

Relationship between ambient air pollution and preterm birth: a retrospective birth cohort study in Yan'an, China.

Preterm birth (PTB) has been associated with exposure to air pollution, but it is unclear whether effects might vary among air pollution sources in a valley city, and yet few studies have investigated refined susceptible windows for PTB. We performed a retrospective birth cohort study in Yan'an city, a typical valley city in the west of China, and analyze the effects of air pollutants on premature delivery, identify critical windows for maternal air pollutants exposure and PTB. The pregnant women who gave birth in the Affiliated Hospital of Yan'an University and Yan'an people's Hospital from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019 were selected as the research objects. A questionnaire survey and medical records were conducted. The daily average concentrations of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters of ≤ 2.5μm (PM2.5) and ≤ 10μm (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3) in Yan'an City from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019 were collected. After controlling the confounding factors of PTB by logistic regression model, the effect of air pollutants on preterm birth was analyzed. After controlling the confounding factors such as maternal age, gestational times and gestational hypertension syndrome, PTB was associated with exposure to third trimester PM10 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.019, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 1.004-1.035). PTB risk increased with second trimester exposure to SO2 (aOR = 1.039, CI = 1.011-1.068), also with third trimester (aOR = 1.031, CI = 1.010-1.053). PTB was also associated with third trimester O3 (aOR = 1.023, CI = 1.005-1.041). This study indicates that maternal exposure to PM10, SO2 and O3 might lead to increased risk of PTB, and critical exposure windows were inconsistent.

The Effect of Fast Internet on Employment: Evidence from a Large Broadband Expansion Program in China

AbstractInformation and communication technology plays an important role in human life and social production. The existing literature has mainly studied the economic impact of such technology in developed countries; the use of broadband in developing countries has been overlooked. This paper fills the gap by examining a broadband development program in China. Difference‐in‐difference estimates show that the deployment of high‐quality broadband promoted regional employment in the skilled service sector. The effect was larger in cities with a greater number of educated residents and cities in the west of China. We also found that broadband development stimulated firm creation and innovation. These findings imply that broadband promotes innovation and provides new impetus to the economic transition of emerging markets.