International experience of green development in Western China:an overall review of policy and practice

Green development emphasizes co-development between economic and environmental dimensions,and is a peoplecentered sustainable development approach.Western China demands green development,and international experience could provide necessary,unique and important help and support for Western China to achieve its green development goals.This paper has made a comprehensive overall review and analysis of international experience in green development policy and its implementation,in particular,OECD countries'(mostly Australia and Canada) experience have been analyzed following the major policy foci defined by the Task Force on Strategy and Policies on Environment and Development in Western China initiated by China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development(CCICED).Data and information were gathered from the field surveys and investigations,expert meetings,as well as literature review.The main sessions include policy framework and road map establishment,implementation and performance assessment,co-development between economic development and environmental protection,as well as green employment and poverty alleviation.The paper has addressed five policy considerations for the future promotion of green development in Western China.

The road map for green development of Western China

China has made some remarkable achievements in sustainable development,but the constant deterioration of the overall trend of the environment has not yet been effectively curbed.To achieve the goal of sustainable development,we must first ensure coordination and coherence of national development goals in different areas and adhere to green development road.To achieve the objectives related to green development,and to clarify the direction of green development in the next 20years,a road map is needed to guide and coordinate the process.This paper describes the concept of the green development road map,introduces a green development road map for the western region,and further elaborates it The road map clarifies the objectives and guiding principles of green development in the western region,points the areas that deserve more concern and institutional innovation,and builds a green development monitoring and evaluation(M&E)framework.Finally,the paper provides corresponding policy recommendations based on the established road map.

Sm and S Co-doping to Construct Homo-hetero Cu Catalysts for Synergistic Enhancing CO_(2) Electroreduction

Copper(Cu)is recognized as one of the most efficient metal catalysts that can perform the electrocatalytic CO_(2) reduction reaction(CO_(2)RR)and its surface oxidation state determines the reaction pathway.The Cuδ+(0<δ<1)species,are well known active sites in CO_(2)RR to produce hydrocarbons and oxygenates.However,Cuδ+active sites are difficult to control,and it is very easy to be reduced to Cu^(0) under CO_(2)RR operating conditions.Herein,we report a homo-hetero doping strategy to construct an efficient samarium(Sm)and sulfur(S)co-doping catalyst(Smx-CuSy)for CO_(2)RR to formic acid(HCOOH).At optimum conditions,Smx-CuSy delivered a high HCOOH Faradaic efficiency(FE)of 92.1%at the current density of 300 mA·cm^(–2) using 1 mol/L KOH aqueous solution as electrolyte,and the reduction potential was as low as–0.52 V vs.reversible hydrogen electrode(RHE).The co-doping of Sm and S resulted in excellent CO_(2)RR performance owing to the synergistic effect of the homo-hetero structure.The homo-doping of S could effectively adjust the electronic structure of Cu in favor of the formation of abundant Cu^(δ+)species.The existence of hetero-Sm species could not only stabilize the Cu^(δ+)sites,but also increase the concentration of H ions to form a favorable catalytic environment for HCOOH generation.

Classification and microsurgical treatment of foramen magnum meningioma

Background To investigate the classification and microsurgical treatment of foramen magnum meningioma(FMM).Methods We retrospectively analyzed 76 patients with FMM and classified them into two classifications,classification ABS according to the relationship between the FMM and the brainstem and classification SIM according to the relationship between the FMM and the vertebral artery(VA).All patients underwent either the far lateral approach(54 cases)or the suboccipital midline approach(22 cases).Results Of the 76 cases,47 cases were located ahead of the brainstem(A),16 cases at the back of the brainstem(B),and 13 cases were located laterally to the brainstem(S).There were 15 cases located superior to the VA(S),49 cases were inferior(I),and 12 cases were mixed type(M).Among 76 cases,71 cases were resected with Simpson grade 2(93.42%),3 with Simpson grade 3(3.95%),and 2 with Simpson grade 4(2.63%).We summarized four anatomical triangles:triangles SOT,VOT,JVV,and TVV.The mean postoperative Karnofsky performance score was improved in all patients(p<0.05).However,several complications occurred,including hoarseness and CSF leak.Conclusion ABS and SIM classifications are objective indices for choosing the surgical approach and predicting the difficulty of FMMs,and it is of great importance to master the content,position relationship with the tumor,and variable anatomical structures in the four"triangles"for the success of the operation.

The clinical prospect of FLASH radiotherapy

FLASH radiotherapy(FLASH-RT)is a new strategy for tumor treatment with an ultra-high dose rate of more than 40 Gy/s.Compared with conventional radiotherapy(CONV-RT),FLASH-RT has no different inhibitory effects on tumors but less damage to normal tissues,which is called the“spare”effect.The“spare”effect triggers our exploration of the great prospect of subverting conventional radiotherapy and its intricate mechanisms.Mitochondrial homeostasis,the immune microenvironment,or DNA integrity may potentially represent the primary breakthrough direction in understanding the mechanisms.Concurrently,it is imperative to advance timely clinical translation efforts.Clinical trials of FLASH-RT have progressed to Phase II in both the United States and Switzerland,with current findings suggesting that FLASH-RT achieves comparable efficacy to CONV-RT while mitigating side effects in select cancer cell types.While summarizing the existing FLASH experiments,this paper emphasizes the significance of clinical transformation and the challenges that will be faced and proposes possible solutions.

Industrial land expansion in rural China threatens environmental securities

China’s rural industrialization has been a major driver for its rapid economic growth during the recent decades,but its myriad environmental risks are yet to be fully understood.Based on a comprehensive national land-use data set,our study shows that the area of China’s rural industrial land(RIL)quadrupled during 1990–2015,reaching 39338 km2 in 2015,comparable to urbanization in magnitude but with a much greater degree of landscape fragmentation which implies stronger ecological and environmental impacts.About 91%of the protected areas in the central China were within 50 km from rural industrial land,thus exposed to industrial disturbances.Accelerated rural industrial land expansion,particularly in regions under high geo-hazard risks,led to dramatically increased environmental risks,threatening the safety and health of both rural industrial workers and residents.Moreover,negative effects from rural industrial land expansion could partially offset the crop production growth in recent decades.The underprivileged rural population in the west bears a disproportionally large share of the increased environmental risks.China urgently needs to design and implement sustainable policies to restrict and reshape its rural industrialization.This study aims to inspire policy makers and researchers to rethink the current model of industrial expansion and improve rural industrial land planning,which is important for achieving the sustainable development goals of China.

Climate extremes and ozone pollution:a growing threat to China’s food security

Ensuring global food security requires a sound understanding of climate and environmental controls on crop productivity.The majority of existing assessments have focused on physical climate vari-ables(i.e.,mean temperature and precipitation),but less on the increasing climate extremes(e.g.,drought)and their interactions with increasing levels of tropospheric ozone(O3).Here we quantify the combined impacts of drought and O3 on China’s crop yield using a comprehensive,process-based agricultural eco-system model in conjunction with observational data.Our results indicate that climate change/variability and O3 together led to an annual mean reduction of crop yield by 10.0%or 55 million tons per year at the national level during 1981-2010.Crop yield shows a growing threat from severe episodic droughts and in-creasing O3 concentrations since 2000,with the largest crop yield losses occurring in northern China,causing serious concerns in food supply security in China.Our results imply that reducing tropospheric O3 levels is critical for securing crop production in coping with increasing frequency and severity of extreme climate events such as droughts.Improving air quality should be a core component of climate adaptation strategies.

Relationships between the activities and Ce^(3+)concentrations of CeO_(2)(111)for CO oxidation:A first-principle investigation

CO oxidation at ceria surfaces has been studied for decades,and many efforts have been devoted to understanding the effect of surface reduction on the catalytic activity.In this work,we theoretically studied the CO oxidation on the clean and reduced CeO_(2)(111)surfaces using different surface cells to dete rmine the relationships between the reduction degrees and calculated reaction energetics.It is found that the calculated barrier for the direct reaction between CO and surface lattice O drastically decreases with the increase of surface reduction degree.From electronic analysis,we found that the surface reduction can lead to the occurrence of localized electrons at the surface Ce,which affects the charge distribution at surface O.As the result,the surface O becomes more negatively charged and therefore more active in reacting with CO.This work then suggests that the localized 4 f electron reservoir of Ce can act as the"pseudo-anion"at reduced CeO_(2) surfaces to activate surface lattice O for catalytic oxidative reactions.