Toward an Ecological Civilization:China’s Progress as Documented by the Second National General Survey of Pollution Sources

The relationship between environmental quality and economic growth has been a hot topic for decades.After years of rapid industrialization and urbanization,China’s environmental challenges are approaching a turning point.Following the principles of ecological civilization construction,China is on its way to maintaining high-quality and green economic development.On 10 June 2020,the Chinese Government reported the key findings of the Second National General Survey of Pollution Sources(fiscal year 2017),which provides strong quantitative evidence of progress toward ecological civilization.In terms of our comparison between the two National General Surveys in 2007 and 2017,it was found that environmental pollution,measured in terms of many wastewater and air emission pollutant discharges,is decreasing despite the steady growth in economic activities—and at a noticeably fast pace.Other national and local governments can adopt some of China’s ecological civilization practices,within their own individual contexts.

TEDA(Tianjin Economic-technological Development Area)——A General Survey, Experience and the Plan for Future Development.

Since its establishment about ten years ago, TEDA has taken advantage of eachopportune time created by China’s policy of opening wider and wider to the outsideworld and the rapid economic growth to deepen its reform and extend its exploitation,and thus has maintained a favorable momentum and an extraordinary high speed foreconomic development. With the total economic output of the whole area raised to

Sharp Chandra View of ROSAT All-Sky Survey Bright Sources I. Improvement of Positional Accuracy

The ROSAT All-Sky Survey （RASS） represents one of the most complete and sensitive soft X- ray all-sky surveys to date. However, the deficient positional accuracy of the RASS Bright Source Catalog （BSC） and subsequent lack of firm optical identifications affect multi-wavelength studies of X-ray sources. The widely used positional errors σpos based on the Tycho Reference Catalog （Tycho-1） have previously been applied for identifying objects in the optical band. The considerably sharper Chandra view covers a fraction of RASS sources, whose ~rpos could be improved by utilizing the sub-arcsec positional accuracy of Chandra observations. We cross-match X-ray objects between the BSC and Chandra sources extracted from the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer （ACIS） archival observations. A combined list of counter- parts （BSCxACIS） with Chandra spatial positions weighted by the X-ray flux of multiple counterparts is employed to evaluate and improve the former identifications of BSC when used with other surveys. Based on these identification evaluations, we suggest that the point-source likeness of BSC sources and INS （iso- lated neutron star） candidates should be carefully reconsidered.

Candidate members of star clusters from LAMOST DR2

In this work, we provide 2189 photometrically- and kinematically-selected candidate members of 24 star clusters from the LAMOST DR2 catalog. We perform two-step membership identification： selection along the stellar track in the colormagnitude diagram, i.e., photometric identification, and selection from the distribution of radial velocities, i.e. the kinematic identification. We find that the radial velocities from the LAMOST data are very helpful in the membership identification. The mean probability of membership is 40% for the sample selected with radial velocity. With these 24 star clusters, we investigate the performance of the radial velocity and metallicity estimated with the LAMOST pipeline. We find that the systematic offsets in radial velocity and metallicity are 0.85 ± 1.26 km s-1and-0.08 ± 0.04 dex, with dispersions of 5.47＋1.16-0.71 km s-1and 0.13＋0.04-0.02 dex, respectively. Finally, we propose that the photometrically-selected candidate members of the clusters covered by the LAMOST footprint should be assigned higher priority so that more candidate stars can be observed.

Pesticide exposures and respiratory health in general populations

Human exposures to pesticides can occur in the workplace,in the household and through the ambient environment.While several articles have reviewed the impact of pesticide exposures on human respiratory health in occupational settings,to the best of our knowledge,this article is the first one to review published studies on the association between pesticide exposures and human respiratory health in the general populations.In this article,we critically reviewed evidences up to date studying the associations between non-occupational pesticide exposures and respiratory health in general populations.This article also highlighted questions arising from these studies,including our recent analyses using the data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey（CHMS）,for future research.We found few studies have addressed the impact of environmental pesticide exposures on respiratory health,especially on lung function,in general populations.In the studies using the data from CHMS Cycle 1,exposures to OP insecticides,pyrethroid insecticides,and the organochlorine pesticide DDT were associated with impaired lung function in the Canadian general population,but no significant associations were observed for the herbicide 2,4-D.Future research should focus on the potential age-specific and pesticide-specific effect on respiratory health in the general population,and repeated longitudinal study design is critical for assessing the temporal variations in pesticide exposures.Research findings from current studies of non-occupational pesticide exposures and their health impact in general population will help to improve the role of regulatory policies in mitigating pesticide-related public health problems,and thereafter providing greater benefit to the general population.

Higher Education Expansion, Selections Based on Non-Cognitive Abilities and Gender Differences: The Case of China

We assess how implicit selections based on non-cognitive abilities may have changed in the context of the great higher education expansion in China,applying the classic supply-demand framework and utilizing the Big Five personality model.Using the Chinese General Social Survey(CGSS)data from 2012,difference-in-difference(DID),difference-in-difference-in-difference(DDD)and descriptive analyses establish the following three major findings.First,from the generation entering college before the expansion-post-70s-to the generation entering college after the expansion-post-80s and post-90s-implicit selections in higher education based on personality have weakened with the increased supply of higher education opportunities.Second,selections have significantly weakened in terms of the openness dimension of personality,yet there is some evidence that selections have strengthened in terms of conscientiousness.This reflects that open-mindedness has become a relatively higher supply trait and conscientiousness has become a relatively lower supply trait among members of the post-90s generation.Third,selections have weakened only on the openness dimension for males,but on multiple dimensions beginning with agreeableness for females,reflecting a greatly increased supply of higher education opportunities for females with this dominant trait.The finding on strengthened selections based on conscientiousness has important implications for what and how to educate today’s college students.

The Multifaceted Impact of Education on Fertility:Unpacking the"BASIC"Effects in China

Research is increasingly showing that the impact of education on fertility can result in various and sometimes conflicting outcomes.Using data from the China General Social Survey,this study investigates this issue by exploring five channels(the five"BASIC"effects-base,ambition,spouse,income,and concept effects)through which education might influence diferent fertility behaviors.Using the number of Confucian temples in a region as an instrumental variable for education and employing the two-stage least squares estimation,the results indicate that after taking into account the BASIC effects,the impact of education on actual fertility behavior-both the number of children and the decision to have children-becomes insignificant.However,the negative influence of education on fertility intentions persists.This suggests that,although an increase in the level of education may reduce people's desire to have children,the actual fertility behavior can be influenced more by factors such as individual work status(the base effect)and personal expectations(the ambition effect).These findings provide new insights to assist China to optimize its population policy further,helping policymakers to understand better how education affects fertility choices and to formulate more precise population development strategies.