The Environmental Impacts and Economic Benefits on Comprehensively Promoting Alternative Fuel Buses in China: Life-Cycle and Scenario Analysis Based on LEAP Model

With the continuous development of urban public transportation, the harmful GHG emissions and pollutants generated by itself and the consequent issues such as the losses of residents’ health, economic value and residents’ welfare have become the focus of social attention. In order to study the impacts of promoting new energy vehicles on public transportation pollution mitigation and residents’ health benefits, this paper adopts the LEAP model to build some scenarios that fulfill different development needs to quantitatively analyze the ownership of new energy buses, the reduction of pollutants and the losses of residents’ health welfare. It is concluded that promoting new energy buses comprehensively can significantly reduce the emissions of atmospheric pollutants and the economic losses of residents’ health, but cannot fully realize the targets of greenhouse gas reduction under Life Cycle Analysis.

Economic Analysis Study of Agricultural and Solar Complementary System

Agro-photovoltaic complementary system(APCS)is an innovative land use model combining agricultural production with photovoltaic power generation,aiming to realize dual land use and improve land use efficiency and economic benefits by installing photovoltaic panels on farmland.With the growth of global energy demand and the intensification of climate change,agro-photovoltaic(APV)systems have received widespread attention as a sustainable energy solution.Studies have shown that agro-photovoltaic systems exhibit significant economic benefits in different regions and crop types.Through reasonable system design and optimization,the agricultural and photovoltaic complementary system is not only technically feasible,but also has significant economic advantages,which provides a strong support for achieving the goal of sustainable development.

Economic Analysis and Research of New Energy Vehicle Promotion Model

New energy vehicles represent the inevitable trend of future development.Compared to traditional fuel vehicles,they are more energy-saving and environmentally friendly,effectively reducing air pollution and mitigating excessive exploitation of oil resources,a stance strongly supported by governments.However,new energy vehicles possess certain drawbacks in terms of price and usability compared to traditional counterparts.Therefore,external support is imperative for their development.This paper delineates four main sections:the background of new energy vehicle promotion and application,a comparative analysis of domestic and foreign promotion models,specific promotion suggestions,and future development prospects.By leveraging insights from economic analysis,the optimal promotion model for new energy vehicles is elucidated.

Numerical Modeling and Technico-Economic Analysis of a Hybrid Energy Production System for Self-Consumption: Case of Rural Area in the Comoros

This study aims to provide electricity to a remote village in the Union of Comoros that has been affected by energy problems for over 40 years. The study uses a 50 kW diesel generator, a 10 kW wind turbine, 1500 kW photovoltaic solar panels, a converter, and storage batteries as the proposed sources. The main objective of this study is to conduct a detailed analysis and optimization of a hybrid diesel and renewable energy system to meet the electricity demand of a remote area village of 800 to 1500 inhabitants located in the north of Ngazidja Island in Comoros. The study uses the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) Pro to conduct simulations and optimize the analysis using meteorological data from Comoros. The results show that hybrid combination is more profitable in terms of margin on economic cost with a less expensive investment. With a diesel cost of $1/L, an average wind speed of 5.09 m/s and a solar irradiation value of 6.14 kWh/m2/day, the system works well with a proportion of renewable energy production of 99.44% with an emission quantity of 1311.407 kg/year. 99.2% of the production comes from renewable sources with an estimated energy surplus of 2,125,344 kWh/year with the cost of electricity (COE) estimated at $0.18/kWh, presenting a cost-effective alternative compared to current market rates. These results present better optimization of the used hybrid energy system, satisfying energy demand and reducing the environmental impact.

Correlation Analysis of SPAD Value with Chlorophyll Content and Economic Yield Traits of Brassica napus L.

[Objective] The aim was to compare differences of SPAD value, chloro- phyll content, agronomic characters, economic characters and yield traits to analyze correlation of SPAD value with other indices and establish regression functions. [Method] Based on 34 Brassica napus L. varieties, SPAD value, chlorophyll content, agronomic characters, economic characters and yield traits were measured and re- gression functions were established according to correlations. [Result] SPAD value, chlorophyll content, agronomic and economic characters and yield traits all achieved significant level in differences among 34 varieties. Specifically, SPAD value was of extremely significant correlation with chlorophyll a and b, total chlorophyll and carotenoid, and the correlation from high to low was chl-b〉chl-z〉chl-a〉chl-x. SPAD value was of significantly positive correlation with total pod number per plant, plant height, seed number per pod, yield per plant and harvest yield, and of insignificant correlation with branch point height, effective branch number, pod density of main stem, and pod length. [Conclusion] It is simple and rapid to predict chlorophyll con- tent, economic characters and yields of Brassica napus L. with SPAD value and re- gression functions.

Relation between Economic Development Level and Resource and Environment Carrying Capacity of Central Area of Yunnan Province Based on Decoupling Analysis

Based on the decoupiing theory and method, an indicator system was built for the relation between economic development level and resource and environment carrying capacity. And the study was carried out on decoupling degree and temporal changes of economic development level and resource and environment carrying ca- pacity in the central area of Yunnan Province. Results indicated that （i） the economic development level and resource and environment carrying capacity in the central area of Yunnan Province mainly experienced strong decoupling, weak decoupling, and ex- pansive negative coupling, and in general it was strong decoupling, and it took on re- verse ＂N＂ in temporal changes. （ii） Change rate of economic development level in the central area of Yunnan Province was greater than zero, but the amplitude of change was not large, while the change rate of resource and environment carrying capacity was negative in 2007-2008, and it was positive in the rest years; from 2007, it took on gradual expansion trend, and scissors difference gradually increased after experi- encing reverse ＂V＂ change. （iii） The strong decoupling was the main situation and it reached the peak value in T5 period and T6 pedod.

R/S AND WAVELET ANALYSIS ON EVOLUTIONARYPROCESS OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC DISPARITY IN CHINA DURING PAST 50 YEARS

This paper shows the dynamic process of regional disparity of economic development in China in the past 50 years from a new insight by using the rescaled range statistic (R/S) analysis and wavelet analysis of the Theil index sequence with different time scales. The main conclusions are: 1) The regional disparity of economic development in China, including the inter-provincial disparity, inter-regional disparity and intra-regional disparity, has existed for many years. Theil index by the comparative price has revealed the true trend for comparative disparity of regional economic development from 1952 to 2000. 2) Decomposition of Theil index indicates that the dynamic trend of comparative inter-provincial disparity in the coastal region is in line with dynamic trend of inter-provincial disparity in the whole China. 3) The R/S analysis results tell us that during 1966-1978, the Hurst exponent H=0.504 approximate to 0.5, which indicates that in that period the evolution of comparative inter-provincial disparity of economic development showed a random characteristic, and in the other periods, i.e. 1952-1965, 1979-1990 and 1991-2000, the Hurst exponent H>0.5, which indicates that in those periods the evolution of the comparative inter-provincial disparity of economic development in China had a long-enduring characteristic. 4) By using wavelet analysis at different time scale, we arrived at a conclusion that the evolutionary process of the disparity of economic development of China is not a simple inverted U shape but a compound of several U shapes. The result tells us that the evolutionary plot of inter-provincial disparity in China follows the inverted U on the whole at the higher scale, 24 ( 16 years). That is to say, the disparity tends to rise in the first stage of economic development, and fall slowly over the peak in the second stage of economic development. However, if we shorten the time scale to 23 ( 8 years), then a link of several U shapes will appear.

Application of Integration of Spatial Statistical Analysis with GIS to Regional Economic Analysis

This paper summarizes a few spatial statistical analysis methods for to measuring spatial autocorrelation and spatial association, discusses the criteria for the identification of spatial association by the use of global Moran Coefficient, Local Moran and Local Geary. Furthermore, a user-friendly statistical module, combining spatial statistical analysis methods with GIS visual techniques, is developed in Arcview using Avenue. An example is also given to show the usefulness of this module in identifying and quantifying the underlying spatial association patterns between economic units.

Direct linear discriminant analysis based on column pivoting QR decomposition and economic SVD

A direct linear discriminant analysis algorithm based on economic singular value decomposition （DLDA/ESVD） is proposed to address the computationally complex problem of the conventional DLDA algorithm, which directly uses ESVD to reduce dimension and extract eigenvectors corresponding to nonzero eigenvalues. Then a DLDA algorithm based on column pivoting orthogonal triangular （QR） decomposition and ESVD （DLDA/QR-ESVD） is proposed to improve the performance of the DLDA/ESVD algorithm by processing a high-dimensional low rank matrix, which uses column pivoting QR decomposition to reduce dimension and ESVD to extract eigenvectors corresponding to nonzero eigenvalues. The experimental results on ORL, FERET and YALE face databases show that the proposed two algorithms can achieve almost the same performance and outperform the conventional DLDA algorithm in terms of computational complexity and training time. In addition, the experimental results on random data matrices show that the DLDA/QR-ESVD algorithm achieves better performance than the DLDA/ESVD algorithm by processing high-dimensional low rank matrices.

Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis on Regional Economic Disparity of Northeast Economic Region in China

Popular regional inequality indexes such as variation coefficient and Gini coefficient can only reveal overall inequality, and have limited ability in revealing spatial dependence or spatial agglomeration. Recently some methods of exploratory spatial data analysis such as spatial autocorrelation have provided effective tools to analyze spatial agglomeration and cluster, which can reveal the pattern of regional inequality. This article attempts to use spatial autocorrelation at county level to get refined spatial pattern of regional disparity in Chinese northeast economic region over 2000-2006 (2001 absent). The result indicates that the basic trend of regional economy is an increasing concentration of growth among counties in northeast economic region, and there are two geographical clusters of poorer counties including the counties in western Liaoning Province and adjacent counties in Inner Mongolia, poorer counties of Heihe, Qiqihar and Suihua in Heilongjiang Province. This article also reveals that we can use the methods of exploratory spatial data analysis as the supplementary analysis methods in regional economic analysis.

A STUDY ON STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF SUBURBAN ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEM ─Taking Tianjin Suburbs and Counties for Example

Along with the development of urban economy. the growth of urban population and the increase of needs of urban society, the suburban ecological and economic system changes constantly and profoundly in its structure and function.Intensifying the research on structural analysis of suburban ecological and economic system is of great significance for grasping light the laws governing the development and evolution of the suburban ecological and economic system and leading this system onto a path of sound circle. By making comprehensive use of the cluster analysis and latent structural analysis the author attempts to explore a new avenue of revealing the structure of suburban ecological and economic system, taking Tianjin suburbs and counties as an example. The results obtained from the above-stated analyses show that it is entirely possible and extremely effective to study the structure and function of suburban ecological and economic system and provide scientific evidence for control of this system by using mathematical methods and statistical analyses.

Co-integration Analysis on the Relationship between Methane Energy Development and Economic Growth in the City of Huixian

Based on the statistical data of Huixian from 1992 to 2010, we analyze the long-term and short-term relationship between Huixian's methane energy development and GDP by using co-integration test and error correction model. The empirical results show that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between methane energy and GDP in the city of Huixian, and which is the one-way Granger causality of methane and GDP. In conclusion, the paper puts forward some steps about spurring economic growth, methane development and utilization in Huixian.

The Grey Correlation Analysis on the Relationship between the Rural Finance and the Rural Economical Growth in Sichuan Province

This paper analyzes the relationship between rural finance and the rural economy of Sichuan Province from 1999 to 2009 by using the sequential growth rate of the gross value of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery and the sequential growth rate of the per capital total income of rural households as the indicators of rural economic development; and taking the volume of deposit, volume of credit, volume of agricultural credit and the credit volume of township enterprises as the indicators of rural financial development; as well as the method of grey correlation analysis. The results show that there is an obvious positive correlation between them, and the development of country finance has the closest connection with the sequential growth rate of farming, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production and fishery. The loan scale of township enterprises has the biggest influence on the increase of the rural economy. The countermeasures are put forward, covering optimizing investment structure; supporting the development of township enterprises; encouraging loan; actively lightening the financial difficulties in the process of developing rural economy; innovating and exploring; and promoting the diversified development of rural finance.

Regional Financial Development and Regional Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis of Suzhou City, China

There are many defects in researches on the relationship of the regional financial development (FD) and economic growth of China, such as simply assuming the causality direction, not highlighting financial institution, using incomplete financial indicator, etc. This article, taking Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province, China as a case, builds a simple model to study the level of FD from three aspects of financial scale, structure and institution. Three original indicators of PRIVY (private investment/aggregate investment), DEPTH (aggregate loan/GDP) and FDIVG (FDI/GDP) are used to construct the FD economic indicator through Principal Component Analysis approach. Then we use Granger method to analyze the relationship between the FD and the economic growth of Suzhou. Empirical test results show that the FD of Suzhou is the Granger reason of economic growth, while economic growth is not the reason for FD, because the relationship between the FD and the economic growth of Suzhou is just in the ″supply-leading″ period. In terms of Suzhou experiences, the local government should strengthen the protection of private investment, improve the institutional environment, and establish the reasonable financial structure. So we can concluded that FD could play a great role in promoting economic growth at the economy takeoff stage.

Analyzing economic feasibility for investing in nursing care: Evidence from panel data analysis in 35 OECD countries

Objective:To analyze economic feasibility for investing in nursing care.Method:The number of practicing nurses'density per 1000 population as a proxy for nursing staff and Gross Domestic Product(GDP)per capita(current US$)were collected in 35 member countries of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD)over 2000-2016 period.The statistical technique of panel data analysis including unit root test,cointegration analysis,Granger causality test,dynamic long-run model analysis and error correction model were applied to measure economic impact of nursing-related services.Results:There was a committed bilateral relationship between nurse-staffing level and GDP with longrun magnitudes of 1.39 and 0A1 for GDP-lead-nurse and nurse-lead-GDP directions in OECD countries,respectively.Moreover,the highest long-run magnitudes of the effect nursing staff has on increasing GDP per capita were calculated in Finland(2.07),Sweden(1.92),Estonia(1.68),Poland(1.52),Czech Republic(1.48),Norway(1.47)and Canada(1.24).Conclusion:Our findings verify that although the dependency of nursing characteristics to GDP per capita is higher than the reliance of GDP to number of nurses'density per 1000 population,investing in nursing care is economically feasible in OECD countries i.e.nursing is not only a financial burden(or cost)on health care systems,but also an economic stimulus in OECD countries.Hence,we alert governments and policy makers about the risk of underestimating the economic impacts of nurses on economic systems of OECD countries.

Spatio-temporal evolution and factor explanatory power analysis of urban resilience in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Urban resilience assesses a city’s ability to withstand unknown risks.Scholars are not comprehensive in assessing urban resilience,and they lack consideration of population resilience.This study investigated 110 prefecturelevel cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt(YREB)as study areas.We calculated the YREB’s level of urban resilience based on the aspects of“economy-society-population-ecology-infrastructure”,which ensured that the comprehensive evaluation of urban resilience is complete and sufficient.The spatio-temporal evolution of urban resilience was analyzed using exploratory spatial data.Geodetectors were used to investigate the impact of several indicators,focusing on economic,social,population,ecological,and infrastructure factors,on urban resilience.The results showed that the urban resilience of the YREB has maintained a slow upward trend from 2005 to 2018,and the average urban resilience of the YREB has risen from 0.2442 to 0.2560.The resilience gap between cities in the study region increased initially and then decreased.The dominant factor in the spatial differentiation of urban resilience was the economic factors,followed by the population factors.Urban resilience has been clarified and an evaluation index system is constructed,which can provide an effective reference for the evaluation of urban resilience among countries around the world.Based on this,factors that optimize urban resilience are configured,and the regional and national sustainable development can be promoted.

Nanofiltration Technology for Toxic or Harmful Ions Removal from Groundwater: Characteristics and Economic Analysis

Nanofiltration (NF) membrane can efficiently remove the ions from groundwater, especially for high valence ions. Results show that the removal rate of fluoride was approximately 67% by the NF system, while for arsenic the removal rate was more than 93%. NF presented the well selective removal for fluoride. The quality of product water meets the national drinking water standards. Therefore, the application of nanofiltration technology can significantly improve the drinking water environment of rural areas, avoiding the secondary pollution caused by other chemical treatment processes. The water product cost of NF technology is about RMB 0.026 yuan per liter, application of the process of 2:1 NF membranes arrangement for toxic or harmful ions removal from groundwater, including investment cost and operating cost. Therefore, NF technology for harmful ions removal is more economical than the price of the market bottled water and suitable for application in rural areas of China.

Economic analysis of energy interconnection between Europe and China with 100% renewable energy generation

The economic benefits of interconnecting the power grids of Europe(EU) and China(CN) were assessed considering 100% reliance on renewable energy(RE). Four different scenarios, energy storage without interconnection, installing additional renewable energy sources without interconnection, energy storage with interconnection, and installing additional RE sources with interconnection, were considered for the economic benefit analysis. A comparative study of these four scenarios was conducted to identify the best option for achieving hourly power balance. Further, sensitivity analysis was carried out to demonstrate the robustness of the results. Electricity interconnection between CN and EU decreases the annual additional costs by more than 30% when compared to the absence of interconnection, which demonstrates the necessity and benefits of CN-EU electricity interconnection.

Conductor selection and economic analysis of D.R.congo–guinea±800 kV UHVDC transmission project

Africa is embracing new opportunities featured with industrialization,urbanization and regionalization.Based on co-development of‘Electricity,Mining,Metallurgy,Industry and Trade’and grids interconnection proposed by Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization(GEIDCO),the high-quality hydropower resource of the Congo River can be exploited in large scale under the wide-range interconnected framework of African Energy Interconnection(AEI),forging a new engine for Africa economy.The transmission distance of the Congo River hydropower reaches 6,000 km at its farthest end in North Africa,which brings forth challenges to economics of proposed projects.Under this novel continental energy interconnection scheme in Africa,economics of those projects have not yet been in detail studied.This paper has implemented China’s mature engineering experiences and analytical tools of UHVDC project planning into the AEI structure,through exploring the economic behavior of ultra-long distance UHVDC projects in the scope of conductor selection in the Congo River hydropower transmission for the first time,and has provided concerned parties with a technical and analytical results of their economics comparison.This paper has chosen the D.R.Congo-Guinea±800 kV UHVDC project as a typical example.Its preliminary system planning is introduced and three types of conductor are selected for scheme comparison.Later in this paper,the transmission loss,total investment and equivalent annual cost of the project have been calculated and analyzed.In the final part,sensitivity analysis results of the annual cost to utilization hours,transmission loss,loss tariff and construction cost has been provided.

Economic and Technical Analysis of a Reverse-Osmosis Water Desalination Plant Using DEEP-3.2 Software

Reverse osmosis （RO） is proved to be the most reliable, cost effective, and energy efficient in producing fresh water compared to other desalination technologies. It is the fastest-growing desalination technology with a greater number of installations around the world. The economic and technical performance of a medium-capacity RO desalination plant （2,000 m^3/day） proposed to be installed in Umm Qasr city south of Basra, Iraq is analyzed using DEEP-3.2 software created by the International Atomic Energy Agency （IAEA）. This port city is located on the Gulf shore and does not have any fresh water resources. The analysis shows that the cost of fresh water produced by this plant is US$0.986/m^3 with a good quality of fresh water （279 ppm）, which is a reasonable price for this remote area. The analysis also shows an increase in water production cost of about 12% at increased electricity price from 0.06 to 0.1 US$/kWh, 53% when the seawater salinity increased from 35,000 to 45,000 ppm, 2.5% when the seawater temperature decreased from 33 ℃ to 20 ℃, and 0.71% when the interest rate increased from 0% to 5%. Pumping fresh water from the Basra purification plant （located 175 km north of Umm Qasr） is 22.16 times the cost and 236.7% poorer quality than the fresh water produced by the RO plant.