Are cities greener because of innovation?Independent innovation policy and green economic efficiency

The national independent innovation demonstration zone(NIIDZ)is an independent innovation policy that plays a crucial role in implementing strategies.Given the importance of the NIIDZ,this study uses panel data of 278 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2020 and empirically examines the effect and internal mechanism of the NIIDZ on green economic efficiency(GEE)using the difference-in-difference model(DID).The results show that the NIIDZ effectively enhances the growth of GEE,and the results remain valid through several robustness tests,such as year-by-year propensity score matching.The transmission mechanism suggests that the NIIDZ indirectly drives GEE by accelerating scientific and technological investment,promoting talent concentration,and optimizing the industrial structure.Moreover,heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotion effect of the NIIDZ on GEE is more prominent in the eastern region and high green development level areas.The study’s findings can serve as a reference for China to further utilize the policy effectiveness of the NIIDZ and accelerate the high-quality development of the green economy in the future.

A Study of the Impact of the Digital Economy on the Efficiency of Urban Green Economy--Based on the Yangtze River Delta City Cluster

This paper adopts the non-expected output-super-efficiency SBM(Slacks-Based Model)model and principal component analysis to calculate the green economy efficiency and the digital economy level of 27 prefecture-level cities in China’s Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration between 2011 and 2019,respectively,and examines the impact of the digital economy on the green economy efficiency by using benchmark regression and mechanism analysis.The findings show that,first,the digital economy has a significant contribution to the green economic efficiency of cities,and this conclusion still holds after robustness tests such as replacing explanatory and interpreted variables and introducing province-fixed effects.Second,through the mechanism test,it is found that the digital economy can indirectly promote urban green economic efficiency through the positive mechanism effect of promoting industrial structure upgrading.

Efficient expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) mediated by a chimeric promoter in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

To improve the expression efficiency of exogenous genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a high efficient expression vector was constructed. Green fluorescent protein （GFP） was expressed in C. reinhardtii under the control of promoters： RBCS2 and HSP70A-RBCS2. Efficiency of transformation and expression were compared between two transgenic algae： RBCS2 mediated strain Tran-Ⅰ and HSP70A-RBCS2 mediated strain Tran-Ⅱ. Results show that HSP70A-RBCS2 could improve greatly the transformation efficiency by approximately eightfold of RBCS2, and the expression efficiency of GFP in Tran-Ⅱ was at least double of that in Tran-Ⅰ. In addition, a threefold increase of GFP in Tran-Ⅱ was induced by heat shock at 40℃. All of the results demonstrated that HSP70A-RBCS2 was more efficient than RBCS2 in expressing exogenous gene in C. reinhardtii.

Evaluation of Green Development Efficiency in Chongqing Municipality Based on Super-SBM and Malmquist Models

The green development of Chongqing municipality is crucial in establishing a major ecological shield in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.By developing a Super-SBM model and using the Malmquist index to analyze and calculate the green development efficiency and its influencing factors in Chongqing from 2011 to 2021,this study reveals an accelerating trend in the overall green development efficiency in Chongqing.The significant enhancement of green development efficiency in Chongqing is primarily attributed to changes in returns to scale.Pure technical efficiency and technological advancements have a considerable potential impact on improving green development efficiency in Chongqing.Furthermore,there are discernible disparities in green development efficiency among districts and counties in Chongqing,with different factors influencing these variations.Chongqing is suggested to promote clean and efficient energy utilization,bolster the application and commercialization of scientific and technological advancements,consistently advance ecological restoration and management,and elevate the quality of green development to a higher level.

Green Networking Based Energy Efficient Communications

The mainstream approaches to green networking are discussed first from the view of engineering,including resource consolidation,server virtualization,selective connectedness,and proportional computing.A brief introduction to network virtualization techniques is given then and a virtual node embedding approach is provided.Finally,three kinds of enhanced green networking schemes by network virtualization are proposed,that is enhancement to sever virtualization,resource consolidation and Adaptive Link Rate(ALR).Examples are included to show the virtue of network virtualization to green networking in terms of energy efficient communications.

Impact of Energy Efficiency and Financial Support on Green Upgrading in China’s Industrial Sector

The report from the 20th National Congress of China emphasizes the importance of focusing on the clean,low-carbon,and efficient use of energy,increasing financial support,and promoting green upgrading within the industrial sector.This paper,based on annual data,employs the entropy weight method to construct a comprehensive index reflecting the impact of green upgrading in industrial sectors.To delve deeper,it utilizes the DEA model to measure energy efficiency and its subdivision BCC model to break down energy efficiency into technical and scale efficiency.The financial support landscape is examined from the vantage points of both direct and indirect financing.Using a multivariate time series model,this paper thoroughly investigates the influence of energy efficiency and financial support on the green upgrading of the industrial sector.The findings reveal a significant positive impact of both energy efficiency and financial support on green upgrading in industrial industries.Notably,scale efficiency emerges as the primary driver of energy efficiency.Moreover,indirect financing proves to be more effective in promoting financial support than direct financing.The empirical results retain their robustness even after substituting explanatory variables.The study concludes by contextualizing the research findings within the current real-world scenario,offering practical insights,and proposing specific recommendations.

Green transformation paths of resource-based cities in China from the configuration perspective

Green transformation is an unavoidable choice for resource-based cities(RBCs)that face resource depletion and environmental pollution.Existing research has focused primarily on specific RBCs,making it challenging to apply green transformation strategies universally across cities.The fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA)is a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses that can handle multiple concurrent causality problems and determine how different conditions combine into configurations and generate an outcome.Thus,to address this gap,in this study,we established a research framework for green transformation and utilized the fsQCA to examine the configurations of 113 RBCs in China.By incorporating the element of time,this study explored the dynamic evolution of solutions in 2013,2016,and 2019.The main findings indicate that individual elements do not constitute the necessary conditions for improving the green transformation efficiency(GTE),and the systematic combination of multiple conditions is an effective path for realizing the improvement of the GTE in RBCs.Green transformation paths of RBCs exhibit the same destination through different paths.Additionally,the combination of system environment elements and system structure elements is both complementary and alternative.Differences in RBCs have led to various factor combinations and development paths,but there are some similarities in the key elements of the factor combinations at different stages.Economic environment,government support,and technological innovation are key factors that universally enhance the GTE in RBCs.These insights can assist city managers in formulating policies to drive green transformation and contribute to a better theoretical understanding of green transformation paths in RBCs.

Do smart city policies improve energy efficiency?Evidence from China

To address air pollution and offer a convenient and comfortable living environment,the Chinese government launched a smart city pilot(SCP)project in 2012,accompanied by a comprehensive set of environmental and energy-related laws and regulations.Although academic interest in smart cities has surged,there remains a notable gap in empirical research exploring the economic,environmental,and energy effects of such initiatives.Taking 232 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2017 as research subjects,this study measures energy effi‐ciency by using energy consumption per unit of GDP and adopts a difference-in-differences(DID)analysis to investigate the impact of SCPs on energy efficiency.The empirical results indicate that SCPs improved energy efficiency by promoting urban technological innovation capabilities and green total factor productivity,and this effect was more pronounced in cities that were more dependent on traditional fossil fuel energy sources and had more developed fiscal and financial levels.Studying the impact of smart city construction on energy utilization efficiency in developing countries,such as China,is not only significantly enlightening for China’s green and low-carbon transition but also provides reference opinions for constructing smart cities and the path to enhancing energy efficiency in other developing countries.The findings provide valuable insights into the global development of smart cities,urban sustainability,and high-quality economic growth.

Towards green asphalt materials with lower emission of volatile organic compounds: A review on the release characteristics and its emission reduction additives

Recently, researchers in the road field are focusing on the development of green asphalt materials with loweremission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The characterization methodology of asphalt VOCs and theinfluencing factors on VOCs release have always been the basic issue of asphalt VOCs emission reduction research.Researchers have proposed a variety of asphalt VOCs characterization methodologies, which also have mutuallyirreplaceable characteristics. Asphalt VOCs volatilization is affected by many factors. In this study, asphalt VOCscharacterization methodologies were summarized, including their advantages, disadvantages, characteristics andapplicable requirements. Subsequently, the influencing factors of VOCs release, such as asphalt types and environment conditions, are summarized to provide theoretical support for the emission reduction research. Theclassification and mechanism of newly-development asphalt VOCs emission reduction materials are reviewed. Thereduction efficiencies are also compared to select better materials and put forward the improvement objective ofnew materials and new processes. In addition, the prospects about development of VOCs release mechanism ofasphalt materials during the full life cycle and feasibility research of high-efficiency composite emission reductionmaterials in the future were put forward.

Towards Attaining Reliable and Efficient Green Cloud Computing Using Micro-Smart Grids to Power Internet Data Center

Energy generation and consumption are the main aspects of social life due to the fact that modern people’s necessity for energy is a crucial ingredient for existence. Therefore, energy efficiency is regarded as the best economical approach to provide safer and affordable energy for both utilities and consumers, through the enhancement of energy security and reduction of energy emissions. One of the problems of cloud computing service providers is the high rise in the cost of energy, efficiency together with carbon emission with regards to the running of their internet data centres (IDCs). In order to mitigate these issues, smart micro-grid was found to be suitable in increasing the energy efficiency, sustainability together with the reliability of electrical services for the IDCs. Therefore, this paper presents idea on how smart micro-grids can bring down the disturbing cost of energy, carbon emission by the IDCs with some level of energy efficiency all in an effort to attain green cloud computing services from the service providers. In specific term, we aim at achieving green information and communication technology (ICT) in the field of cloud computing in relations to energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness and carbon emission reduction from cloud data center’s perspective.

LD Pumped High Efficient Intracavity Frequency-Doubled Green Laser

A laser diode (LD) pumped Q switched high efficient intracavity frequency doubled Nd ∶YAG laser is reported here. The authors have designed an optical coupler and pointed out that the key to increasing harmonic conversion efficiency is to decrease the loss of fundamental wave. In the experiments, a fundamental mode output laser was acquired. When the pumping power was 12 W, 2.6 W average output power at 1 064 nm with AO Q switch was obtained. 2.1 W average output power at 532 nm was obtained with intracavity frequency doubling, and the highest second harmonic conversion efficiency was 82 0 0.

Research and Development of New High-quality Short-season Cotton Varieties and the Industrial Application of High Efficiency Technologies in Shandong Province——Based on the Innovation of Building a Green and Efficient Farming System

Through the analysis of the impact of changes in the cotton planting industry on cotton production structure and benefit in Shandong under the national cotton production pattern in past ten years,based on the guarantee of food security and the overall ecological regional layout of Shandong s agricultural characteristic and advantageous industries,we proposed that through the development of high-quality short-season cotton and the industrial application of high-efficiency technologies,a green and high-efficiency farming system should be established to comprehensively reduce cotton planting costs,improve comparative benefits,and realize green and efficient optimization technologies that unify the stable production of cotton and high-quality cotton supply and the industrial path supported by the new industrial model.It is aimed to speed up the upgrading and transformation of the existing traditional cotton cropping system,reconstruct a ternary structure of grains,economic crops and fodder in the ecological suitable cotton areas and sub-suitable cotton areas in Shandong,and maintain a series of new green and ecological cotton rotation industrial models including the“double security”of the grain and cotton industries,the ecological“double superiority”of "cotton and fodder",and the high-efficiency"double increase"of cotton and garlic,providing a certain foundation for the research on technological integration innovation and industrial structure optimization of the green,efficient and high-quality development and transformation of the cotton industry in Shandong during the"14 th Five-Year Plan"period.

Research on the Impact of Digital Finance on Energy Efficiency in China

Digital finance and green technology innovation(GTI)serve as powerful engines for promoting energy efficiency(EE)and economic development.This paper explores the mechanism by which digital finance impacts EE based on panel data from 30 provinces in China spanning from 2011 to 2019.The results demonstrate that digital finance can significantly enhance EE,with a particularly pronounced effect in the eastern region.Through mechanistic analysis,it is evident that GTI serves as the transmission pathway through which digital finance influences EE,accounting for 45.3%of the effect.The policy implication of this study suggests that China should expedite the digitization of financial markets to further harness the development of digital finance,particularly in pursuit of its technological innovation and green,lowcarbon environmental protection effects.

CoMP-transmission-based energy-efficient scheme selection algorithm for LTE-A systems

In order to achieve higher system energy efficiency （EE）,a new coordinated multipoint （CoMP）-transmission-based scheme selection energy saving （CTSES）algorithm is proposed for downlink homogeneous cellular networks.The problem is formulated as an optimization of maximizing system EE,under the constraints of the data rate requirement and the maximum transmit power.The problem is decomposed into power allocation and alternative scheme selection problems.Optimal power allocation is calculated for CoMP-JT （joint transmission）and CoMP-CS （coordinated scheduling） transmissions,and the scheme with higher EE is chosen. Since the optimal problem is a nonlinear fractional optimization problem for both CoMP transmission schemes, the problem is transformed into an equivalent problem using the parametric method. The optimal transmit power and optimal EE are obtained by an iteration algorithm in CoMP-JT and CoMP-CS schemes.Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm offers obvious energy-saving potential and outperforms the fixed CoMP transmission scheme.Under the condition of the same maximum transmit power limit,the empirical regularity of user distribution for scheme choice is presented, and using this regularity, the computational complexity can be reduced.

Spatial-temporal Heterogeneity of Green Development Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in Growing Metropolitan Area: A Case Study for the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area

This study analyzed the spatial-temporal heterogeneity of green development efficiency and its influencing factors in the growing Xuzhou Metropolitan Area for the period 2000–2015.The slacks-based measure(SBM)model,spatial autocorrelation,and the geographically weighted regression(GWR)model were used to conduct the analysis.The conclusions were as follows:first,the overall efficiency of green development of the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area decreased,the regional differences and spatial agglomeration shrunk and differences within the region were the main contributors to the regional differences of green development efficiency.Second,the counties with high-efficiency green development were distributed along the coast,and along the routes of the Beijing-Shanghai and the Eastern Longhai railways.A developing axis of the high-efficiency counties was the main feature of the spatial pattern for green development efficiency.Third,regarding spatial correlation and green development efficiency,the High-High type counties in the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area formed a centralized distribution corridor along the inter-provincial border areas of Henan and Jiangsu,whereas the Low-Low type counties were concentrated in the external,marginal parts of the metropolitan area.Fourth,the major factors(ranked in decreasing order of impact)influencing green development efficiency were innovation,government regulations,the economic development level,energy consumption,and industrial structure.These factors exerted their influence to varying extents;the influence of the same factor had different effects in different regions and obvious spatial differences were observed for the different regions.

Study on the efficiency and regional disparity of green technology innovation in China's industrial companies

This paper first constructed a system to evaluate the innovation efficiency of industrial companies within China's Mainland.Then,a principal component analysis(PCA) was performed to these indicators for dimensionality reduction,so as to figure out the technology innovation efficiency in these two phases,respectively.Finally,the overall efficiency of industrial companies in different regions was estimated and factorized via data envelopment analysis(DEA).The results showed that:(1)the efficiency of green technology innovation of industrial companies in China was relatively low as a whole,which mainly resulted from pure technical efficiency(PTE).Further,this huge gap continues to expand in these regions.And both PTE and scale efficiency(SE) in central and western regions leave much to be expected.(2)In the first phase of green technology development,when environmental factors were concerned,the efficiency was much lower than that without environmental considerations.Besides,the central and western regions were facing increasingly severe environmental problems,and there was a wide disparity in technology development efficiency among eastern,central,and western regions.(3)In the second phase of green technology commercialization,there were still more rooms for improvement in raising the efficiency of green technology innovation,and the efficiency in eastern,central,and western regions was ranked from highest to lowest.(4)Liaoning,Hebei,Heilongjiang,Xinjiang,Shanxi,Inner Mongolia,Yunnan,and Qinghai should focus on improving their technology;Jilin,Jiangxi,Anhui,and Guangxi should make their efforts to reduce resource redundancy;whereas Ningxia and Gansu should try to solve the above two issues.

Threshold effects of tourism agglomeration on the green innovation efficiency of China's tourism industry

Industrial agglomeration is an essential and effective way to integrate resources and elements. Its impact on the green innovation efficiency of the tourism industry is a process of continuous development and dynamic change. This paper, based on the provincial panel data from 2006 to 2015, uses super SBM model to measure the green innovation efficiency of China's tourism industry.The threshold regression model is employed to conduct empirical tests of the nonlinear threshold effect of agglomeration on the green innovation efficiency of tourism industry. The inter-provincial differences of various threshold effects and their possible causes are analyzed. Results indicate that the green innovation efficiency of China's tourism industry is generally growing, while regional disparity is significant with a gradient decrease along the eastern-central-western regions. There is an obvious positive nonlinear relationship between tourism agglomeration and green innovation efficiency. It is also found that with the increase of agglomeration, its influence is at a high level. As the level of agglomeration crosses the first threshold, its impact is at a low level, and when it crosses the second threshold, the impact of tourism agglomeration is at an intermediate level. Finally, this paper proposes the basic path and some policy recommendations to promote the green innovation efficiency of the tourism industry in China.

Energy Efficient Power Allocation for Relay-Aided D2D Communications in 5G Networks

As one of the key technologies for the fifth generation(5G) wireless networks,device-to-device(D2D) communications allow user equipment(UE) in close proximity to communicate with each other directly.Forwarded by a relay,the relay-aided D2D(RA-D2D) communications can not only be applied to communications in much longer distance but also achieve a high quality of service(Qo S) .In this paper,we first propose a two-layer system model allowing RA-D2 D links to underlay traditional cellular uplinks.Then we maximize the energy efficiency of the RA-D2 D link while satisfying the minimum data-rate of the cellular link.The optimal transmit power at both D2 D transmitter and D2 D relay sides is obtained by transforming the nonlinear fractional programming into a nonlinear parameter programming.Simulation results show that our proposed power allocation method is more energy efficient than the existing works,and the proposed RA-D2 D scheme outperformed direct D2 D scheme when the distance between two D2 D users is longer.

Temperature-dependent efficiency droop behaviors of GaN-based green light-emitting diodes

The efficiency droop behaviors of GaN-based green light-emitting diodes （LEDs） are studied as a function of temperature from 300 K to 480 K. The overall quantum efficiency of the green LEDs is found to degrade as temperature increases, which is mainly caused by activation of new non-radiative recombination centers within the LED active layer. Meanwhile, the external quantum efficiency of the green LEDs starts to decrease at low injection current level （1 A/cm2 ） with a temperature-insensitive peak-efficiency-current. In contrast, the peak-efficiency-current of a control GaN-based blue LED shows continuous up-shift at higher temperatures. Around the onset point of efficiency droop, the electroluminescence spectra of the green LEDs also exhibit a monotonic blue-shift of peak energy and a reduction of full width at half maximum as injection current increases. Carrier delocalization is believed to play an important role in causing the efficiency droop in GaN-based green LEDs.

Effect of AlGaN interlayer on luminous efficiency and reliability of GaN-based green LEDs on silicon substrate

The effect of AlGaN interlayer in quantum barrier on the electroluminescence characteristics of GaN-based green light emitting diodes(LEDs)grown on silicon substrate was investigated.The results show that AlGaN interlayer is beneficial to improve the luminous efficiency of LED devices and restrain the phase separation of In GaN.The former is ascribed to the inserted AlGaN layers can play a key role in determining the carrier distribution and screening dislocations in the active region,and the latter is attributed to the increased compressive stress in the quantum well.However,when the electrical stress aging tests were performed at a current density of 100 A/cm^2,LED devices with AlGaN interlayers are more likely to induce the generation/proliferation of defects in the active region under the effect of electrical stress,resulting in the reduced light output power at low current density.