Research on Energy-Related CO2 Emissions Characteristics, Decoupling Relationship and LMDI Factor Decomposition in Qinghai

Based on the statistical data from 1997 to 2017, with the utilization of the IPCC carbon accounting method, Tapio decoupling model, and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI), the temporal evolution characteristics of Qinghai’s energy-related carbon emissions, the decoupling relationship, and its driving factors were analyzed. The results indicated that 1) The carbon emissions of Qinghai showed a trend of first slowly increasing, then rapidly increasing, and finally fluctuating and decreasing. It increased from 3.85 million tons in 1997 to 14.33 million tons in 2017, with an average annual growth rate of 6.79%. The carbon emission intensity revealed a steady downward trend, from 189.82 tons/million CNY in 1997 to 54.6 tons/million CNY in 2017, with an average annual growth rate of –6.04%. 2) The relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth was represented by four types: weak decoupling, strong decoupling, expansion negative decoupling, and expansion coupling. Among them, a strong decoupling was achieved only in the five periods of 1997–1998, 1999–2000, 2001–2002, 2013–2015, and 2016–2017. 3) The structural effect of energy consumption was the paramount factor in restraining carbon emissions, followed by the energy intensity effect, while economic growth, and population size were important factors facilitating the increase in carbon emissions. To this end, Qinghai should continuously optimize its energy structure and improve energy utilization efficiency, thus achieving economic green and high-quality development.

Green TFP Heterogeneity in the Ports of China’s Pilot Free Trade Zone under Environmental Constraints

In the context of China’s Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), ports have a new opportunity to realize high-quality development. Based on the analysis of the current situation of pollutant emissions from ports in China’s Pilot Free Trade Zones (FTZs), this paper introduces environmental factors into the analysis framework of the total factor productivity (TFP) of ports in China’s FTZs, and uses the Global Malmquist–Luenberger index method to analyze the evolution trend and heterogeneity of green TFP in 28 ports of China’s 19 FTZs from 2011 to 2017. The results show that firstly, the emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX) and other pollutants in China’s FTZs have been decreasing year by year. Secondly, both the green TFP and the traditional TFP of the ports in FTZs are on the rise. The absence of environmental factors leads to the underestimation of the TFP of ports. For the green TFP, the main source of its growth is technological progress. Thirdly, there is obvious port heterogeneity in the green TFP of FTZ ports. Nanjing Port has the highest green TFP growth rate, with an average annual growth rate of 21.95%. Ningbo Port, which ranks 14th, has an average annual growth rate of 5.46%. Fuzhou Port, which is rated last, has negative growth. Fourthly, there is also obvious types and regional heterogeneity in the green TFP of FTZ ports. When categorized by type, the average annual growth rate of green TFP in inland ports is significantly higher than that of coastal ports. When categorized by region, the descending order of the average annual growth rate of green TFP is the western region, the eastern region and the central region. Fifthly, the green TFP differences among the eastern, central, and western regions, as well as between inland ports and coastal ports, are shrinking. Moreover, the green TFP differences within inland ports and coastal ports and within central ports and eastern ports are also shrinking, implying there may be σ convergence. The conclusions of this paper have important implications for the scientific understanding of the heterogeneity of green TFP growth in ports in China’s FTZs, and how to promote the green development of ports in China’s FTZs under environmental constraints.

Academic Publication of Anesthesiology From a Bibliographic Perspective From 1999 to 2018: Comparative Analysis Using Subject-Field Dataset and Department Dataset

Background: Publication activity in the field of anesthesiology informs decisions that enhance academic advancement. Most previous bibliometric studies on anesthesiology examined data limited to journals focused on anesthesiology rather than data answerable to authors in anesthesia departments. This study comprehensively explored publication trends in the field of anesthesiology and their impact. We hypothesized that anesthesiology's bibliometric scene would differ based on whether articles in the same study period were published in anesthesiology-focused journals or were produced by authors in anesthesia departments but published in non-specialty journals.Methods: This cross-sectional study used bibliometric data from the Science Citation Index Expanded database between 1999 and 2018. Two datasets were assembled. The first dataset was a subject-dataset (articles published in 31 journals in the anesthesiology category of InCites Journal Citation Reports in 2018); the second dataset was the department-dataset (articles published in the Science Citation Index Expanded by authors in anesthesia departments). We captured the bibliographical record of each article in both datasets and noted each article's Institute for Scientific Information code, publication year, title, abstract, author addresses, subject category, and references for further study.Results: A total of 69,593 articles were published—cited 1,497,932 times—in the subject-dataset; a total of 167,501 articles were published—cited 3,731,540 times—in the department-dataset. The results demonstrate differences between the two datasets. First, the number of articles was stagnant, with little growth (average annual growth rate = 0.31%) in the subject-dataset; whereas there was stable growth (average annual growth rate = 4.50%) in articles in the department-dataset. Second, only 30.4% of anesthesia department articles were published in anesthesiology journals. Third, journals related to “pain” had the lowest department-subject ratio, which was attributable to a large portion of non-anesthesia department researchers' participation in related research.Conclusions: This study showed that articles published in anesthesiology-focused and non-specialty journals demonstrate fundamentally different trends. Thus, it not only helps researchers develop a more comprehensive understanding of the current publication status and trends in anesthesiology, but also provides a basis for national academic organizations to frame relevant anesthesiology development policies and rationalize resource allocation.

ASSESSMENT OF US BANKING SECTOR INVESTMENT ATTRACTIVENESS FOR MINORITY INVESTORS: THEORETICAL-APPLIED ASPECT

The aim of the work is to prove the appropriateness for minority investors of investing in shares of US banks only with speculative, and not investment intentions; identifying the reasons why long-term investment in the sector is not appropriateness in the presence of a fundamental enabling environment for its development. In the article, the US banking sector is considered as an object of long-term investment for investors who plan to be only minority shareholders, including for citizens of Ukraine. The main research methods in the paper are a graphical analysis of the dynamics of share prices of key US banks and determine the average annual growth rate of the market value of their shares. This average annual growth rate of the value of shares of the respective banks was compared with the dynamics of the stock index S & P-500. The sector is characterized by favorable conditions for development, but the paper proves the hypothesis of the feasibility of investing in shares of US banks only with speculative rather than investment intentions. The factors of inexpediency of long-term investment in this sector in the presence of fundamental favorable conditions for the development of the sector in the country are specified. It is determined that the speculative nature of investments in the US banking sector is due to the lack of sustainable long-term growth of shares of the respective banks at a rate exceeding the growth rate of the stock index S&P-500. The main reasons that hinder the sustainable development of the US banking sector and prevent investment in this sector to outpace the efficiency of investment in the broad market was specified. The main such factors are the significant impact on banking activities of both macroeconomic crises and crises in certain sectors of the economy that are customers of banks. Since the clients of banks are almost all sectors of the economy, the list of possible sectoral crises, which are pass on the banking system in proportion to the volume of lending, is quite significant. This makes investing in the banking sector more risky than investing in other sectors of the economy. The property of the US banking sector and its of state regulation to evolve in the direction of improving the ability to counter economic crises is specified. This property reduces the reliability of forecasts for the development of the studied sector similarly to the dynamics of past periods and forces to plan events in a more optimistic scenario. The heterogeneity of the US banking sector in terms of asset structure and the level of diversification of activities has been identified, which allows individual banks of the country to go through periods of economic crisis in different ways. Keywords: US banking sector, stocks, S&P stock index-500, investments, economic crises. JEL Classification G21, G24, G12 Formulas: 2; fig.: 0; tabl.: 2; bibl.: 21.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Energy Consumption in the United States: An Overview

Lockdown measures and mobility restrictions implemented to combat the spread of the novel COVID-19 virus have impacted energy consumption patterns, particularly in the United States. A review of available data and literature on the impact of the pandemic on energy consumption is performed to understand the current knowledge on this topic. The overall decline of energy use during lockdown restrictions can best be identified through the analysis of energy consumption by source and end-user breakdown. Using monthly energy consumption data, the total 9-months use between January and September for the years 2015–2020 are calculated for each end-use. The cumulative consumption within these 9 months of the petroleum, natural gas, biomass, and electricity energy by the various end-use sectors are compared to identify a shift in use throughout time with the calculation of the percent change from 2019 to 2020. The analysis shows that the transportation sector experienced the most dramatic decline, having a subsequent impact on the primary energy it uses. A steep decline in the use of petroleum and natural gas by the transportation sector has had an inevitable impact on the emission of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants during the pandemic. Additionally, the most current data for the consumption of electricity by each state and each end-user in the times before and during the pandemic highlights the impact of specific lockdown procedures on energy use. The average total consumption for each state was found for the years 2015–2019. This result is used calculation of yearly growth rate and average annual growth rate in 2020 for each state and end-user. The total average annual growth rate for 2020 was used to find a correlation coefficient between COVID-19 case and death rates as well as population density and lockdown duration. To further examine the relationship a correlation coefficient was calculated between the 2020 average annual growth rate for all sectors and average annual growth rate for each individual end-user.

Analysis of Factors that Influence Agricultural Trade between China and Mongolia

Mongolia-China trade turnover has increased 250 times in 28 years. The two countries formally established diplomatic relations on October 16, 1949, which has now expanded to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership. This paper seeks to study and analyse the factors that influence agricultural product trade between China and Mongolia and give recommendations which can create new possibilities for the expansion of bilateral agricultural trade that were established in 2014. We use Comparative analysis and apply factor regression analysis methods of econometrics and Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCA index) of the factors affecting the trade of agricultural products between China and Mongolia were analyzed. Our results show that the development of China-Mongolia agricultural trade is faster than the overall development of China’s agricultural product trade, the average annual growth rate from 2001 to 2018 of China-Mongolia agricultural trade is 17.1%, which is 4.3% higher than the average annual growth rate of China’s total agricultural trade, average annual growth rate of agricultural 26 import from Mongolia is 5.7% higher than the overall increase of China's agricultural imports, average annual increase of agricultural exports to Mongolia is 2.2% higher than the overall increase of China's agricultural exports, agricultural product trade is highly complementary, RCA index shows that China's livestock products industry used have a 28 very strong comparative advantage in live animals, China's live animals competitive comparative advantage has continued to decrease and the index result has fallen below 1 and Chinese pay more attention to the quality and safety of agricultural products. We make policy recommendations for promoting the development of agricultural trade between China and Mongolia and provide reference for the study of agricultural trade between China and Mongolia.

Analysis of the Effect of DRG Medical Insurance Payment on the Performance of Hospital Service in Hunan Province

Background: Performance evaluation is an important means to promote the hospital's medical ability and management ability. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the effect of DRG payment mode on the performance of inpatient services in large tertiary hospitals. Methods: Based on the relevant report data of DRG pilot hospital and control hospital from 2015 to 2020, CN-DRG was used as grouping method, and case mix index (CMI), DRG group number, cost consumption index, time consumption index, low-risk group mortality and other indicators were used to analyze the impact of DRG on hospital inpatient service performance from the aspects of medical service ability, medical service efficiency, medical safety. Results: The average annual growth rate of DRG group was 4.07%, the average annual growth rate of CMI was 0.95%, the time consumption index and cost consumption index were lower than 1, and the mortality rate of low-risk group decreased by 27.56%. Conclusions: DRG medical insurance payment can improve the performance of inpatient service in the process of hospital management.

The state of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere using global observations through 2019

<p>We present results from the sixteenth annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin (https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=10437) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The results are based on research and observations performed by laboratories contributing to the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Programme (https://community.wmo.int/activity-areas/gaw).</p><p>The Bulletin presents results of global analyses of observational data collected according to GAW recommended practices and submitted to the World Data Center for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG). Bulletins are prepared by the WMO/GAW Scientific Advisory Group for Greenhouse Gases in collaboration with WDCGG.</p><p>Observations used for the global analysis are collected at more than 100 marine and terrestrial sites worldwide for CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> and at a smaller number of sites for other greenhouse gases. The globally averaged surface mole fractions calculated from this in situ network reached new highs in 2019, with CO<sub>2</sub> at 410.5 ± 0.2 ppm, CH<sub>4</sub> at 1877 ± 2 ppb, and N<sub>2</sub>O at 332.0 ± 0.1 ppb. These values constitute, respectively, 148%, 260% and 123% of pre-industrial (before 1750) levels. The increase in CO<sub>2</sub> from 2018 to 2019 (2.6 ppm) was larger than that observed from 2017 to 2018 and larger than the average annual growth rate over the last decade. For CH<sub>4</sub>, the increase from 2018 to 2019 (8 ppb) was slightly smaller than that observed from 2017 to 2018 but still greater than the average annual growth rate over the last decade. For N<sub>2</sub>O, the increase from 2018 to 2019 (0.9 ppb) was lower than that observed from 2017 to 2018 and practically equal to the average annual growth rate over the past 10 years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI) shows that from 1990 to 2019, radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases increased by 45%, with CO<sub>2</sub> accounting for about 80% of this increase.</p><p>The Bulletin highlights the potential impact of anthropogenic emission reductions due to COVID-19 lockdown measures on the levels of atmospheric concentrations of GHGs. These changes have been especially pronounced in urban areas and were visible in traditional pollutants as well as in greenhouse gases. However, the reduction in anthropogenic emissions due to confinement measures will not have a discernible effect on global mean atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> in 2020 as this reduction will be smaller than, or at most, similar in size to the natural year-to-year variability of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>. Direct measurements of the CO<sub>2</sub> fluxes by ICOS directly demonstrated GHG emission reductions in a number of cities. </p><p>The Bulletin also describes the emission reduction opportunities related to methane. These opportunities are provided by emerging capabilities of methane observations from space and advances in transport modeling that allow for better source attribution and quantification. Globally averaged methane mole fraction has been increasing since 2007. Long-term observations and analysis of methane isotopic composition shed some light on this increase. The observed trend in δ<sup>13</sup>C-CH<sub>4</sub> is explained by a combined increase in microbial and fossil emissions. This trend points to the likely scenario that the methane increase is largely driven by the growing demand for energy and food.</p>

Spatial and temporal characteristics of carbon emissions from livestock farming in Yunnan province by state and city

The livestock industry is a pillar industry of the rural economy and an important industry of the national economy in Yunnan Province, so it is important to study the spatial and temporal characteristics of carbon emissions from the livestock industry in Yunnan Province for the development of a modern, lowcarbon and recycling livestock industry. This study draws on provincial greenhouse gas emission factors to calculate the carbon dioxide equivalents generated by enteric fermentation and manure management of cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry in each state and city of Yunnan Province. The results show that: (1) the total carbon emissions from the livestock sector in Yunnan Province decreased from 25, 643, 900 t in 2008 to 24, 758, 200 t in 2018, with an average annual carbon emission of 30, 534, 500 t and an average annual growth rate of The average annual growth rate was 0.35%, showing a characteristic of “rising first then falling”. (2) In terms of spatial and temporal evolution, the layout of the low and high livestock carbon emission areas in Yunnan is stable, while the medium and high livestock carbon emission areas fluctuate frequently and the spatial and temporal differences in carbon emissions are obvious. Finally, based on the conclusions, targeted countermeasure suggestions are put forward.