The Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology (NEUST) (Filipino: Pamantasan ng Nueva Ecija sa Agham at Teknolohiya), is a state university located in the province of Nueva Ecija, Central Luzon, Philippines, with its flagship campus at Cabanatuan City. The university offers graduate and undergraduate courses in many specialized fields as well as vocational training programs.The university was established in 1908 and celebrated its centennial year in 2008.
Pollution transfer across regions has become an important source of environmental health risks and spatial health inequalities, yet its underlying transfer mechanisms and structural pathways remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates the spatiotemporal evolution of pollution transfer in China's Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from both national and local perspectives. Using off-site environmental penalty data from large-scale enterprises between 2012 and 2023, we construct pollution transfer networks and apply social network analysis and the geographical detector method to identify structural characteristics and multidimensional driving mechanisms. This study addresses three interrelated challenges: identifying pollution transfer relationships from regulatory records, disentangling multidimensional proximity mechanisms and their interaction effects, and assessing whether pollution transfer structurally reinforces environmental health inequality across cities, which are tasks that are methodologically demanding due to the hidden nature of transfer processes and the nonlinearity of proximity effects. The results reveal that the pollution transfer network in the YRD has continuously expanded, exhibiting a pronounced core-periphery structure centered on Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and other core cities, with strong internal linkages and outward diffusion at the national scale. Pollution transfer intensity has increased over time and displays significant proximity effects. Multidimensional proximity factors jointly shape pollution transfer, with economic proximity dominating intra-regional transfers, while institutional and technological proximity play a more critical role in extra-regional transfers. Notably, public health proximity exhibits limited independent explanatory power but significantly enhances pollution transfer when interacting with economic and institutional factors, suggesting a structural linkage between pollution redistribution and environmental health inequality. Scientifically, this study advances the understanding of pollution transfer as a networked and interaction-driven process. Practically, the findings provide quantitative support for regional collaborative governance and integrated environmental and health management in the YRD.
On the basis of green patent transfer data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region and green credit data from five major state-owned banks from 2015 to 2023, this study employs social network analysis and a geographical detector model to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics and systemic coupling between green technology diffusion and green finance development. We document the following key findings: (1) the green technology transfer network has expanded, with Hefei surpassing Shanghai as the core hub, and intensive green technology flows being concentrated in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei; (2) while green finance has grown substantially, it remains spatially concentrated around Shanghai, leading to a persistent core-periphery divide; (3) the coordination between cities' positions in the technology network and their green finance levels has declined, except in Shanghai, indicating a growing structural mismatch; and (4) factor detection results from the geographical detector indicate that green finance policies act as an independent driving force for the green technology transfer network. Furthermore, interaction detection demonstrates that green finance exerts a stronger influence when it is jointly driven by the urban financial scale and market vitality.
The recycling of lithium batteries not only requires government guidance and support but also necessitates the deep involvement of enterprises to ensure sustainable production and promote circular economic development. Improper disposal and informal recycling of waste lithium batteries can release heavy metals and toxic electrolytes, posing potential threats to environmental safety and public health. Based on data related to lithium battery recycling enterprises in China, this paper utilizes spatial statistical methods and geographic detectors to analyze the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors of these enterprises. The results indicated the following: (1) the overall spatial pattern of lithium battery recycling enterprises in China is characterized as having a "tiered" structure, with the eastern region consistently having the highest number of recycling enterprises, and a standard deviation ellipse shows the general temporal and spatial distribution trend in a south-north direction; (2) the spatial distribution of lithium battery recycling enterprises in China exhibits a significant positive spatial correlation, with a basically stable spatial pattern of cold and hot spots; Meanwhile, kernel density analysis indicates a gradual expansion of the spatial distribution, albeit with significant geographic polarization characteristics; (3) since 2013, lithium battery recycling enterprises have rapidly expanded, showing marked spatial differentiation within city clusters; and (4) the spatial distribution of these enterprises is significantly influenced by factors such as consumer spending levels and regional economic development, with all interaction factors showing a strong bi-factor enhancement effect. The findings provide guidance for developing smart waste-management systems to strengthen environmental governance and mitigate potential public health risks associated with lithium battery recycling.
Chronic diseases impose significant burdens on families and society because of high disability rates and costly treatments. Based on data from the 2014-2020 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS), this paper considers the establishment of National Demonstration Zones for Comprehensive Chronic Disease Prevention and Control (NDZCCDPCs) as a natural experiment, and explores the impact of this policy on the health of older adults by constructing a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) model. The findings indicate that NDZCCDPCs reduces the number of chronic diseases prevalent in older adults by 10.6 %, decreases the probability of ADL difficulty by 2.9 %, and reduces the probability of self-assessed poor health by 3.9 %. NDZCCDPCs achieves these health benefits through mechanisms such as preventive care and behaviors, and healthcare service provision and cost reduction. However, the positive health impact is smaller in areas facing higher fiscal stress, due to crowding-out effects. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive impact is more pronounced among older adults with lower levels of education and rural Hukou, and is more evident in areas with scarce medical resources. Finally, the benefits of establishing NDZCCDPCs outweigh the costs.
The increasingly severe climate risks have become an important external shock, reshaping corporate operational strategies and technology choices. However, the relationship between climate risks and corporate digital technology usage (DTU) has not been sufficiently studied. Using panel data of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2023, this paper provides robust evidence that climate risk positively affects corporate DTU, i.e., a one-standard-deviation increase in climate risk leads to an average increase in corporate DTU of approximately 4.682%. Specifically, transition risks and acute physical risks both exert significant positive effects on DTU, whereas chronic physical risks show no substantial influence. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), we find that entrepreneurship and dynamic capabilities (intangible resources) strengthen this positive relationship, while unabsorbed slack resources (tangible resources) attenuate it. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive effect of climate risk on corporate DTU is more pronounced for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), high-risk-taking enterprises (HRTEs), and enterprises with diversified supply chains. Further analysis on economic consequences indicates that climate risk-induced improvements in corporate DTU significantly enhance supply chain resilience and ESG performance. These findings show that DTU is an internal adaptation strategy for companies dealing with climate risks. This expands the traditional framework for understanding the drivers of corporate DTU, providing a new theoretical explanation for the “risk response motivation” behind this behavior. It also gives companies practical guidance and management insights for capturing the benefits of DTU in the face of climate risks.
