The plant hormone ethylene exerts a huge influence in the whole life cycle of plants, especially stress-resistance responses. With the development of functional genomics, that the action mechanism of ethylene takes part in mediated plant architecture has been clarified gradually, such as plant roots, stems, leaves, fiber elongation and so on. Accordingly, the application of ethylene on crops chemical control and genetic improvement is greatly expanded. From the view of ethylene mediated plant architecture in crops, here reviewed advances in ethylene biosynthesis and signal transduction pathway, stress-resistance responses and the yield potential enhance of crops in recently 20 years. On these grounds, the objectives of this paper were to provide scientific reference and a useful clue for the crop creation of ideal plant type.

Water resources are indispensable to human society. High-quality development (HQD) is a multi-faceted, demanding, and sustainable pattern. High-quality development level (HQDL) is an indicator of regional development. Its quantitative calculation is helpful to intuitively understand the current regional development situation, and helps departments make timely adjustments. Spatial equilibrium degree (SED) reflects the development balance among regions. Understanding spatial equilibrium can clarify regional development differences, promote the sharing of successful experiences, and then achieve common progress. Considering the current development and utilization situation of China’s water resources, this study established an improved evaluation index system for HQDL, under water resources constraints. Then, we applied the proposed “single index quantification and multiple index synthesis and poly-criteria integration (SMI-P)” method to quantitatively evaluate the HQDL of China’s 31 provincial-level administrative regions (PLARs), from 2010 to 2019. Finally, the calculation method of SED was employed to assess the SED of indicators and HQD in Mainland China. Results show that: (1) the HQDL of 31 PLARs showed a steady upward trend from 2010 to 2019. There were decrease tendencies from the coast to inland, and southeast to northwest in terms of spatial distribution, which shows that China’s HQD has achieved remarkable results in the past 10 years, and the development of coastal areas is better; (2) The SED of HQD displayed a slow upward trend, and it has remained relatively stable after 2015, indicating that the spatial difference of HQD continued to shrink before 2015 and was relatively stable after that; (3) Water resource constraints played a significant role in well-developed areas, while the economic and social level was still the main constraint in medium and poor level areas. In addition, the spatiotemporal variation of HQDL, SED of HQD and indicators, and constraint effects of water resources on regional HQD, were fully discussed. Our findings not only provide new ideas for future research on HQD, but also possess great significance to China’s HQD in the new era.

The coordinated development of urban renewal (UR) and ecological resilience (ER) is essential for regional sustainability and livable city construction. Based on data from 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) during 2012–2023, this study constructs the UR indicator system from the dimensions of urban infrastructure construction, social function development, and cultural and leisure facility construction. ER is evaluated in terms of resistance, adaptability, and recoverability. The spatiotemporal evolution of their coupling coordination degree (CCD) is then examined. In addition, the XGBoost-SHAP model is employed to identify the threshold of digital technological innovation (DTI) on CCD and its interactions with different development conditions. The results show that (1) CCD remained relatively low but improved slowly during the study period. UR lagged behind ER in most cities, indicating that insufficient UR development capacity was the main constraint on coordination between the two systems. (2) CCD exhibited a pronounced core–periphery pattern, with high-value areas mainly concentrated in provincial capitals and centrally administered municipalities within the YREB. (3) DTI was positively associated with CCD and exhibited a nonlinear pattern with a model-derived turning point, while the strength and pattern of this association varied across different development contexts. These findings enrich the understanding of UR-ER coordination and offer policy implications for sustainable urban governance.

Understanding the interactions between the Water–Energy–Food (WEF) coupling coordination and policy instruments is a pivotal pathway toward achieving ecological conservation and sustainable development in basins. Nonetheless, the association between policy instruments and WEF coupling remains inadequately documented. This study develops an integrated evaluation framework for WEF coupling coordination and policy instruments, and employs a two-way fixed-effects model to examine the effects of policy instruments on WEF coupling coordination across nine YRB provinces during 2010–2022. The results show that all three categories of policy instruments significantly improve the WEF coupling coordination degree. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that, in non-arid regions, command-and-control and guidance-based instruments have significant positive effects, whereas the effect of economic incentive instruments is not statistically significant. Technological innovation partially mediates the effects of command-and-control and economic incentive instruments, but not that of guidance-based instruments, whereas capital intensity partially mediates the effects of all three policy instruments on the WEF coupling coordination degree. Government fiscal pressure weakens the positive effects of command-and-control and economic incentive instruments, while its moderating effect on guidance-based instruments is not statistically significant. This study offers valuable insights for supporting the coupling coordination development of WEF in other river basins worldwide.