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The impact of air pollution is one of the hotspots attracting continuous scholarly attention, but the comprehensive statistical and visual analysis reviews are few. Employing the method of bibliometric analysis, this paper took the relevant literature from 1996 to April 2022 on the Web of Science as the research object. Through the methods of keyword co-occurrence analysis and burst analysis, the spatiotemporal evolution trend, cooperation network, outstanding scholars, knowledge base, and research focus of air pollution impact research are visually presented. Via constructing a common word matrix of high-frequency words, clustering analysis is used to aggregate high-frequency keywords into 24 clusters. By the strategic coordinate analysis method, the relationships within and between clusters were revealed. The main findings include (1) research on the impact of air pollution mainly focusing on human health; (2) the six keywords with the highest centrality are California, hydrocarbons, dioxide, generation, Asia, and diesel; (3) these 11 clusters may be developed into future research hotspots: particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, mortality, ozone, pollution, air quality, asthma, children, epidemiology, aerosols, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; and (4) seven topics are research hot: daily mortality, long-term exposure, coronary heart disease, concentration, North China plain, traffic-related air pollution, and air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a summary of a special issue of the Journal of Marine Science & Engineering titled "Advanced Research on Sustainable Maritime Transportation." The issue contains 15 research papers that cover various aspects of sustainable maritime transportation, including green shipping technologies, maritime safety, and sustainable port operations. The research papers explore topics such as the challenges of transitioning to low-carbon fuels for maritime diesel engines, fault-tolerant control strategies for electric ships, the impact of emission control areas on ship orders, and the effectiveness of machine learning methods in predicting a ship's carbon intensity index. Other papers focus on maritime security and sustainable port operations, discussing unmanned surface vessels, maritime safety management, and energy-saving solutions for waste heat recovery on ships. The special issue emphasizes the importance of technological innovation and policy adjustment in achieving sustainability goals in the maritime transportation industry. The research presented in these papers provides scientific guidance and practical directions for the industry's sustainable development. [Extracted from the article]

The growth of China's OFDI (outward foreign direct investment) is a unique feature of the "Belt and Road" project. Does China's OFDI have a green halo effect on countries along the Belt and Road (B&R)? Is this green halo effect somehow asymmetrical? What is the underlying mechanism? This paper systematically examines how China's OFDI exerts its influence on green technology spillovers, based on 56 B&R countries' 2003–2019 panel data. This study makes three significant findings: Firstly, China's OFDI has positive asymmetric characteristics in promoting green technology spillovers to host countries mentioned, which have lower income levels and openness. Secondly, strict relative environmental regulation can act as a "pressure pool," significantly enhancing the "green halo effect"; Thirdly, China's OFDI can help host countries obtain more green technology spillovers through three channels: expanding host countries' economic scale, upgrading host countries' industrial structure, and suppressing host countries' use of non-renewable energy. These findings point the way for 56 host countries to better accessing green technology spillovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a changing climate, ship speed optimization plays an important role in energy conservation and emission reduction. In order to establish a dual-objective optimization model of minimizing ship operating costs and reducing carbon emissions, fuel costs, berthing costs, emission costs and fixed cost during sailing cycles, the emission reduction strategies of ships using MGO in emission control areas and the AMP in ports are taken into account. The PSO algorithm is adopted to find the Pareto solution set, and the TOPSIS algorithm is used to screen the optimal compromise solution, while Yang Ming, a trans-Pacific route, is selected to verify the applicability of the model. The result shows that the optimization model can effectively reduce the operating cost during sailing cycles and control carbon emissions, which can provide references for ship operation decision-making to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shipping carries most of the cargo in international trade, with the fuel cost of ships is the major expense. Much attention has been paid to saving fuel in ship operation. First, to save fuel, an intelligent energy efficiency management system is developed to collect data related to ship energy efficiency. The main engine is the primary fuel-consuming equipment on a ship. It is important to carry out a comprehensive evaluation on the energy efficiency of the main engine. To achieve this goal, an ensemble machine learning approach combining the physics-based empirical model is used to perform a regression analysis on two different indicators. The indicators include the engine shaft power and fuel consumption rate per unit time. Second, the influence of the input features on energy efficiency indicators is analyzed, and some conclusions are drawn. On this basis, a novel trim optimization method based on piecewise regression is suggested, which is helpful to reduce ship resistance. In conclusion, this system can help ship operators to judge whether the main engine and ship are in good working condition and take appropriate measures to save energy for ships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to evaluate the carbon emission efficiency of multimodal transport is an important issue of public concern, and this article attempts to solve it with a network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. DEA is a method to evaluate the efficiency of homogeneous decision-making units (DMUs). First, this article studies the efficiency decomposition and efficiency aggregation of the general network structure for DEA model. In efficiency decomposition, the relationship between system efficiency and division efficiency is discussed; whereas in efficiency aggregation, the division tendency brought about by the definition of weights is analyzed. Then, a reasonable and single compromise solution to division efficiency scores is investigated while the system efficiency remains optimal. Finally, a two-stage network DEA model of rail-water intermodal transport is established with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as an undesirable output. Based on this model, the rail-water intermodal transport efficiencies of 14 ports in China in 2015 are evaluated by the methods of efficiency decomposition, efficiency aggregation, and non-cooperation. The results show that Rizhao Port, Tangshan Port, Nanjing Port, and Zhuhai Port have set an example to other ports. Qinhuangdao Port, Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, Guangzhou Port, and Beiliang Port need to improve the efficiency of railway transportation. Beibu Gulf port, Zhanjiang Port, Dalian Port, Lianyungang Port, Yantai Port, and Yichang Port should optimize their intermodal system. In addition, Yantai Port and Yichang Port urgently need to improve the port efficiency in low-carbon operation. The network DEA model constructed in this article can be further applied to the efficiency evaluation of multi-link supply chains, and the empirical results can provide a reference for the efficiency evaluation of ports in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After reviewing the problems of supply disruption caused by worldwide public health events, a two-echelon dual-marketing-channel supply model is presented in this paper, whose participants are one pharmaceutical company with disruption risks, one pharmaceutical company without disruption risks (NDPC), and one pharmaceutical retailer (PR). Their marketing consists of online and offline marketing channels. The PR signs an option contract with the NDPC to secure an adaptive and continuous pharmaceutical supply. The model is divided into three sub-models: single coalition structure, double coalition structure, and multi-party coalition structure, whose coalitional strategies and profits are investigated respectively. Their optimal decisions under disruption risks also are compared, and their pharmaceutical quality and process resilience are discussed. The merit of the model is to combine option contracts, government double subsidies, and business interruption insurance in the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since December 2019, the COVID‐19 epidemic has been spreading continuously in China and many countries in the world, causing widespread concern among the whole society. To cope with the epidemic disaster, most provinces and cities in China have adopted prevention and control measures such as home isolation, blocking transportation, and extending the Spring Festival holiday, which has caused a serious impact on China's output of various sectors, international trade, and labor employment, ultimately generating great losses to the Chinese economic system in 2020. But how big is the loss? How can we assess this for a country? At present, there are few analyses based on quantitative models to answer these important questions. In the following, we describe a quantitative‐based approach of assessing the potential impact of the COVID‐19 epidemic on the economic system and the sectors taking China as the base case. The proposed approach can provide timely data and quantitative tools to support the complex decision‐making process that government agencies (and the private sector) need to manage to respond to this tragic epidemic and maintain stable economic development. Based on the available data, this article proposes a hypothetical scenario and then adopts the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to calculate the comprehensive economic losses of the epidemic from the aspects of the direct shock on the output of seriously affected sectors, international trade, and labor force. The empirical results show that assuming a GDP growth rate of 4–8% in the absence of COVID‐19, GDP growth in 2020 would be ‐8.77 to ‐12.77% after the COVID‐19. Companies and activities associated with transportation and service sectors are among the most impacted, and companies and supply chains related to the manufacturing subsector lead the economic losses. Finally, according to the calculation results, the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward: disaster recovery for key sectors such as the labor force, transportation sector, and service sectors should be enhanced; disaster emergency rescue work in highly sensitive sectors should be carried out; in the long run, precise measures to strengthen the refined management of disaster risk with big data resources and means should be taken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to investigate the impact of major events on urban air quality in terms of the extent, duration and spatial scope, data on the daily air quality index and the concentrations of individual pollutants are collected in 140 cities of China from January 2, 2015, to November 28, 2017. Based on a spatial differences-in-differences, the impact of major events, such as political conferences, sporting events at the national level, on urban air quality in the dimensions of time and space are explored. It is concluded that major events not only affected the air quality of the host city, but also exercised influence on the air quality of the surrounding areas. Recommendations for mitigating the impact of major events on urban air quality have been proposed, such as establish regional atmospheric environment management system and formulate regional unified standards for pollutant discharge, industrial access and law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainstorm disaster brings serious threat to people's life and property safety. Constructing reasonable rainstorm disaster risk index and drawing rainstorm disaster risk map can help decision-makers to deal with rainstorm disaster effectively and reduce disaster loss. It has important practical significance. This paper, for the first time, proposes a comprehensive risk index for death caused by rainstorm disasters. According to this index, the regional hazard map of Beijing is drawn, so as to directly reflect the damage degree of rainstorm disaster in Beijing. In the process of index construction, the weight is determined by regression coefficient innovatively, and the disadvantage of subjective setting weight is avoided, and the spatial distribution of risk can be more accurately reflected by constructing disaster risk index by using fused grid data. Research shows that the rainstorm death risk index proposed in this paper can well reflect the risk of death caused by rainstorms in various areas of Beijing. Combined with the ArcGIS software, a risk map of death due to rainstorm disasters is drawn. It is found that Fangshan District of Beijing is a major disaster area with the highest risk of death. Finally, the managerial implication included that government administrators should evaluate the risk of rainstorm disasters in a certain area according to the established rainstorm death risk indexes and draw a risk map accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gasoline is one of the most consumed light petroleum products in transportation and other industries. This paper proposes a method for optimizing gasoline octane loss using data analysis technology aimed at optimizing the production process and minimizing the loss of gasoline octane. Firstly, the data are screened and the high-dimensional data are reduced to construct the neural network prediction model optimized by genetic algorithm. After utilizing the model for prediction, the optimal operating condition is achieved. Secondly, ensuring that the gasoline emission meets the standard, the octane loss is reduced by adjusting the operating variables. Thirdly, actual data are collected and calculated to obtain the main operating variables and their optimal operating conditions of a petrochemical company affecting the catalytic cracking gasoline S-Zorb unit, thus providing companies using S-Zorb units with reference data for optimizing gasoline catalytic cracking processes. Fourthly, the superiority of the proposed method was verified by comparing it with the other methods. This paper intends to contribute to better modeling the progress of gasoline catalytic cracking by adequately considering the impact of multiple factors, improving the quality of refined oil products of chemical enterprises, saving the economic cost of chemical enterprises, and protecting the atmospheric environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel metal‐doped metal–organic framework (MOF) was developed by incorporating salen–Mg into NH2–MIL‐101(Cr) structure under ambient conditions. The Schiff base complex was successfully prepared by condensing salicylaldehyde with a free amino group and then coordinating metal ions. Such a structure can endow the sample with higher CO2 adsorption performance. At 0°C and 1 bar, the salen–Mg‐modified sample achieves the maximum adsorption capacity of 2.18 mmol g−1 for CO2, which was 5.8% higher than the pristine salen–MOF under the same conditions. Notably, the Freundlich model indicates that the CO2 adsorption process of all samples conforms to reversible adsorption. However, the correlation coefficients (R2) of the Mg‐doped sample are lower than that of the pristine sample. Besides, the CO2/N2 adsorption selectivity and isosteric heat also show a similar trend. These results indicate that the salen–Mg can enhance the interaction between the material and CO2 molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of China's economy and urbanization has given rise to noticeable environmental problems, among which the change of air quality has received extensive attention. The panel data of PM2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 µm or less) in 343 prefecture-level cities in China from 1998 to 2016 were statistically analyzed to reveal the characteristics of the temporal evolution and spatial variation of China's air quality in the past two decades. The results show that: 1) the overall deterioration trend of air quality is obvious throughout the country. The variation trend of PM2.5 was divided into three phases: rapid-growth phase (1998–2007), lag phase (2006–2011) and mildly-incremental phase (2012–2016), with their average growth rates of 7.19%, −3.59% and 0.52%, respectively. 2) The spatial difference of PM2.5 values in China increased significantly with time. Since 2003, the high-value area in the east has expanded rapidly, and polarization became much more pronounced. The change rate of PM2.5 is high in the east and west and low in the middle. The change rates of most areas in the west exceed more than 80%, and in the east lie somewhere between 40% and 60%. In the midlands, the change rate is not large and some regions even show a negative growth. 3) The change rate of PM2.5 is also high in areas with higher values. However, in regions where the change rate of PM2.5 is high, the value of PM2.5 is not always high. The high change rate is mainly attributable to the low base value of PM2.5 and the cities concerned belong to sensitive areas. 4) According to the PM2.5 warning index, the number of strong, medium, weak and non-warning areas in China is 45, 85, 159 and 54, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As haze intensifies in China, controlling haze emission has become the country's top priority for environmental protection. Because haze moves across different regions, it is necessary to develop a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model underpinned by both competition and cooperation to evaluate the haze emission efficiency in different provinces. This study innovatively adopts the spatial econometrics to construct the co‐opetition matrices of Chinese provinces, then builds the co‐opetition DEA model to evaluate the haze emission efficiency of them, and finally uses the haze data of 2015 as an example to assess the applicability of the model. The results of the study include the following: First, compared with the traditional CCR (A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper & E. Rhodes) model, this study constructs the co‐opetition DEA cross‐efficiency model that integrates haze's feature of cross‐border moving; thus, it is more in line with the reality of haze emission and movement. Second, compared with the efficiency value gained from the CCR model, the haze emission efficiency values for Tianjin and Guangdong, two decision‐making units, register greater variance when using the DEA model. The reason might lie in that they have a different spatial transportation relationship with their surrounding provinces. Third, the haze emission efficiency of provinces, according to the evaluation based on the co‐opetition DEA method, varies greatly: Those with high efficiency are mostly inland provinces with slow economic growth and adverse climatic conditions, whereas many of the provinces with low efficiency are located in the relatively prosperous East China. The specific co‐opetition DEA model constructed in this study enriches the research on the DEA model, which can be applied to the emission efficiency evaluation of similar pollutants around the world and can contribute empirical support to the haze reducing efforts of the government with its empirical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the climate change and the rapid progress of urbanization, extreme weather disasters such as urban rainstorm and waterlogging are frequent. Therefore, how to find the waterlogging points in the presence of disasters and how to optimize the distribution of urban emergency logistics and reduce the negative impact of disasters have become a hot and difficult issue for government departments and scholars. First of all, the idea and method of using the big data of microblogging to obtain urban rainstorm and waterlogging disasters and public sentiment are put forward. In addition,this thesis constructed the location-routing problem model of urban emergency logistics in the situation of rainstorm and waterlogging disaster, and found out the dynamic emergency distribution path of Nanjing in the situation of waterlogging disaster by using NSGA-III algorithm. Research shows that the risk management of urban rainstorm and waterlogging disasters, together with social media data, is a feasible way to obtain on-site data of disasters and carry out risk assessment of disasters. At the same time, the emergency logistics location-positioning model and algorithm can provide a reference for similar disaster emergency logistics distribution network and the conclusion can provide empirical reference for cities to cope with rainstorm and waterlogging disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haze pollution is a key obstacle for environmental management faced by China and many other developing countries. The survey on residential families' economic losses and willingness to pay (WTP) are regarded as an essential reference for the implementation of environmental policies for haze treatment. For Jiangsu province of China, the authors of this paper first conducted three qualitative interviews with respectively meteorologists, meteorological administrators, and residents, a questionnaire was then elaborately designed, and subsequent surveys of 1123 families were administered in Jiangsu province. Further, the authors investigated measurements of direct economic losses by using the contingent valuation method (CVM) and explored influential factors of WTP by utilizing the binary logistic regression. From this survey, the estimated total economic loss incurred by haze disasters and total treatment cost for haze-related diseases were respectively 22.38 billion (in RMB) and 8.4 billion for Jiangsu province. 55.9% of residential families were willing to pay 11.6 billion RMB annually (51.97% of total loss) for haze treatment, leaving a shortage of 11.05 billion RMB, which the government is responsible to pay. These findings provide empirical information reflecting the opinions of communities and residential families, useful for the governments and industrial sectors to design environmental policies to meet the requirements of the public and control environmental pollution in an effective way to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) is involved in the lysis of blood clots. In this study, we attempted to target thrombolysis and enhance blood clot lysis by generating a construct (pLEGFP-N1-tPA) to integrate tPA gene into the genome of different cell lines. pLEGFP-N1-tPA construct was generated and used to target the tPA gene in different cell lines. The thrombolytic effects mediated by the supernatant from transfected HeLa cells and Linx cells were assessed using plasma thrombus plates. Furthermore, enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), which was fused to the tPA gene in the pLEGFP-N1-tPA construct, was analyzed under the fluorescent microscope to assess tPA localization. We also monitored tPA activity and expression in the transfected cell lines. As part of the study, we successfully generated the pLEGFP-N1-tPA construct. The sequence of this construct was verified and the construct was subsequently used to generate the PT67/pLEGFP-N1-tPA cell line. The pLEGFP-N1-tPA construct was also used to transfect HeLa cells and Linx cells. We observed that supernatants from transfected cells were capable of lysing thrombi. In addition, tPA activity and tPA concentration were elevated in the latter supernatants and tPA was rapidly and stably expressed in the transfected cell lines. These results reveal a potentially important thrombolytic role for tPA-targeted gene therapy following cardiac valve replacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the general principle of the impact of tropical cyclones on employment, explore the reason for the divergence among existing research conclusions, and put forward some suggestions for post-disaster reconstruction, this paper employs meta-regression analysis to study the impacts of tropical cyclones on the quantity of labor employed and employee remuneration from four aspects: industry dimension, time dimension, income dimension, and tropical cyclone intensity. The results are as follows: 1) Tropical cyclones create an impact on the intensity of changes in employment remuneration in the primary industry, and the impact in the secondary industry is greater than that in the tertiary industry. 2) In the short term, the impact of tropical cyclones on employment is negative and the impact intensity is strong, whereas in the medium and long terms, the impact is positive and the intensity of impact decreases. 3) Although tropical cyclones increase the quantity of labor employed from low-income groups, they decrease their employment remuneration. In addition, the impact of disasters on the number of employed high-income groups is relatively small compared to that of low-income groups. 4) A higher category of tropical cyclone results in a greater positive impact on the employment of labor force. Accordingly, the following suggestions are made: 1) The government should issue corresponding policies to provide "temporary disaster subsidies" for disaster-stricken low-income groups. 2) Insurance companies should introduce commercial insurance concerning "post-disaster employment" for employers to purchase before any disaster occurs so as to offer disaster-stricken employees compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the related impact factors of precipitation anomaly referred in previous research, eight atmospheric circulation indicators in pre-winter and spring picked out by correlation analysis as the independent variables and the hazard levels of drought/flood sudden alternation index (DFSAI) as the dependent variables were used to construct the nonlinear and nonparametric classification and regression tree (CART) for the threshold determination and hazard evaluation on bimonthly and monthly scales in Huaihe River basin. Results show that the spring indicators about Arctic oscillation index (AOI_S), Asia polar vortex area index (APVAI_S), and Asian meridional circulation index (AMCI_S) were extracted as the three main impact factors, which were proved to be suitable for the hazard levels assessment of the drought/flood sudden alternation (DFSA) disaster based on bimonthly scale. On monthly scale, AOI_S, northern hemisphere polar vortex intensity index in pre-winter (NHPVII_PW), and AMCI_S are the three primary variables in hazard level prediction of DFSA in May and June; NHPVII_PW, AMCI_PW, and AMCI_S are for that in June and July; NHPVII_PW and EASMI are for that in July and August. The type of the disaster (flood to drought/drought to flood/no DFSA) and hazard level under different conditions also can be obtained from each model. The hazard level and type were expressed by the integer from − 3 to 3, which change from the high level of disaster that flood to drought (level − 3) to the high level of the reverse type (level 3). The middle number 0 represents no DFSA. The high levels of the two sides decrease progressively to the neutralization (level 0). When AOI_S less than − 0.355, the disaster of the quick turn from drought to flood is more apt to happen (level 1) on bimonthly scale; when AOI_S less than − 1.32, the same type disaster may occur (level 2) in May and June on monthly scale. When NHPVII_PW less than 341.5, the disaster of the quick turn from flood to drought will occur (level − 1) in June and July on monthly scale. By this analogy, different hazard types and levels all can be judged from the optimal models. The corresponding data from 2011 to 2015 were selected to verify the final models through the comparison between the predicted and actual levels, and the models of M1 (bimonthly scale), M2, and M3 (monthly scale) were proved to be acceptable by the prediction accuracy rate (compared the predicted with the observed levels, 73%, 11/15). The proposed CART method in this research is a new try for the short-term climate prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the PPP efficiency system which consists of allocation efficiency, process efficiency, and individual efficiency, we use qualitative comparison analysis of fuzzy sets to study the efficiency advantages of the public-private partnership under the Chinese scenario. The findings are as follows: (1) like public-private partnerships, Chinese-style PPPs have also failed to achieve cooperation. (2) High allocation efficiency can be achieved if competition in bidding processes can be ensured; when bidding procedures cannot be guaranteed to compete, alternatives to high allocation efficiency are either privatized or allocated directly to enterprises that can enable economies of scale; individual effort is a source of allocation efficiency. (3) Competition and economies of scale are necessary conditions for high process efficiency. The private sector’s ownership of assets is a sufficient condition for high process efficiency. (4) High individual efficiency can be achieved if individual efforts can be ensured, and high individual efficiency can also be achieved by the competition of bidding procedures or economies of scale when it is impossible to ensure high levels of individual effort. Privatization is the perfect incentive for high individual efficiency when the competition in the bidding process, individual efforts, and economies of scale cannot be guaranteed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the hazy weather in China is increasingly serious. It is urgent for China to reduce haze emissions in environmental governance. A feasible way is to control haze emissions by optimizing the input sources. This paper proposed an innovative method in which the haze emission is controlled by readjusting input indicators. The output efficiency of input indicators in 29 provinces in China is calculated through 7 input indicators (namely, SO emissions, NO emissions, soot emissions, coal consumption, car ownership, capital, and labor force) as well as GDP (desirable output) and PM emissions (undesirable output). The results showed that the input indicators are excessive in redundancy on condition that PM emissions and GDP are equal. The input indicators are high in redundancy rate except labor force. The redundancy rates of soot emissions, SO emissions and coal consumption are relatively high and, respectively, are 78, 67.18, and 61.14%. Moreover, all the provinces are redundant in inputs except Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai which are optimal in input-output efficiency. The redundancy of middle and western provinces, such as Ningxia, Guizhou, and Shanxi, is relatively large. The ideas and methods proposed in this paper can provide a reference for the future researches that aim to reduce the input indicators of undesirable output, and the empirical results can provide empirical support for the PM abatement in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the statistical data of rainstorm-induced catastrophe about Shenzhen city during 1980–2014, this paper constructs a calculation model of disaster magnitude, which includes three influence factors: death toll, direct economic loss and disaster affected population. At the same time, the relationship between the disaster magnitude and the temporal, spatial and cause of the rainstorm-induced catastrophe about Shenzhen city is analysed, The results show that (1) The classification of catastrophe risk is carried out by the result of the disaster magnitude model. (2) The region where the disaster occurs frequently and seriously is located in the Midwest, and the disaster occurs infrequently and lightly is located in the south-east. (3) The rainstorm-induced catastrophe about Shenzhen City is mostly caused by persistent short-time heavy rainfall. While it occurs most frequently in July, and the most serious in September affected by the typhoon. (4) The main reasons for the occurrence of rainstorm-induced catastrophe about Shenzhen City are flood, waterlogging, tide and typhoon, of these factors waterlogging is the primary one. Finally, this paper puts forward the corresponding countermeasures of flood hazard mitigation in Shenzhen City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There have been no previous report of hand joint destruction prevalence in Chinese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and potential factors of hand joint destruction among RA patients from Nantong China. In addition, we wanted to examine the differences between functional capacity, psychological status, and quality of life in patients with hand joint destruction compared to those without hand joint destruction.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University between July 2015 and June 2016. RA patients completed questionnaires for demographic or clinical variables, the 10-cm Visual Analog Scale for pain, the 28-joint Disease Activity Score-erythrocyte sedimentation rate for disease activity, the Health Assessment Questionnaire-disability index for physical function, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for anxiety and depression, and the Short Form 36 health survey for quality of life. Laboratory examinations were taken to obtain some biochemical indicators (e.g., rheumatoid factor, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody). X-ray assessment of hand was performed and hand joint destruction was defined as Sharp score > 0. Independent sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, Chi-square test, and multivariate analysis using backward stepwise logistic regression model were used to analyze these data.Results: One hundred and sixty-one RA patients were included in this study. Radiographic findings revealed that almost 47.2% (n = 76) of patients had hand joint destruction. Multivariate analysis found that education ≤ 9 years (p = 0.041), anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody positive (p = 0.021), high disease activity (p = 0.020), and long disease duration (p < 0.001) were important potential risk factors of hand joint destruction. Participants with hand joint destruction tended to have lower physical function and quality of life, and more severe depressive symptoms compared to individuals without hand joint destruction.Conclusions: 47.2% of people with RA from Nantong China experienced hand joint destruction. Education, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody, disease activity, and disease duration had great impacts on hand joint destruction. The results suggested that rheumatologists should pay attention to RA patients' hand joint destruction, especially those with low education levels, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody positive, high disease activity, and long disease duration by patient education or other ways to improve patients' prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What impacts do typhoons have on local labor markets? Few empirical researches have been conducted in China. By collecting the data of 23 quarters (3-month intervals) of Guangdong province from 2009 to 2014 and using the generalized method of moments (GMM), this paper analyzes the impacts of typhoons on labor markets from the perspectives of general effect, regional effect, intensity effect, and time effect. In addition, a comparative analysis is carried out between this study and similar studies of developed countries. The results show that 1) massive typhoons resulted in a 12.5% increase in employment but did not have a significant impact on Guangdong's per capita employee remuneration, and 2) there are periodic features to typhoons' impacts on employment. Typhoons influence employment in a four-quarter cycle. In the quarter affected by a typhoon, the first quarter, the number of employees increased by 17.4%. The quantity of labor employed in the subsequent two quarters shows no significant change. In the last quarter, the number of employed people decreases by 17.0%, which returns to predisaster levels. Additionally, 3) the results of this study are different from those of studies involving developed countries, which may be caused by the distinctiveness of China's labor market. Finally, conclusions and corresponding suggestions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the air pollution of China fundamentally, effective measures should be proposed based on the thorough understanding of the characteristics of air pollution. Based on spatial econometrics, this paper investigates the characteristics and analyzes the determinants of the spatial concentration of PM pollution in China. Results show that: (1) PM pollution is highly concentrated in Central and Eastern China, covering 17 regions which accounts for 75% of the total population and GDP (gross domestic product). (2) The PM values in China show a significant spatial correlation. Provinces such as Shandong, Henan, Anhui, and Hubei are high in PM2.5 concentration. Meanwhile, these provinces are high in population density, GDP, and coal consumptions and have a large amount of civilian cars. (3) PM pollution shows spatial spillover effects. A 1% increase in the PM values of neighboring provinces will lead to a 0.78% increase in that of one province. (4) An upward U-shaped relationship is observed between the density of per capita GDP and PM, and the PM value is far from the turning point of growth. With the further growth of the density of per capita GDP, the PM value is expected to increase rapidly and continuously. (5) Based on the characteristics of spatial concentration and spatial spillover, this paper proposes several prevention-control measures for haze pollution, such as stressing on the treatment of air pollution in severely polluted provinces, avoiding moving pollution industries to neighboring areas, performing joint prevention and control nationwide. Air pollution may only be rooted by transforming the pattern of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of the health and economic impacts of PM2.5pollution is of great importance for urban air pollution prevention and control. In this study, we evaluate the damage of PM2.5pollution using Beijing as an example. First, we use exposure–response functions to estimate the adverse health effects due to PM2.5pollution. Then, the corresponding labour loss and excess medical expenditure are computed as two conducting variables. Finally, different from the conventional valuation methods, this paper introduces the two conducting variables into the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to assess the impacts on sectors and the whole economic system caused by PM2.5pollution. The results show that, substantial health effects of the residents in Beijing from PM2.5pollution occurred in 2013, including 20,043 premature deaths and about one million other related medical cases. Correspondingly, using the 2010 social accounting data, Beijing gross domestic product loss due to the health impact of PM2.5pollution is estimated as 1286.97 (95% CI: 488.58–1936.33) million RMB. This demonstrates that PM2.5pollution not only has adverse health effects, but also brings huge economic loss. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Resilience is a key term in disaster economic loss assessment. The flood loss rates in different scenarios for the residence, industry, commerce, infrastructure, and agriculture are calculated, and the original depth-damage curves are drawn by collecting the socioeconomic data of Lizhong Town in Lixia River and Houbai Town in Jurong River. Thereafter, by fully considering the resilience factor to draw the new depth-economic loss curves, which are in line with the actual situation, the results show: (1) the disaster reduction capability correction loss rate of different receptors in Lizhong Town is in the range of 16-74 %, and in Houbai Town is in the range of 20-79 %. The residential flood loss, commercial loss, infrastructure loss, and industry loss were reduced by 74, 54.8, 38, and 16 %, respectively, in Lizhong Town, and the residential flood loss, commercial loss, and industry loss were reduced by 79, 60, and 20 %, respectively in Houbai Town. (2) Residential property types and their display heights in families with different income levels have similar flood-damage rate curves in mainland China and Taiwan (Su et al. in Flood damage assessment and related database Implementation for KeeLung River Basin (II), Special research report of National Science Council, Taiwan, ); (3) the loss rate reached the maximum at the depth of 3 m, and the sum of the five receptors' damage is 6.98 million Yuan (RMB) and 2.2 million Yuan (RMB) in Lizhong Town and Houbai Town, respectively. At last, in this paper, several approaches to improving resilience were proposed and possibilities in future researches were put forward. This study is a useful complement to flood economic loss evaluation literature and provides reference for disaster prevention and mitigation decisions in similar areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has high sensitivity but low specificity for breast cancer, and consequently, new techniques to improve the specificity of breast MRI in diagnosing breast cancer are under development.Purpose: To assess the ability of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) compared with the ADC ratio (ADCr) to differentially diagnose benign compared with malignant breast lesions.Material and Methods: Forty-eight women with breast lesions (average age, 45 years) underwent MRI scanning including T1-weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) scanning and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). The average ADC and ADCr values for both lesions and pectoralis major muscles (ADCrmuscle and ADCrmuscle) were measured in patients with malignant (n = 25) and benign (n = 23) breast lesions. The ADCr of the contralateral breast (ADCr contralateral) was also evaluated. All histology was confirmed by pathological analysis of biopsied tissue. ADC and ADCr values were analyzed using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves.Results: For benign lesions compared with malignant lesions, lesion-side ADC was 1.45 vs. 1.05, respectively (P < 0.001), normal-side ADC was 1.82 vs.1.64 (P = 0.002), ADCrmuscle was 1.35 vs. 0.9 (P < 0.001), and ADCrcontralateral was 0.79 vs. 0.64 (P = 0.001). ADCrmuscle showed higher sensitivity (82.61%) and specificity (96.00%) than ADCrcontralateral (60.87% and 92.00%, respectively) and ADC (69.57% and 96.00%) for discriminating malignant from benign lesions. The AUC using ADCrmuscle had higher discriminatory power (0.92, P < 0.001) for malignant versus benign breast lesions compared with either ADC (0.82, P < 0.001) or ADCrcontralateral (0.78, P = 0.001).Conclusion: The ADCrmuscle value showed higher sensitivity and specificity and improved diagnostic accuracy compared with either ADC or ADCrcontralateral in differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While political disputes occur frequently and widely among many countries, their impact on the international trade is unclear and less systematically investigated. Considering the 2012 Diaoyu Islands Dispute, under several premised assumptions, this paper applies the international trade Inoperability Input-Output Model to determine the indirect economic loss and to screen out Chinese industries that are sensitive to the dispute. Results based on Leontief's technical coefficients matrix show that the total indirect economic loss of China's gross trade is between RMB 540.4226 billion and RMB 1023.3068 billion. Industries that are sensitive to the dispute include electrical equipment and machinery, general special equipment manufacturing, metal smelting and rolling processing, manufacture and processing of metals and metal products, and chemical. The empirical findings suggest that China establish an early-warning mechanism and trade assistance system, so that key industries that were damaged could be properly compensated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding spatial and temporal variations in river water quality and quantitatively evaluating the trend of changes are important in order to study and efficiently manage water resources. In this study, an analysis of Water Pollution Index (WPI), Daniel Trend Test, Cluster Analysis and Discriminant Analysis are applied as an integrated approach to quantitatively explore the spatial and temporal variations and the latent sources of water pollution in the Shanchong River basin, Northwest Basin of Lake Fuxian, China. We group all field surveys into 2 clusters (dry season and rainy season). Moreover, 14 sampling sites have been grouped into 3 clusters for the rainy season (highly polluted, moderately polluted and less polluted sites) and 2 clusters for the dry season (highly polluted and less polluted sites) based on their similarities and the level of pollution during the two seasons. The results show that the main trend of pollution was aggravated during the transition from the dry to the rainy season. The Water Pollution Index of Total Nitrogen is the highest of all pollution parameters, whereas the Chemical Oxygen Demand (Chromium) is the lowest. Our results also show that the main sources of pollution are farming activities alongside the Shanchong River, soil erosion and fish culture at Shanchong River reservoir area and domestic sewage from scattered rural residential area. Our results suggest that strategies to prevent water pollutionat the Shanchong River basin need to focus on non-point pollution control by employing appropriate fertilizer formulas in farming, and take the measures of soil and water conservation at Shanchong reservoir area, and purifying sewage from scattered villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model into the comprehensive economic loss assessment due to rainstorm, using Beijing as an example. The article has constructed a regional storm disaster CGE model to measure the impacts made by rainstorm occurence on sectors and the whole economic system by adding four disaster impact parameters corresponding to the four most affected sectors. The evaluation results show that the torrential rain on July 21 of 2012 in Beijing has caused a total of more than 27 billion RMB of indirect economic loss, which is much more than 11.64 billion RMB of direct economic loss, and on the other hand, we find that, although the rainstorm has brought immense losses to multiple economic departments, it stimulates the increase of social employment rate and investment in fixed assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purposes: This study examined the prevalence of addictive Internet use and analyzed the role of parental relationship in affecting this behavior among a random sample of adolescents in Wuhan, China. Methods: Students (n = 1,101) were randomly selected from four schools, including 638 boys and 463 girls with a mean age of 13.8 (standard deviation = 1.2) years. Addictive Internet use, parental relationship, hyperactivity-impulsivity were measured by validated instruments. Prevalence rate, ANOVA and multiple linear regression method were used to analyze the level of Internet addiction and its association with parental relationship, hyperactivity-impulsivity, as well as the interaction of parental relationship with chronological age and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Results: The prevalence rate of Internet addiction was 13.5% (16.5% for boys and 9.5% for girls, p<0.01). Compared to non-addictive users, addictive Internet users were scored significantly lower on parental relationships and significantly higher on hyperactivity-impulsivity. Interaction analysis indicated that better parental relationship was associated with more reductions in risk of addictive Internet use for younger students than for older students, and with more risk of Internet addiction among higher than among lower hyperactivity-impulsivity students. Conclusions: Findings of this study indicate that adolescent addictive Internet use is a significant public health threat in China. Prevention interventions targeting parental relationship must consider adolescent’s age and hyperactivity-impulsivity tendency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to increase the supply of assimilated carbon to grain, a new stay-green wheat cultivar, Chuannongl7 (CN17), with delayed leaf senescence, carrying wheat-rye 1RS.1BL translocated chromosome was developed. CN17 exhibited distinct differences in net photosynthetic rate (Pn), chlorophyll (ChI) content, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, activity of both superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) during the grain filling stage, and flag leaf senescence compared with the control. The new cultivar maintained longer and higher photosynthetic competence compared with the control, and this aspect correlated with the difference in chloroplast development. Moreover, the stay-green phenotype of CN17 was also observed under natural growth conditions. Consequently, the coordination of the physiological, biochemical, and structural aspects in the stay-green cultivar produced higher seed weights and per-plant yield compared with the control cultivar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manufacturing industry is an important part of the national industrial system, and is usually an industry with high carbon content. However, few studies have been carried out on the total amount, structure and the trend of the embodied carbon emission in the international trade of the Chinese manufacturing industry. Based on the input–output method, the thesis proposes the coefficient of direct carbon emission and complete carbon emission and a method for calculating the embodied carbon of the export trade. It also calculates the coefficient of direct carbon emission and complete carbon emission for the Chinese manufacturing sector from 2000 to 2015 and breaks down the embodied carbon change of export trade in the manufacturing industry to a technological effect, structural effect and scale effect by using the method of structural decomposition. Several inspiring conclusions could be drawn from the thesis. For example: (1) the coefficient of both the direct carbon emission and the complete carbon emission has been decreasing significantly, indicating the achievements of the energy saving and emission reduction of the Chinese manufacturing industry. (2) The embodied carbon emission from the manufacturing exports remains high and presents a rising tendency. The main sectors that export the embodied carbon includes “S10 mechanical equipment and instruments”, “S9 metal products”, “S6 chemical industry”, etc., which should be the key sectors on reducing embodied carbon in exports. (3) The driving force of the embodied carbon exports lies in the scale effect of the manufacturing industry, on which the technical effect of the industry has a significant negative effect. The structural effect should have a positive influence that takes on a rising tendency; generally, this effect is only two-thirds of the scale effect. Finally, the corresponding policy suggestions have been made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction is presented to the article "Factors associated with hand joint destruction in Chinese patients with rheumatoid arthritis" which appeared on the May 30, 2017 issue.