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Microbial keratitis (MK) is the fourth leading cause of blindness globally, imposing a substantial burden on the healthcare system. This study aims to determine the cost composition of MK patients and explore factors influencing these expenses. We analyzed the demographics, clinical features, and costs of 602 MK patients treated at Beijing Tongren Hospital from June 2021 to October 2023. The analysis revealed the average total cost of treating MK was USD 1646.8, with a median of USD 550.3 (IQR: 333.3–1239.1). Patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) incurred the highest median total costs at USD 706.2 (IQR: 399.2–3370.2). Additionally, AK patients faced the highest costs for ophthalmic exams and laboratory tests (both p < 0.001), while patients with fungal keratitis (FK) and viral keratitis (VK) experienced higher medication costs. Costs varied significantly with the severity of MK, especially for outpatients at severity level 4, which was markedly higher than levels 1–3 (USD 1520.1 vs. USD 401.0, p < 0.001). Delayed presentation also resulted in increased costs (USD 385.2 vs. USD 600.3, p < 0.001). Our study highlights the financial burden associated with MK treatment and underscores the importance of timely and accurate diagnosis and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest carbon emitter in China's manufacturing sector, the low-carbon transition of the steel industry is urgent. CO2 capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology is one of the effective measures to reduce carbon emissions in steel industry. In this paper, a comprehensive assessment model of source–sink matching-levelized cost in China's steel industry is constructed to evaluate the potential, economy, and spatial distribution of CCUS retrofits of blast furnaces in the BF-BOF steel industry. The results show that, if no extra incentive policy is included, the levelized cost of carbon dioxide (LCOCD) of 111 steel plants with a 420.07 Mt/a CO2 abatement potential ranges from −134.87 to 142.95 USD/t. The levelized cost of crude steel (LCOS) range of steel plants after the CCUS retrofits of blast furnaces is 341.81 to 541.41 USD/t. The incentives such as carbon market and government subsidies will all contribute to the early deployment of CCUS projects. The CCUS technology could be prioritized for deployment in North China, Northwest China, and East China's Shandong Province, but more powerful incentives are still needed for current large-scale deployment. The research results can provide references for the early deployment and policy formulation of CCUS in China's steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, floods are a prevalent type of natural disaster. Simulating floods is a critical component in the successful implementation of flood management and mitigation strategies within a river basin or catchment area. Selecting appropriate calibration data to establish a reliable hydrological model is of great importance for flood simulation. Usually, hydrologists select the number of flood events used for calibration depending on the catchment size. Currently, there is no numerical index to help hydrologists quantitatively select flood events for calibrating the hydrological models. The question is, what is the necessary and sufficient amount (e.g., 10 events) of calibration flood events that must be selected? This study analyses the spectral characteristics of flood data in Sequences before model calibration. The absolute best set of calibration data is selected using an entropy-like function called the information cost function (ICF), which is calculated from the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) decomposition results. Given that the validation flood events have already been identified, we presume that the greater the similarity between the calibration dataset and the validation dataset, the higher the performance of the hydrological model should be after calibration. The calibration datasets for the Tunxi catchment in southeast China were derived from 21 hourly flood events, and the calibration datasets were generated by arranging 14 flood events in sequences from 3 to 14 (i.e., a Sequence of 3 with 12 sets (set 1 = flood events 1, 2, 3; set 2 = flood events 2, 3, 4, ..., and so on)), resulting in a total of 12 sequences and 78 sets. With a predetermined validation set of 7 flood events and the hydrological model chosen as the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC–HMS) model, the absolute best calibration flood set was selected. The best set from the Sequence of 10 (set 4 = S10′) was found to be the absolute best calibration set of flood events. The potential of the percentile energy entropy was also analyzed for the best calibration sets, but the ICF was the most consistent index to reveal the ranking based on similarity with model performance. The proposed ICF index in this study is helpful for hydrologists to use data efficiently with more hydrological data obtained in the new era of big data. This study also demonstrates the possibility of improving the effectiveness of utilizing calibration data, particularly in catchments with limited data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence indicates that endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) cause a variety of adverse health outcomes and contribute to substantial disease burden. This study summarized the exposure status of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and phthalates (PAEs) in China and evaluated the disease burden attributable to PBDEs and PAEs in 2015. The results showed that PBDE and PAE concentrations were higher in coastal areas. The disease burden attributable to PBDEs was 0.77 million cases, and the economic costs were CNY 18.92 billion. Meanwhile, 3.02 million individuals suffered from diseases attributable to PAEs, and the economic costs were CNY 49.20 billion. The economic burden caused by PBDEs and PAEs accounted for 0.28% and 0.72% of China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015, respectively. When comparing China's results from 2010, it was determined that the GDP ratio of economic costs caused by PAEs in 2015 (0.72%) was lower than in 2010 (1.42%). Finally, compared with the results of the European Union and North America, the GDP ratios of economic costs caused by PAEs in 2015 were 0.19% in Canada (lower than China), 0.29% in the United States (lower than China), and 1.44% in the European Union (higher than China). This study provides important reference values for China's health governance, and further research should be conducted in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-designed institutional arrangement for urban village redevelopment projects (UVRPs) must consider transaction costs, but academic papers discussing it from the perspective of transaction cost economics are lacking. This paper applies theory of transaction cost economics to analyse the types and sizes of transaction costs and who bears these costs during redevelopment when implementing UVRPs in China. This paper finds that transactions in UVRPs have high asset specificity, high uncertainty and low frequency, which easily results in high levels of transaction costs. Based on 439 UVRPs collected from seven cities, this paper finds that UVRPs implemented with top–down institutional arrangements remain prevalent in China. Based on semi-structured interviews with participating parties, this paper proves that the sizes and types of transaction costs and the distribution of these costs borne by different participating parties vary with the change of stage under dissimilar institutional arrangements. This implies that a high level of transaction costs at one stage does not necessarily mean the costs stay high at another stage. Transaction costs have essential implications for process efficiency, so policymakers need to consider transaction costs and use hybrid institutional arrangements to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to make up for inadequacies such as high energy cost in the production process and quantities of waste gas and dust release of hot-mix asphalt (HMA), warm-mix asphalt (WMA) has been developed. In this paper, the preparation process of WMA mixture is simply introduced. According to the experimental approach of asphalt binder and asphalt mixture, EC-120 is preliminarily selected as a follow-up research object after a rheological property test and a viscosity test of five kinds of warm-mix-agent-modified asphalts combined with cost analysis. A target mix proportion of SBS~AC-16 is designed, and then through the orthogonal design of the four parameters of the Marshall test of WMA mixture, such as mixing temperature, warm-mix-agent content, compaction blows, and mixing time, the best Marshall test parameters are obtained. The results show that the best parameters are 145 °C of mixing temperature, 3% of warm-mix-agent content, 75 compaction times, and 90 s of mixing time. This study can provide technical support and reference for the construction of WMA pavement in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of the large-scale application of industrial robots, methods of analyzing the life-cycle cost (LCC) of industrial robot production have shown considerable developments, but there remains a lack of methods that allow for the examination of robot substitution. Taking inspiration from the symmetry philosophy in manufacturing systems engineering, this article further establishes a comparative LCC analysis model to compare the LCC of the industrial robot production with traditional production at the same time. This model introduces intangible costs (covering idle loss, efficiency loss and defect loss) to supplement the actual costs and comprehensively uses various methods for cost allocation and variable estimation to conduct total cost and the cost efficiency analysis, together with hierarchical decomposition and dynamic comparison. To demonstrate the model, an investigation of a Chinese automobile manufacturer is provided to compare the LCC of welding robot production with that of manual welding production; methods of case analysis and simulation are combined, and a thorough comparison is done with related existing works to show the validity of this framework. In accordance with this study, a simple template is developed to support the decision-making analysis of the application and cost management of industrial robots. In addition, the case analysis and simulations can provide references for enterprises in emerging markets in relation to robot substitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to provide reliable regression estimates of expenditures associated with various complications in type 2 diabetics in China. In total, 1,859,039 type 2 diabetes patients with complications were obtained from the Beijing Medical Claim Data for Employees database from 2008 to 2016. We estimated costs for complications using a generalized estimating equation model adjusted for age, sex, and the incidence of various complications. The average total cost for diabetic patients with complications was 17.12 thousand RMB. Prescribed drugs accounted for 63.4% of costs. We observed a significant increase in costs in the first year after the onset of complications. Compared with costs before the incidence of complications, the additional costs per person in the first year and >1 year after the event would be 10,631.16 RMB and 1150.71 RMB for cardiovascular disease, 1017.62 RMB and 653.82 RMB for cerebrovascular disease, and 301.14 RMB and 624.00 RMB for kidney disease, respectively. The estimated coefficients for outpatient visits were relatively lower than those of inpatient visits. Complications in diabetics exert a significant impact on total healthcare costs in the first year of their onset and in subsequent years. Our estimates may assist policymakers in quantifying the economic burden of diabetes complications.