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China has been undergoing rapid economic growth since its reform and opening-up at the expense of resource depletion and environmental pollution. We estimated the monetary costs of resource depletion and environmental pollution in China over the past 14 recent years by establishing integrated mathematical models with System for Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework. Results showed four points. Firstly, the total temporal costs of natural resource depletion and environmental pollution witnessed an inverted ‘U’ shape pattern with the turning point in 2012. The relationship between cost of mineral resource depletion, as well as water pollution cost, and per capita GDP were found to follow the Inverted-U shape environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). Secondly, the average annual share of natural resources of the total costs was more than 80%, indicating that the rapid economic growth of China is highly dependent on resource depletion. Thirdly, Although China still has the highest worldwide in its total energy consumption and CO2 emission, China's struggles with adjustment of industrial & energy consumption structure, and pollution controls have resulted in a general temporal decline of the share of resource and environmental costs to China's GDP. The green GDP of China is growing at an average rate of 14.76%. Finally, although in the process of manufactured goods for the whole world, China has reduced environmental pollution and left it at home as much as possible. Driving forces behind the progress in green GDP of China were analyzed by using Differences-in-Differences method and Spearman rank correlation analysis.

Objective: To investigate the presence of previously undiagnosed radiographic bronchiectasis in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients using high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and to evaluate the effect of radiographic bronchiectasis on the symptoms and risks in stable COPD patients. Methods: From May 2012 to April 2014, there were 347 patients enrolled in COPD database. Data describing the general conditions, the frequency of acute exacerbations the year before, COPD assessment test, modified medical research council (mMRC) score, spirometric classification, and HRCT were collected. COPD patients were classified into two groups: COPD with bronchiectasis and COPD without bronchiectasis. The clinical characteristics of both groups were compared. Results: Bronchiectasis was presented in 18.4% (n = 64). The proportion of smokers, smoking index, and forced expiratory volume in 1 second predicted value were 62.5%, 27.3 ± 13.2, 48.2 ± 26.4, respectively, in the bronchiectasis group, which were lower than those of the group without bronchiectasis (82.0%, 32.6 ± 17.6, and 57.9 ± 18.8) (PÂ

Evaluation on sustainability of coastline utilization was one of the hot topics in marine environmental science. Based on high-resolution remote sensing images, coastlines can be divided into natural coastlines and artificial coastlines. Natural coastlines are mainly converted to harbor coastline and mariculture coastline. In this study, a new comprehensive model was proposed to assess the sustainability on utilization of coastline and applied to a typical case of Beibu Gulf, China. Comprehensive economic output efficiency (EOE) of artificial coastlines was obtained by integrating the contribution weight and applying linear combination model. In addition, the P–S-R framework integrated with fuzzy mathematics model and linear combination method was constructed to evaluate the disturbance intensity of human activities on the natural coastlines (DI) by taking petrochemical plants, ports, sewage outlets and aquaculture intensity as pressure indicators, seawater quality status near the coastline as state indicators, and whether the coastline was within nature reserve boundaries as the response indicator. Rely on the EOE and DI, the cities involved in the evaluation were finally categorized into four groups: group 1 with high economic output efficiency and low ecological impacts, group 2 with high economic output efficiency and high ecological impacts, group 3 with low economic output efficiency and low ecological impacts, group 4 with low economic output efficiency and high ecological impacts. The results showed that: (1) natural coastlines retention ratios were 52.45%, 57.97% and 76.15% in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan Province respectively. In addition, 8.66%, 10.47% and 5.17% of the coastlines with high disturbance from human activities in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan Province respectively were identified; (2) only 4 of 29 cities were categorized into the group with high economic output and low ecological impacts, indicating that most of the coastal cities in Beibu Gulf of China was at a relatively low level of sustainability. The proposed indices system and the integrated analysis framework were proved to be feasible for evaluating sustainable utilization of coastlines, which can be applied to other case studies. The results of evaluation provided valuable information for decision-makers to optimize coastal land use policy targeting at the balance of development and conservation.

A synthetic route to a novel adenine–cyclen conjugate is described. Preliminary results showed that the adenine–cyclen conjugate can bind Zn 2+ rapidly in water and the Zn(II) complex can selectively recognize uracil and uridine. The recognition abilities have been demonstrated directly by UV spectrophotometric titration, NMR titration, and ESI-MS. The apparent 1:2 complex for uracil with the complex 5 was determined by spectrophotometric titration and ESIMS at pH 8.2 with I = 0.1 (NaNO3).

In this paper, we propose the generalized B divided difference, with which the (k − 1)th derivative of B-spline curves of order k can be obtained directly without the need to compute the first (k − 2) derivatives as before. Based on the generalized B divided difference, the necessary and sufficient condition for degree-reducible B-spline curves is presented. Algorithms for degree reduction of B-spline curves are proposed using the constrained optimization methods.  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

To evaluate the interventional effects of different management programs on the outcomes of stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.Systemic education, follow-up and control groups were divided according to the frequency of follow-ups and the profile of participating in education. A total of 157 patients were enrolled into the COPD database from May 2002 to May 2010. They were interviewed face-to-face at our department. The investigation contained general conditions, the frequency of acute exacerbations (AE) the previous year, COPD Assessment Test (CAT), Modified British Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC) and spirometric classification. A combined assessment was conducted.The frequency of AE and rate of AEonce the previous year in systemic education group was 0.9 ± 1.1 and 71.2%, 1.0 ± 0.8 and 68.6% in follow-up group and 1.4 ± 1.1 and 44.4% in control group. And the frequency of AE in systemic education and follow-up groups was significantly less than that in control group (P0.05). Rate of AEonce in systemic education and follow-up groups was significantly higher than that in control group (P0.01). CAT and rate of CAT ≤ 20 in systemic education, follow-up and control groups were 10.0 ± 5.0 and 96.2%, 11.1 ± 6.0 and 88.2%, 15.3 ± 6.8 and 64.8% respectively. CAT in systemic education and follow-up groups was significantly lower than that in control group (P0.01). Rate of CAT ≤ 20 in systemic education and follow-up groups was significantly higher than that in control group (P0.01). mMRC in systemic education, follow-up and control groups was 1.5 ± 0.8, 1.6 ± 0.9 and 2.1 ± 1.0 respectively. mMRC in systemic education and follow-up groups was significantly lower than that in control group (P0.05). Combined assessment showed that no significant difference existed in Types A and B among three groups (P0.05). Type C in the systemic education group was significantly higher than that of the control (P0.05). Type D in the systemic education and follow-up groups was significantly lower than that of the control (P0.01).Long-term systemic education and follow-up management program can reduce the frequency of AE of COPD effectively and improve the health status of COPD patients.

Objectives 1) To obtain preference scores from patients with breast cancer in Singapore for different stages of breast cancer and hormonal therapy–related adverse effects, and 2) to determine the association of patients' demographic and clinical characteristics with those preference scores. Methods A total of 22 health states were used to elicit preference values from 64 patients with breast cancer. At each interview, 14 health states were randomly selected and rated by the patient using the visual analogue scale and standard gamble methods to derive health state preference scores, which were recalibrated to the scale of 0 (death) and 1 (perfect health). Results Mean adjusted visual analogue scale scores ranged from 0.25 (no recurrence with ischemic cerebrovascular events) to 0.82 (no recurrence with no adverse effects). Mean adjusted standard gamble scores ranged from 0.31 (distant recurrence with chemotherapy-related adverse effects) to 0.80 (no recurrence with no adverse effects). Adverse effects ischemic cerebrovascular events and spine fracture resulted in the greatest decline in health state preference scores. Age, ethnicity, education level, and prior chemotherapy were associated with preference scores. Having children was not found to be associated with the preference scores. Conclusions Taking into account disease progression and hormonal therapy–related adverse effects as well as their impact on health-related quality of life, this study quantifies patients' preference for various breast cancer–related health states. The findings offer valuable information for future cost-utility analysis of breast cancer treatments.