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The innovation capability largely determines the initiative for future development of a region. Higher school is the main position for training innovative talents. Accurate and comprehensive assessment of innovation cultivation capability is an important basis of higher schools for continuous improvement. Thus, this paper focuses on assessing innovative talent cultivation capability. First, by CIPP model (Context, Input, Process and Product Evaluation), an assessment indicator system is built, consisting of 89 indicators in 21 categories. Then, based on indicator characteristics, this paper uses public data statistics, database retrieving, student survey, teacher survey, support personnel and expert investigation, to collect indicator values. After this, by a powerful machine learning algorithm, gradient Boosting regression tree, a capability assessment model is established. And based on collected data, established model is compared with several regression models in innovative talent cultivation capability assessing. Results confirm the performance superiority of our solution.

Clouds are crucial in regulating the Earth's energy budget. Global cloud top heights have been easily retrieved from satellite measurements, but there are few methods for determining cloud base height (CBH) from satellite measurements. The Cloud Base Altitude Spatial Extrapolator (CBASE) algorithm was proposed to derive the height of the lower-troposphere liquid cloud base by using the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal polarization cloud aerosol LiDAR (CALIOP) profiles and weather observations at airports from aviation routine and special weather report (METARs and SPECIs, called METAR) observation data in the United States. A modification to the CBASE algorithm over China (CNMETAR-CBASE) is presented in this paper. In this paper, the ability of the CBASE algorithm to calculate CBH in China is evaluated, and METAR observations over China (CNMETAR) were then used to modify the CBASE algorithm. The results including CNMETAR observation data in China can better retrieve CBH over China compared with the results using the original CBASE algorithm, and the accuracy of the global CBH results has been improved. Overestimations of CBH with the original algorithm range from 500 to 800 m in China, which have been reduced to about 300 m with an improved algorithm. The deviations calculated by the algorithm also have a significant reduction, from 480 m (CBASE) to 420 m (CNMETAR-CBASE). In conclusion, the modified CBASE algorithm not only calculates the CBH more accurately in China but also improves the results of the global CBH retrieved from satellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than any previous generation, today's students need to develop a global perspective and be knowledgeable about other nations in order to play a better role on the global stage. This paper first reviews some earlier and current studies on students' knowledge of the world, mainly conducted in the United States, and then it describes the global education status and similar studies in countries like Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Based on a review of studies in these countries, the paper proposes that contemporary assessments of students' cross-national and global knowledge and attitudes are necessary. The new research must be multinational, assessing what paired nations' school aged populations know about one another's history, geography, politics, economics, and international relations. (Contains 1 footnote.)

Importing quality higher education resources is the core mission of a Chinese-foreign joint initiative in higher education as well as the key to improving the level of the cooperation initiatives. The paper reviews the history and current situation of the introduction of quality higher education resources through Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. It scrutinizes the whole process of importing quality higher education resources and analyzes the main problems in the process about quality evaluation, resources import, joint management and a quality assurance mechanism. On this basis, the paper attempts to analyze the development trend of the process and provides some suggestions. (Contains 1 table.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an emergent move in all countries across the world. All education institutions were forced to shut down until further notice and were forced to come up with creative solutions to continue with the learning process. Based on existing literature, students and faculty feedback, and interview responses obtained from top management of higher education institutions in several countries, this paper proposes an agile educational framework for higher education institutions to be better prepared for teaching/learning in the digital age for the long term, and for the upcoming academic years in the short term. The proposed framework encompasses the major components that contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of online, hybrid or traditional face-to-face instruction mode.

Introduction: The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) chat programs has opened two distinct paths, one enhancing interaction and another potentially replacing personal understanding. Ethical and legal concerns arise due to the rapid development of these programs. This paper investigates academic discussions on AI in medicine, analyzing the context, frequency, and reasons behind these conversations. Methods: The study collected data from the Web of Science database on articles containing the keyword "ChatGPT" published from January to September 2023, resulting in 786 medically related journal articles. The inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed articles in English related to medicine. Results: The United States led in publications (38.1%), followed by India (15.5%) and China (7.0%). Keywords such as "patient" (16.7%), "research" (12%), and "performance" (10.6%) were prevalent. The Cureus Journal of Medical Science (11.8%) had the most publications, followed by the Annals of Biomedical Engineering (8.3%). August 2023 had the highest number of publications (29.3%), with significant growth between February to March and April to May. Medical General Internal (21.0%) was the most common category, followed by Surgery (15.4%) and Radiology (7.9%). Discussion: The prominence of India in ChatGPT research, despite lower research funding, indicates the platform's popularity and highlights the importance of monitoring its use for potential medical misinformation. China's interest in ChatGPT research suggests a focus on Natural Language Processing (NLP) AI applications, despite public bans on the platform. Cureus' success in publishing ChatGPT articles can be attributed to its open-access, rapid publication model. The study identifies research trends in plastic surgery, radiology, and obstetric gynecology, emphasizing the need for ethical considerations and reliability assessments in the application of ChatGPT in medical practice. Conclusion: ChatGPT's presence in medical literature is growing rapidly across various specialties, but concerns related to safety, privacy, and accuracy persist. More research is needed to assess its suitability for patient care and implications for non-medical use. Skepticism and thorough review of research are essential, as current studies may face retraction as more information emerges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macrophages play a crucial role in aiding all phases of the wound‐healing process and has garnered increasing attention recently. Although a substantial body of related studies has been published, there remains a lack of comprehensive bibliometric analysis. In this study, we collected 4296 papers from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Three tools including CiteSpace, VOSviewer and one online analytical platform were employed to conduct bibliometric analysis and data visualization. Our results revealed that the annual number of publications related to macrophage and wound healing has increased exponentially with the year. The United States and China stand as the primary driving forces within this field, collectively constituting 58.2% of the total publication output. The application of biomaterials was one of the most concerned research areas in this field. According to references analysis, the current research focus has shifted to diabetic wound healing and regulating macrophage polarization. Based on the keywords analysis, we identified the following research frontiers in the future: exosomes and other extracellular vesicles; bio‐derived materials and drug delivery methods such as nanoparticles, scaffolds and hydrogels; immunomodulation and macrophage polarization in the M2‐state; chronic wounds, particularly those associated with diabetes; antimicrobial peptides; and antioxidant. Additionally, TNF, IL‐6, IL‐10, TGF‐β1 and VEGF ranked as the five genes that have garnered the most research attention in the intersection of macrophage and wound healing. All in all, our findings offered researchers a holistic view of the ongoing progress in the field of macrophages and wound healing, serving as a valuable reference for scholars and policymakers in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in China from 2012 to 2019, this paper constructs the evaluation index system of basic medical and health services in China from seven dimensions: medical and health facilities, health expenditure, medical services, traditional Chinese medicine hospital services, maternal and child health care, people's health and medical security, disease control and public health. The entropy method was used to measure the level of basic medical and health services in China, and its spatial differences and convergence characteristics were further investigated. In this study, we employ the entropy weight method, σ convergence, and β convergence as our primary methodologies. The entropy weight method is used to evaluate the variability of each indicator, determine the weights of indicators, and quantify the information content of the data. σ convergence illustrates the process by which the variance of a sample decreases over time. β convergence refers to the gradual approach of variables within an economic system towards their long-term equilibrium level over time. The results show that: (1) The scores of basic medical and health services in China's four major regions (including Northeast, East, Central and West) remain in a relatively stable state, with small fluctuations and great room for improvement; (2) There are significant regional differences in the level of basic medical and health services in China, and the intra-regional differences are much greater than the inter-regional differences; (3) There is no significant σ convergence observed in China and its four major regions; however, there is a notable presence of β convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of satellite soil moisture is a big challenge owing to the large spatial mismatch between pixel-based satellite soil moisture products and point-based in situ measurements. Upscaling in situ measurements to obtain the "true value" of soil moisture content at the satellite grid/footprint scale can make up for the scale difference and improve the validation. Many existing upscaling methods have strict requirements regarding the spatial distribution and quantity of soil moisture sensors. However, in reality, soil-moisture-monitoring networks are commonly sparse with low sensor density, which increases the difficulty of obtaining accurate upscaled soil moisture data and limits the validation of satellite products. For this reason, this paper proposes a scheme to upscale in situ measurements using five machine learning methods along with Landsat 8 datasets and DEM data to validate the accuracy of a SMAP-enhanced passive soil moisture product for a sparse network on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. The proposed scheme realizes the upscaling of in situ soil moisture data to the pixel scale (30 m × 30 m) and then to the coarse grid scale (9 km × 9 km) by using multi-source remote sensing data as the bridge of scale conversion. The long-time SMAP SM products since April 2015 on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau were validated based on upscaled soil moisture data. The results show that (1) random forest regression performs the best, and the upscaled soil moisture data reflect the region-average soil moisture conditions that can be used for evaluating SMAP data; (2) the SMAP product meets its scientific measurement requirements; and (3) the SMAP product generally underestimates the soil moisture in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite-based precipitation products (SPPs) provide valuable precipitation information for various applications. Their performance, however, varies significantly from region to region due to various data sources and production processes. This paper aims to evaluate four selected SPPs (Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR), Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP), Gauge-adjusted Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMAP-gauge), and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)) over mainland China from 2016 to 2019. Both conventional statistical indicators (e.g., correlation coefficients (CC), root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), relative bias (RB), and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE)) and categorical indicators (probability of detection (POD), probability of true detection (POTD), false-alarm rate (FAR), and critical success index (CSI)) are used for quantitative analysis. The results show that: (1) GSMAP-gauge and GPM perform best in reproducing the spatial distribution pattern of precipitation over mainland China, whereas SPPs generally underestimate summer precipitation with a high frequency of no-rain cases. (2) MSWEP has the best capability for recording precipitation events, although some parts of northern China exhibit abnormal overestimations for winter precipitation. (3) All SPPs, especially the PERSIANN-CDR, significantly underestimate the precipitation in the mountainous areas of southwestern China. (4) The GSMAP-gauge and GPM outperformed the other two of the four SPPs, in terms of the probability density function of daily precipitation for cases (PDFc) and the probability density function of daily precipitation for volume (PDFv). Generally, PERSIANN-CDR shows the poorest performance when compared to the other three products. The product's algorithm for estimating heavy precipitation and mountainous precipitation needs further improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lack of physical activity is a growing problem in China, due to the fast economic development and changing living environment over the past two decades. The aim of this review is to summarize the factors related to physical activity in Chinese children and adolescents during this distinct period of development. Methods: A systematic search was finished on Jan 10th, 2017, and identified 2200 hits through PubMed and Web of Science. English-language published studies were included if they reported statistical associations between factors and physical activity. Adapted criteria from the Strengthening The Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement and evaluation of the quality of prognosis studies in systematic reviews (QUIPS) were used to assess the risk of bias of the included studies. Related factors that were reported in at least three studies were summarized separately for children and adolescents using a semi-quantitative method. Results: Forty two papers (published 2002-2016) were included. Most designs were cross-sectional (79%), and most studies used questionnaires to assess physical activity. Sample size was above 1000 in 18 papers (43%). Thirty seven studies (88%) showed acceptable quality by methodological quality assessment. Most studies reported a low level of physical activity. Boys were consistently more active than girls, the parental physical activity was positively associated with children and adolescents' physical activity, children in suburban/rural regions showed less activity than in urban regions, and, specifically in adolescents, self-efficacy was positively associated with physical activity. Family socioeconomic status and parental education were not associated with physical activity in children and adolescents. Conclusions: The studies included in this review were large but mostly of low quality in terms of study design (cross-sectional) and methods (questionnaires). Parental physical activity and self-efficacy are promising targets for future physical activity promotion programmes. The low level of physical activity raises concern, especially in suburban/rural regions. Future research is required to enhance our understanding of other influences, such as the physical environment, especially in early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a big wave in China of retrofitting single-purpose coal-fired systems for district heating into heat-oriented combined heat and power (CHP) systems to save energy. Back-pressure steam turbines (BPSTs) and extraction steam turbines (ESTs) are both common in retrofitted systems, but contrastive analyses of their effects on the systems' operation performance are lacking. Moreover, comprehensive evaluation methods of the retrofitted systems remain unknown. In this paper, exergy, exergoeconomic, and exergoenvironmental analyses were conducted to evaluate the thermodynamic, economic, and environmental performances of two real CHP systems: system A using a BPST and system B using an EST. Additionally, a new multi-criteria evaluation method based on rank correlation analysis was proposed for the retrofitted system. The results show that system A is better than system B in thermodynamic and environmental aspects but poorer in the economic aspect. Overall, the multi-criteria evaluation result indicates that system A has a better comprehensive performance than system B. Therefore, the BPST has a better effect than the EST on the retrofitted CHP system for district heating in this study. The findings could provide a reference point for retrofitting work in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION Smoking is an independent and modifiable risk factor for the onset and development of psoriasis; however, evidence on the association between tobacco smoking and psoriasis treatment efficacy is limited. This study aimed to explore the influence of smoking on treatment efficacy in a cohort of patients with psoriasis in Shanghai, China. METHODS Patients with psoriasis were recruited from the Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital between 2021 and 2022. The treatment for patients with psoriasis includes acitretin, methotrexate, narrow-band ultraviolet/benvitimod, and biologics. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, physical examination, and disease severity estimation at baseline, week four, and week eight. The achievement of a ≥75% reduction in psoriasis area and severity index (PASI75) score from baseline to week 8 was set as the primary outcome for treatment efficacy estimation. Data were analyzed using SAS 9.4. RESULTS A total of 560 patients with psoriasis were enrolled in this study, who were predominantly males (72.9%). The average age of patients was 48.4 years, and 38.8% of them were current smokers, 5.0% of them were former smokers. The median score of PASI among patients changed from 11.1 (interquartile range, IQR: 7.9-16.6) at baseline to 6.2 at week 4 and 3.1 at week 8, and 13.8% and 47.3% of patients with psoriasis achieved PASI75 at weeks 4 and 8, respectively. Logistic regression indicated that patients without tobacco smoking had a higher proportion of PASI75 achievement at week 8. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was 11.43 (95% CI: 6.91-18.89), 14.14 (95% CI: 8.27-24.20), and 3.05 (95% CI: 1.20-7.76) for non-smokers compared with smokers, current smokers, and former smokers, respectively. Moreover, former smokers had higher PASI75 achievement than current smokers (AOR=3.37), and patients with younger smoking initiation age, longer smoking duration, and higher smoking intensity had lower PASI75 achievement. CONCLUSIONS Tobacco smoking was negatively associated with PASI75 achievement both in current and former smokers, and former smokers had higher PASI75 achievement than current smokers. The implementation of tobacco control measures is beneficial for improving treatment responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] Sunflower is a cash crop grown in arid northwestern China. Improving its water use efficiency plays an important role in developing water-saving agriculture in that region. The aim of this paper is to find an optimal regulated and mulched deficit drip irrigation scheduling for it. [Method] The experiment was conducted in 2019-2020 in a sunflower field at Hexi Oasis. Water deficit was imposed at seedling and maturity stages, with soil water in other growing stages kept sufficient for roots to extract. Overall, there were six treatments, with the water deficit induced by keeping the soil water content at 75%~65% (mild), 65%~55% (moderate) and 55%~45% (severe) of the field capacity, respectively. The control was sufficient irrigation with the soil water content kept at 75%~85% of the field capacity. Each treatment had three replicas, which were designed using the completely random block experiment arrangement. The experimental results were analyzed using an improved fuzzy matter-element model coupled with the weighted game theory to quantify the effect of different water deficits on yield and quality, as well as water productivity of the crop. [Result] The effect of water deficit on the crop traits varied. A multi-level evaluation system revealed that in 2019, crop height had the highest weight (0.141) and the crude protein content had the least (0.083), while in 2020, crude fat content had the highest weight (0.162) and water use efficiency had the least (0.065). Comprehensive evaluation of the fuzzy matter-element model showed that the Euclidean degree was the best for a combination of mild or moderate water deficit at seedling stage and mild water deficit at maturity stage. [Conclusion] When water is sufficient, a mild regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) at the seedling stage coupled with a mild RDI at the maturity stage produces the highest seed yield, while when water is insufficient, a moderate RDI at the seedling stage combined with a mild RDI at the maturity stage works the best. The proposed model for optimizing regulated deficit irrigation is applicable not only for sunflower watered by mulched drip irrigation, but also for other crops irrigated by other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the evaluation of the curriculum of professional graduate degree programs. A questionnaire survey and statistical analysis are conducted on eight majors from aspects such as curriculum design, objectives, content, structure, and course learning. The current problems in the construction of the professional graduate degree curriculum system are analyzed and corresponding countermeasures for improvement are proposed, efficiently perfecting the curriculum system for professional graduate degree programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, percutaneous nephrolithotomy has become an option for hospitals increasingly to treat calculus. However, due to the certain risk of percutaneous nephrolithotomy, it may lead to postoperative complications. Analyzing the preoperative factors of septic shock after percutaneous nephrolithotomy can provide guidance for reducing the incidence of septic shock after PCNL. This article establishes a logistic regression model based on preoperative factors, uses statistical methods, and uses the professional statistical software SPSS to create a database and analyze the data. The method of classification data analysis was used to determine various influencing factors including patient factors, stone factor, and preoperative factors and combined B-ultrasound guidance and percutaneous nephrolithotomy to reduce the risk of surgery. The experimental results found that the percutaneous nephroscope laser lithotripsy guided by the smart Internet of Things can effectively perform lithotripsy; in this paper, the preoperative data of different complications are obtained, and the risk of surgery is closely related to the operation time. The operation time exceeds 90 minutes and causes the risk of severe bleeding after PCNL. It is twice the operation time of less than 90 minutes and 5 times the operation time of less than 60 minutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since arthroscopy was discovered to treat acromioclavicular joint injury, people have had great interest and attention to this beautiful and minimally invasive operation, and related research has been increasing worldwide. At present, there is no bibliometric and visualized analysis in this field. The purpose of this study is to explore the research hotspots and trends of arthroscopic treatment of acromioclavicular joint injury through bibliometric and visualized analysis and look forward to the future development direction of clinical practice. Methods: The publications on arthroscopic treatment of acromioclavicular joint injury diseases from its establishment to April 2023 were obtained from the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection database. CiteSpace, VOSviewer, Scimago graphica and Origin were used for bibliometric and visualized analysis. Results: This study included a total of 330 publications. The number of publications tends to increase every year. The USA has the most significant number of publications and citations. Imhoff AB is the most relevant scholar with the largest number of publications in this field, and the scholar with the highest citation and average citations is Mazzocca AD. Tech Univ Munich, Rush University and Charite are the three institutions with the greatest contribution. Tech Univ Munich, Rush University and Charite are the three institutions with the greatest contribution. In addition, "Arthroscopy-the Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery" and "American Journal of Sports Medicine" are the institutions with the most significant number of publications and average citations, respectively. The most common keywords are "acromioclavicular joint dislocation," "arthroscopic resection," "arthroscopic reconstruction" and "coracoclavicular ligament." Conclusion: The number of publications shows a steady upward trend as a whole. However, there is still a lack of cooperation among countries, institutions and scholars around the world, so various countries, institutions and scholars need to strengthen academic exchanges and expand the field of cooperation, so as to promote further research and development in related fields. However, minimally invasive methods such as arthroscopy are still the hotspots and frontiers in the treatment of acromioclavicular joint injury in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supply capacity of water resources, food and meat products is of great importance to the people's livelihood of a country. In recent years, although China has introduced many policies on water resources and grain production, the current situation of China's food self-sufficiency and imbalance between supply and demand of water resources has not been fundamentally changed. Food security and water security are facing a serious situation. This paper takes the water footprint as the connection point, and combines the water food meat system with mutual influence, mutual causation and dynamic feedback into a composite system. At the same time, the simulation model of the composite system is established by using system dynamics, and the dynamic simulation of water grain meat in China from 2000 to 2050 is carried out to explore the current situation and future development trend of China's water, grain and meat supply capacity. It was found that during the simulated period, the agricultural blue-green water footprint on the demand side would continue to dominate, followed by the gray water footprint. The blue water footprint on the supply side remained stable, whereas the green water footprint and the circulating water footprint showed an upward trend. According to the contemporary social and economic development and the model of water resources in China, there will be no meat shortage in the future, but issues have been found in the ability to guarantee water and food supply. The root of China's food support capability problem is excessive grain consumption due to meat production, whereas the cause of the water support capability problem is the slow development of the water conservation. Food support capability issues can be solved by regulating the meat output of livestock farming and fishery operations, reducing excess production capacity, and stabilizing the meat supply and demand. To solve the water support capability issue, China should focus on accelerating the pace of agricultural water-conservation development, improving the sewage treatment system, building rainwater-collection projects, and promoting the research and development of water recycling technology. This study provides support for optimizing the structures of the meat and grain industries and the policy formulation of the efficient use of water resources in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zheng, Y., 2015. The static and dynamic evaluation on ocean environment performance for Chinese coastal cities. It is necessary to control pollution of the marine environment while improving coastal economy for sustainable developing. But it is difficult to evaluate ocean's changing because of its openness. So the ocean environment performance was proposed in this paper. Combined with data envelopment analysis and product efficiency theory, the static and dynamic methods for measuring the performance were first constructed. In order to analyze the actual situation of Chinese coastal cities and verify the effectiveness of the two methods, the static and dynamic ocean environment performance for Chinese 16 coastal cities were evaluated with these methods. By comparing the actual pollution in the sea area near these cities, the calculated results showed the index and the models designed in this paper can better reflect the effect of the economy to the coastal marine environment. Based these results, more comparing analysis for these cities was further analyzed. It is useful for their sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION Many smokers in China desire to quit, though the success rate among adults is low. This study evaluated the effects of QuitAction, a WeChat smoking cessation platform, summarized the intervention experience of the smoking cessation platform, identified aspects of the platform that necessitated improvement, and provided references for further optimization of the smoking cessation platform. METHODS This single-arm study was conducted in Hunan, China, from September 2020 to October 2021. Regular smokers, who were aged ≥15 years and willing to quit smoking using QuitAction, were recruited. An in-application questionnaire evaluated participants' baseline smoking status and intention to quit smoking. The QuitAction program included questionnaires regarding the participants' ongoing smoking cessation status at 24 hours, one week, one month and three months after quitting. The smoking cessation procedure was discontinued if the participant had no intention of continuing. The smoking cessation rate, influencing success factors, frequency of use satisfaction, and helpfulness of QuitAction were recorded. RESULTS A total of 303 participants registered and logged into the QuitAction program, including 59 with incomplete information and 64 with no intention of quitting. The study finally included 180 participants. The smoking cessation rate was 33.9% at 24 hours, 27.2% at one week, 26.1% at one month, and 25.0% at three months. QuitAction was reported as helpful by 94.9% of participants and 95.7% were satisfied with the program. Participants with a quitting difficulty score of 80-100 were less likely to quit smoking than participants with a difficulty score of 0-60 (OR=0.28; 95% CI: 0.10-0.78; p=0.015). Participants using the platform ≥5 times were more likely to quit smoking than those who used the platform <5 times (OR=3.59; 95% CI: 1.51-8.52; p=0.004). CONCLUSIONS The QuitAction platform provides smoking cessation services that can improve smokers' success rate and improve user experience satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the trade data and three international competitiveness evaluation indexes, namely, international market share, trade competitive index and revealed comparative advantage index, this paper analyzes the international competitiveness of Chinese publishing industry from horizontal and vertical dimensions. The results show that, the international competitiveness of Chinese publishing industry is enhanced year by year. However, compared with the USA, the UK, Germany and other developed countries, it is still significantly weaker, and the gap between each other has the potential to expand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 17, 2020, the Biosafety Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the'biosafety law') passed the deliberation of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and comes into force on April 15, 2021. Application safety of biotechnology is one of the main contents involved in the biosafety law. Gene editing, as a research hotspot in field of biotechnology in recent years, has attracted much attention in its safety evaluation and supervision. This paper summarized the present situation of the application of gene editing technology, compared the different national supervision of gene editing technology, discussed the significance of biosafety law to gene editing safety assessment and supervision in China, and finally proposed suggestions on how to better promote and implement the biosafety law in field of gene editing biosafety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resource is of great significance to the survival and development of human. However, the water resource system in karst regions is sensitive to external interference owing to the special geological processes which cause soil impoverishment, severe rocky desertification and large topographic height difference. Therefore, evaluating the sustainability of the water resource in karst regions is beneficial to reasonably use and protect water resource. This paper puts forward to evaluate the water resource from four aspects, including water resources system, water requirement system, ecosystem and social economic system. Moreover, on this basis, 18 evaluation indexes were selected to construct the sustainability evaluation index system and method. This method was used to evaluate the sustainability of the water resource in the typical karst region-Zunyi, Guizhou province, China, and was verified according to the actual situation in the research area. All these provide reference for the evaluation of the sustainability of the water resource in similar regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper aims to focus on institutional initiatives to embed e-learning in a university in Hong Kong, from 2006-12, through large-scale funding of 43 e-learning projects. It outlines the guiding principles behind the university's e-learning development and discusses the significance of various procedures and practices in project planning, development and implementation. Design/methodology/approach - This longitudinal study combines historical perspectives with process description, analysis and personal observations. Its approach is based in action research. The authors are engaged both as participants/learning designers in particular projects and in management, administration and evaluation of the projects at the institutional level. Findings - It is proposed that e-learning projects need careful planning, scaffolding and managing. Also that piloting, evaluation and formal reporting as well as the availability of professional, technical and instructional design support are significant factors in success. Research limitations/implications - This paper is preliminary work. Further findings and analysis are expected at the final completion of all projects. A wealth of data is available in accumulated project documentation and reports, including individual project evaluations with quantitative and qualitative data. Originality/value - Given the commonly acknowledged difficulties in helping e-learning projects continue to completion and actually be implemented, this study can offer strategies that may be widely applied in different contexts. The scale and timeframe of the study and the amount of funding available in one institution are unusual so emerging implications are potentially significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Workplace violence against emergency physicians is a global concern. However, there was relatively little research on the incidence and correlated factors of workplace violence among emergency physicians in China. We aimed to investigate the occurrence and correlated factors of physical and verbal violence among emergency physicians in China. Methods We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional study from July 2018 to August 2018. We included a total of 10457 emergency physicians from 31 provinces across China in the analysis. The questionnaire covered socio-demographic characteristics, work-related factors, psychological characteristics, and workplace violence. We applied binary logistic regression to examine the correlated factors of physical and verbal violence among emergency physicians. Results The prevalence of physical and verbal violence among emergency physicians in China was 27.63% and 81.81%, respectively. Regarding socio-demographic factors, male emergency physicians with bachelor's degrees or higher, poor sleep quality, and unfavorable health conditions were more likely to experience workplace violence. Concerning work-related factors, emergency physicians who had longer years of service, worked a higher frequency of night shifts per month and served more patients per day had a greater prevalence of workplace violence. As for individual psychological characteristics, negative affect was positively correlated with workplace violence, while self-efficacy and positive affect were negatively correlated with workplace violence. Conclusions The situation of physical and verbal violence against emergency physicians in China is severe, especially verbal violence. Hospital administrators should pay more attention to the workplace violence of emergency physicians and take measures to decrease the occurrence of workplace violence efficiently, such as reducing their workload and cultivating their positive affect and self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education has become a key issue in improving the quality of entrepreneurship education. The quality of entrepreneurship education was empirically analyzed through a questionnaire survey conducted within 70 medical colleges and universities in China and 16,660 valid questionnaires were obtained. The datasets were processed with a classic analysis tool, SPSS. Several findings were revealed by the research. The popularity of entrepreneurship courses in China's medical schools was low, due to reasons such as: the obvious characteristics of fragmentation in curriculum design the entrepreneurship practice for medical students being far from open and not effectively integrated with the market trend; the current policies in China not providing additional support for medical entrepreneurship and the lack of funds, which is the main obstacle for medical students who owned start-ups; and the teacher-student collaboration not being an important enough vessel to improve the quality of entrepreneurship education. It is recognized in this paper that, in the future, medical schools in China should build an individualized and diversified medical entrepreneurship education curriculum system, strengthen the openness of medical students' entrepreneurship practice, build a multi-channel financial support platform, and create a major-innovation integration mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is characterized by high energy consumption and high carbon emissions. With growing concern about climate change, environmental protection is becoming increasingly important. In this paper, the whole construction process of prefabricated floor slab (PFS) is divided into three stages: production, transportation, and construction stages. Carbon emissions are calculated based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. A case study of PFS construction in Shaoxing city, China, was examined, and the calculation results were compared and evaluated with the traditional construction methods, which showed that in the production stage, carbon emissions increased due to mechanical operations during the prefabrication process. In the transportation stage, carbon emissions also increased due to the heavier prefabricated components during the transportation process. During the on-site construction stage, carbon emissions considerably decreased due to the lower hoisting frequency and less on-site pouring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of pragmatic meta-analytic studies in eLearning. Much educational technology literature focuses on developers and teachers describing and reflecting on their experiences. Few connections are made between these experiential 'stories'. The data set is fragmented and offers few generalisable lessons. The field needs guidelines about what can be learnt from such single-case reports. The pragmatic meta-analytic studies described in this paper have two common aspects: (1) the cases are related in some way, and (2) the data are authentic, that is, the evaluations have followed a naturalistic approach. We suggest that examining a number of such cases is best done by a mixed-methods approach with an emphasis on qualitative strategies. In the paper, we overview 63 eLearning cases. Three main meta-analytic strategies were used: (1) meta-analysis of the perception of usefulness across all cases, (2) meta-analysis of recorded benefits and challenges across all cases, and (3) meta-analysis of smaller groups of cases where the learning design and/or use of technology are similar. This study indicated that in Hong Kong the basic and non-interactive eLearning strategies are often valued by students, while their perceptions of interactive strategies that are potentially more beneficial fluctuate. One possible explanation relates to the level of risk that teachers and students are willing to take in venturing into more innovative teaching and learning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to statistics released by the WHO, China has the highest prevalence of myopia in the world, with a frequency that is 1.5 times higher than the global average. Asians have the highest prevalence of myopia worldwide. The Ministry of Education and the State General Administration of Sports "2010 National Student Physical Fitness and Health Research Results" show that the incidence of poor vision among primary and secondary school students in China is 67.3%, and elementary school students' vision has decreased by 40.9%. Low vision among youth has become a major cause of affecting the quality of the population and improving national physical fitness; therefore, how to improve and enhance the vision level of youth has become a major issue for the government, sports, and educators face as a major issue. In order to address this issue, this research suggests a deep learning-based vision monitoring and risk prediction model for high myopia eyes and develops a deep artificial neural network that unsupervised learns essential characteristics of physiological time-series data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The fragility index (FI), which is the minimum number of changes in status from "event" to "non-event" resulting in a loss of statistical significance, serves as a significant supplementary indicator for clinical physicians in interpreting clinical trial results and aids in understanding the outcomes of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). In this systematic literature survey, we evaluated the FI for RCTs evaluating Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and explored potential associations between study characteristics and the robustness of RCTs. Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in four databases in Chinese and four databases in English from their inception to January 1, 2023. RCTs encompassed 1:1 ratio into two parallel arms and reported at least one binary outcome that demonstrated statistical significance were included. FI was calculated by the iterative reduction of a target outcome event in the treatment group and concomitant subtraction of a non-target event from that group, until positive significance (defined as P < 0.05 by Fisher's exact test) is lost. The lower the FI (minimum 1) of a trial outcome, the more fragile the positive result of the outcome was. Linear regression models were adopted to explore influence factors of the value of FI. Results: A total of 30 trials from 2 4118 potentially relevant citations were finally included. The median FI of total trials included was 1.5 (interquartile range [IQR], 1–5), and half of the trials (n = 15) had a FI equal to 1. In 12 trials (40%), the total number of participants lost to follow-up surpassed the respective FI. The study also identified that increased FI was significantly associated with no TCM syndrome differentiation for inclusion criteria of the patients, larger total sample size, low risk of bias, and larger numbers of events. Conclusions: The majority of CHM IBS RCTs with positive results were found to be fragile. Ensuring adequate sample size, scientifically rigorous study design, proper control of confounding factors, and a quality control calibration for consistency of TCM diagnostic results among clinicians should be addressed to increase the robustness of the RCTs. We recommend reporting the FI as one of the components of sensitivity analysis in future RCTs to facilitate the assessment of the fragility of trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute closed midsubstance Achilles tendon rupture(ACMATR) is common, with various treatment methods developed over time. We retrospectively compared the two mini transverse-incision repair (2MTIR) with percutaneous repair (PR) to determine which method yields better results. Methods: All cases meeting criteria from 2018 to 2021 in our hospital were included and followed up for 1 to 5 years. A final questionnaire with multiple indexes was conducted via phone call. Comparative analysis of these indexes between the two groups was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics (V.26). Continuous variables that passed tests for normality and equal variance were compared using the Student's t-test. Ranked data were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. Categorical variables were tested with the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There was one rerupture in the PR group. The final indexes for "Tightness Feeling", "Heel Rising Strength", and "Foot Numbness" were statistically different (P < 0.05) between the two groups. The "Re-rupture" and "Return to Sports" indexes showed no statistical difference (P > 0.05). Conclusions: The 2MTIR technique provided a technically straightforward, minimally invasive procedure with well-preserved paratenon and direct end-to-end firm fixation in cases of ACMATR. It resulted in very low complications, easy rehabilitation, and full weight-bearing as early as 5–6 weeks postoperatively, yielding better functional outcomes compared to the PR technique in the 1–5 year follow-up. Trial registration: The study was preliminarily registered and approved by the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital Ethical Board with Project number: hkuszh2023074 on May 4, 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To translate Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis-Specific Quality of Life-Short Form (ALSSQOL-SF) and test its reliability and validity, so that explore feasibility in Chinese mainland and make up the gap of specific tools for measuring quality of life of patients with ALS. Methods: This was a cross-sectional design. The Brislin translation model was used to translate ALSSQOL-SF, and the Chinese version of ALSSQOL-SF (C-ALSSQOL-SF) was revised through cultural adaptation and pre-test. The convenience sampling method was used to investigate 138 patients with ALS in Tianjin to test the reliability and validity of the C-ALSSQOL-SF. Results: The C-ALSSQOL-SF included 20 items, covering 6 dimensions: physical symptoms, bulbar function, negative emotion, interaction with people and the environment, religiosity and intimacy. The scale-level content validity index (S-CVI) of C-ALSSQOL-SF was 0.964, and the item-level content validity index (I-CVI) was between 0.857 to 1.000. The results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed that CMIN/DF = 1.161, RMSEA = 0.034, GFI = 0.892, IFI = 0.976, TLI = 0.969, CFI = 0.975, and the 6-factor model fitted well. The scores of C-ALSSQOL-SF and WHOQOL-BREF were positively correlated (r = 0.745). The Cronbach's α coefficient of the scale was 0.85, the Cronbach's α coefficient of each dimension was between 0.59 to 0.86, and the split-half reliability was 0.78. Conclusion: The Chinese version of ALSSQOL-SF has good reliability and validity, and can be used as a tool to evaluate the quality of life of patients with ALS in Chinese mainland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the Chinese government, to win political support of the young people is to win the future and hope of China. How to measure the Chinese youth's political attitudes? Their political enthusiasm, participation in major political events, and recognition of government work, can reflect their political attitudes to some extent. In recent years, their attitudes towards anti-corruption issue are a measure of their most critical political attitudes. Based on a survey experiment frame, this paper examines their attitudes towards China's anti-corruption and influencing factors on it. From aspect of the young individuals, the young people with different demographic characteristics take on different attention to anti-corruption, and then produce different evaluations of it. To investigate the influence of external factors, the study designs a controllable factor - media coverage on anti-corruption. This empirical study shows that, the effect of media coverage on the young people's evaluations dependents on their individual characteristics. In the end, this paper suggests the government care about the young people who make low evaluation of anti-corruption situation and take strategies for inspiring their political enthusiasms and improving their political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lu, W.; Li, Z., and Zhang, H., 2019. Total quality management and evaluation: a study of the coastal highway system. In: Li, L.; Wan, X.; and Huang, X. (eds.), Recent Developments in Practices and Research on Coastal Regions: Transportation, Environment and Economy. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 98, pp. 407–413. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Investment in coastal highway construction not only promotes the development of the transportation industry in China's coastal areas but also affects the economic and social development of China. With the continuous increase of coastal highway projects, the mileage of highways has been increasing, and the task of total quality management has become increasingly arduous. How to objectively evaluate the total quality management level and solve various problems existing in the current evaluation work has become an urgent problem for the financial investment management department. The research in this paper builds a total quality management evaluation system and decision-making model and a total quality management platform for coastal highway projects. The research in this paper has innovated and perfected the methods of evaluation decision making, has improved the efficiency of evaluation decision making and realized the efficient use of quality management funds, and has promoted the process of quality management work of coastal highway projects to be scientific and standardized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing shelters is an important part of earthquake disaster management which involves selecting the location of them and assigning the evacuees to them. For this work, selecting suitable objectives and solution is important. Thus, in this paper, a multi-objective mathematical model with four groups of the objectives, allied with a modified particle swarm optimization algorithm, has been developed to solve the location-allocation problem for earthquake shelter. The four objective groups are: total shelter number (TSN) and total evacuation distance (TED), TSN and total weighted evaluation time (TWET), total shelter area (TSA) and TED, and TSA and TWET. The solutions of the model include the determination of the shelters from the candidates and how to allocate population to them. Then the solutions of the model with four objective groups are given and compared using safety, capacity and investment evaluation index with the case of Chaoyang district of Beijing, China. Related to government's preferences and future city planning, the most suitable model solutions can be chosen to help decide where it is suitable to construct shelters and how to allocate the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is often considerable anxiety and conflicting advice concerning the benefits of presenting/being evaluated first. We thus investigate how expert evaluators vary in their evaluations of entrepreneurial proposals based upon the order in which they are evaluated. Our research setting is a premiere innovation fund competition in Beijing, China, where the prize money at stake is economically meaningful, and evaluators are quasi-randomly assigned to evaluate written grant proposals without the possibility of peer influence. This enables us to credibly recover a causal position effect. We also theorize and test how heterogeneity in evaluators' prior (context-specific) judging experience moderates position effects. Overall, we find that a proposal evaluated first requires total assets in the top 10th percentile to merely equal the evaluation of a proposal in the bottom 10th percentile that is not evaluated first. Firm and evaluator fixed-effects models yield consistent findings. We consider evaluation design elements that may mollify these position effects in the discussion section. This paper was accepted by Sridhar Tayur, entrepreneurship and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is a common squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with no reliable diagnostic biomarkers. However, recent studies have shown that inflammation plays an essential role in tumor development, and several inflammation-based biomarkers have been shown to have prognostic value. This study aimed to investigate the auxiliary value of fibrinogen (FIB), fibrinogen degradation products (FDP), and lymphocyte/monocyte ratio (LMR) in LSCC diagnosis and prognosis. Methods: Clinical data from 218 patients recently diagnosed with LSCC and 207 diagnosed with benign laryngeal lesions (BLLs) were retrospectively reviewed. Potential diagnostic biomarkers were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analyses; receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to identify cut-off values and diagnostic efficiency. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Logistic regression analysis was used to screen for independent risk factors to construct a diagnostic nomogram. The chi-squared test and Kaplan–Meier method were performed to investigate the correlation of clinicopathological characteristics and 3-year overall survival (OS) with FIB, FDP, and LMR in patients with LSCC. Results: FIB, FDP, and LMR levels were significantly different between the LSCC and BLL groups (P <.001), and all were independent risk factors for LSCC. The area under the ROC curve of the diagnostic nomogram was.894. Additionally, FIB, FDP, and LMR were correlated with some invasive clinicopathological features, and LMR ≥4.29 was associated with reduced OS (P =.038). Conclusion: FIB, FDP, and LMR demonstrated potential as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of LSCC; however, further studies are needed to confirm their efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades, various heritage institutions have utilized a multitude of materials to reinforce the painted layers of ancient Chinese wooden architecture. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the properties and durability of four widely used reinforcement agents, i.e., AC33, B72, FKM, and FEVE, using a series of techniques, including contact angle tests, water vapor permeability measurements, color difference evaluations, tensile strength tests, UV–vis spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrate that the transmittance rates of the films made from these four reinforcement agents are approximately 100% in the visible light range. Among them, the B72 film exhibits the highest hydrophobicity. The AC33 film has better permeability, fair tensile strength, and is more hydrophilic. FKM film is more hydrophobic but has lower permeability and tensile strength. Overall, the FEVE film presents the best comprehensive properties, including better hydrophobicity, higher permeability, and tensile strength. This research provides data evidence to guide heritage conservators and curators in decision-making when selecting appropriate reinforcement materials in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China has implemented policies to make rare diseases more affordable. While previous studies evaluated overall affordability, few have examined affordability differences across regions and disease types. Given the vastness of China and varying medical policies across cities, this study assesses the affordability of rare diseases based on China's First List of Rare Diseases (CFLRD), National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL), and outpatient chronic and special disease policies in each prefecture. Method: Six rare diseases were selected and the average annual treatment cost of all relevant drugs in NRDL was calculated for each disease. Based on the WHO/HAI standardized approach, the study analyzed 289 cities with outpatient chronic and special disease policies, measured the security levels by the actual reimbursement ratio of Basic Medical Insurance (BMI) and affordability by the ratio of individual expenses after reimbursement to the annual disposable income of urban residents in the province. The security levels and affordability differences across disease types and provinces were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and the K-W test. Result: The affordability of rare diseases varied significantly on the disease types and annual treatment cost. Diseases with an annual treatment cost below 100 000 yuan are affordable to all prefectures even with low reimbursement rates, while those with a higher treatment cost were not affordable in at least 80% of prefectures even though the reimbursement ratio is high. The affordability of the same disease varies significantly across provinces and municipalities. Outpatient chronic and special diseases insurance and critical illness insurance, and the inconsistencies between them, result in regional differences. Conclusion: Although China has made progress in improving the affordability of rare diseases, significant differences persist between cities and diseases. The study suggests the optimization of the BMI system and explores independent funds and innovative insurance models to enhance the affordability of rare diseases, particularly those with extremely high treatment costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the evaluation of knowledge management has become increasingly significant. Nevertheless, few relevant studies explicitly distinguished knowledge management performance from knowledge management effectiveness. This paper covers both sides and introduces a new knowledge management measurement index. It establishes a comprehensive evaluation model by measuring three stages of knowledge management behavior: environmental analysis, knowledge management activity planning, and knowledge management implementation decision making. Data were collected through questionnaires from 100 small and medium sized enterprises in China. The statistical results show that the three stages positively and significantly contribute to the index. The environmental analysis influences most, with the knowledge management activity planning less and the knowledge management implementation decision making least. Finally, it proposes some useful suggestions for enterprises to assess, to predict and to guide their knowledge management practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objective Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death, of which non- small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have now become one of the main treatments for advanced NSCLC. This paper retrospectively investigated the effect of peripheral blood inflammatory indexes on the efficacy of immunotherapy and survival of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, in order to find strategies to guide immunotherapy in NSCLC. Methods Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who were hospitalized in The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from October 2018 to August 2019 were selected to receive anti-PD-1 (pembrolizumab, sintilimab or toripalimab) monotherapy or combination regimens. And were followed up until 10 December 2020, and the efficacy was evaluated according to RECIST1.1 criteria. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were followed up for survival analysis. A clinical prediction model was constructed to analyze the predictive value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) based on NLR data at three different time points: before treatment, 6 weeks after treatment and 12 weeks after treatment (0w, 6w and 12w), and the accuracy of the model was verified. Results 173 patients were finally included, all of whom received the above treat-ment regimen, were followed up for a median of 19.7 months. The objective response rate (ORR) was 27.7% (48/173), the disease control rate (DCR) was 89.6% (155/173), the median PFS was 8.3 months (7.491-9.109) and the median OS was 15.5 months (14.087-16.913). The chi-square test and logistic multi-factor analysis showed that NLR6w was associated with ORR and NLR12w was associated with ORR and DCR. Further Cox regression analysis showed that NLR6w and NLR12w affected PFS and NLR0w, NLR6w and NLR12w were associated with OS. Conclusion In patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, NLR values at different time points are valid predictors of response to immunotherapy, and NLR <3 is often associated with a good prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese industry has developed greatly since China implemented its 'reform and opening-up' policy in 1978. With the rapid development of industry, the problems of growing energy consumption and environmental pollution are drawing increasing attention from government managers and scholars. This paper divides industrial systems into two stages, an energy utilization stage and a pollution treatment stage, for accurately evaluating the total-factor energy efficiency as well as the overall efficiency. We build a new two-stage data envelopment analysis model with shared inputs to open the 'black box' of efficiency measurement in traditional energy efficiency methods. Applying the model to data for Chinese regions, we can display the advantages and disadvantages of these two stages of industry. The results show that (1) the performance of Chinese industry improved during the years 2006-2010; (2) the energy utilization stage performance was better than that of the pollution treatment stage, but the gaps reduced year by year; and (3) energy efficiency increased during this period. Based on these results, some policy recommendations are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]