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After more than two decades of negotiation, the China–Russia gas deal represents a new era of energy cooperation between China and Russia. In total, this is a win–win deal for both sides. For China, the deal will decrease energy consumption and carbon emission but will not significantly influence air quality; for Russia, it will provide a new market for its gas resources. In this study, we calculated the energy consumption, carbon emission, and particulate matter pollution (PM2.5 and PM10) in China in 2020, 2030, 2040, and 2050 under four IPCC representative concentration pathways (RCPs 8.5, 6.0, 4.5, and 2.6). We found that energy consumption and carbon emission decreased under the gas deal in RCPs 8.5, 6.0, and 4.5, although the rate of decrease slowed over time; however, in RCP 2.6, the rate of decrease of energy consumption and emission increased over time. PM2.5 and PM10 emission showed similar trends but with increasing rate, although the gas deal would mitigate air pollution in the short term. Although China's government hopes to reduce carbon and pollutant emission under the deal, our results suggest that additional mitigation measures will be necessary to achieve this goal. Nonetheless, the reduction in carbon emission suggests that the China–Russia gas deal provides a model that other countries can follow to slow climate change. Sustainability: Gas deal with Russia helps to protect China's air, but in short term The China–Russia gas deal is supposed to decrease carbon emissions and improve air quality and it does, but with time these effects slow down. A team led by Sergey Venevsky from Tsinghua and Minzu Universities in Beijing calculated the energy consumption, carbon emission, and particulate matter pollution in China in 2020, 2030, 2040, and 2050 under four development scenarios of the world's development, suggested by international experts. Energy consumption and carbon emissions are decreased under the gas deal for all but one (the worst) world development scenario, but the rate of decrease slowed over time. Air particulate pollution emissions showed similar trends. China's government hopes to reduce carbon and pollution emissions under the deal, however, our results show that additional mitigation measures are necessary for achieve this goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Flash floods from the Tibetan Plateau threaten many dryland communities. • Rethinking floods as resources can promote sustainable development in these drylands. • Involving all stakeholders in the project was essential to the project's success. The uneven spatial and temporal distributions of water resources have made regional scarcities of water resources an increasingly prominent problem around the world. This problem seriously affects food security, desertification, land degradation, and sustainable socio-economic development. Simultaneously, flood disasters caused by excess water resources cause high human and economic losses. Therefore, how to more effectively use the available water resources (e.g., to divert water from regions with an excess to regions with a deficit) is a major issue for the world to solve. For example, the Tibetan plateau generates 392.4 × 109 m3 of freshwater annually in the form of floods in downstream regions below the plateau, greatly harming people in the lower reaches of the many large Asian rivers that originate on the plateau. However, many rivers have been managed to capture billions of m3 of floodwater in their reservoirs. If we could use even half of this stored floodwater for irrigation, this would support cultivation and vegetation restoration in 31.1 × 106 ha surrounding these rivers, greatly increasing food security and improving the regional ecological environment through improved vegetation cover. However, the plateau's water distribution shows obvious regional heterogeneity and seasonal variation that must be accounted for. Rational utilization of the plateau's water resources could potentially improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people, but serious risks must be avoided to achieve this goal. By analyzing the benefits and risks of utilizing the plateau's water resources, we provide guidance for future utilization of this water and suggest future research directions. The countries around the plateau and researchers from around the world should form a multidisciplinary international organization to comprehensively examine the proposals for floodwater use and ensure safe utilization of this water. It is essential to establish a transnational water resource management organization to balance the interests of the different regions and countries that depend on Tibetan Plateau water to reduce the risk of political conflict and of adverse environmental consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's goal is to develop some of the top universities in the world, but there is still a big gap in university quality compared with developed countries. The current command and control system used by the national government limits university autonomy and has created many problems, including a lack of scientific innovation, a widening poverty gap in terms of access to higher education, and a mismatch between supply and demand in the labor market. To solve these problems, China's higher education system must change to permit more autonomy and a stronger focus on the job market; to pay university professors a fair wage; to provide more freedom to the administration of universities and research institutes; and to promote participation by professors in the administration of schools. It will also be important to place less emphasis on awards and titles, and focus instead on letting the best research speak for itself. • Chinese university education is still guided primarily by the government. • This command and control system has limited the development of university education. • Universities should compete in the market, guided by government control. • Students should be encouraged to become more innovative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of land conversion to urban use is an important factor that promotes sustainable urbanization. However, China's local governments have relied too much on the land finance model for urbanization, which has led to disordered growth of urban land, ultimately posing a threat to ecosystem security and socioeconomic development. Effectively evaluating the factors that influence the growth of urban land is critical to improving the sustainability of urban land use. In this study, we explored the factors that affect the growth in the area of urban land using spatial analysis models based on panel data for Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2019. We found that fiscal decentralization, infrastructure, industrialization, and industrial upgrading were the main factors responsible for the growth of urban land, but that their degrees of influence differed between regions. Our findings identify the necessity for local governments to design urban land-use policies and perform strategic planning for urban land use to improve sustainability based on the main factors that influenced the growth of urban land in each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutions are effective means by which human societies resolve conflicts over the use of scarce resources and maintain social stability. Institutions evolve as human knowledge improves or as the situation changes. To find suitable principles to guide institutional evolution, we reviewed examples of historical institutional evolution in China to seek guidance for the evolution of other modern institutions. We found that gradualism, win-win paths, stability, neutrality, and cultural diversity are key principles for successful institutional evolution. However, fear of the uncertainty associated with institutional change and changing external conditions will affect the results of institutional change. Designers of new or revised institutions should use publicity and education, combined with gradualism (pilot tests), and measures to ensure neutrality and political stability, to increase acceptance of institutional evolution. In both politics and economics, institutional change can be a long evolutionary process, and it's necessary to balance the changes in political institutions with economic development throughout the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. To analyze the clinical significance of the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognostic assessment of sepsis. Methods. 140 patients with sepsis from January 2020 to January 2021 were selected as the observation group, and 40 healthy people were selected as the control group. The observation group was divided into mild group, severe group, and septic shock group by single blind grouping according to the condition of the disease, and they were also divided into survival group and death group according to the prognosis. Collect the fasting venous blood of the subjects in each group in the morning, compare the levels of total bilirubin (TBIL), blood creatinine (CR), and platelet count (PLT) in each group, and record and compare the patients' respiratory system oxygen partial pressure/inhaled oxygen concentration (po2/fio2), acute physiology and chronic health scoring system II (APACHE II), sequential organ failure assessment (sofa) score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score; Pearson analysis was used to analyze the correlation between SOFA score and other indicators; multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the prognostic risk factors of patients with sepsis; receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to analyze the value of SOFA score alone and in combination in the diagnosis, condition, and prognosis of sepsis. Results. There were significant differences in Apache II score, SOFA score, q-SOFA score map, po2/fio2, PLT, GCS, TBIL, and serum creatinine (SCR) between the control group and the observation group (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in Apache II score, SOFA score, q-SOFA score, mean arterial pressure (map) po2/fio2, PLT, Glasgow Coma Score (GCS), TBIL, SCR, and △SOFA score among patients in mild, severe, and septic shock groups (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in age, Apache II score, SOFA score, q-SOFA score, map, po2/fio2, PLT, GCS, TBIL, SCR, and △SOFA score between survival group and death group (P < 0.05). SOFA score and q-SOFA score were significantly positively correlated with TBIL and SCR and significantly negatively correlated with po2/fio2 and PLT; △SOFA score was significantly negatively correlated with TBIL and SCR and significantly positively correlated with map, po2/fio2, PLT, and GCS. Apache II score, SOFA score, and q-SOFA score were independent risk factors for sepsis patients, and △SOFA score, po2/fio2, and GCS score were protective factors (P < 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of sepsis combined with SOFA score and q-SOFA score was 0.880; the AUC of sepsis assessed by SOFA score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score was 0.929; the AUC of sepsis prognosis assessed by SOFA score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score was 0.900. Conclusion. SOFA score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score were abnormally expressed in patients with sepsis and were risk factors for the severity of the patient's condition and prognosis. The SOFA score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score were risk factors for the severity and prognosis of patients with sepsis and had some value in diagnosing sepsis and assessing the condition and prognosis, of which the combined value of the three was higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is undergoing rapid urbanization accompanied by rapid urban development and migration of rural populations to the cities. Because local governments are selling land to compensate for an unbalanced tax system that provides them with insufficient budgets, urban expansion is booming around the country. However, this form of land finance has grown out of control, in some cases producing uninhabited “ghost towns”, without any feedback from institutions that would limit the problem. Simultaneously, social problems have arisen from a failure to compensate the land's former residents for loss of their land and future livelihood, thereby jeopardizing China's social stability. This under-recognized contradiction created by urbanization is endangering China's environment and its socioeconomic development, and will endanger other developing countries seeking to emulate China's urbanization model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • Fe 3 O 4 @PS-TMG was synthesized by immobilizing TMG onto the shell of nanohybrids. • The loading of TMG as well as surface property of catalyst can be well regulated. • The MPIC can stabilize soybean oil-in-methanol Pickering emulsion. • The MPIC exhibited higher catalytic activity for transesterification. Abstract A novel magnetic Pickering interfacial catalyst (MPIC) was developed and used for highly effective and clean production of biodiesel. The catalyst was synthesized by immobilization of 1,1,3,3-tetramethylguanidine (TMG) onto the shell of Fe 3 O 4 @Chloromethyl PS nanohybrids. The resultant Fe 3 O 4 @PS-TMG was measured by transmission electron microscope (TEM), dynamic lighting scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), elemental analysis (EA), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), contact angles (CA). The results showed that surface property and TMG loading of catalyst can be finely regulated via adjusting the feeding of TMG. Fe 3 O 4 @PS-TMG with amphiphilic surface can stabilize soybean oil-in-methanol Pickering emulsion, which would offer large interfacial area and surface enrichment of reactants, leading to a significant enhancement of such liquid-liquid (L-L) biphasic reaction with high mass transfer resistance. Furthermore, the MPIC can be facile separated from the mixture of reaction by magnet, and showed excellent stability over 5 recycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary 1. During the past three decades, conservation and restoration biologists have increasingly recognized that ecological communities are likely to exhibit threshold changes in structure. However, because long-term monitoring data are generally lacking, little is known about the consequences of such ecological thresholds for the processes of ecosystem degradation and recovery. 2. To identify whether a degradation threshold exists that defines the boundary between the possibility of natural recovery and the need for artificial restoration of an ecosystem and to use this knowledge to support the development of a suitable strategy for environmental restoration, we performed long-term monitoring of vegetation recovery in China's Changting County since 1984. 3. A major problem was identified, which we refer to as the 'irreversible loss of soil services'; when vegetation cover decreases below a degradation threshold, this leads to sustained degeneration of the vegetation community, erosion of the surface soil and declining soil fertility. These changes represent a severe and long-lasting disturbance that will prevent ecosystem recovery in the absence of comprehensive artificial restoration measures. 4. Synthesis and applications. We identified a degradation threshold at about 20% vegetation cover suggesting that for some sites, vegetation cover can serve as a simple proxy for more sophisticated approaches to identifying thresholds; restoration must start with the restoration of soil fertility and continue by facilitating vegetation development. Our results support the concept of ecological thresholds (specifically, for soil services in a warm and wet region) and provide a model to inform restoration strategies for other degraded ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, narrative visualization has gained much attention. Researchers have proposed different design spaces for various narrative visualization genres and scenarios to facilitate the creation process. As users' needs grow and automation technologies advance, increasingly more tools have been designed and developed. In this study, we summarized six genres of narrative visualization (annotated charts, infographics, timelines & storylines, data comics, scrollytelling & slideshow, and data videos) based on previous research and four types of tools (design spaces, authoring tools, ML/AI-supported tools and ML/AI-generator tools) based on the intelligence and automation level of the tools. We surveyed 105 papers and tools to study how automation can progressively engage in visualization design and narrative processes to help users easily create narrative visualizations. This research aims to provide an overview of current research and development in the automation involvement of narrative visualization tools. We discuss key research problems in each category and suggest new opportunities to encourage further research in the related domain.

Objectives: CD25 (IL-2Rα) is one of IL-2 receptor's polypeptide subunits, and its soluble form is increased in patients with various inflammatory or autoimmune diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical correlation of serum soluble CD25 (sCD25) with interstitial lung disease (ILD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients., Methods: 294 RA patients, including 72 in the discovery cohort (15 patients with ILD, 57 patients without ILD), 222 in the validation cohort (41 patients with ILD and 181 patients without ILD), and 58 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan provided evidence and patterns of RA-ILD. Serum sCD25 concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Clinical and laboratory data were recorded and the association with sCD25 was also analysed., Results: In the discovery cohort, 16 RA-related molecules including cytokines, chemokines and functional soluble cell surface proteins were investigated. The results showed that sCD25 was significantly higher in RA-ILD than in RA-no-ILD group (p=0.004). ROC analysis also showed RA-ILD was discriminated with RA-no-ILD by sCD25 (AUC=0.695, 95% CI=0.541-0.849). Logistics regression demonstrated that sCD25 was one of the risk factors of RA-ILD. This result was further confirmed in validation cohort (p<0.001). According to the cut-off value in the discovery cohort, the sensitivity and specificity of sCD25 in RA-ILD were 51.2%, 77.3%, respectively. Compared with RA-no-ILD, serum level of sCD25 was also higher in different HRCT patterns including UIP, NSIP and RA-ILA. The ROC curves revealed sCD25 as diagnostic marker in UIP, NSIP and RA-ILA (with AUCs of 0.730, 0.761, and 0. 694, respectively, p<0.05). The result indicated that sCD25 was a biomarker for RA-ILD subtypes. Although sCD25 was not correlated with HRCT scores, it was significantly higher in consolidation pattern by HRCT., Conclusions: sCD25 was significantly elevated in RA-ILD (including UIP, NSIP and RA-ILA) compared to RA-no-ILD and HCs, which supports their value as a potential biomarker in RA-ILD screening and assessment.

Recognizing the critical elements that promote improvement of a country's education level (here, the mean number of years of education) is a necessary prerequisite for developing policies and plans to promote the long-term development of education and the people's quality of life. By identifying the factors that constrain the development of education and the strength of each factor's influence, we aimed to provide theoretical support and practical suggestions for advancing the development of education in China and other countries. We collected data related to China's education sector from 2000 to 2019, identified the key factors driving the per capita number of years of education of Chinese nationals, quantified their degree of influence on education, and investigated the association of each factor with the per capita education in different regions using sub-regional regression and geographic and time-weighted regression models. We found that per capita GDP, education funding, and urbanization promoted educational attainment, whereas allowing the student-teacher ratio to increase decreased educational attainment. Therefore, promoting the development of education requires that the government take measures to promote economic and social development, increase the financial investment in education, and train more high-quality teachers who can work in regions that currently lack sufficient teachers. In addition, the existence of regional heterogeneity means that both central and local governments must fully account for local realities when they formulate education policies and tailor them to local conditions., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Government of China or of any other organization. We consent to publish this article in your journal and to transfer its copyright to the publisher once the manuscript has been accepted., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Since the early 2000s, China has carried out extensive "grain-for-green" and grazing exclusion practices to combat desertification in the desertification-prone region (DPR). However, the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of these practices remain unclear. We quantify and compare the changes in fractional vegetation cover (FVC) with economic and population data in the DPR before and after the implementation of these environmental programmes. Here we show that climatic change and CO 2 fertilization are relatively strong drivers of vegetation rehabilitation from 2001-2020 in the DPR, and the declines in the direct incomes of farmers and herders caused by ecological practices exceed the subsidies provided by governments. To minimize economic hardship, enhance food security, and improve the returns on policy investments in the DPR, China needs to adapt its environmental programmes to address the potential impacts of future climate change and create positive synergies to combat desertification and improve the economy in this region., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objectives: Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) is one of the most serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), lacking efficient diagnostic biomarkers. Previous studies have shown that anti-ubiquitin carboxyl hydrolase L1(UCH-L1) autoantibody is a promising cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker for NPSLE diagnosis. The purpose of this study is to explore the serum autoantibodies against different UCH-L1 epitopes and investigate the potential diagnostic value of serum autoantibodies against different UCH-L1 epitopes in NPSLE., Methods: The epitopes of UCH-L1 protein were predicted in DNAStar software. The serum levels of different UCH-L1 epitope autoantibodies in 40 NPSLE patients, 32 SLE patients without neuropsychiatric symptoms and 21 healthy controls were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data were analysed using Pearson correlation analysis, ROC curve analysis, nonparametric Mann-Whitney test, t-test and χ2 test., Results: We screened three candidate epitopes of UCH-L1 protein. The autoantibody against amino acid 58 to 69 of UCH-L1 (UCH58-69) showed highest diagnostic power in distinguishing NPSLE patients from SLE patients without neuro-psychiatric symptoms (p=0.0038). The ROC analysis showed that the specificity and sensitivity of anti-UCH58-69 were 92.3% and 37.5%, respectively. In addition, increased serum anti-UCH58-69 levels were associated with increased SLEDAI, CSF microprotein, CSF leukocyte count, ESR, AnuA, anti-dsDNA, IgG and IgM but with decrease of C3 in SLE patients., Conclusions: The serum levels of anti-UCH58-69 significantly increased in NPSLE patients compared with SLE patients without neuropsychiatric symptoms and were correlated with disease severity. Anti-UCH58-69 autoantibody may become a novel serum biomarker for NPSLE non-invasive diagnosis, which might be applicable for NPSLE early screening and diagnosis.

Urbanization is a dominant component of social and economic development around the world, but this process creates tremendous pressure on the ecological environment. How to achieve coordination between urbanization and conservation of this environment has become a key issue, especially in developing countries. It is necessary to identify the driving factors that affect this coordination. To identify these factors, we chose 290 Chinese prefecture-level cities to analyze the driving factors behind urbanization using spatial regression analysis, and explored the spatial differences among regions in these factors. Our results show that industrial upgrading and technological progress were the main factors that promoted coordinated development, with industrialization having positive effects under government management, but with differences among regions in how the driving forces affected coordinated development. Using technological progress to promote industrial upgrading, creating new employment to absorb surplus rural labor, and providing workers with skills training so they can take advantage of new jobs can promote win-win solutions that coordinate urbanization with conservation of the ecological environment.

Ecological restoration and conservation are primary components of sustainable development around the world, particularly during the contemporary era of climate change. However, restoration and conservation are not free; they consume huge amounts of resources that would otherwise support social and economic development. Therefore, excessive conservation creates a risk of creating rather than eliminating poverty. Unfortunately, scientists have largely ignored the balance between these contrasting goals. Here, we discuss the concept of finding the threshold that represents a suitable balance between ecological conservation and economic development, thereby maximizing the benefits for both humans and the environment and promoting sustainable development. To demonstrate the concept, we examined China's ecological restoration achievements and discussed some of the unforeseen negative consequences that accompanied these achievements to discuss how future policies could better balance ecological and socioeconomic goals.

CO 2 -responsive Pickering emulsions were fabricated on the basis of polymeric nanoaggregates with adjustable surface wettability. The static Pickering emulsion system provides an efficient and sustainable platform for in situ separation and reuse of catalysts in biphasic reactions.

Pickering interfacial catalysis provides an excellent platform for biphasic reactions, but the separation and recycling of nanocatalysts is a challenge because of high adsorption energy of nanocatalysts at the liquid-liquid interface. In this work, we represent a new type of versatile Pickering emulsion based on magnetic and CO 2 -responsive nanohybrids Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 @P(TMA-DEA). The smart nanoparticles can stabilize the water-in-oil Pickering emulsion in the biphasic system and achieve the subsequent demulsification by bubbling CO 2 ascribed to their reversible switching surface. In the absence of energy barrier, the nanohybrids can be easily captured in situ by magnetic field in 2 min and showed excellent recyclability. In the Anelli system for alcohol oxidation, the nanocatalyst exhibited threefold enhancement in catalytic efficiency in comparison with an unemulsified two-phase and little loss on activity after five cycles. The conceptually novel dual-responsive system offers a green and energy-saving strategy for effective recycling of the nanocatalyst and intensification of biphasic reaction.

Land degradation is a global environmental problem that jeopardizes human safety and socioeconomic development. To alleviate severe soil erosion and desertification due to deforestation and overgrazing, China has implemented historically unprecedented large-scale afforestation. However, few studies have accounted for the resulting imbalance between water supply (primarily precipitation) and water consumption (evapotranspiration), which will affect ecosystem health and socioeconomic development. We compared the water balance results between restoration by means of afforestation and restoration using the potential natural vegetation to guide future ecological restoration planning and environmental policy development. Based on estimates of water consumption from seven evapotranspiration models, we discuss the consequences for water security using data obtained since 1952 under China's large-scale afforestation program. The models estimated that afforestation will increase water consumption by 559-2354 m 3 /ha annually compared with natural vegetation. Although afforestation is a potentially important approach for environmental restoration, China's current policy has not been tailored to local precipitation conditions, and will have therefore exacerbated water shortages and decrease the ability to achieve environmental policy goals. Our analysis shows how, both in China and around the world, future ecological restoration planning must account for the water balance to ensure effective and sustainable environmental restoration policy., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

China has among the highest biodiversities in the world, but faces extreme biodiversity losses due to the country's huge population and its recent explosive socioeconomic development. Despite huge efforts and investments by the government and Chinese society to conserve biodiversity, especially in recent decades, biodiversity losses may not have been reversed, and may even have been exacerbated by unintended consequences resulting from these projects. China's centralized approach to biodiversity conservation, with limited local participation, creates an inflexible and inefficient approach because of conflicts between local communities and national administrators over the benefits. Although community-based conservation may be an imperfect approach, it is an essential component of a successful future national conservation plan. Biodiversity conservation should be considered from the perspective of systems engineering and a governance structure that combines centralization with community-level conservation. In this paper, we describe China's complex challenge: how to manage interactions between humans and nature to find win-win solutions that can ensure long-term biodiversity conservation without sacrificing human concerns.

Many societies face an income gap between rich regions with access to advanced technology and regions that are rich in natural resources but poorer in technology. This "resource curse" can lead to a Kuznets trap, in which economic inequalities between the rich and the poor increase during the process of socioeconomic development. This can also lead to depletion of natural resources, environmental degradation, social instability, and declining socioeconomic development. These problems will jeopardize China's achievements if the current path continues to be pursued without intervention by the government to solve the problems. To mitigate the socioeconomic development gap between western and eastern China, the government implemented its Western Development Program in 2000. However, recent data suggest that this program has instead worsened the resource curse. Because each region has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, China must escape the resource curse by accounting for this difference; in western China, this can be done by improving education, promoting high-tech industry, adjusting its economic strategy to balance regional development, and seeking more sustainable approaches to socioeconomic development.

Reducing China's population has formerly been considered a good thing because of the perceived environmental and social risks of overpopulation, but it has recently become apparent that the resulting population decline may create problems that will become increasingly serious in the future. The results of a survey of 4600 women in nineteen Chinese provinces in 2005 indicated that young age, high income, high education level, urban location and good employment all decreased a woman's willingness to bear children. The risks created by declining fertility in these groups have been intensified by China's 'one child' family planning policy. However, as a result of current trends and China's policies, the country's population will continue to age, leading to social problems and difficulties for sustainable development both in China and around the world. Therefore, China's policy-makers must begin planning to adjust their policy by encouraging women to give birth to more than one child.

Reconfiguration of hillside field into terrace is regarded as one of the key techniques for water and soil conservation in mountainous regions. On slopes exceeding 30 degrees, the traditional techniques of terracing are difficult to apply as risers (i.e., backslopes), and if not reinforced, are so abrupt and easy to collapse under gravity alone, thus damaging the terrace. To improve the reconfiguration of hillside field into terrace, holistic techniques of soft-ridged bench terrace engineering, including revegetation, with trees and planting grasses on riser slopes, were tested between 1997 and 2001 in Xiabiangou watershed of Yan' an, Shaanxi Province. A "working with Nature" engineering approach, riser slopes of 45 degrees, similar to the pre-existing slope of 35 degrees, was employed to radically reduce gravity-erosion. Based on the concepts of biodiversity and the principles of landscape ecology, terrace benches, bunds, and risers were planted with trees, shrubs, forage grasses, and crops, serving to generate a diverse array of plants, a semi-forested area, and to stabilize terrace bunds. Soft-ridged bench terrace made it possible to significantly reduce hazards arising from gravity erosion, and reduce the costs of individual bench construction and maintenance by 24.9% and 55.5% of the costs under traditional techniques, respectively. Such a construction allowed an enrichment and concentration of nutrients in the soils of terrace bunds, providing an ideal environment for a range of plants to grow and develop. The terrace riser could be planted with drought-resistant plants ranging from forage grasses to trees, and this riser vegetation would turn the exposed bunds and risers existing under traditional techniques into plant-covered belts, great green ribbons decorating farmland and contributing to the enhancement of the landscape biology.