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A number of countries are concerned, to a certain degree, about the prospects for the implementation of the Chinese strategic initiative for the joint creation of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” (SREB). These concerns relate to fears of the transfer from China to the “belt” countries of excessive capacities of the polluting primaries industries, possible environmental degradation, and the destruction of the traditional way of life as a result of the implementation of mega-projects, and the fragility and vulnerability of many ecosystems along the routes of the prospective throughways between the eastern provinces of China and Europe [Bezrukov, 2016]. Environmental problems are clearly of key importance for the prospects of China’s initiative. The initiative’s program documents have stressed the need to take into account the interests of all parties and act solely on the basis of mutual benefit. The authors briefly consider the variety of natural and socio-economic conditions in the SREB zone and the sharp differences in the degree of economic development of the territory, which require close attention and scientific justification for political and economic decisions. Particular differences include temperature regime, precipitation, modern atmospheric circulation, transport of particulate matter and contaminants, soils, vegetation, land use, and risks of desertification in the SREB zone. The potential of complementarity of the natural resources of China and a number of neighboring countries may be realized. The paper also discusses China’s present policy in the transition to sustainable development and its underlying concepts and achievements, especially at the level of regions and cities, including the concept of “ecological civilization” and the six stages of greening of cities. The authors believe that tourism related activities should be coordinated specifically at the city level as part of “green development.” It is necessary to create free economic zones in the “economic corridors” along the planned transcontinental lines and utilize the existing national special zones. Such zones are particularly effective in border regions and cities. In conclusion, it is recommended to develop international research networks in the SREB zone, to establish an International Data Center, and to collect, organize, exchange, and publish jointly scientific information on the problems of transition to sustainable development.

“The Silk Road Economic Belt” and “the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” initiative aims at promoting regulated flow of economic factors, allocating resources efficiently, integrating markets, and developing a broader, higher, and deeper level of regional interaction to create an open, inclusive, balanced, and widely beneficial regional economic cooperation framework. Comprehensive and objective assessment and research on investment-climate geopolitical strategy of the countries in the “Belt and Road” zone would help improve security and stability of China’s foreign economic and trade exchanges along with its political and economic influence. Based on Delphi technique, the investment environment evaluation system of the “Belt and Road” countries has been developed and used to comprehensively analyze social and economic development, traffic infrastructure, informatization, resources, and political and security environment, all of which are the important conditions for investment environment of the “Belt and Road” countries. The results show that Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Central Asia, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, and Hungary represent the attractive investment areas. Eastern Europe, India, and Iran represent the key investment areas. Based on the analysis, investment strategy steps for the “Belt and Road” countries have been formulated. We hope our research can provide the scientific foundation for decision-making in China in relation to the “Belt and Road” foreign investment strategy.

The present study aims to report a five-step nutritional intervention conducted by a multidisciplinary care team as well as to investigate its effects on the nutritional status and quality of life of gastroenteric cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. A total of 176 patients with newly diagnosed gastroenteric cancer were enrolled in the observational study. The nutritional status of the patients was assessed using Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and Nutritional Risk Screening-2002 (NRS-2002), and anthropometry and biological tests were performed. Patients were randomly divided into intervention group (n = 40) and control group (n = 38). Patients in the intervention group received five-step nutrition intervention, while the control group received routine nutrition management. In the newly diagnosed patients with gastroenteric cancer, 50% presented mild to moderate malnutrition, 29.5% presented severe malnutrition, while only 20.5% of patients were in good nutritional status. Nutritional interventions reduced the progression of malnutrition after 10 weeks. Anthropometric parameters increased as well as function and symptoms improved; therefore, controlled the decline in quality of life. To sum up, five-step nutritional interventions conducted by a multidisciplinary care team improved the nutritional status of patients with gastroenteric cancer undergoing chemotherapy, and showed positive impacts on quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]