Hepatitis C virus cure with direct acting antivirals: Clinical,economic, societal and patient value for China

About 10 million people in China are infected with hepatitis C virus(HCV),with the seroprevalence of anti-HCV in the general population estimated at 0.6%.Delaying effective treatment of chronic hepatitis C(CHC)is associated with liver disease progression,cirrhosis,hepatocellular carcinoma,and liver-related mortality.The extrahepatic manifestations of CHC further add to the disease burden of patients.Managing CHC-related advanced liver diseases and systemic manifestations are costly for both the healthcare system and society.Loss of work productivity due to reduced well-being and quality of life in CHC patients further compounds the economic burden of the disease.Traditionally,pegylatedinterferon plus ribavirin(PR)was the standard of care.However,a substantial number of patients are ineligible for PR treatment,and only 40%–75%achieved sustained virologic response.Furthermore,PR is associated with impairment of patient-reported outcomes(PROs),high rates of adverse events,and poor adherence.With the advent of direct acting antivirals(DAAs),the treatment of CHC patients has been revolutionized.DAAs have broader eligible patient populations,higher efficacy,better PRO profiles,fewer adverse events,and better adherence rates,thereby making it possible to cure a large proportion of all CHC patients.This article aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation on the value of effective,curative hepatitis C treatment from the clinical,economic,societal,and patient experience perspectives,with a focus on recent data from China,supplemented with other Asian and international experiences where China data are not available.

Measuring Societal Impact Is as Complex as ABC

Purpose: This paper describes an alternative way of assessing journals considering a broader perspective of its impact. The Area-based connectedness(ABC) to society of journals applied here contributes to the assessment of the dissemination task of journals but with more data it may also contribute to the assessment of other missions.Design/methodology/approach: The ABC approach assesses the performance of research actors, in this case journals, considering the characteristics of the research areas in which they are active. Each paper in a journal inherits the characteristics of its area. These areas are defined by a publication-based classification. The characteristics of areas relate to 5 dimensions of connectedness to society(news, policy, industrial R&D, technology and local interest) and are calculated by bibliometric indicators and social media metrics. Findings: In the paper, I illustrate the approach by showing the results for a few journals. They illustrate the diverse profiles that journals may have. We are able to provide a profile for each journal in the Web of Science database. The profiles we present show an appropriate view on the journals’ societal connectedness.Research limitations: The classification I apply to perform the analyses is a CWTS in house classification based on Web of Science data. As such the application depends on the(updates of) that system. The classification is available at www.leidenranking.com.Practical implications: The dimensions of connectedness discussed in this paper relate to the dissemination task of journals but further development of this method may provide more options to monitor the tasks/mission of journals. Originality/value: The ABC approach is a unique way to assess performance or impact of research actors considering the characteristics of the areas in which output is published and as such less prone to manipulation or gaming.

The Enlightenments of An Experimental Research on Societal Needs of EGP and ESP

With China’s entry into WTO and the opening-up of China’s economy to outside world,more foreign companies have flooded into China.And then English is playing a more and more important role in the world and in China.ESP(English for Specific Purposes)also goes to the fastest growing area of English in China.Therefore,an experimental research on societal needs of EGP and ESP is conducted in this essay,whose results the teachers of ESP and EGP(English for General Purposes)can benefit from,such as designing syllabus and the courses,adopting and adapting materials,operating the classroom teaching,and evaluating the teaching process.Correspondingly,only by way of combining specific knowledge with learning skills can the students’English learning be really improved to sow the seeds of benefits for their future work and learning.

An Examination of Computer Science and Internet Technologies in Addressing Educational Inequities and Societal Psychological Concerns:A Literature Review from the Perspectives of 5G,Artificial Intelligence,and Augmented/Virtual Reality

This study comprehensively reviews the literature to deeply explore the role of computer science and internet technologies in addressing educational inequality and socio-psychological issues,with a particular focus on applications of 5G,artificial intelligence(AI),and augmented/virtual reality(AR/VR).By analyzing how these technologies are reshaping learning and their potential to ameliorate educational disparities,the study reveals challenges present in ensuring educational equity.The research methodology includes exhaustive reviews of applications of AI and machine learning,the Internet of Things and wearable technologies integration,big data analytics and data mining,and the effects of online platforms and social media on socio-psychological issues.Besides,the study discusses applications of these technologies in educational inequality and socio-psychological problem-solving through the lens of 5G,AI,and AR/VR,while also delineating challenges faced by these emerging technologies and future outlooks.The study finds that while computer science and internet technologies hold promise to bridge academic divides and address socio-psychological problems,the complexity of technology access and infrastructure,lack of digital literacy and skills,and critical ethical and privacy issues can impact widespread adoption and efficacy.Overall,the study provides a novel perspective to understand the potential of computer science and internet technologies in ameliorating educational inequality and socio-psychological issues,while pointing to new directions for future research.It also emphasizes the importance of cooperation among educational institutions,technology vendors,policymakers and researchers,and establishing comprehensive ethical guidelines and regulations to ensure the responsible use of these technologies.

EXPLORING ON-LINE SOCIETAL RISK PERCEPTION FOR HARMONIOUS SOCIETY MEASUREMENT

The nearly 30-year economic growth miracle brings the consequent tremendous poor-rich gap leading strong drives for social transformation in current China. Chinese top leaders have realized to increase the peoples＇ income, improve quality of life and construct a ＂harmonious society＂ as key missions especially in recent 10 years. How to measure a harmonious society is one important topic as different measures may lead to different development policies. This paper outlines over 10 indices relevant to measure a harmonious society. Some are global indicators, while some are contributed by domestic researchers and arouse debates. Most of those indicators require conducting surveys on social attitudes under micro levels, which is always time consuming with problem of data quality. As Internet technology advances provide ways to record and disseminate fresh community ideas and thoughts conveniently, detecting topics or emotions from on-line public opinions is becoming a trend or one supplement way to overcome those data acquisition problems. This paper discusses one approach to on-line societal risk perception using hot search words and BBS posts. Such a trial aims to provide another way to societal risk perception different from those in traditional socio psychology studies. Challenges are also indicated.

The Distributed Representation for Societal Risk Classification toward BBS Posts

The risk classification of BBS posts is important to the evaluation of societal risk level within a period. Using the posts collected from Tianya forum as the data source, the authors adopted the societal risk indicators from socio psychology, and conduct document-level multiple societal risk classification of BBS posts. To effectively capture the semantics and word order of documents, a shallow neural network as Paragraph Vector is applied to realize the distributed vector representations of the posts in the vector space. Based on the document vectors, the authors apply one classification method KNN to identify the societal risk category of the posts. The experimental results reveal that paragraph vector in document-level societal risk classification achieves much faster training speed and at least 10% improvements of F-measures than Bag-of-Words. Furthermore, the performance of paragraph vector is also superior to edit distance and Lucene-based search method. The present work is the first attempt of combining document embedding method with socio psychology research results to public opinions area.

AN EMPIRICAL FEASIBILITY STUDY OF SOCIETAL RISK CLASSIFICATION TOWARD BBS POSTS

Societal risk classification is the fundamental issue for online societal risk monitoring. To show the challenge and feasibility of societal risk classification toward BBS posts, an empirical analysis is implemented in this paper. Through effectiveness analysis, Support Vector Machine based on Bag-Of-Words （BOW-SVM） is adopted for challenge validation, and the distributed document embeddings of BBS posts generated by Paragraph Vector are applied to feasibility study. Based on BOW-SVM, cross-validations of BBS posts labeled by different groups and annotators are conducted. The big fluctuation of cross-validation results indicates the differences of individual risk perceptions, which brings more challenges to societal risk classification. Furthermore, based on the distributed document embeddings of BBS posts, the pairwise similarities of more than 300 thousands BBS posts from different societal risk categories are compared. The higher similarities of BBS posts in the same societal risk category reveal that BBS posts in the same societal risk category share more features than BBS posts in different categories, which manifests the feasibility of societal risk classification of BBS posts, and also reflects the possibility to improve the performance of societal risk monitoring.

A CAUSALITY ANALYSIS OF SOCIETAL RISK PERCEPTION AND STOCK MARKET VOLATILITY IN CHINA

Modem China is undergoing a variety of social conflicts as the arrival of new era with thetransformation of the principal contradiction. Then monitoring the society stable is a huge workload.Online societal risk perception is acquired by mapping on-line public concerns respectively intosocietal risk events including national security, economy ＆ finance, public morals, daily life, socialstability, government management, and resources ＆ environment, and then provides one kind ofmeasurement toward the society state. Obviously, stable and harmonious social situations are the basicguarantee for the healthy development of the stock market. Thus we concern whether the variations ofthe societal risk are related to stock market volatility. We study their relationships by two steps, firstthe relationships between search trends and societal risk perception; next the relationships betweensocietal risk perception and stock volatility. The weekend and holiday effects in China stock market aretaken into consideration. Three different econometric methods are explored to observe the impacts ofvariations of societal risk on Shanghai Composite Index and Shenzhen Composite Index. 3 majorfindings are addressed. Firstly, there exist causal relations between Baidu Index and societal riskperception. Secondly, the perception of finance ＆ economy, social stability, and governmentmanagement has distinguishing effects on the volatility of both Shanghai Composite Index and Shenzhen Composite Index. Thirdly, the weekend and holiday effects of societal risk perception on the stock market are verified. The research demonstrates that capturing societal risk based on on-line public concerns is feasible and meaningful.

ENSEMBLE OF MULTIPLE kNN CLASSIFIERS FOR SOCIETAL RISK CLASSIFICATION

Societal risk classification is a fundamental and complex issue for societal risk perception. To conduct societal risk classification, Tianya Forum posts are selected as the data source, and four kinds of representations： string representation, term-frequency representation, TF-IDF representation and the distributed representation of BBS posts are applied. Using edit distance or cosine similarity as distance metric, four k-Nearest Neighbor （kNN） classifiers based on different representations are developed and compared. Owing to the priority of word order and semantic extraction of the neural network model Paragraph Vector, kNN based on the distributed representation generated by Paragraph Vector （kNN-PV） shows effectiveness for societal risk classification. Furthermore, to improve the performance of societal risk classification, through different weights, kNN-PV is combined with other three kNN classifiers as an ensemble model. Through brute force grid search method, the optimal weights are assigned to different kNN classifiers. Compared with kNN-PV, the experimental results reveal that Macro-F of the ensemble method is significantly improved for societal risk classification.

Evolution Analysis of Societal Risk Events by Risk Maps

Event evolution analysis which provides an effective approach to capture the main context of a story from explosive increased news texts has become the critical basis for many real applications,such as crisis and emergency management and decision making.Especially,the development of societal risk events which may cause some possible harm to society or individuals has been heavily concerned by both the government and the public.In order to capture the evolution and trends of societal risk events,this paper presents an improved algorithm based on the method of information maps.It contains an event-level cluster generation algorithm and an evaluation algorithm.The main work includes:1)Word embedding representation is adopted and event-level clusters are chosen as nodes of the events evolution chains which may comprehensively present the underlying structure of events.Meanwhile,clusters that consist of risk-labeled events enable to illustrate how events evolve along the time with transitions of risks.2)One real-world case,the event of"Chinese Red Cross",is studied and a series of experiments are conducted.3)An evaluation algorithm is proposed on the basis of indicators of map construction without massive human-annotated dataset.Our approach for event evolution analysis automatically generates a visual evolution of societal risk events,displaying a clear and structural picture of events development.

Generating Storyline with Societal Risk from Tianya Club

Major societal problems affect the social stability. It is necessary to understand the public opinion toward those issues to avoid social conflicts. Nowadays the social media become the major platform to track what the public is concerned about and which may be of the societal risk. However,it is very tough to capture the public attention in short time due to huge flow of user-generated contents.In this paper, we approach this problem by expanding the method of generating storyline with the result displayed by a multi-view graph. One real-world example is illustrated and evaluation is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Participatory Risk Governance for Reducing Disaster and Societal Risks:Collaborative Knowledge Production and Implementation

The background, purpose, and design of this special section are briefly explained in this introductory article. Three aspects emerged from the articles in this special section and are highlighted to provide a frame of reference for the reader:(1) a paradigm shift towards adaptive and integrative disaster risk governance;(2) a framework that situates adaptive and integrative risk governance in the context of transformation toward sustainability; and(3) the introduction of ‘‘implementation science'' as a concept, method, and emerging field that brings natural and social sciences, engineering, and humanities jointly to bear in risk mitigation and adaptation.

SOCIETAL PROBLEMS MORE COMPLEX THAN PRESUMED： THE COMPRAM METHODOLOGY

Complex societal problems are often wrongly addressed by politicians as mono-disciplinary, relatively easy to solve problems. By directly jumping to conclusions politicians overlook the complexity of the problems in their decision making process. Complex societal problems are generally interdisciplinary problems and should be addressed in a multi-disciplinary way considering the multiple actors and their interactions, the many variables involved, as well as the emotions that the problems provokes. These many interactions are the cause of the complexity of the problem handling process. It is high time that complex societal problems are addressed by the politicians in the right way using the methodology, methods and tools of the field of Methodology of Societal Complexity so the problems can be handled in an adequate, transparent, efficient and proper way, mitigating the damage the problems are causing. The field of Methodology of Societal Complexity developed ways to guide the problem handling process of complex societal problems for analysing, decision making and implementing interventions in an adequate, democratic and efficient way. The Compram methodology is a major methodology in this field and directs in a structured, democratic, and efficient way, the problem handling process of complex societal problems by using a multi-disciplinary, multi actor approach including emotional aspects. The OECD （2006） advised governments to handle complex societal problems that threaten global safety according to the Compram methodology. The universities should include issues of the field of Societal Complexity into their disciplines so that future managers are aware how complex societal problems should be handled.

Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Society orthopedic surgeons in the United States:An analysis of geographical distribution,academic,leadership,and demographic characteristics

BACKGROUND The Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Society(LLRS)is a premier orthopedic specialty organization that promotes limb reconstruction for all ages.LLRS membership characteristics,however,are poorly reported.This study delineates orthopedic surgeon LLRS members’demographic traits,academic achievement,leadership attainment,and geographical distribution across the United States.AIM To inform aspiring orthopedic professionals,as well as to promote growth and diversity in both the LLRS organization and overarching field.METHODS This cross-sectional study examined United States LLRS members’academic,leadership,demographic,and geographical attributes.After reviewing the 2023 LLRS member directory,Google search results were matched to the listings and appended to the compiled data.Sex and ethnicity were evaluated visually utilizing retrieved images.The Hirsch index(H-index)of academic activity,residency and fellowship training,other graduate degrees,leadership positions,practice type(academic or non-academic),and spoken languages were categorized.LLRS members per state and capita determined geographic distribution.The Mann Whitney U test was applied to compare H-index between males and females,as well as to assess member differences pertaining to affiliation with academic vs non-academic practice facilities.RESULTS The study included 101 orthopedic surgeons,78(77.23%)Caucasian and 23(22.77%)non-Caucasian,79(78.22%)male and 22(21.78%)female.Surgeons with DO degrees comprised only 3.96%(4)of the cohort,while the vast majority held MDs[96.04%(97)].Mean H-index was 10.55,with male surgeons having a significantly higher score(P=0.002).Most orthopedic surgeons(88.12%,)practiced in academic centers.Of those professionals who occupied leadership positions,14%were women,while 86%were men.Additionally,19(37.25%)United States regions and the District of Columbia lacked an LLRS-member orthopedic surgeon.Total per capita rate across the United States was 0.30 LLRS orthopedic surgeons per 1 million people.CONCLUSION Over 21%of LLRS members are women,surpassing prior benchmarks noted in orthopedic faculty reporting.LLRS members’high research productivity scores imply field dedication that can refine expertise in the limb lengthening and reconstruction space.Gender disparities in leadership remain,however,necessitating greater equity efforts.A low rate of LLRS representation per capita must be addressed geographically as well,to affect improvements in regional care access.This study can serve to support aspiring orthopedic professionals,inform diversity,leadership,and field advancement strategies,and maintain the continued goal of enhanced patient care worldwide.

Chinese Culture,Classical Philosophy,and the Cultivation of Life

This paper explores the intricate relationship between Chinese culture and the nation’s rise,emphasizing the indispensable role of cultural education in fostering a robust national spirit and civilization.Drawing from classical Chinese texts and contemporary philosophical insights,the study examines how cultural virtues and educational practices can lead to societal harmony,national rejuvenation,and global contributions.The analysis highlights the enduring relevance of Confucian principles and their potential to address modern challenges,advocating for a renewed focus on cultural education to achieve a prosperous and peaceful world.Additionally,it underscores the necessity of integrating traditional values with modern educational practices to create a holistic approach that fosters ethical leadership and global cooperation.

Expanding the Definition and Measurement of Knowledge Economy： Integrating Triple Bottom Line Factors into Knowledge Economy Index Models and Methodologies

The application of knowledge is a primary source of growth in the knowledge economy. The World Bank Group has developed a rigorous assessment methodology for assessing a country＇s ability to access and use knowledge to become more competitive in the knowledge economy of the 21st century. The World Bank＇s annual knowledge economy index is grounded on a four-pillar model： （1） economic incentives and institutional regime; （2） education and skills; （3） information and communication infrastructure; and （4） innovation systems. An argument can be made that the model lacks coverage of some key factors that pertain to intellectual capital and the production and consumption of knowledge. The model＇s heavy focus on economic incentives and open institutional regimes comes at a societal cost. This paper proposes an alternative knowledge economy index which is grounded in a more holistic and balanced view of a knowledge society. Adopting the perspective of triple bottom line shifts the purpose and design of a knowledge economy from one of aggregation and reporting to action and involvement. The World Bank＇s scorecard and indexing methodology are adaptable to this new perspective and a new set of indicators.

Understanding and Forecasting Zonda Wind (Andean Foehn) in Argentina: A Review

This paper focuses on the “state of the art” research of the Argentinian zonda wind at the beginning of 2015. Zonda (similar to foehn) is a strong, warm, very dry wind associated with adiabatic compression upon descending the eastern slopes of the Andes Cordillera in western central Argentina. Particularly, hourly surface meteorological information obtained from the Argentine National Weather Service (Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, SMN) from Mendoza Aero (32?50’S, 68?47’W, 704 m ASL) and San Juan Aero (31?34’S, 68?25’W, 598 m ASL) airport meteorological stations was used. The paper contains a history of zonda research mentioning the principal papers since the 1950s, the characteristics of zonda wind (conceptual model, a classic event, intensities categories) and examples of non-classical episodes. Also zonda dynamics, zonda climatology and forecasting problems are considered. A probabilistic method and the model forecast that are running in operative way are commented. Also the climate impact, air quality and damages caused are mentioned. There has been substantial progress in the understanding of this kind of complex wind during the last years, especially since the last decade, accelerated using different models. This paper has highlighted some of these advances by synthesizing some of the major findings. The probabilistic prediction method developed in the 1980s is still very useful to predict zonda in the cities of San Juan and Mendoza. This as well as the new available tools, such as the eta/PRM and GEM models running operatively (continuously) at PRM (Mendoza Regional Meteorology Program), offered the community the possibility to generate an Early Warning System to warn the population particularly in its severe manifestations. The answer to questions regarding time of onset of the event, place where it will occur first, duration, intensity and offset still poses a great challenge for researchers and forecasters in the region.

Curriculum Reform： Theory of Curriculum-A Starting or a Final Point of Curriculum Reform

Knowledge is essentially a human construct and it evolves continuously on reflective thinking and is practiced systematically in educational institutions. Education has to develop man＇s intellectual, physical, and spiritual powers for survival and develop enrichment factors of life through its curriculum which has certainty of content and methodology based on the educational objectives. Curriculum must build the capacity of individuals. Hence, the author defines curriculum and argues the results as better life style. Also, the author projects the expectations of the twenty-first century learners, and has extended the educational objectives to one more domain as enterprise domain, emphasizing that education must aim to develop entrepreneurial skills of learners. Therefore, it is essential that any curriculum be framed in the light of the existing curriculum, educational transaction, needs of the society, and measurable practices and evaluation, and must aim for enrichment in curricular knowledge, pedagogy and transmission techniques, and value inculcation. The author portrays the results of education.

ADOPTION OF GREEN BUILDING GUIDELINES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BASED ON U.S.AND INDIA EXPERIENCES

In the wake of sustainable construction entering the mainstream,many developing countries are either currently pursuing green building guidelines or are planning to pursue them in the near future.This research attempts to formulate an implementation strategy for the rapid adoption of these guidelines for the developing nations.This implementation strategy is based on the detailed review of the major green building guidelines globally and contex-tual information of Indian society collected through a survey questionnaire.The proposed strategy shows that it is important for green building initiatives to identify:the organizations that accelerate the adoption of green building guidelines in a society,the incentives and barriers associated with the green building guidelines,and the necessary motivations for the adopter organizations.An informed approach in the form of this implementation strategy might potentially contribute to the acceleration of green building guidelines’adoption in developing countries.

Forbidden Fruit Tastes the Sweetest—A Study of Norwegians’ Consumption Pattern of Chocolate, Sweets, Salty Snacks, Soft Drinks and the Like

The theme of this study is eating and drinking patterns for products of which the health authorities want the Norwegian people to reduce their consumption. Although consumption development has shown positive trends over the past few years, Norwegians still have a much higher intake of such products than what is advisable. The study showed that only a small proportion had not eaten chocolate, sweets, sweet pastries, salty snacks etc. in the last seven days. Young people, men, people with low education and people living in households with children had the highest eating and drinking frequency of these kinds of products. Gender and age had the strongest impact on eating and drinking frequency. However, women had a higher eating rate of chocolate and sweets, and men had a higher eating and drinking frequency of salty snacks and sugary soda. People with low education had a considerably higher frequency of drinking sugary soda than people with high education. Among those who ate these products weekly, there were many who expressed that they would prefer to avoid such products, but that they were often tempted. Among those who ate these products a few times a month or less, few said that they did not like chocolate, sweets, etc. The main reason for having a relatively low eating and drinking frequency was that they perceived such products as unhealthy and fattening. Although there were only a few in the group of respondents who were concerned with healthy eating that had not eaten any of the listed products in the past seven days, this group had a significantly lower frequency of eating chocolate, sweets, etc. than the group that was not concerned with this. It was also clear that people who were health conscious to a greater extent limited eating of such products to the weekends and special occasions than those who were not. In order to succeed in reducing eating and drinking frequency of these products, it will be necessary to draw attention to product availability and social acceptance.