Desertification Assessment Indicator System in China

Based on the definition of desertification adopted by United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification,particularly in Africa, first,the patterns of desertification in China are introduced.Second,desertification assessment indicator system that used in China is presented.It includes:(1)climate classification;(2)classification of land use;(3)classification of desertification patterns which include wind erosion,water erosion,salinization,and grassland degradation;(4)grading index of desertification that includes grading index of desertification caused by wind erosion,desertification caused by water erosion,desertification caused by salinization,indicators of grassland degradation classification.At last,some detailed factors that can be used as indicators in desertification assessment are discussed.

A quantitative comparison and analysis on the assessment indicators of greenhouse gases emission

Anthropogenic greenhouse gases （GHG） emission and related global warming issues have been the focus of international communities for some time. The international communities have reached a consensus to reduce anthropogenic GHG emissions and restrain global warming. The quantitative assessment of anthropogenic GHG emissions is the scientific basis to find out the status of global GHG emission, identify the commitments of each country, and arrange the international efforts of GHG emission reduction. Currently the main assessment indicators for GHG emission include national indicator, per capita indicator, per GDP indicator, and international trade indicator etc. The introduction to the above indi- cators is put forward and their merits and demerits are analyzed. Based on the GHG emission data from the World Resource Institute （WRI）, the US Energy Information Administration （EIA）, and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center （CDIAC）, the results of each indictor are calculated for the world, for the eight G8 industrialized countries （USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Russia）, and the five major developing countries including China, Brazil, India, South Africa and Mexico. The paper points out that all these indicators have some limitations. The Indicator of Industrialized Accumulative Emission per Capita （IAEC） is put forward as the equitable indicator to evaluate the industrialized historical accumulative emission per capita of every country. IAEC indicator can reflect the economic achievement of GHG emission enjoyed by the current generations in every country and their commitments. The analysis of IAEC indicates that the historical accumulative emission per capita in indus- trialized countries such as UK and USA were typically higher than those of the world average and the developing countries. Emission indicator per capita per GDP, consumptive emission indicator and survival emission indicator are also put forward and discussed in the paper.

Entropy method for determination of weight of evaluating indicators in fuzzy synthetic evaluation for water quality assessment

Considering the difficulty of fuzzy synthetic evaluation method in calculation of the multiple factors and ignorance of the relationship among evaluating objects, a new weight evaluation process using entropy method was introduced. This improved method for determination of weight of the evaluating indicators was applied in water quality assessment of the Three Gorges reservoir area. The results showed that this method was favorable for fuzzy synthetic evaluation when there were more than one evaluating objects. One calculation was enough for calculating every monitoring point. Compared with the original evaluation method, the method predigested the fuzzy synthetic evaluation process greatly and the evaluation results are more reasonable.

Multi-indicator assessment of water environment in government environmental auditing

This study focused on a multi-indicator assessment methodology for governmental environmental auditing of water protection programs. The environmental status of Wuli Lake in China was assessed using the global indicators （driver-status-response） developed by the Commission on Sustainable Development, and four additional indicators proposed by the author： water quality, pollution load, aquatic ecosystem status, and lake sediment deposition. Various hydrological, chemical, biological and environmental parameters were used to estimate the values of the indicators for assessment of environmental status of the lake based on time series data sets for twenty years. The indicators proposed can be customized to meeting the needs for particular assessment of water protection programs. This method can be used to evaluate the performance of national environmental protection programs and provide technical support for environmental auditors.

Development and Application of Integrated Indicators for Assessing Healthcare Waste Management Systems in Kenyan Hospitals

Healthcare waste management (HCWM) is an important aspect of healthcare delivery globally because of its hazardous and infectious components that have potential for adverse health and environmental impacts. The paper introduces a set of indicators for assessing HCWM systems in hospitals. These indicators are: HCWM policies and standard operating procedures, management and oversight, logistics and budget support, training and occupational health and safety, and treatment, disposal and waste treatment equipment housing. By plotting a mark on a continuum which is defined as good and poor on the extremes and is connected with all other marks in a spoke arrangement, it’s possible to describe a baseline for HCWM in any specific hospital. This baseline can be used to improve awareness of the actors and policy-makers, compare the same hospital at a different point in time, to compare observations by different evaluators and to track improvements. Results suggest that in Kenya, the application of such indicators is useful for evaluating which priorities should be addressed to improve outcomes in HCWM systems. Systematic sampling technique was used to identify and collect data by use of observational checklist, interviews, visual verification and review of documents and a HCWM assessment tool. The objective is to suggest an integrated management tool as a method to identify prevailing problems with a HCWM system. The method can be replicated in other contexts worldwide, with a focus on the developing world. The integrated indicators focus on management of HCW and not its potential impact on human health and environment, an area recognized to be critical for future research.

Oil maturity assessment using maturity indicators based on methylated dibenzothiophenes

Aromatic fractions of 140 oils and condensates that originated from different types of source rocks （marine shale,terrestrial shale and marine carbonate） were analyzed using gas chromatographymass spectrometry （GC-MS） to investigate the relative distributions of methylated dibenzothiophenes with respect to thermal maturity.The positions of methyl groups of trimethyldibenzothiophene isomers （TMDBTs） including those used in the definition of maturity indicator TMDBT index in previous studies were firmly identified by co-elution of internal standards in GC-MS analysis and by comparing with reported retention indices.A new maturity ratio related to dimethyldibenzothiophenes （DMDBTs） is proposed on the basis of the differences in thermodynamic stability among different DMDBT isomers.Another maturity index （TMDBT-I2） based on TMDBTs is also suggested on the basis of our empirical observations and presumed thermodynamic stability of TMDBT isomers.These two newly proposed （2,6 ＋ 3,6）-/1,4-DMDBT ratio and TMDBT-I2 correlate well with MDR （4-/1-methyldibenzothiophene）and 2,4-/1,4-DMDBT ratios,suggesting their common chemical reaction mechanisms and similar behavior with increasing maturity.Therefore,they can be effectively applied for maturity assessments.Furthermore,the TMDBTs related maturity parameters are more reliable for over-mature oils and condensates due to the relatively higher concentrations of thermodynamically unstable TMDBT isomers,i.e.1,4,6-,1,4,8-and 3,4,6-TMDBT in this study than those of 1-methyldibenzothiophene （1-MDBT） or 1,4-DMDBT.In contrast with 4,6-/1,4-DMDBT,the newly proposed （2,6 ＋ 3,6）-/1,4-DMDBT ratios for oils that originated from different types of source rocks have approximately same relationship with the oil maturity （Rc %）.This suggests that the lithology and organic facies may have relatively less influence on （2,6 ＋ 3,6）-/1,4-DMDBT ratio compared to 4,6-/1,4-DMDBT.The maturity parameters based on methylated dibenzothiophenes are particularly useful in the maturity assessments of post-and over-mature oils and condensates and can complement maturity indicators based on steranes and terpanes.

SIGMAPLUG—A NEW TEMPERATURE INDICATOR FOR REMAINING LIFE ASSESSMENT OF HIGH TEMPERATURE COMPONENTS

Improved life assessment techniques will enable engineering components to be replaced before failure, thereby reducing the risk of industrial accidents as well as minimizing financial loss due to unscheduled outages. For components operating at high temperatures, temperature measurement is very important. In many situations, the environmental conditions are too hostile for conventional techniques to be used. Researchers over the world have been looking for new techniques for temperature measurement and one such device, called Feroplug, has been developed previously by the and coworkers. The Feroplug has been patented in USA, UK and Europe by the British Technology Group. The underlying principle of the Feroplug is based on the transformation of ferrite in some specially designed duplex stainless steels. This paper describes a new invention called Sigmaplug which is a new development of the Feroplug but using an entirely different physical principle. It was discovered that the sigma phase in Fe

Development of an Indicator Scheme for the Environment Impact Assessment in the Federal District, Mexico

In this work is developed a proposal of environment indicators needed for the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) process in Mexico’s Federal District (FD);through which are authorized the construction and realization of different work actions and activities. The methodology is based on the combination of cabinet and field work, performed in three stages. In the first, a documental review was carried out within the topic of Environment Impact (EI), the EIA and the study area, with a subsequent analysis of the environment indicators at an international, national and regional scale. In the second, the systematization of information was performed for the sixteen study cases at a local scale and the organization and analysis of a data base with the allotted information. And in the last stage, a field work was realized with participative observations in three verification sites and interview applications to the principal actors of the EIA process. These results allowed: to determine the main limitations within the EIA process (methodological, technical and operational), to propose an indicators scheme, and to formulate recommendations focused on the improvement of this Environment Public Policy instrument.

Real-time Assessment of Cytosolic, Mitochondrial, and Nuclear Calcium Levels Change in Rat Pheochromocytoma Cells during Pulsed Microwave Exposure Using a Genetically Encoded Calcium Indicator

Little information is available about the effects of exposure to pulsed microwaves on neuronal Ca^2＋ signaling under non-thermal conditions. In this study, rat pheochromocytoma （PC12） cells were exposed to pulsed microwaves for 6 min at a specific absorption rate （SAR） of 4 W/kg to assess possible real-time effects. During microwave exposure, free calcium dynamics in the cytosol, mitochondria, and nucleus of cells were monitored by time-lapse microfluorimetry using a genetically encoded calcium indicator （ratiometric-pericam, ratiometric-10ericam-mt,

An Assessment of Biological Pollution in Certain Sector of Lower AL-Zab and River Tigris Waters Using Bacterial Indicators and Related Factors in Iraq

This study was conducted during 2004 utilizing selected sectors of River Tigris and the This study was conducted during 2004 utilizing selected sectors of River Tigris and the Lower Al-Zab River among Kirkuk and Salahaldeen Governerates of Iraq. Water samples from eight stations were analyzed for total coliforms, fecal coliforms, total viable counts of bacteria, Oxygen biological demand (BOD), water turbidity, electrical conductivity and temperature. The mean total viable counts (TVC,s) of bacteria isolated was almost 800 cells/ml. The means of total coliforms (TC) and faecal coliforms (FC) were almost 708 and 436 per 100 ml of water samples tested respectively.The oxygen biological demand was more than 8 mg/l. The mean of water tubidity was more than 35 ntu. The assessment of water electrical conductivity revealed almost 354 us/cm. The present study revealed a wide variation in the water quality due to different pollution pressures affected the different sites of River Tigris and Al-Zab River waters. These water sources are used for drinking and other human activities. The Lower Al-Zab River was less affected by the mentioned factors compared to River Tigris The analysis of variance showed a significant difference between BOD values re- corded at different months and the P value was less than 0.5. The overall mean of BOD was 2.4 mg/l which is suitable for human consumption after drinking water purification process with reference to European characterizations 74/ 464/EEC of waters used as sources for drinking waters.

A Model of Indicators and GIS Maps for the Assessment of Water Resources

The main intention of the study is to identify appropriate indicator to create a model that represents water resource status for a specific system boundary. The report will assess the different scientific approaches associated with water resource engineering, and compare these approaches with respect to human value. The report will focus on the relationship between ecosystem structure and socio technical structure. Ecosystem deals with plants and living things in specific area and the interaction between them, socio technical system deals with the aspects of people, and society as well as technical aspects of organizational structure with respect to the effect on the environment. Ecosystem directly or indirectly affects the society. At the same time, the socio technical system has an impact on ecosystem services in the perspective of consumption and exploitation of recourses. Finally the two systems are dependent on each other. By the application of scientific tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA), Performance Indicator (PI), Drivers Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR), Mellenium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), etc., some appropriate indicators can be identified corresponding to each approach. LCA focuses on socio-technical aspects whereas DPSIR is environmentally biased. Environmental impact assessment covers both aspects of the system. A matrix combines these methods with the corresponding keywords, and supports in generating a new general model by considering the most weighted indicators. Since each scientific model focuses on some specific aspects, the newly proposed model will give a general view of water environment status. A final comparison is made to recognize relative bias of the newly proposed model with respect to DPSIR model to assess water environment status of the concerning region.

Risk assessment models of integrative medicine indicators for malignant transformation of chronic atrophic gastritis:A registry study protocol

Objective:Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)and modern medicine have both been used in arresting malignant transformation of chronic atrophic gastritis(CAG)in China with good therapeutic effect.However,no studies have been undertaken to assess the risk of malignant transformation in CAG patients using both modern medicine and TCM features.Our study aimed to develop risk assessment models for malignant transformation of CAG combining indicators of both TCM and modern medicine.These models will facilitate early warning and control of malignant transformation of CAG from the perspective of evidence-based integrative medicine.Methods:In the proposed registry study,a total of 1000 eligible CAG patients will be recruited from four hospitals in China.A 10-year follow-up study will be conducted both on-site and off-site to track the events of malignant transformation.Frequency analysis and chi-squared tests will be used to perform the comparative analysis on the prevalence of malignant transformation events and indicators in TCM or modern medicine in different groups.A multivariate Cox proportional hazard model will be used to perform correlation analyses of malignant transformation events and factors of TCM or modern medicine.Conclusion:The proposed study has been designed with a large sample size and long follow-up period,in which wide-ranging modern medicine and TCM indicators can be gathered over the whole process of malignant transformation of CAG.Based on this study,risk assessment models for malignant transformation ofCAGmaybe constructed fromthe perspective of integrative medicine.This may provide clinicians and patients with an optimized early warning system as well as prevention strategies for malignant transformation of CAG.

Are SDGs suitable for China's sustainable development assessment? An application and amendment of the SDGs Indicators in China

In order to further ensure that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to be implemented and the action measures of all countries are consistent, the United Nations has put forward a set of indicators to monitor and evaluate the progress of global sustainable development. This set of evaluation indicators is aimed for global and regional progress. An important feature of the evaluation indicators is that they are internationally comparable, but due to the large differences in the levels of sustainable development among countries, this framework of evaluation indicators has a disadvantage that it does not apply to tracking the progress of sustainable development at the national level. This paper focuses on the analysis of specific issues in the application of the global sustainable development indicators framework to meet the goals and targets of the UN and builds a system of evaluation indicators to assess the progress of sustainable development at the national level in China, and offers a perspective to assess China’s progress as well.

Clinical assessment indicators of postpartum hemorrhage: A systematic review

Objective: The assessment indicators of postpartum hemorrhage(PPH) were systematically reviewed to explore their relationship with blood loss as an early warning sign to identify potential PPH for prompt intervention.Methods: A systematic literature search of 9 databases was conducted according to inclusion and exclusion criteria using a comprehensive strategy. Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology(STROBE) strategy was chosen as the tool for quality assessment of included studies, and data concerning the basic study characteristics and assessment indicators were extracted.Results: Eleven studies were included in this review. The assessment indicators in different reports covered heart rate, blood pressure, placental and birth canal check, hemoglobin(Hb), hematocrit(HCT),coagulation function tests, hemodynamic parameters and arterial blood gas, but no data on the assessment of postpartum uterine contraction were found. The relationship between indicators and blood loss varies.The overall quality of 9 manuscripts was comparatively high or moderate, and 2 were rated as low.Conclusions: The association between blood loss and clinical symptoms is not conclusive based on the present studies, and specific cut-off points could not be formulated to determine the approximate amount of blood loss. However, some cut-off points can be considered warning signs for the need of advanced interventions, such as heart rate, prothrombin time, and placental implantation. Further research on comprehensive assessment and cut-off points should be performed such that birth attendants can distinguish PPH as early as possible.

Socio-Economic and Health Indicators’ Relation to Self-Assessed Health: A Case Study of Phai Tha Pho, Phichit Province, Thailand

Background: Self-assessed health (SAH) is used as a common method of sociology research to understand the implications of self-reported health and the link to social factors like education, income, and occupation. The paper explores the impact of socio-economic and health indicators on self-assessed health in the middle-aged to the senior population in a rural community in Thailand. Methods: Primary data were collected after conducting a randomized sampling for 100 people using direct interviews in two locations within the sub-district of Phai Tha Pho, Thailand. The target demographic was the middle-age to elderly population. A logit model was applied to the collected samples. Results: The study highlights that higher education, income, and sleep are high predictors for positive SAH while high blood sugar level has significant adverse effects on SAH. Detection of metabolic syndrome further indicates degraded overall health perception over time. Conclusion: The study demonstrated the relationship between socio-economic indicators and illnesses alongside individual SAH in rural Thailand. Accordingly, policies have been proposed that include targeted subsidies for healthy food alternatives, promoting work-rest balance at all levels, and an expansion of sub-district education up to secondary school. SAH can be performed regularly and expanded across communities including areas of low-income living due to its low implementation costs. It could also be used as a tool to support the government’s public health initiatives complementing the existing five-year direct health check-up programme. A comparative study of SAH across regions is recommended for future research.

Establishment and Application of Assessment Indicator System of Agricultural Catastrophe Vulnerability

To give play to the role of agricultural catastrophe risk fund in spreading agricultural catastrophe risk,we select natural conditions,economic conditions,social conditions,as the external vulnerability assessment indicators;select commodity rate of agricultural products,substitutability of agricultural products,the extent of agricultural products being related to the national economy and the people's livelihood,as the internal vulnerability assessment indicators.We assign weight to indicators using Analytic Hierarchy Process,and establish assessment indicator system of agricultural catastrophe vulnerability,to analyze the compensation for losses of different agricultural products arising from agricultural catastrophe in different regions.And we take the case of rice in Sichuan Province,to demonstrate the role this indicator system.

Research Performance Assessment Based on T-Indicator

A novel indicator named after Tianjin University (TJU)-T-indicator-was investigated as an effective supplement of established Article Assessment System of Tianjin University, aiming to correct differences among fields. Based on normalized citation counts, T-indicator could give the order of research performance of researchers or groups in different disciplines. Weighted citation analysis was also introduced in this method to judge the contribution of researchers to their research outcomes. A given example was used to thoroughly discuss this evaluation method, via the application of derivative indices, including Tyear, Taverage, Ttotal and weighted-Ttotal.

Indicators and Influence Factors for Sustainability Assessment of Inclusive Smart Innovation Clusters

A new manufacturing and business infrastructure industrial ecosystem model with the state-of-the art core infrastructure and smart applications in the form of inclusive smart innovation cluster is seen as a powerful tool to drive industrial symbiosis, economic, social and inclusive development. Essentially an integrated eco-industrial park, these clusters demonstrate applications of industrial ecology principles among the occupant units, besides promoting sustainable societies from economic, environmental and social perspectives. The holistic planning and development of these clusters from economic, environmental and social sustainability considerations or alternatively, the sustainability assessment of these clusters is highly complex. The research reported upon forms part of a larger study that aims to develop an integrated decision support system for sustainability assessment of inclusive smart innovation cluster. The paper discusses the conceptual model of the cluster and the need to establish context specific key indicators and influence factors from economic, environmental and social sustainability considerations. The paper proposes a structured methodology for development of key indicators and influence factors. The paper concludes by identifying a set of 184 key indicators and influence factors for comprehensive sustainability assessment of inclusive smart innovation cluster.

Spatial Modeling of Soil Lime Requirements with Uncertainty Assessment Using Geostatistical Sequential Indicator Simulation

This work presents and analyses a geostatistical methodology for spatial modelling of Soil Lime Requirements (SLR) considering punctual samples of Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and Base Saturation (BS) soil properties. Geostatistical Sequential Indicator Simulation is used to draw realizations from the joint uncertainty distributions of the CEC and the BS input variables. The joint distributions are accomplished applying the Principal Component Analyses (PCA) approach. The Monte Carlo method for handling error propagations is used to obtain realization values of the SLR model which are considered to compute and store statistics from the output uncertainty model. From these statistics, it is obtained predictions and uncertainty maps that represent the spatial variation of the output variable and the propagated uncertainty respectively. Therefore, the prediction map of the output model is qualified with uncertainty information that should be used on decision making activities related to the planning and management of environmental phenomena. The proposed methodology for SLR modelling presented in this article is illustrated using CEC and BS input sample sets obtained in a farm located in Ponta Grossa city, Paraná state, Brazil.