The main objective of this study was to assess the economic cost of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Shanghai, China, as a pilot study for future evaluations. Sixty-seven patients with AD were interviewed, and the information of the AD-related cost and resources used was collected from October 2005 to September 2006. By retrospective analysis, annual costs were calculated and expressed in Chinese renminbi (RMB). Direct cost per patient per year averaged approximately 8,432 RMB (1,058 USD), indirect cost per patient per year was 10,568 RMB (1,326 USD), and annual costs were 19,001 RMB (2,384 USD) per patient per year in this investigation. Total cost was significantly associated with the degree of severity including cognitive function (MMSE) and activity of daily living (ADL). With the increase in the number of persons at risk for developing AD, the economic burden of AD patients in China is significantly heavy.

This paper demonstrates the use of an agent-based model (ABM) to investigate factors that can speed the diffusion of eco-innovations, namely alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs). The ABM provides the opportunity to consider the interdependencies inherent between key participants in the automotive industry: manufacturers, consumers, and governmental agencies. Agent-based models allow for tackling these interdependencies in a very elegant way. Because ABMs allow convenient modeling of the interactions between multiple agents, each with unique optimization goals, it provides a method for understanding consumer and manufacturer response to diverse environmental changes. Grounding the agent-based model on empirical data further improves the validity of the model results. We use choice-based conjoint data of more than 7,000 respondents to elicit heterogeneous consumer preferences. Further, information about manufacturers' cost structure is available from an established vehicle design tool, AVCEM.In three experiments, mechanisms are considered for speeding the adoption of AFVs: technology push, market pull, and regulatory push. Simulation results support the idea that technology push can be an important mechanism for speeding the diffusion of AFVs. Market pull, that is, word of mouth, also has a positive impact on the diffusion of AFVs and increases the social good by decreasing the preference for fuel-inefficient vehicles. Furthermore, word of mouth leads to a higher willingness to pay for AFVs, which indicates that the perceived value of AFVs increases with word of mouth. In contrast, a governmental push that focuses on the manufacturers (fuel economy mandates) leads to a decrease in the social good (air pollution improvement) because market share for fuel-inefficient vehicles increases. This article provides insights into how to set up an ABM to evaluate factors that influence the diffusion of alternative fuel vehicles. These insights can be applied to other types of eco-innovations.

SUMMARYObjective: To explore if afebrile seizures associated with minor infections are a single category of seizure, or a set of different kinds of seizures. Methods: We conducted this prospective cohort study on three kinds of first afebrile seizure: first afebrile seizure associated with gastrointestinal infection (AS-GI), first afebrile seizure associated with nongastrointestinal infection (AS-nGI), and first unprovoked seizure (US). The Kaplan-Meier estimate risks of recurrent seizures were analyzed and compared pairwise. The characteristics of recurrent seizures were also compared pairwise. Results: The Kaplan-Meier estimate risks of recurrent seizure at 2 years of the AS-GI, AS-nGI, and US groups were 6.9%, 23.7%, and 37.8%, respectively. The pairwise differences were significant between the AS-GI and US groups (p < 0.001) and between the AS-GI and AS-nGI groups (p = 0.001), but not significant between the US and AS-nGI groups (p = 0.066). Among unprovoked subsequent seizures in patients with recurrence, the pairwise differences were significant between the AS-GI and US groups (p < 0.001) and between the AS-GI and AS-nGI groups (p = 0.005), but not significant between the US and AS-nGI groups (p = 0.417). Significance: Afebrile seizures associated with minor infections are indeed of two distinguishable kinds: AS-GI, if free of risk factors such as a family history of epilepsy, had a better prognosis and should be categorized as an acute symptomatic seizure, whereas patients with first AS-nGI, like patients with first US, may have recurrent unprovoked seizures, which suggests this category's essential difference from AS-GI. The minor infections include gastrointestinal infection, respiratory infection (usually of the upper respiratory tract), and others of uncertain origin. For gastrointestinal infection, there is a concept of "benign convulsion with mild gastroenteritis (CwG)." The word "benign" indicates a good prognosis: a very low chance of having unprovoked seizures later in life. [4][5][6] In addition, CwG seems to be a new entity, which was more likely to be categorized as situation-related seizures than epilepsy, although it is not described in the classification of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). 4,5,7 However, for afebrile seizure induced by nongastrointestinal infection, the risk of recurrence of unprovoked seizure is much higher than that for afebrile seizure induced by gastrointestinal infection, 1 whereas another study 3 shows that only this kind of first seizure and first unprovoked seizure would have subsequent unprovoked seizures. This evidence suggests that seizures caused by gastrointestinal infection and nongastrointestinal infection are essentially different: the former is probably in the category of situation-related seizures, whereas the latter may have a likeness to unprovoked seizure.Therefore, we designed this prospective cohort study on three kinds of first afebrile seizures: first afebrile seizure associated with gastrointestinal infection (AS-GI), first afebril...

Parental underestimation of their child's weight was prominent in China, especially among younger children, boys and children with a lower BMI Z-score. Parental recognition of their child being overweight did not appear to translate into healthy changes in weight-related parenting behaviours or child behaviours.

No abstract