From a holistic view, this paper addresses a perspective of coordinated development of economy, society, and environment for regional sustainability assessment. Firstly, a comprehensive indicator system for co-evaluating the level of economic, social, and environmental subsystems is presented based on a holistic understanding of regional sustainability. Then, a coordinated development index model focusing on the level of coordination among the subsystems as well as their comprehensive development level is established. Furthermore, an empirical study of all the provinces and municipalities is conducted by collecting the panel data from 2004 to 2010. The result shows that: (1) the coordinated developments of the most developed and the most underdeveloped regions stay stable while the regions with medium development level possess more fluctuant trends during the study years; (2) regional disparities are indicated according to the grading of CDI (the coordinated development index), which are further analyzed to be related to the local economic development patterns; (3) the conditions and causes of economic, social, and environmental development in real situations under different grades of CDI are discussed through detailed case studies of typical regions, which indicate specific suggestions of sustainable development for regions in the same pattern. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2014, 6 9283

No abstract

With the rapid development of urbanization, the blind expansion of urban space has led to a series of social problems. In this process, the degree of urban function mixing affects the urbanization development level, making it particularly important to study the degree of coupling coordination between the two aspects. In this paper, taking Beijing as an example, we use urban point of interest (POI) data and taxi GPS trajectory data to calculate the urban POIs’ spatial entropy and taxis’ temporal entropy, based on the information entropy. We use the POIs’ spatial entropy and taxis’ temporal entropy to measure the urban function mixing degree. Also, the model of coupling coordination degree is used to measure the degree of coupling coordination between the urban function mixing degree and the urbanization development level. The results indicate the following: First, the POIs’ spatial entropy and taxis’ temporal entropy have significant regional imbalances. On the whole, both show a declining pattern when moving from the central urban area to the outer suburbs. The urban function mixing degree and urbanization development level are also higher in the central urban area than in the outer suburbs. Second, the coupling coordination among the urbanization development level, POIs’ spatial entropy, and taxis’ temporal entropy is distributed unevenly across various regions, which means that the three types of coupling coordination are in balanced development in the central urban area, but in unbalanced development in the outer suburbs. Third, from the perspective of spatial correlation characteristics, the higher is the degree of spatial agglomeration, the higher are the urban function mixing degree and urbanization development level, and the higher is the coupling coordination degree among the urbanization development level, POIs’ spatial entropy, and taxis’ temporal entropy. Therefore, relevant departments should plan the construction of urban functional areas reasonably, according to the degree of coupling coordination between the urban function mixing degree and the urbanization development level in different regions, so as to realize the healthy and sustainable development of a city.

Background:Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a progressive autoimmune disorder caused by the production of antibodies directed against acetylcholine receptors (AChRs), resulting in muscle weakness and fatigue. This study aimed to explore the effect and mechanism of grilled nux vomica (GNV) in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG) rats. Material/Methods:Rat 97-116 peptides were used to mediate disease in the EAMG model in SPF female Lewis rats. The treatment groups received grilled nux vomica (75 mg/kg, 150 mg/kg, and 225 mg/kg). The autoantibody and inflammatory cytokines levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RNA profiling was performed on high-dose and model group rats. Profiling results and TLR-4/NF-kB signaling were validated by q-PCR and Western blot analysis. Results:The results showed that GNV could attenuate the symptoms of EAMG rats. There was a decreased level of AChR-ab, IFN-g, TNF-a, IL-2, IL-4, and IL-17 levels, and an increased level of TGF-b1. In total, 235 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), consisting of 175 upregulated DEGs and 60 downregulated DEGs, were identified. Functional annotation demonstrated that DEGs were largely associated with leukocyte cell-cell adhesion, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, muscle contraction, and cardiac muscle contraction pathway. Rac2, Itgb2, Lcp2, Myl3, and Tnni1 were considered as hub genes with a higher degree value in the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. The q-PCR and Western blot results of hub genes were consistent with RNA profiles. GNV treatment also significantly reduced the TLR-4 and NF-kB p65 protein expression in EAMG rats. Conclusions:These results indicate that grilled nux vomica ameliorates EAMG by depressing the TLR-4/NF-kB signaling pathway, and hub genes may serve as potential targets for MG treatment.

No abstract