Serum sCD25 is an indicator for rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease.

OBJECTIVES: CD25 (IL-2Rα) is one of IL-2 receptor's polypeptide subunits, and its soluble form is increased in patients with various inflammatory or autoimmune diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical correlation of serum soluble CD25 (sCD25) with interstitial lung disease (ILD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. METHODS: 294 RA patients, including 72 in the discovery cohort (15 patients with ILD, 57 patients without ILD), 222 in the validation cohort (41 patients with ILD and 181 patients without ILD), and 58 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan provided evidence and patterns of RA-ILD. Serum sCD25 concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Clinical and laboratory data were recorded and the association with sCD25 was also analysed. RESULTS: In the discovery cohort, 16 RA-related molecules including cytokines, chemokines and functional soluble cell surface proteins were investigated. The results showed that sCD25 was significantly higher in RA-ILD than in RA-no-ILD group (p=0.004). ROC analysis also showed RA-ILD was discriminated with RA-no-ILD by sCD25 (AUC=0.695, 95% CI=0.541-0.849). Logistics regression demonstrated that sCD25 was one of the risk factors of RA-ILD. This result was further confirmed in validation cohort (p<0.001). According to the cut-off value in the discovery cohort, the sensitivity and specificity of sCD25 in RA-ILD were 51.2%, 77.3%, respectively. Compared with RA-no-ILD, serum level of sCD25 was also higher in different HRCT patterns including UIP, NSIP and RA-ILA. The ROC curves revealed sCD25 as diagnostic marker in UIP, NSIP and RA-ILA (with AUCs of 0.730, 0.761, and 0. 694, respectively, p<0.05). The result indicated that sCD25 was a biomarker for RA-ILD subtypes. Although sCD25 was not correlated with HRCT scores, it was significantly higher in consolidation pattern by HRCT. CONCLUSIONS: sCD25 was significantly elevated in RA-ILD (including UIP, NSIP and RA-ILA) compared to RA-no-ILD and HCs, which supports their value as a potential biomarker in RA-ILD screening and assessment.

What factors are driving the rapid growth of education levels in China?

Recognizing the critical elements that promote improvement of a country's education level (here, the mean number of years of education) is a necessary prerequisite for developing policies and plans to promote the long-term development of education and the people's quality of life. By identifying the factors that constrain the development of education and the strength of each factor's influence, we aimed to provide theoretical support and practical suggestions for advancing the development of education in China and other countries. We collected data related to China's education sector from 2000 to 2019, identified the key factors driving the per capita number of years of education of Chinese nationals, quantified their degree of influence on education, and investigated the association of each factor with the per capita education in different regions using sub-regional regression and geographic and time-weighted regression models. We found that per capita GDP, education funding, and urbanization promoted educational attainment, whereas allowing the student-teacher ratio to increase decreased educational attainment. Therefore, promoting the development of education requires that the government take measures to promote economic and social development, increase the financial investment in education, and train more high-quality teachers who can work in regions that currently lack sufficient teachers. In addition, the existence of regional heterogeneity means that both central and local governments must fully account for local realities when they formulate education policies and tailor them to local conditions.

How Does Automation Shape the Process of Narrative Visualization: A Survey of Tools.

In recent years, narrative visualization has gained much attention. Researchers have proposed different design spaces for various narrative visualization genres and scenarios to facilitate the creation process. As users' needs grow and automation technologies advance, increasingly more tools have been designed and developed. In this study, we summarized six genres of narrative visualization (annotated charts, infographics, timelines & storylines, data comics, scrollytelling & slideshow, and data videos) based on previous research and four types of tools (design spaces, authoring tools, ML/AI-supported tools and ML/AI-generator tools) based on the intelligence and automation level of the tools. We surveyed 105 papers and tools to study how automation can progressively engage in visualization design and narrative processes to help users easily create narrative visualizations. This research aims to provide an overview of current research and development in the automation involvement of narrative visualization tools. We discuss key research problems in each category and suggest new opportunities to encourage further research in the related domain.

Unintended consequences of combating desertification in China.

Since the early 2000s, China has carried out extensive "grain-for-green" and grazing exclusion practices to combat desertification in the desertification-prone region (DPR). However, the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of these practices remain unclear. We quantify and compare the changes in fractional vegetation cover (FVC) with economic and population data in the DPR before and after the implementation of these environmental programmes. Here we show that climatic change and CO2 fertilization are relatively strong drivers of vegetation rehabilitation from 2001-2020 in the DPR, and the declines in the direct incomes of farmers and herders caused by ecological practices exceed the subsidies provided by governments. To minimize economic hardship, enhance food security, and improve the returns on policy investments in the DPR, China needs to adapt its environmental programmes to address the potential impacts of future climate change and create positive synergies to combat desertification and improve the economy in this region.

The sustainability of urbanized land: Impacts of the growth of urbanized land in prefecture-level cities in China.

The sustainability of land conversion to urban use is an important factor that promotes sustainable urbanization. However, China's local governments have relied too much on the land finance model for urbanization, which has led to disordered growth of urban land, ultimately posing a threat to ecosystem security and socioeconomic development. Effectively evaluating the factors that influence the growth of urban land is critical to improving the sustainability of urban land use. In this study, we explored the factors that affect the growth in the area of urban land using spatial analysis models based on panel data for Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2019. We found that fiscal decentralization, infrastructure, industrialization, and industrial upgrading were the main factors responsible for the growth of urban land, but that their degrees of influence differed between regions. Our findings identify the necessity for local governments to design urban land-use policies and perform strategic planning for urban land use to improve sustainability based on the main factors that influenced the growth of urban land in each region.

SOFA Score in relation to Sepsis: Clinical Implications in Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognostic Assessment.

Purpose: To analyze the clinical significance of the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognostic assessment of sepsis. Methods: 140 patients with sepsis from January 2020 to January 2021 were selected as the observation group, and 40 healthy people were selected as the control group. The observation group was divided into mild group, severe group, and septic shock group by single blind grouping according to the condition of the disease, and they were also divided into survival group and death group according to the prognosis. Collect the fasting venous blood of the subjects in each group in the morning, compare the levels of total bilirubin (TBIL), blood creatinine (CR), and platelet count (PLT) in each group, and record and compare the patients' respiratory system oxygen partial pressure/inhaled oxygen concentration (po2/fio2), acute physiology and chronic health scoring system II (APACHE II), sequential organ failure assessment (sofa) score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score; Pearson analysis was used to analyze the correlation between SOFA score and other indicators; multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the prognostic risk factors of patients with sepsis; receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to analyze the value of SOFA score alone and in combination in the diagnosis, condition, and prognosis of sepsis. Results: There were significant differences in Apache II score, SOFA score, q-SOFA score map, po2/fio2, PLT, GCS, TBIL, and serum creatinine (SCR) between the control group and the observation group (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in Apache II score, SOFA score, q-SOFA score, mean arterial pressure (map) po2/fio2, PLT, Glasgow Coma Score (GCS), TBIL, SCR, and △SOFA score among patients in mild, severe, and septic shock groups (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in age, Apache II score, SOFA score, q-SOFA score, map, po2/fio2, PLT, GCS, TBIL, SCR, and △SOFA score between survival group and death group (P < 0.05). SOFA score and q-SOFA score were significantly positively correlated with TBIL and SCR and significantly negatively correlated with po2/fio2 and PLT; △SOFA score was significantly negatively correlated with TBIL and SCR and significantly positively correlated with map, po2/fio2, PLT, and GCS. Apache II score, SOFA score, and q-SOFA score were independent risk factors for sepsis patients, and △SOFA score, po2/fio2, and GCS score were protective factors (P < 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of sepsis combined with SOFA score and q-SOFA score was 0.880; the AUC of sepsis assessed by SOFA score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score was 0.929; the AUC of sepsis prognosis assessed by SOFA score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score was 0.900. Conclusion: SOFA score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score were abnormally expressed in patients with sepsis and were risk factors for the severity of the patient's condition and prognosis. The SOFA score, q-SOFA score, and △SOFA score were risk factors for the severity and prognosis of patients with sepsis and had some value in diagnosing sepsis and assessing the condition and prognosis, of which the combined value of the three was higher.

Utility of autoantibody against an UCH-L1 epitope as a serum diagnostic marker for neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVES: Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) is one of the most serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), lacking efficient diagnostic biomarkers. Previous studies have shown that anti-ubiquitin carboxyl hydrolase L1(UCH-L1) autoantibody is a promising cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker for NPSLE diagnosis. The purpose of this study is to explore the serum autoantibodies against different UCH-L1 epitopes and investigate the potential diagnostic value of serum autoantibodies against different UCH-L1 epitopes in NPSLE. METHODS: The epitopes of UCH-L1 protein were predicted in DNAStar software. The serum levels of different UCH-L1 epitope autoantibodies in 40 NPSLE patients, 32 SLE patients without neuropsychiatric symptoms and 21 healthy controls were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Data were analysed using Pearson correlation analysis, ROC curve analysis, nonparametric Mann-Whitney test, t-test and χ2 test. RESULTS: We screened three candidate epitopes of UCH-L1 protein. The autoantibody against amino acid 58 to 69 of UCH-L1 (UCH58-69) showed highest diagnostic power in distinguishing NPSLE patients from SLE patients without neuro-psychiatric symptoms (p=0.0038). The ROC analysis showed that the specificity and sensitivity of anti-UCH58-69 were 92.3% and 37.5%, respectively. In addition, increased serum anti-UCH58-69 levels were associated with increased SLEDAI, CSF microprotein, CSF leukocyte count, ESR, AnuA, anti-dsDNA, IgG and IgM but with decrease of C3 in SLE patients. CONCLUSIONS: The serum levels of anti-UCH58-69 significantly increased in NPSLE patients compared with SLE patients without neuropsychiatric symptoms and were correlated with disease severity. Anti-UCH58-69 autoantibody may become a novel serum biomarker for NPSLE non-invasive diagnosis, which might be applicable for NPSLE early screening and diagnosis.

Analysis of 9 Cases of Takotsubo Syndrome and an Analysis of the Clinical Characteristics of Takotsubo Syndrome From a Chinese Population.

Objective: To summarize the clinical features, hematology and imaging features of Takotsubo syndrome. Methods: The hospitalization data of Takotsubo syndrome patients in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from January 2015 to December 2020 were collected, and their clinical characteristics were summarized. Patient outcomes were clarified through follow-up visits, and relevant objective indicators were statistically analyzed before and after admission. The characteristics of TTS incidence in Chinese population were summarized by searching three (Wanfang, CNKI, China's VIP database) major databases in China (PRISMA). Results: A total of 9 patients were enrolled, including 6 females (66.7%). The mean age of onset was 46.4 years old, the median time from onset to treatment was 1 day. The main symptom of 8 cases (88.9%) was chest pain, 1 case had a main symptom of syncope, and 7 cases (77.8%) had mood fluctuations or mental stimulation as the main symptom of the disease. Paired T-tests were conducted on routine blood, biochemical, coagulation, myocardial markers, inflammatory indicators and objective indicators of ECG before and after admission. The study found that the counts of white blood cells and neutrophils were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Prolongation of the QT interval was observed in all 9 patients. After a mean follow-up of 24 ± 28 months, no adverse cardiovascular events or recurrence occurred. Conclusion: Takotsubo syndrome is a group of clinical syndromes with emotional or somatic stimulation and chest pain as the main symptoms, partly accompanied by an increase in white blood cells, neutrophilic granulocyte count, creatine kinase, and troponin and is characterized by a prolonged QT interval and no obvious coronary stenosis. The prognosis is generally good, with few serious complications.

Stabilizing Triglyceride in Methanol Emulsions via a Magnetic Pickering Interfacial Catalyst for Efficient Transesterification under Static Conditions.

Pickering emulsion systems provide potential platforms for simultaneously intensifying and catalyzing transesterification between triglyceride and methanol under static conditions. However, realizing static transesterification with high biodiesel yield is still challenging due to low emulsion stability at the reaction temperature. Here, a series of magnetically recyclable Pickering interfacial catalysts (PICs) with similar surface affinities but different densities were constructed as stabilizers of a soybean oil/methanol emulsion. The variations in the emulsion volume fraction and droplet size were comparatively studied and analyzed from the viewpoint of droplet settling and catalyst particle shedding. It is found that, except for surface affinity, PIC density also plays a pivotal role in emulsion stability owing to the non-negligible effect of gravity on catalyst adsorption in triglyceride/methanol emulsion (especially at elevated temperature). By reducing the density, finely improving the lipophilicity, and optimizing the addition amount of PIC, the obtained soybean oil/methanol emulsion can remain stable for at least 12 h at 60 °C, enabling static transesterification with a high biodiesel yield of 95.6%. Moreover, the best performing PIC can be reused for at least 7 cycles. This efficient static transesterification system offers a green strategy for biodiesel production.

Driving factors for coordinating urbanization with conservation of the ecological environment in China.

Urbanization is a dominant component of social and economic development around the world, but this process creates tremendous pressure on the ecological environment. How to achieve coordination between urbanization and conservation of this environment has become a key issue, especially in developing countries. It is necessary to identify the driving factors that affect this coordination. To identify these factors, we chose 290 Chinese prefecture-level cities to analyze the driving factors behind urbanization using spatial regression analysis, and explored the spatial differences among regions in these factors. Our results show that industrial upgrading and technological progress were the main factors that promoted coordinated development, with industrialization having positive effects under government management, but with differences among regions in how the driving forces affected coordinated development. Using technological progress to promote industrial upgrading, creating new employment to absorb surplus rural labor, and providing workers with skills training so they can take advantage of new jobs can promote win-win solutions that coordinate urbanization with conservation of the ecological environment.

Balancing ecological conservation with socioeconomic development.

Ecological restoration and conservation are primary components of sustainable development around the world, particularly during the contemporary era of climate change. However, restoration and conservation are not free; they consume huge amounts of resources that would otherwise support social and economic development. Therefore, excessive conservation creates a risk of creating rather than eliminating poverty. Unfortunately, scientists have largely ignored the balance between these contrasting goals. Here, we discuss the concept of finding the threshold that represents a suitable balance between ecological conservation and economic development, thereby maximizing the benefits for both humans and the environment and promoting sustainable development. To demonstrate the concept, we examined China's ecological restoration achievements and discussed some of the unforeseen negative consequences that accompanied these achievements to discuss how future policies could better balance ecological and socioeconomic goals.

CO2-switchable Pickering emulsions: efficient and tunable interfacial catalysis for alcohol oxidation in biphasic systems.

CO2-responsive Pickering emulsions were fabricated on the basis of polymeric nanoaggregates with adjustable surface wettability. The static Pickering emulsion system provides an efficient and sustainable platform for in situ separation and reuse of catalysts in biphasic reactions.

Pickering Interfacial Catalysts with CO2 and Magnetic Dual Response for Fast Recovering in Biphasic Reaction.

Pickering interfacial catalysis provides an excellent platform for biphasic reactions, but the separation and recycling of nanocatalysts is a challenge because of high adsorption energy of nanocatalysts at the liquid-liquid interface. In this work, we represent a new type of versatile Pickering emulsion based on magnetic and CO2-responsive nanohybrids Fe3O4@SiO2@P(TMA-DEA). The smart nanoparticles can stabilize the water-in-oil Pickering emulsion in the biphasic system and achieve the subsequent demulsification by bubbling CO2 ascribed to their reversible switching surface. In the absence of energy barrier, the nanohybrids can be easily captured in situ by magnetic field in 2 min and showed excellent recyclability. In the Anelli system for alcohol oxidation, the nanocatalyst exhibited threefold enhancement in catalytic efficiency in comparison with an unemulsified two-phase and little loss on activity after five cycles. The conceptually novel dual-responsive system offers a green and energy-saving strategy for effective recycling of the nanocatalyst and intensification of biphasic reaction.

Difference in the net value of ecological services between natural and artificial forests in China.

Land degradation is a global problem that seriously threatens human society. However, in China and elsewhere, ecological restoration still largely relies on a traditional approach that focuses only on ecological factors and ignores socioeconomic factors. To improve the effectiveness of ecological restoration and maximize its economic and ecological benefits, a more efficient approach is needed that provides support for policy development and land management and thereby promotes environmental conservation. We devised a framework for assessing the value of ecosystem services that remain after subtracting costs, such as the opportunity costs, costs of forest protection, and costs for the people who are affected by the program; that is, the net value of ecosystem services (NVES). To understand the difference between the value of a resource and the net value of the ecosystem service it provides, we used data on VES, timber sales, and afforestation costs from China's massive national afforestation programs to calculate the net value of forest ecosystem services in China. Accounting for the abovementioned costs revealed an NVES of ¥6.1 × 1012 for forests in 2014, which was 35.9% less than the value calculated without accounting for costs. As a result, the NVES associated with afforestation was 55.9% less than the NVES of natural forests. In some regions, NVES was negative because of the huge costs of human-made plantations, high evapotranspiration rates (thus, high water opportunity costs), and low forest survival rates. To maximize the ecological benefits of conservation, it is necessary to account for as many costs as possible so that management decisions can be based on NVES, thereby helping managers choose projects that maximize both economic and ecological benefits.

Diferencias en el Valor Neto de los Servicios Ecológicos entre los Bosques Naturales y Artificiales de China Resumen La degradación del suelo es un problema global que amenaza seriamente a la sociedad humana. Sin embargo, en China y en otras partes, la restauración ecológica todavía depende en gran parte de una estrategia tradicional que se enfoca solamente en los factores ecológicos e ignora los socioeconómicos. Para aumentar la efectividad de la restauración ecológica y maximizar sus beneficios ecológicos y económicos se necesita de una estrategia más eficiente, la cual proporcione un respaldo para el desarrollo de políticas y el manejo del suelo y así promueva la conservación ambiental. Diseñamos un marco de trabajo para la evaluación del valor de los servicios ambientales que permanecen cuando se restan los costos, como los costos de oportunidad, los costos por la protección del bosque, y los costos para quien es afectado por el programa; es decir, el valor neto de los servicios ambientales (NVES, en inglés). Para entender la diferencia entre el valor de un recurso y el valor neto del servicio ambiental que proporciona usamos datos del valor del servicio ambiental, ventas de madera y costos por repoblación forestal tomados de los enormes programas nacionales de repoblación forestal de China para calcular el valor neto de los servicios ambientales de los bosques en ese mismo país. Cuando consideramos los costos antes mencionados, se reveló un NVES de ¥6.1 × 1012 para los bosques en 2014, el cual fue un 35.9% menos que el valor calculado sin considerar los costos. Como resultado, el NVES asociado con la repoblación forestal fue 55.9% menor que el NVES de los bosques naturales. En algunas regiones, el NVES fue negativo debido a los altos costos de las plantaciones artificiales, las tasas altas de evapo-transpiración (por lo tanto, altos costos de oportunidad hídrica) y las tasas bajas de supervivencia de los bosques. Para maximizar los beneficios ecológicos de la conservación es necesario tomar en cuenta el mayor número posible de costos para que las decisiones de manejo puedan basarse en los NVES, por lo que ayudarían a los administradores a elegir proyectos que incrementen los beneficios sociales y económicos.

Effects of HV-CRRT on PCT, TNF-α, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10 in patients with pancreatitis complicated by acute renal failure.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of high-volume continuous renal replacement therapy (HV-CRRT) on procalcitonin (PCT), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10 in acute pancreatitis complicated by acute renal failure. Eighty-six patients with acute pancreatitis complicated with acute renal failure were selected from September 2014 to September 2016 in our hospital, and were treated by continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH). The patients were randomly divided into the observation group, treated by the HV-CVVH model with a displacement rate of 4 l/h, and the control group, treated by the normal capacity model with a displacement rate of 2 l/h. The levels of PCT, TNF-α, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 in serum were measured by ELISA before and 2, 6 and 12 h after treatment, and 12 h after CVVH. The serum PCT and TNF-α levels in the two groups were decreased at 2 h after treatment. The lowest levels appeared at 6 h after treatment, and then recovered, but remained lower than those before treatment (p<0.05). The levels of IL-4, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10, as well as PCT and TNF-α in the two groups were significantly lower than those before treatment, and the decreases in the observation group were more obvious than those in the control group (p<0.05). In conclusion, compared with the standard volume method, HV-CRRT can more effectively remove various inflammatory factors and reduce the levels of serum PCT for the treatment of pancreatitis complicated by acute renal failure. Additionally, replacement of the blood filter at appropriate time-points can improve the treatment efficacy.

Ecosystem water imbalances created during ecological restoration by afforestation in China, and lessons for other developing countries.

Land degradation is a global environmental problem that jeopardizes human safety and socioeconomic development. To alleviate severe soil erosion and desertification due to deforestation and overgrazing, China has implemented historically unprecedented large-scale afforestation. However, few studies have accounted for the resulting imbalance between water supply (primarily precipitation) and water consumption (evapotranspiration), which will affect ecosystem health and socioeconomic development. We compared the water balance results between restoration by means of afforestation and restoration using the potential natural vegetation to guide future ecological restoration planning and environmental policy development. Based on estimates of water consumption from seven evapotranspiration models, we discuss the consequences for water security using data obtained since 1952 under China's large-scale afforestation program. The models estimated that afforestation will increase water consumption by 559-2354 m3/ha annually compared with natural vegetation. Although afforestation is a potentially important approach for environmental restoration, China's current policy has not been tailored to local precipitation conditions, and will have therefore exacerbated water shortages and decrease the ability to achieve environmental policy goals. Our analysis shows how, both in China and around the world, future ecological restoration planning must account for the water balance to ensure effective and sustainable environmental restoration policy.

What Has Caused Desertification in China?

Desertification is the result of complex interactions among various factors, including climate change and human activities. However, previous research generally focused on either meteorological factors associated with climate change or human factors associated with human activities, and lacked quantitative assessments of their interaction combined with long-term monitoring. Thus, the roles of climate change and human factors in desertification remain uncertain. To understand the factors that determine whether mitigation programs can contribute to desertification control and vegetation cover improvements in desertified areas of China, and the complex interactions that affect their success, we used a pooled regression model based on panel data to calculate the relative roles of climate change and human activities on the desertified area and on vegetation cover (using the normalized-difference vegetation index, NDVI, which decreases with increasing desertification) from 1983 to 2012. We found similar effect magnitudes for socioeconomic and environmental factors for NDVI but different results for desertification: socioeconomic factors were the dominant factor that affected desertification, accounting for 79.3% of the effects. Climate change accounted for 46.6 and 20.6% of the effects on NDVI and desertification, respectively. Therefore, desertification control programs must account for the integrated effects of both socioeconomic and natural factors.

Threats to China's Biodiversity by Contradictions Policy.

China has among the highest biodiversities in the world, but faces extreme biodiversity losses due to the country's huge population and its recent explosive socioeconomic development. Despite huge efforts and investments by the government and Chinese society to conserve biodiversity, especially in recent decades, biodiversity losses may not have been reversed, and may even have been exacerbated by unintended consequences resulting from these projects. China's centralized approach to biodiversity conservation, with limited local participation, creates an inflexible and inefficient approach because of conflicts between local communities and national administrators over the benefits. Although community-based conservation may be an imperfect approach, it is an essential component of a successful future national conservation plan. Biodiversity conservation should be considered from the perspective of systems engineering and a governance structure that combines centralization with community-level conservation. In this paper, we describe China's complex challenge: how to manage interactions between humans and nature to find win-win solutions that can ensure long-term biodiversity conservation without sacrificing human concerns.

Escaping the resource curse in China.

Many societies face an income gap between rich regions with access to advanced technology and regions that are rich in natural resources but poorer in technology. This "resource curse" can lead to a Kuznets trap, in which economic inequalities between the rich and the poor increase during the process of socioeconomic development. This can also lead to depletion of natural resources, environmental degradation, social instability, and declining socioeconomic development. These problems will jeopardize China's achievements if the current path continues to be pursued without intervention by the government to solve the problems. To mitigate the socioeconomic development gap between western and eastern China, the government implemented its Western Development Program in 2000. However, recent data suggest that this program has instead worsened the resource curse. Because each region has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, China must escape the resource curse by accounting for this difference; in western China, this can be done by improving education, promoting high-tech industry, adjusting its economic strategy to balance regional development, and seeking more sustainable approaches to socioeconomic development.