Leading officials' accountability audit of natural resources and haze pollution: evidence from China.

Leading officials' accountability audit of natural resources (AANR) is a major institutional arrangement for China to promote the construction of an ecological civilization. Based on city-level panel data from 2010 to 2017, this study investigates the role of AANR on haze pollution by the difference-in-differences (DID) and spatial DID models. The results show that the AANR significantly reduces the haze pollution of pilot cities, and this conclusion remains robust under multiple scenarios, such as the parallel trend test, tendency score matching, placebo test, and excluding the policy interference in the same period. The AANR promotes the governance of haze pollution in pilot areas, mainly by improving environmental control and increasing financial investment in environmental protection. Furthermore, the promotion effect of the AANR on haze governance has strong heterogeneity with regard to urban air quality; eastern, central, and western regions; legal environment; and public attention. The AANR not only reduces the haze pollution of pilot cities but also has a spatial spillover effect on neighboring areas, but this effect is not pronounced. Therefore, it is of great significance for haze pollution control to continuously promote and improve the departure audit of natural resource assets, perform audit work according to local conditions, and establish interregional cooperative mechanisms.

Effect of transradial catheterization and nifedipine on flow- and nitroglycerin-mediated dilations of distal and proximal radial artery.

OBJECTIVE: Radial artery (RA) dysfunction after transradial access intervention is not limited to the distal portion but can also occur in the proximal portion of RA. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of sublingual nifedipine administrated prior to puncture on the endothelial function of distal and proximal RA. METHODS: Eighty-nine patients who underwent coronary angiography (CAG) were randomly assigned to the nifedipine group ( n = 45) or control group ( n = 44). The flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and nitroglycerin-mediated dilation (NMD) of distal and proximal RA were measured at baseline, 24 h, and 48 h after transradial angiography. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the nifedipine group only limited the reduction of FMD in the distal RA at 24 and 48 h [6.52 ± 1.40% (24 h) vs. 5.85 ± 1.38% (24 h), P = 0.03; 7.41 ± 1.30% (48 h) vs. 6.65 ± 1.25% (48 h), P = 0.006], whereas FMD alterations in the proximal RA were not restored by nifedipine. Both groups were still lower than baseline values (11.66 ± 2.35% and 11.24 ± 2.22%). We observed similar effects of nifedipine on the NMD of the distal RA. CONCLUSION: Although transradial angiography-induced dysfunction was reported in both distal and proximal RA, nifedipine could help restore the distal endothelial function of the cannulated RA.

[Construction of directory for biomedical databases on INTERNET].

OBJECTIVE: To construct a global directory of biomedical databases(DBD), which can be used free of charge on INTERNET. It will be convenient for researchers to find out related databases quickly, easily and accurately by using DBD since there are not enough useful tools for database retrieval. Biomedical databases will be an accelerator in development of biomedicine with the help of DBD. METHODS: PubMed and Google were main tools for searching related databases. Proper search strategy with rigorous indexing rules helped us to filter databases. The database management system was Microsoft SQL-Server 2000. The web pages of DBD were designed with Macromedia Dreamwaver MX. ASP (active server pages) technology was used to deal with the key words and scores sent by users. RESULTS: There were 66 subjects and 1 258 databases in DBD at this time. We released the Chinese and English versions of DBD on the INTERNET at the same time http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/DBList/index.htm http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/DBList/index_en.htm . Score system was also established to evaluate the content of the indexed databases. Users can search DBD by subjects key words and alphabetic databases' names easily. CONCLUSION: DBD has laid the primary foundation for further core biomedical database evaluation system. DBD, as a useful tool for biomedical database retrieval, will be of great aid to users since databases have played a more and more important role in the biomedical research.