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Taking the supplement of the quantity and quality of cultivated land in rural settlements as the departure point, this paper discusses the spatial and temporal integration reconstruction method of rural settlements. The disorderly expansion of residential areas in Pinggu District, Beijing, China has led to the erosion of high-quality cultivated land in the region and the advantages of mountain resources have not been fully utilized in this area. Therefore, Pinggu District was selected as the research area. Using the spatial analysis function in GIS, this paper uses the comprehensive correction method of the per capita construction land standard and the neighborhood substitution method to analyze the quantitative potential of rural settlements to supplement cultivated land and the qualitative grade of cultivated land after arrangement. A combination of exclusion matrices are employed to identify the spatial and temporal arrangements of rural settlements. The research shows that the effective cultivated land area of rural settlements in Pinggu District is 514.24 ha, and the coefficient of increasing cultivated land is 9.25%. Rural residential areas in the district are divided into priority sorting area, key sorting area, moderate sorting area, and restricted sorting area; they account for 18.13%, 21.10%, 20.85%, and 39.93% of the total area, respectively. According to the regional characteristics and dominant factor of the different consolidation areas, corresponding consolidation goals, models, and engineering measures are proposed to enrich the theory and approach to village planning and to provide a reference for practitioners engaged in regional rural land consolidation. The innovation of this study is putting forward the consolidation objectives, models and engineering measures based on the regional characteristics and leading factors of different land consolidation areas. This study has reference significance for the formulation and implementation of regional rural settlements consolidation planning and the policy of increasing and decreasing urban and rural construction land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the debate over the place of "companion animal" public space in China's cities. With the COVID-19 outbreak, this debate has entered a new phase, where the social response to the outbreak may have fundamentally changed the public's use and perception of "companion animal" public and pseudo-public space. This paper combines quantitative and qualitative analysis of posts and comments on two of China's largest social media platforms with a big data approach, based on a case study in Beijing, China. There were statistically significant differences in the perception and use of "companion animal" public spaces and pseudo-public spaces before and after the pandemic. We attribute the impact of the pandemic on "companion animal" spaces to three pathways: changes in opportunity, changes in ability, and changes in motivation. We found that the pandemic led to an increase in the amount of time available to some people but a decrease in the amount of "companion animal" public space available due to the pandemic closure. In addition, the use of "companion animal" public spaces in pseudo-public spaces declined, while those located within the open urban green space on the city's outskirts stood out after the outbreak. With the normalisation of the pandemic, there will be new challenges for the development and operation of companion-animal-related public spaces in cities, which will be the next focus of research. In addition, governments and social media should work together to promote and support sustainable animal ethical practices to better respond to the crisis. These findings will help complement the urban services system and guide future planning, design, and evaluation of related spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide new ideas and methods for the sustainable use of groundwater in areas with serious groundwater overexploitation and serious groundwater pollution. Geographic information systems (GIS) were combined with machine learning algorithms, water resources optimization technology, and groundwater numerical simulation to optimize the regulation of the groundwater table and quality beneath the Daxing District in the southern plain of Beijing. By collecting local consumption and supply data and observations of the groundwater table and quality in the connected aquifer beneath Daxing for the years 2006–2020, the corresponding water demands and groundwater impact were extrapolated for the years 2021–2025 based on the basis of the existing development model. Through the combination of GIS and machine learning algorithms, the NO3-N concentration of local groundwater monitoring points in wet years, normal years, and dry years were predicted. With respect to NO3-N pollution, three new groundwater exploitation regimes were devised, which we numbered 1 to 3. The optimal allocation of water resources was then calculated for wet year, typical year, and dry year scenarios for the year 2025. By comparing the water shortage, groundwater utilization rate, and NO3-N pollution under the new groundwater exploitation regimes, the optimal groundwater exploitation mode for the three different types of hydrological year was determined. The results indicate that NO3-N pollution was greatly reduced after the adoption of the optimal regimes and that the groundwater table demonstrated rapid recovery. These results can be of great help in realizing the management, supervision, and regulation of groundwater by combining GIS with machine learning algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the post-enactment status of China's Labour Contract Law and Labour Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law, focusing on the dramatic rise in remuneration litigation amidst much criticism of weak or ineffective implementation of these laws. Design/methodology/approach: This paper deploys both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods to investigate the features of remuneration litigation. Remuneration judgments by Beijing People's Courts from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2017 provide the primary empirical data. The intrinsic features of remuneration disputes are investigated to delineate subcategories of claims. Several judges were also interviewed to further explore the nature of remuneration disputes. Findings: Four types of remuneration claims were identified: regular wage, minimum wage, overtime and others (including subsidies and welfare). Examination of these four types, especially how they are processed until concluded by court adjudication, provides a fuller picture of the post-enactment status of these laws and yields objective and rational findings. To explain the continuing steady rise in the volume of remuneration claims, as more workers have knowledge of their rights and access to the courts, this study identifies an increase in the number of factually complicated cases (e.g. overtime claims) and abmiguity in the relevant law, leaving some remuneration disputes difficult, if not impossible, to adjudicate. Conversely, the study also finds significant positive trends following these laws' enactment, particularly a reduction in straightforward cases, such as disputes concerning non-payment of wages/minimum wages, on which the law is clear. It is evidently imperative to improve the clarity of the current laws through further legislation, as the most appropriate next step in China's juridification process of developing its own rule of Labour Law. Research limitations/implications: This study is purposely limited to examining remuneration litigation in Beijing's courts from 2014 to 2017, which is representative of the national trend of dramatically rising remuneration disputes, and thus provides valuable insights. Future studies should cover a wider geographic territory and other categories of labour disputes to provide an even more comprehensive picture of the challenges and potential solutions. Practical implications: By understanding the driving factors of rising labour remuneration disputes, the legislature, workers and employers can act accordingly to curb labour conflicts. The growing complexity and technicality of remuneration litigation indicates that the pressing need of labour juridification is to deploy a subtle, comprehensive method to improve legal clarity and judicial professionalism. Originality/value: This study uniquely divides the types of remuneration litigation in Beijing, adopting methods and yielding findings absent from the prior literature. Both the progress and challenges in China's rule of Labour Law process are reflected in this work, together with public policy and theoretical implications for further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ecological welfare performance is a measure of the relationship between input ecological resources and output welfare, and it reflects the sustainable development status of a region. In this paper, the environmental resource consumption and human development index of four areas (covering thirty provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) in China from 2019 to 2020 were predicted using the GM (1,1) model. The status and trend of sustainable development were evaluated using the Malmquist index and its decomposition index (catch-up effect and frontier e impact of movement). The corresponding regions' environmental resource consumption data and human development index from 2011–2018 were used for the analyses. The following results were obtained: (1) In terms of the catch-up effect. However, Beijing shows a greater technical efficiency than other regions with values less than 1, which is a drag on sustainable development. (2) Regarding the frontier movement effect, all regions' technical level has improved, and the frontier exhibits an upward trend. (3) According to the Malmquist total factor productivity index, the sustainability status has been continuously deteriorating in all regions, except for improvements in a few areas. (4) In terms of planning periods, the frontier movement effect positively contributed to sustainable development in all regions during the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan periods; in other words, technological innovation promotes sustainable development. Except in Beijing, the catch-up effect had negative contributions. By combining the gray prediction model with the Malmquist index, the authors provide more in-depth insight into the sustainable development of four regions in China from ecological welfare performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a longitudinal interpretive case study on the development of healthcare costing in China over the period 2002 to 2015. Adopting a middle‐range theory lens, the study explores dynamic interactions in the use of cost information among societal institutions and organizations. It reports the successful internalization of costing systems in public hospitals in Beijing, which supports the effectiveness of a hybrid steering mechanism combining both transactional and relational features; however, such successful internalization does not indicate the success of steering the lifeworld of institutions and organizations towards change. Notably, hospitals' responses to steering alter over time, from passive absorption to active manipulation, revealing how cost information may underpin hospital beliefs in marketization. At an institutional level, the paper provides empirical evidence for relational steering among societal institutions, where a reaction of 'rebuttal' is observed. It offers insights on how accounting can be a powerful tool in legitimizing such rebuttal, while keeping political considerations as hidden agendas. The findings suggest the importance of understanding lifeworld complexity at both societal and organizational levels, and cross‐institutional collaboration in using accounting as a steering mechanism. The findings have important policy implications for public sector reform, both in China and worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contexto Internacional is the property of Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Relacoes Internacionais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Global Economics / Revista de Economie Mondială is the property of Institute for World Economy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since the coming into power of President Xi Jinping in China in 2012, an important objective of Beijing's foreign policy has been to modify the international order to correspond with China's rising power and to fulfill the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation and becoming a superpower. As a superpower, China is expected to bear the responsibilities of providing public goods, maintaining stability, and upholding the norms and values that are respected by other states. This paper examines the Chinese attempt to emerge as a key player in international affairs and use two case studies of China's policy towards the South China Sea and its international responses to the Covid-19 pandemic to argue that Beijing has, to some extent, fallen short of the duties of a superpower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) and their chosen Business Incubation Models. The business models of TBIs have been largely ignored or seen as explained through stratification classifications (e.g. university incubator, virtual incubator etc.). Taking a qualitative approach, five next generation TBIs clustered in the Zhongguancun region of Beijing, the 'Chinese Silicon Valley', are analyzed. Framed in the resource-based view this work contributes to the literature through the exploration of: (1) The strategies implemented by next generation TBIs in China (2) The business models of these incubators (3) The fit between each incubator's business model and their respective strategy. Ultimately this study disentangles how the varying availability of resources and incubatees' ability to absorb these resources guide incubator strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of rapid rail transit system is analyzed using tools of complex network for the first time. We evaluated the effectiveness of the system in Beijing quantitatively from different perspectives, including descriptive statistics analysis, bridging property, centrality property, ability of connecting different part of the system and ability of disease spreading. The results showed that the public transport of Beijing does benefit from the rapid rail transit lines, and the benefit of different regions from RRTS is gradually decreased from the north to the south. The paper concluded with some policy suggestions regarding how to promote the system. This study offered significant insight that can help understand the public transportation better. The methodology can be easily applied to analyze other urban public systems, such as electricity grid, water system, to develop more livable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has occurred in China, and national medical workers have been thrown into this silent battle. Paediatric medical workers have been an important part of this battle and under enormous pressure. This paper evaluates the depression, anxiety, and stress of paediatric medical staff during the epidemic and examines related impact factors. Methods: We conducted this study using online questionnaires via social networking software during the week of Feb. 17 to Feb. 23, 2020. The 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), which is a revised, simplified version of the original DASS developed by Lovibond et al., was used in this study. Results: Among all 2,031 respondents, 14.81%, 18.3%, and 9.98% had depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, respectively. Males, doctors, individuals aged between 31‑60 years, those with senior job titles, those who had contact with patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, those who worked on the clinical frontlines fighting the epidemic and those who had experience combating similar outbreaks were more likely to have depression, anxiety or stress symptoms. Respondents in Beijing and Chongqing had lower negative psychological symptom scores than the national average. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 outbreak, depression, anxiety and stress are present to varying degrees among paediatric medical workers across the country. Psychological crisis interventions should be implemented to protect the mental health of paediatric medical workers during and after the epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reveals the contemporary Chinese state's active role in shaping the country's religion-related intangible cultural heritage (ICH) safeguarding, through a systematic review of China's official inventories of national representative ICH projects and extensive investigations of relevant local practices and initiatives. Although China is ruled by a political party officially embracing an atheist ideology, various elements of the contemporary Chinese state have been proactively involved in safeguarding religion-related ICH. The Chinese state's involvement in de facto religion-related ICH safeguarding predates its adoption of explicit ICH safeguarding narratives. Still, the Chinese state's practices and initiatives in safeguarding religion-related ICH flourished after ratifying the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004. Since then, China's central government has established a nationwide framework to recognise representative ICH items, including religion-related ones. Beyond Beijing, various local state agencies have also developed noticeable enthusiasm for supporting the safeguarding of religion-related ICH. In addition to engaging directly with ICH safeguarding, the contemporary Chinese state has also shaped China's religion-related ICH by working closely with some academics and religious groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaboration among industry, university, and research institution (IUR) is dialectically linked with regional resources and networks. As the best-known innovative region in China, Zhongguancun in Beijing is no exception. The purpose of this paper is to understand the innovation network of IUR collaboration in Zhongguancun, focusing on linkages between industry and university as well as public research institutes, a key mechanism for transfer and diffusion of academic research and knowledge. Starting from a qualitative analysis of the formation and development process of this network, we combine social network analysis and spatial analysis methods at firm level and reveal the temporal and spatial evolution of Zhongguancun IUR cooperative innovation network. The network has developed from a single driver relying on government-centered connections into a more diversified system based on government and market incentives. A set of large, medium and small radial sub-networks have become interwoven, resembling a hub-and-spoke spatial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the global COVID-19 crisis, China has portrayed itself as a "champion of multilateralism" -- defending UN institutions and its own multilateral initiatives in a variety of spheres. China's approach has, however, often been criticised for undermining multilateralism through its use of multilateral platforms as arenas to contest US leadership. This paper examines the official Chinese discourse on multilateralism during the COVID 19 crisis in the years 2020 and 2021 in light of Beijing's multilateral diplomacy in the Global South, exemplified by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the China-CELAC Forum (China--Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum). The authors argue that China's growing multilateral engagement must be understood in the context of a multilateral system that was already in crisis before the pandemic due to its inability to resolve major global challenges. The term "multilateralism" is essentially used by Beijing to discursively oppose "unilateralism". While its active multilateral engagement may be able to prevent and resolve major global crises in the future, Beijing's approach offers limited multilateral spaces for deliberation and contestation by weaker states and non-state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is often considerable anxiety and conflicting advice concerning the benefits of presenting/being evaluated first. We thus investigate how expert evaluators vary in their evaluations of entrepreneurial proposals based upon the order in which they are evaluated. Our research setting is a premiere innovation fund competition in Beijing, China, where the prize money at stake is economically meaningful, and evaluators are quasi-randomly assigned to evaluate written grant proposals without the possibility of peer influence. This enables us to credibly recover a causal position effect. We also theorize and test how heterogeneity in evaluators' prior (context-specific) judging experience moderates position effects. Overall, we find that a proposal evaluated first requires total assets in the top 10th percentile to merely equal the evaluation of a proposal in the bottom 10th percentile that is not evaluated first. Firm and evaluator fixed-effects models yield consistent findings. We consider evaluation design elements that may mollify these position effects in the discussion section. This paper was accepted by Sridhar Tayur, entrepreneurship and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the impact of care-recipient relationship type on mental health burden of caregivers for schizophrenia patients in China, elucidating the underlying mechanisms. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using face-to-face surveys administered to caregivers of patients with schizophrenia in selected communities in Beijing, China. 1,853 samples' data was used. Descriptive statistics, logistic regression models and Sheaf coefficient method were employed to analyze the data. Results: The mental health burden experienced by caregivers of schizophrenia patients has reached a high level, with 66.9% reporting a moderate or severe impact from their caregiving responsibilities. Parents and spouses were the primary providers of care for schizophrenia patients in China. Parent caregivers experienced greater suffering in their caregiving role compared to spouse caregivers, whereas the difference between child caregivers and spouse caregivers was not significant. The factors influencing caregiver's mental health burden vary according to the type of relationship with the care-recipient. For parent caregivers, the mental health burden primarily stems from personal conditions of schizophrenia patients, while for spouse or child caregivers, it mainly arises from family economic conditions. Conclusion: This study reveals that caregivers having different types of carerecipient relationship with schizophrenia patients experience significantly different mental health burdens in Beijing, China, and major influencing factors are distinct according to different care-recipient relationship types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This study addresses the concern of managing and coexisting with community cats in urban areas. The study was conducted in urban China through a survey involving 5382 participants. It explores the residents' perceptions of the general health of community cats and the relationships between humans and these feline inhabitants. The findings show that about 70% of participants considered all or most of the community cats to be in good health, and about 60% reported harmonious or non-conflict coexistence. It was found that residents' relationships with community cats were associated with socio-demographic factors such as education, marital status, and income level. The study highlights the importance of customized approaches to cat management in various cities and communities. This provides useful information for stakeholders to create efficient policies and interventions for the welfare of the community cats and the people who live alongside them. The management and coexistence of community cats in urban areas is a growing concern amid global urbanization. Through a survey-based investigation, we examine the residents' perceptions of the general health of community cats and human-cat relationships in urban China. The data from 5382 participants revealed that approximately 70% of participants perceived community cats as being in good health, and 60% reported harmonious or non-conflict coexistence between residents and these cats. Around 45% of the participants rescued or helped community cats, 38% expressed their intention to adopt, and 18% complained about the issues of community cats to management staff. Linear, logistic, and multilevel-logistic regressions were employed to examine the associations between the types of cities and communities or the participants' socio-demographics and the perceived well-being of community cats or human-cat relationships. The results show that the cats in fourth-tier cities (e.g., county-level cities) had poorer living conditions than in first-tier cities (e.g., Beijing), while the cats in urban village communities (e.g., villages in the city) were less likely to exhibit good health than in ordinary commercial housing communities. The results also show that socio-demographic variables, such as educational attainment, marital status, and income level, predicted participants' relationships with community cats. This study is the first of its kind. It provides valuable insights for stakeholders to develop effective policies and interventions on cat management, emphasizing the need for tailored strategies in diverse urban settings and populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has entered the new millennium with the goal of returning to the club of the great world powers and is running as the clearest candidate to dispute the hegemonic power of the United States. The "Chinese dream of revitalization of the great Chinese nation" and the "community of destiny" have become two of the main foreign policy purposes of the current president, Xi Jinping. In both concepts, the economic arena occupies a priority place. In this context, the economic statecraft, understood as the manipulation of international economic activities by a State to achieve strategic objectives (Norris, 2010) becomes a fundamental tool for Beijing in the framework of consolidation of its global power. It has also become an effective means to attract Latin American countries, rich in the natural resources that China needs to sustain its economic growth rates. In this regard, the Asian giant has established strategic partnerships aimed at strengthening ties with Beijing, which focus on trade, investment and finance (priority areas of action in the economic statecraft). This paper intends to analyze the economic statecraft that China deploys in Latin America and its link with the establishment of strategic associations in the region, in order to understand if they contribute to give an institutional framework to the economic policy of power that China deploys in the region. For this, we will take the case of the Argentina-China relationship at the beginning of the 21st century, analyzing its process of approach and evolution of bilateral political-diplomatic relations until the signing of the 2014 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unit pricing for domestic waste, or pay-as-you-throw (PAYT), affords a promising policy option for waste classification and reduction at source. As an emerging economy, China intends to adopt the sophisticated instrument of unit pricing. The public attitude to this policy is of high relevance for its actual implementation. For the first time in China, this paper quantitatively examined the acceptability of the policy among urban residents by randomly delivering 632 questionnaires by taking Beijing, a megacity expected to introduce the practice, as an example. Based on the ordered logit model, determinants of acceptability were empirically tested including intrinsic, external and demographic factors. The results show that the acceptability rate of PAYT in Beijing is less than half, with the proportion of firm support reaching only 42.6%. The respectively low acceptability rate indicates substantial compliance costs, due to intensive resistance to policy implementation and more resources to be invested to promote acceptability. Empirical analysis further indicates that (1) regarding demographic features, aged or less educated residents tend to accept unit pricing, (2) as for intrinsic factors, a friendly environmental attitude, deeper understanding of charging policy and better social perception can significantly improve the public acceptability of the policy, and (3) in terms of external factors, better property services and transparent funding mechanisms play significant roles in enhancing public acceptability. These findings are further confirmed by replacing the dependent variable with either the willingness to pay for household waste disposal or the acceptability of the operated sewage treatment fee. The status of residents' preference for specific pricing methods is further investigated with underlying reasons being revealed. For developing regions with an urgent demand for waste reduction, it is proposed to install unit pricing in time to avoid possible growing social acceptability costs. Specific measures are proposed including changes in intrinsic factors, paying attention to focus groups, and building social consensus for unit pricing. [Display omitted] • Public acceptability of unit pricing policy is quantitatively examined in Beijing. • A random face-to-face survey is designed and conducted by covering 632 households. • The acceptability rate is only 42.6%, indicating high policy compliance costs. • Demographic, intrinsic and external factors play roles in improving acceptability. • Specific suggestions are proposed for regions like Beijing to introduce the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban airports are typically large infrastructures with significant cultural, economic, and ecological impacts; meanwhile, abandoned airports are common worldwide. However, there is limited knowledge regarding transformation strategies for the renewal of abandoned airports and their surrounding regions in historically and culturally rich areas. We use Beijing's Nanyuan Airport as a case study, combining the historic urban landscape approach, land use and land cover change, and counterfactual simulations of land use patterns to construct a comprehensive analytical framework. Our framework was used to analyze the long-term land use patterns of the study area, determine its value, and improve perception from a macro- and multi-perspective. We discovered that the traditional knowledge and planning systems in the study area have largely disappeared, but Nanyuan Airport's impact on the surrounding land use patterns is unique and significant. By considering the characteristics and mechanisms of land use in the study area, we aimed to find a balance point between the historical context and future potential. As such, we propose optimized recommendations with the theme of connection and development engines. Our findings supplement the planning knowledge of relevant areas and provide a springboard for interdisciplinary research in landscape planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital is generally believed to facilitate protest mobilization. We examine, however, whether and how it might reduce an individual's tendency to join a protest. Analyzing survey data of a migrant population in Beijing, China's capital, we find that social capital operating as better embeddedness in local social networks lowers the likelihood of protest participation. We reason that, structurally, embeddedness in local networks provides access to support and assistance, reducing the attractiveness of disruptive means of problem-solving. Psychologically, such embeddedness mitigates the feeling of relative deprivation, reducing the possibility of such feelings accumulating and eventually translating into protesting actions. Regressions and structural equation models confirm our hypotheses, and we are also able to check the robustness of our findings with a different, much larger, cross-national dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that sex differences commonly occur in trauma-related disorders. The current study aims to explore sex differences in complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) symptom networks among Chinese young adults with childhood trauma. The current study utilized a representative sample of college students in Beijing and included 1416 participants (409 men and 907 women) who had childhood trauma experience. CPTSD symptoms were evaluated using the International Trauma Questionnaire. Regularized partial correlation network analysis and Bayesian network analysis were used to estimate the network structure and possible causality of CPTSD symptoms for both sexes. Male and female CPTSD symptom networks had differences in strength centrality and bridge centrality. Nightmares and feelings of failure had the highest strength centrality, and long-term upset and nightmares had the highest bridge centrality for men. Hypervigilance and feelings of failure had the highest strength centrality, and long-term upset and exaggerated startle response had the highest bridge centrality for women. The current study provides the first evidence of sex differences in the CPTSD symptom network among Chinese young adults with childhood trauma. Young men and women differed in highly central symptoms, which may speak to sex specificity in the main manifestations of CPTSD symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1990 to 2017, the number of vehicles in China increased sharply from 5 million to 310 million, and vehicle emissions became one of the major sources of air pollution. Among the main sources of PM 2.5 in Beijing, the contributions from vehicle sources increased from 5.6% (2000) to 31.1% (2012) to 45% (2017). In 2010, the CO, hydrocarbon (HC), NO x , and particulate matter (PM) emissions of yellow-label vehicles (YLVs) accounted for 46.1%, 47.9%, 63.1% and 86.1% of the total emissions from on-road vehicles. In recent years, China has been implementing a YLV scrappage subsidy policy to control air pollution, and this policy has cost several hundred billion yuan nationwide. However, China has not evaluated the costs and benefits of the policy. Many people question whether the YLV scrappage subsidy policy is worthwhile, but all the stakeholders involved complicate the process of accurately evaluating the true value of the policy. In this study, we evaluated and compared the costs and benefits of the policy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region based on 1.362 million YLVs from 2008 to 2015. Because of the implementation of the policy, the PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO x , CO and HC emissions in the BTH region decreased by 16.46, 18.12, 174.44, 669.11, and 91.64 kt, respectively, in 2008–2015. The results show that the policy played an important role in reducing pollutant emissions and improving environmental quality in the BTH region. The costs, benefits, and net benefits of the policy were 13.69, 34.03, and 20.34 billion yuan , respectively. The cost-benefit ratio in the BTH region was 1:2.49; at the city scale, Beijing ranked first (1:7.27), and the cost-benefit ratios of Tianjin and Hebei Province were 1:2.06 and 1:1.14, respectively. Of the 13 cities in the BTH region, Beijing had the highest net benefits, amounting to 16.43 billion yuan , while Handan City has the lowest net benefits, amounting to −0.58 billion yuan. The results may provide scientific support for the promotion of older vehicle and diesel vehicle scrappage subsidy policies, the development of cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and effective environmental decision-making in China. • Based on net number of scrappage YLVs, net benefits of the policy are calculated. • This paper estimates costs and benefits of the policy based on 1.27 million YLVs. • The costs, benefits, and net benefits are 13.69, 34.03, and 20.34 billion yuan. • The results help China promote vehicle scrappage subsidy policy on a large scale. • The results promote the development of the cost-benefit analysis in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has begun a rapid move towards Sponge City implementation, which will include widespread installation of various Low Impact Development (LID) stormwater infrastructure. Ambitious goals have been set for all Sponge Cities, including a target capture rate of 80–85% of annual precipitation in Beijing. However, there has so far been limited investigation into whether these goals are obtainable at the catchment scale given the physical restrictions of the existing urban landscape. This paper demonstrates the use of long-term continuous hydrologic modelling to evaluate the potential of meeting rainfall capture goals over a long time period for a case study area in Beijing. Detailed land cover classification derived from satellite imagery aided in the parameterization of a SWMM (Stormwater Management Model) model representing a 133 km2 urban study area. The calibrated and validated model demonstrated satisfactory agreement between computed and observed runoff for a variety of precipitation events ranging from 10 to 207 mm. A synthetic high resolution rainfall time series was generated from historic daily observations then used as input to run the model continuously for a 35 year period. Feasible LID model scenarios based on varying degrees of implementation of rain gardens, permeable pavements and green roofs were compared in terms of their potential volume capture of annual rainfall. Modelling results demonstrated that the conversion of 30% of roof area to green roof, 10% of green areas to rain gardens and 35% of paved areas to permeable pavement could increase the baseline volume capture ratio from 59.9% to 82.2%, indicating that Sponge City goals can be met within the case study area with realistic levels of LID implementation. This study provides a decision-making basis for future planning in the study area. • Satellite imagery based hydrologic model shows good agreement with observed flows. • Continuous modelling approach suggested for evaluation of Volume Capture Ratio. • >80% of annual rainfall captured with moderate catchment wide implementation of LID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black carbon (BC), an important component of atmospheric aerosol, plays a significant role in regional climate, hydrological cycle, variation of monsoon rainfall, and human health. The 40-year detailed atmospheric BC over China from 1981 to 2020 is systematically investigated through the MERRA-2 reanalysis dataset. MERRA-2 BC generally showed a good correlation (R = 0.68) compared with 673 monthly samples from ground-based observation at 35 stations around China. The overall annual average of MERRA-2 BC concentration over China is 1.15 μg/m3, with a fast growth rate during 1981–2007 and a relatively slow decrease after that. The winter season has the highest mean concentration of BC, followed by autumn and spring, whereas summer shows relatively weaker values. The order of annual average BC concentrations during 1981–2020 is Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH, 4.02 μg/m3) > Sichuan Basin (SB, 3.94 μg/m3) > Yangtze River Delta (YRD, 2.68 μg/m3) > Pearl River Delta (PRD, 1.47 μg/m3). The monthly mean BC concentrations over the BTH, YRD, PRD and SB are estimated to be smallest 3.18 μg/m3 in May, 1.94 μg/m3 in August, 0.82 μg/m3 in July, 3.04 μg/m3 in June, respectively, whilst largest consistently in December with 5.09 μg/m3, 3.83 μg/m3, 2.12 μg/m3, and 5.41 μg/m3, respectively. Our study indicates the primary potential source areas for BC are concentrated in the research city and its surroundings. Beijing and Chengdu are more BC-polluted areas than Shanghai and Guangzhou. Long-distance, regional transfer from south BTH contributes importantly to BC pollution in Beijing under the influence of prevailing southerly winds. The geographical location of Chengdu causes the transport and accumulation of BC inside the SB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Vaccination is an important part of public health services. We aim to assess the efficiency of vaccination services in Beijing, the capital of China, and to further study the influencing factors of efficiency. Methods: Using the immunization service data of Beijing, China in 2020, we firstly developed a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to calculate the score of vaccination efficiency. Secondly, we used DEA model scenario simulations with different combinations of input–output factors to derive the magnitude of the effect of each input factor on the efficiency. Finally, combined with the data from the Beijing Regional Statistical Yearbook 2021, we developed the Tobit model to examine the effect of external social environmental factors on efficiency. Results: The average scores of efficiency of POVs (Point of Vaccination) in different areas of Beijing vary greatly. Different input factors had different degrees of positive effects on the efficiency score. In addition, the number of populations served by POV was positively associated with efficiency, the GDP and financial allocation of the POVs' district was also positively associated with efficiency score, while the total dependency ratio of the POVs' district was negatively associated with efficiency score. Conclusion: The efficiency of vaccination services varied considerably across POVs. Constrained by limited resources, efficiency scores can be increased by increasing input factors that have a larger impact on efficiency score and reducing those that have a smaller impact on efficiency. In addition, the social environment should be considered in allocating vaccination resources, and more resources should be invested in areas with low levels of economic development, low financial allocation, and high population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a basic structural unit of the city, the community plays a crucial role in decreasing carbon emissions and creating a low carbon city. This paper selects a classic and official low carbon community named Min'an Community in Beijing as a case to illustrate the governance mechanism of the low carbon community in China from the perspective of polycentric governance. The paper summarizes the government mechanism, market mechanism, and public participation mechanism in Min'an Community and analyzes the provision, monitoring, and enforcement of each mechanism. We find that unlike the low carbon governance at the city or industry park levels, China's low carbon governance at the community level lacks a dominant mechanism. Even though it involves community-wide governance, the public participation mechanism is also inadequate. For improving low carbon governance at the community level, the government should broaden finance channels to strengthen the incentive mechanisms, make active use of new technologies, such as mobile Internet, encourage innovation of public participation mechanism, and employ various publicity and education measures to cultivate the low carbon culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In China, physicians have long faced long working hours, high stress levels, and tensions between physicians and patients, which can lead to negative behaviors. Understanding physicians' expectations and requirements of the hospital and increasing satisfaction with their psychological contract can help improve physician motivation and stabilize the hospital team. Aim: The study aims to analyze the relationship between physicians' psychological contract violations and different behavioral choices, encourage hospitals to conclude a balanced psychological contract with physicians, and provide governance and intervention strategies for hospital human resource management. Methods: Stratified cluster sampling was used to select 321 physicians from four public hospitals in Beijing for questionnaire surveys. Descriptive statistical analysis, t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, and regression models were performed using Stata 15.0 and SPSS 26.0 to analyze the relationship between psychological contract violations, physicians' EVLN behaviors and organizational justice. Results: Psychological contract violation had a positive effect on exit behavior and neglect behavior, and a negative effect on voice behavior and loyalty behavior. Organizational justice plays a mediating role between psychological contract violation and physicians' exit, voice and loyalty behaviors. Conclusion: Psychological contract violation can drive negative behavior among physicians, and organizational justice can play a mediating role in this. Public hospitals should establish a healthy psychological contract with physicians and place a premium on organizational justice to promote constructive behaviors and prevent destructive behaviors. This study constructs a more complete theoretical framework to explain physicians' behavior, and further dynamic tracking investigations are necessary because the evolution of physicians' behavior is a dynamic and long-term process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural sector is extremely vulnerable to climate change and also plays a very important role in the operation of the entire economic system, leading many studies to evaluate the possible agricultural direct economic damage (ADED) of climate change. However, this damage may have an amplification impact through the intricate industrial linkages that exist among sectors, and this impact may be even greater than the original damage. Therefore, to elucidate the economic cascading effect (ECE) in China caused by ADED and industrial linkage, this paper used the ARIO model to evaluate the total ECE and analyse the differences in the 19 sectors by taking the ADED under future annual mean temperature (AMT) increases of 1–5 °C as the input condition and adjusting the exogenous parameters to enhance the adaptability of the model; the goal was to assess the economic impact of climate change in China. The results show that (i) there is a significant amplifying impact of ECE due to industrial linkage under the influence of warming, ECE will be 4.24–5.25 times that of ADED, and the total economic impact (ADED + ECE) will exceed the GDP of the Chinese capital of Beijing in 2012 when the AMT increases by 1.5 °C, while it will exceed one tenth of China's GDP when it increases by 4 °C. (ii) Manufacturing will be the sector most affected by the industrial linkage under ADED, which accounts for 26.58% of total ECE, followed by agriculture (10.39%) and construction (8.5%). (iii) The decrease in cultivated land area will have a significant impact on the economy; when it is reduced to the minimum demand (1.41% less than 2012), ADED increases by 1.65 times and ECE increases by 2.35 times. This paper aims to provide a new perspective from which to evaluate the economic impact of climate change by studying ECEs behind sectoral interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Residential green spaces and the co-inhabiting bird communities provide critical cultural ecosystem services for urban dwellers, which is critical for citizens' psychological well-being but has largely been overlooked, especially in China. This study attempted to delineate the relationship between human-nature interactions occurring at different scenarios in the health deriving procedure, and identify the key factors influencing urban residents' psychological well-being and the potential critical human-nature connections within their living spaces. Methods: Bird, plant, and social surveys were sequentially conducted. A model selection procedure based on AICc information was used to find the key factors that are responsible for residents' psychological well-being, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to figure out the key drivers for the occurrence of critical within-living-space human-nature connections. Results: Most of the respondents are aware of the neighborhood biodiversity and most of them are fond of it, and respondents who prefer fauna over flora have a considerably lower depression degree. Watching birds is the only critical within-living-space nature-related activity that is responsible for residents' psychological well-being. Both residents' psychological well-being and bird watching activity were simultaneously affected by nature-related activities within and outside the living spaces, while their preference for different aspects of biodiversity and their capability in perceiving them were also important, despite the difference in exact parameters. In addition, personal attributes such as age, financial income, and physical or mental health status also contribute to psychological well-being. Conclusions: This study successfully bridged citizens' minds with health products, and the major contribution was the demonstration of a spatial-scale-oriented circuit for people-nature connections, which contributes to the practical application of nature-based therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worsening volatility in the domestic and global hog and pork markets is a cause of concern for China's producers and government, as well as the global market. Cyclical price fluctuations have been caused by domestic small‐ and medium‐scale farmers' frequent exits and re‐entries into the hog market, which may have been partly driven by information asymmetry and risk resistance. This study examines the impact of a farmer field school (FFS) program aiming to deliver information and services that may facilitate hog farmers' decision‐making. Using survey data collected from 226 hog farms in Beijing, we employ probit models to examine the exit decisions of hog farmers based on their FFS participation and its effect on hog farm size. We find evidence that FFS participation significantly reduces hog farmers' exit rates, and that this effect increases as farm scale decreases. The findings suggest that such a program may be an effective policy tool to support and improve the resilience of small‐ and medium‐scale hog farms, thereby alleviating the volatility in China's hog industry and those of other developing countries where small‐ and medium‐scale hog farms play an important role. [EconLit Citations: C21, D13, Q16, Q18]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exhibition is a new economic business form in China. From a stakeholder perspective, all important roles in the context of hospitality and tourism are talents. From a socio-cultural perspective, interpersonal relationship quality plays a vital role in business and industrial operations. This constructs a causal model of relationship quality between exhibitors and exhibition organizers, and examined its influence on exhibitors' willingness to sustainably participate in exhibitions. Data collected from a total of 251 exhibitors from 4 nation-representative exhibitions in Beijing were analyzed. The results found that the four antecedent variables--guanxi (as distinctive from relationship quality), service quality, communication, and exhibition effectiveness--have significant impacts on the relationship quality between exhibitors and exhibition organizers, which in turn, affect exhibitors' willingness to participate in subsequent exhibitions (i.e., exhibitor loyalty). These findings provide a theoretical basis and policy recommendations talent management in exhibition context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Will China's rise lead to Chinese hegemony? Most International Relations scholars would answer in the negative, contending the road to a global hegemony remains well beyond Beijing's interests and capabilities. In Asia, however, China's formidable economy, technological advancement, rapidly modernizing military forces, and recent geopolitical moves look outright hegemonic - a fact that United States attempts to "pivot" and "rebalance" to that region have put into sharp relief. To assess the prospects of a new regional hegemony, this article considers the "economic," "security" and "cultural" relations of eleven Asian states with both Beijing and Washington. The overall results induce skepticism about the latter's ability to reorder the region. Although growing and in some cases significant, China's provision of international goods to neighboring countries still pales in comparison to that centered on the United States and its allies. Sightings of an Asian Pax Sinica are at best premature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education of the disadvantaged population has been a long-standing challenge to education systems in both developed and developing countries. Although computer-assisted learning (CAL) has been considered one alternative to improve learning outcomes in a cost-effective way, the empirical evidence of its impacts on improving learning outcomes is mixed. This paper uses a randomized field experiment to explore the effects of CAL on student academic and non-academic outcomes for students in migrant schools in Beijing. Our results show that a remedial CAL program held out of regular school hours improved the student standardized math scores by 0.15 standard deviations and most of the program effect took place within 2 months after the start of the program. Students with less-educated parents benefited more from the program. Moreover, CAL also significantly increased the students’ interest in learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food and package delivery workforce in China has grown substantially in the past decade. However, delivery drivers face volatile and stressful work conditions, which can give rise to high turnover and burnout. Past research has indicated that job demands and resources (JD-R) significantly predict burnout. Scholars have also found evidence that mindfulness may be a protective factor against negative outcomes like burnout. Using data collected from 240 food and package delivery drivers in Beijing, China, we examined the effects of JD-R on burnout and whether these relations were moderated by mindfulness. Estimates produced by regression analyses indicated that job demands (JD) have significantly positive effects on burnout (β = 0.33), while job resources (JR) have a significant negative effect on burnout (β = −0.32). Mindfulness significantly moderated the effects of JD and JR on burnout (β = −1.64 and − 1.30, respectively). Results suggest that mindfulness is a protective factor for delivery drivers. Practice and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is experiencing high social inequality accompanying influential education reforms. The Independent Freshmen Admission (IFA) policy was one of the multiple strategies in higher education reforms in China against the social context of high social inequality and the expansion of higher education. By comparing students admitted through IFA with those admitted by the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), we examined how family advantages contributed to higher education inequality in terms of educational opportunity, process, and results. Using data from an elite university in Beijing, we found that: (1) Family advantages improved a student's likelihood of being admitted through IFA, exhibiting opportunity inequality. (2) No significant difference in academic grades existed between the students admitted through IFA and NCEE. In comprehensive quality, however, those recruited through IFA performed significantly better than those admitted through NCEE. (3) Family social capital not only increased the likelihood of students being admitted through IFA but also, through direct and indirect effects, increased their comprehensive quality performance in terms of receiving student association and social practice awards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Trust is an essential component in a successful health care relationship. Doctor–patient trust involves the subjects of both sides, including the direction of patients' trust in physicians (patients' perception) and physicians' trust in patients (physicians' perception). This study aims to assess the status quo and explore suggestions for improving trust between doctors and patients. Patients and Methods: In May 2018, we collected data from six representative hospitals in Beijing, China, including 610 questionnaires (310 physicians and 300 patients). Participants were Chinese-speaking, age 14 and older, who expressed their opinions clearly. Kruskal–Wallis H-test and Wilcoxon rank sum test were used to analyze the difference in the trust scores of the responses. Results: Based on the doctor and patient characteristics, the data show that inpatients are trusted more than outpatients, and patients who often visit the clinic are more doubtful of doctors. The family trust is the highest, and social trust is the lowest. In general, the degree of trust between doctors and patients is good, but the score of physicians (Mean=3.87; SD=0.79) is lower than that of patients (Mean=4.05; SD=0.76). Physicians' evaluation of the degree of trust tends to be more negative than patients'. Conclusion: In spite of recent negative press reports, there remains a high degree of trust between patients and doctors in Beijing. Despite this, one should not be complacent. We need to explore the root cause of the trust between doctors and patients from a deeper perspective to promote better medical services to meet the health needs of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of environmental motivations on the individual's decisions regarding investments in energy efficiency and the adoption of energy-saving habits are analyzed for a representative sample of Chinese inhabitants from the larger Beijing area, replicating a comparative study on Western Europe. For the considered type of energy efficiency investments and daily energy-saving activities similarities and discrepancies between the two regions are discussed in regard to their sociocultural background as well as governmental regulations. The study provides empirical evidence that for Chinese environmental issues if all only play a tertiary role after monetary and regulatory incentives. The findings could suggest that in China policy programs aimed at raising environmental awareness and forming pro-environmental motivations might not lead to an increase in energy efficiency investments and daily energy-saving activities and the Chinese government's interests in this regard might be better served by implementing corresponding incentives via regulations. In the long-term. However, social peer pressure might affect a change in the Chinese mentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Communist Party is consolidating one party rule under the leadership of Xi Jinping. Beijing seeks to rule by central mandate while limiting local autonomy. The central government response to the COVID‐19 public health emergency reinforces this view. In January 2020 Beijing established the Central Epidemic Response Leading Group to mobilise a comprehensive nationwide policy effort to contain the virus. The exceptional nature of the COVID‐19 national emergency allows the central government to project power over local authorities and leverage over citizens, but we argue that this is a short‐term phenomenon because local disease control initiatives remain important, with local authorities adapting national policies to meet constituent needs. There are degrees of policy discretion and divergence at the subnational level that enable context‐specific responses to the virus within China's strict bureaucratic hierarchy. Primary data derives from interviews and observations in Nancun village, Hebei Province, conducted from January to April 2020. Evidence from Nancun explains how local authorities interpret the edicts and mandates of the central government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, the current study analysed the relationship between teachers' perceived autonomy support and work engagement while it also explored the mediating effect of basic psychological need satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. The study investigated 520 elementary teachers in Beijing, and we found the following: (1) teachers in different groups reported diverse senses of perceived autonomy support, in that teachers with less teaching experience as well as those with a master's degree have a higher score regarding the perceptions of teacher autonomy; and (2) teacher autonomy can affect work engagement not only in terms of the satisfaction of basic psychological needs but also by the chain of satisfaction of basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation. Teachers with more autonomy support will have higher basic psychological need satisfaction and stronger teaching motivation, which will further enhance their work engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, China and Egypt upgraded their bilateral relations to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership, providing a new framework under which both states have been able to intensify and deepen their cooperation as never before. Building on the concept of strategic partnership as a newly emerging framework of international cooperation, this article examines the dynamics of the Sino-Egyptian comprehensive strategic partnership from the perspective of the driving motivations of both actors, its policy manifestations as well as its potential challenges in the future. The article contends that while the Sino-Egyptian comprehensive strategic partnership has offered an ideal framework of win-win bilateral cooperation that corresponded to the strategic interests and needs of both actors in a critical historical juncture post-2013, this framework, which involves a number of imbedded limitations, might not continue to serve bilateral interactions in the medium and long terms, particularly as it pertains to their future corresponding security and economic concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little research describes the mechanisms underlying depressive symptoms and personal relative deprivation in Chinese populations. Methods: In this study, the respondents were (N = 914) residents of Beijing (17–59 years old) and robust multiple linear regressions were used to assess the main relationship between relative deprivation and depressive symptoms and social support as a potential moderator for that relationship. Results: Individuals who reported higher personal relative deprivation had greater depressive symptoms than those who reported lower personal relative deprivation. Perceived social support buffered the relationship between depressive symptoms and personal relative deprivation. Conclusions: The findings of this current study demonstrate the importance of relative deprivation for psychological strain and income in explaining how socioeconomic indices correlate with depressive symptoms. They also demonstrate the need to acknowledge the interaction of perceived social support and personal relative deprivation for influencing depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Understanding the long-term inpatient service cost and utilization of psychiatric patients may provide insight into service demand for these patients and guide the design of targeted mental health programs. This study assesses 3-year hospitalization patterns and quantifies service utilization intensity of psychiatric patients in Beijing, China. Methods: We identified patients admitted for one of three major psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar and depressive disorders) between January 1 and December 31, 2013 in Beijing, China. Inpatient admissions during the following 3 years were extracted and analyzed using sequence analysis. Clinical characteristics, psychiatric and non-psychiatric service use of included patients were analyzed. Results: The study included 3443 patients (7657 hospitalizations). The patient hospitalization sequences were grouped into 4 clusters: short stay (N = 2741 (79.61% of patients), who had 126,911 or 26.82% of the hospital days within the sample), repeated long stay (N = 404 (11.73%), 76,915 (16.26%) days), long-term stay (N = 101 (2.93%), 59,909 (12.66%) days) and permanent stay (N = 197 (5.72%), 209,402 (44.26%) days). Length and frequency of hospitalization, as well as readmission rates were significantly different across the 4 clusters. Over the 3-year period, hospitalization days per year decreased for patients in the short stay and repeated long stay clusters. Patients with schizophrenia (1705 (49.52%)) had 78.4% of cumulative psychiatric stays, with 11.14% of them in the permanent stay cluster. Among patients with depression, 23.11% had non-psychiatric hospitalizations, and on average 46.65% of their total inpatient expenses were for non-psychiatric care, the highest among three diagnostic groups. Conclusion: Hospitalization patterns varied significantly among psychiatric patients and across diagnostic categories. The high psychiatric care service use of the long-term and permanent stay patients underlines the need for evidence-based interventions to reduce cost and improve care quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a rare inherited disorder, which is caused by loss-of-function mutations in the ALPL gene. HPP is a heterogeneous disease that has a wide spectrum of phenotypes. Few studies were carried out in the Chinese population with HPP, especially in children.Methods: The clinical and genetic characteristics of 10 Chinese children with HPP who were referred to the Beijing Children's Hospital were described. Previously reported HPP cases of children in China were also reviewed.Results: A total of 33 cases were identified, which included 2 perinatal lethal HPP, 10 infantile HPP, 10 childhood HPP, and 11 odonto HPP. The male-to-female ratio was 24:9. The average age at onset was 0.69 years (ranged from 2 h after birth to 14 years), while the average age at clinical diagnosis was 3.87 years (ranged from 2 h after birth to 19 years). Serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels were significantly decreased in patients with perinatal lethal/infantile HPP when compared with those with the mild forms of HPP childhood/odonto HPP (P < 0.01). Although serum phosphate levels were not different (P > 0.05), serum calcium levels were elevated, and serum intact parathyroid hormone levels were decreased in patients with perinatal lethal/infantile HPP in comparison with those with the childhood/odonto HPP (P all < 0.01). Genetic analyses identified 40 mutations in 31 HPP cases, including 28 missense mutations, 9 frameshift mutations, 2 splice junction alterations, and 1 regulatory mutation. Of which, 5 novel mutations were identified in our present study: 2 frameshift mutations (p.Arg138GlyfsTer27, p.Leu511Profs*272); 2 missense mutations (p.Ala176Val, p.Phe268Leu), and 1 splice junction alteration (c.297+5G>A). Compound heterozygous mutations accounted for 80.6% of all variants. No mutational "hot-spot" was found. Most mutations of ALPL were located in exons 5, 7, 10, and 3. Notably, subjects that carrying single heterozygous mutations showed milder phenotypes of HPP, while subjects with nonsense mutations were associated with a severer phenotype.Conclusions: HPP is a rare disease with often delayed diagnosis, and the incidence of HPP in China may be seriously underestimated. The present study expands the phenotypic and genotypic spectrum and the understanding of HPP in Chinese children. These findings will be useful for clinical assessment and shorten the diagnosis time for pediatric HPP in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two species of genus Anisotacrus Schmiedeknecht, 1913, A. externus Sheng & Sun, sp. nov. and A. senticosus Sheng & Sun, sp. nov., collected from the Natural Reserve, Huairou, Beijing, are described and illustrated. A key to the Eastern Palaearctic species of Anisotacrus is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent do China's linkages to the global economy translate into political influence in other countries? This topic is the focus of copious amounts of policy and scholarly attention in the USA and around the world. Yet without thoughtful conceptualization of key assumptions and creation of research designs that allow identification of mechanisms of potential influence, we cannot gain an accurate understanding of Chinese influence. How can we assess Beijing's intentions? Through what mechanisms—both intended and unintended—might influence arise, and under what conditions is influence most likely to occur? To what degree are Chinese companies agents of the state and therefore tools of economic statecraft? What factors condition how host countries react to economic ties with China? In this article, we explore existing scholarship on these questions, and assess promising directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To our knowledge, the previous studies did not answer the following questions: how much does window analysis differ from the original Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approaches and how to develop DEA window analysis? To address these questions, we propose three intermediate approaches (cross-sectional approach, window efficiency analysis and window index approach) and statistically compare their performances. The underlying concern is that we need to examine whether a metrological bias exists in our study. The concern is important in guiding policy issues such as energy policy and climate change. Empirically, the proposed approaches are applied to measure the unified efficiency of fossil fuel power plants at a provincial level in China from 2007 to 2017, since these plants are important energy consumers and CO 2 emitters. We obtain two important implications. First, considerable differences were confirmed among the three approaches, thus implying an existence of the methodological bias. Second, Beijing (the capital of China) outperformed the other provinces in terms of their measures, since the government has paid serious attention to air pollution emitted from fossil fuel power plants. The governmental regulation in Beijing is a good example of pollution prevention in China. It is expected that the success on Beijing will be disseminated to the other provinces. This paper proposed three approach, i.e. one conventional approach (cross-sectional approach) and two new approaches (window efficiency analysis and window index approach). The two new approaches were capable of measuring efficiency shifts or technology shifts over time. Empirically, these approaches were adopted to evaluate the performance of Chinese fossil fuel power plants. Image 1 • We evaluate the performance of China's fossil fuel power plants from 2007 to 2017. • Three formulations are utilized for DEA intermediate approach. • The first policy effort was put on Beijing and gradually on other provinces. • China made a progress on economic and environmental measures during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psychiatric readmissions negatively impact patients and their families while increasing healthcare costs. This study aimed at investigating factors associated with psychiatric readmissions within 30 days and 1 year of the index admissions and exploring the possibilities of monitoring and improving psychiatric care quality in China. Methods: Data on index admission, subsequent admission(s), clinical and hospital-related factors were extracted in the inpatient medical record database covering 10 secondary and tertiary psychiatric hospitals in Beijing, China. Logistic regressions were used to examine the associations between 30-day and 1-year readmissions plus frequent readmissions (≥3 times/year), and clinical variables as well as hospital characteristics. Results: The 30-day and 1-year psychiatric readmission rates were 16.69% (1289/7724) and 33.79% (2492/7374) respectively. 746/2492 patients (29.34%) were readmitted 3 times or more within a year (frequent readmissions). Factors significantly associated with the risk of both 30-day and 1-year readmission were residing in an urban area, having medical comorbidities, previous psychiatric admission(s), length of stay > 60 days in the index admission and being treated in tertiary hospitals (p < 0.001). Male patients were more likely to have frequent readmissions (OR 1.30, 95%CI 1.04–1.64). Receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was significantly associated with a lower risk of 30-day readmission (OR 0.72, 95%CI 0.56–0.91) and frequent readmissions (OR 0.60, 95%CI 0.40–0.91). Conclusion: More than 30% of the psychiatric inpatients were readmitted within 1 year. Urban residents, those with medical comorbidities and previous psychiatric admission(s) or a longer length of stay were more likely to be readmitted, and men are more likely to be frequently readmitted. ECT treatment may reduce the likelihood of 30-day readmission and frequent admissions. Targeted interventions should be designed and piloted to effectively monitor and reduce psychiatric readmissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]