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Background and Aims: A literature review of both Eastern and Western literature regarding families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) revealed limited empirical research that examines ASD in China. Furthermore, most research in this area comes from a deficit model and there is a lack of research that comes from a strengths background. No previous study in China has looked at the positive contributions of children with ASD to their families. The present study came from a strengths-based perspective and aimed to develop a new questionnaire to evaluate the positive contributions made to families by children who have ASD in China and are raised by their respective families. It considered the severity level of the children's disorder and the impact this had on the parents. Besides examining the children's impairment levels, the study also examined positive contributions and their relationship with socio-demographic elements such as family income and employment status of the parents, which also seem to be related to the positive contributions experienced by the parents. Methods: First, based on the literature review, an initial qualitative interview protocol was developed and administered to 10 parents of children with ASD. Then, based on the analyses of the interviews, a quantitative questionnaire was developed to assess the positive contributions of children with ASD to their families. The questionnaire was then administered to 156 parents of children with ASD. The internal structure of the questionnaire was analyzed by factor analysis. The questionnaire's reliability and validity were also examined. The data were then analyzed with multiple correlation comparisons and an independent sample T-test. Results: Six factors emerged for families of children with ASD. The results showed that the cumulative explanatory variance of the six dimensions of the questionnaire was 65.42%. The Cronbach's coefficient of each dimension was between 0.7 and 0.9, and the combined Cronbach's coefficient of the total questionnaire was 0.945. This study found that the overall average positive contribution to families by children with ASD was 3.32, which is at a medium level, and all six dimensions were at a medium-to-high level. This study also found that the family's monthly income contributed to the overall positive contribution, intimacy and happiness, and gaining more special knowledge through experience dimensions. Furthermore, it was found that moderate severity of ASD, high income, and parental employment were all associated with more positive contributions. Conclusion: This new questionnaire appears to have good reliability and validity and seems suitable for assessing the positive contributions to families by children with ASD in China. Implications: The present study may be helpful for the parents of children with ASD and will likely help them focus on the strengths of their children rather than their shortcomings. The study might also benefit counselors and researchers who would be able to use the new questionnaire to evaluate the positive contributions made to families by children who have ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The pathologic features and potential predictive biomarkers for recurrence of antrochoanal polyps (ACPs) in children are not fully understood. Objectives: To identify the pathologic differences between recurrent and nonrecurrent group and to explore potential clinical markers which predict recurrence of ACPs in children. Material and Methods: A total of 11 recurrent and 21 nonrecurrent ACPs children were enrolled into this retrospect study. Clinical basic information was collected before the first surgery. The counts of vessels were evaluated by hematoxylin–eosin (HE) staining, and CD34 was detected by immunohistochemistry. Meanwhile, the percentage of each tissue inflammatory cells (eosinophils, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and plasma cells) was assessed by HE staining. Results: No statistical significance was observed between the 2 groups in the basic clinical features. Moreover, both the counts of blood vessels and the tissue neutrophils percentage were enhanced significantly in group with ACPs recurrence (P <.05). According to the receiver operating characteristic curves, the area under the curve for the counts of blood vessels and tissue neutrophils percentage in the prediction of ACPs' recurrence was 0.779 (P =.0105) and 0.989 (P <.0001) respectively. Conclusions and Significance: It was concluded that the counts of blood vessels and the percentage of tissue neutrophils appeared to be potential excellent predictors of ACPs recurrence in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Few studies in China have focused on the economic evaluation of newborn screening (NBS) for inherited metabolic disorders (IMDs) by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). This study assesses the total costs, benefits, benefit–cost ratio (BCR), cost–utility ratio (CUR) and incremental cost–utility ratio (ICUR) of NBS using MS/MS compared to the non-screened group. Methods: The NBS outcomes of newborns who underwent MS/MS screening for IMDs in 2009–2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Records were extracted from a screening management system at the NBS Center of Zhejiang province. A cost–benefit analysis of screening was conducted, assessing screening costs for each subject, and direct and indirect treatment costs for IMDs detected by screening. The putative benefit of clinical outcomes related to early diagnosis was assumed to be improvement in quality of life and prolonged life expectancy in the screened group, as compared to the non-screened group. Results: Of the 3,040,815 newborns screened, 735 (2.86%) cases were diagnosed through gene sequence analysis. The most frequently occurring types of IMD were amino acid disorders (n = 276), then fatty acid oxidation disorders (n = 248), followed by organic acidaemias (n = 211). The difference in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) ranged from 0.78 to 15.4 in the screened group. The CUR was CNY¥ 116,183.89/QALY in the screened group and CNY¥ 3,078,823.65/QALY in the non-screened group. The ICUR was CNY¥ –768,428.76/QALY, and the BCR was 6.09. Conclusions: NBS using MS/MS can be considered cost-effective in China. The nationwide promotion of NBS using MS/MS deserves priority consideration and sufficient publicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diarrhea is a ubiquitous digestive system disease, leading to loss of fluid and electrolytes, and may be life-threatening, especially in children and adults who are immunosuppressed or malnourished. Berberine has a broad-spectrum antibiotic activity and is very widely used to treat diarrhea in China. No systematic review has been carried out to evaluate the evidence presented in clinical trials. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and safety of berberine in diarrhea treatment among children and adults. Methods: Seven databases and two clinical trial registries were searched on 1 September 2019. Randomized controlled trials were included, where participants were diagnosed (first diagnosed) as having diarrhea according to clear diagnostic criteria. Berberine alone or in combination with Western medication as intervention were included. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on children or adults, acute or persistent diarrhea, infectious or noninfectious and treatment courses. Primary outcomes were clinical cure rate and duration of diarrhea. The GRADE tool was used to assess the quality of evidence. Results: A total of 38 randomized controlled trials were included involving 3948 participants (including 27 trials on 2702 children) were included. Compared with antibiotics, berberine plus antibiotics showed better results in both adults and in children in general, especially when given for 7 days or 3 days in acute infectious diarrhea of children. Compared with the control groups, using berberine alone or in combination with montmorillonite, probiotics, and vitamin B increased the clinical cure rate of diarrhea. The use of berberine alone or berberine combined with montmorillonite reduced the duration of hospitalization. Using berberine had significantly better laboratory indicators (isoenzyme, inflammatory factors, myocardial enzyme, and fecal trait) and fewer systemic symptoms than the no berberine groups. Overall, 22 of 27 trials on children used berberine as an enema. No deaths and serious adverse events were reported. The quality of evidence of included trials was moderate to low or very low. The impact of different dosages, frequencies and treatment durations on the outcomes was not evaluated due to insufficient number of trials. Conclusion: This review demonstrated that berberine was generally effective in improving clinical cure rates and shortening the duration of diarrhea compared with control groups. No severe adverse event was reported. However, there is still a lack of high-quality evidence for evaluating the efficacy and safety of berberine. Trial registration: PROSPERO CRD42020151001 (available from http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epistaxis is a common symptom in children. The effect of air pollution on epistaxis is not yet clear. Objectives: To explore the characteristics of pediatric epistaxis in Beijing and its correlation with air pollutants. Material and Methods: Data were collected from 2014 to 2017 in Otolaryngology Department of Capital Institute of Pediatrics. Children diagnosed with epistaxis with relevant information with the same period of municipal air pollutants' concentration were compared. Results: The annual visits of epistaxis showed a bimodal trend. The incidence of epistaxis in infants was low, increased with age, reached the peak between the ages of 4 to 5, and then gradually decreased with age. In different age groups, male patients were more than females. From 2014 to 2017 in Beijing, particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5), particulate matter less than 10 μm in diameter (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) showed a downtrend, lower in summer than in the other 3 seasons. Ozone (O3) was significantly higher in 2016 and 2017, showed an increase trend in summer. The incidence of epistaxis was negatively correlated with PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2 and CO, which was positively correlated with O3 (P <.05). Conclusions: Pediatric epistaxis in Beijing changes with age and has obvious seasonal variation. There are some correlations between air pollutants and the incidence of epistaxis in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we consider historical and contemporary ideologies of childhood in China and critically examine notions of 'child' and 'childhood' in Chinese children's literature. We analyse the themes and knowledge that relate to relevant historical and contemporary political events and policies, and how these contribute to the production of childhoods. We focus on three images of childhoods in China: the Confucian child, the Modern child and the Maoist child. Each of the images reflects a way of seeing, a perspective about what a child ought to be and become, and what their childhood should look like. Everyday media are reflected in the texts and stories examined and portray both 'imagined' and 'real-life' narratives of children and their childhoods. The stories, and the connected power relations, represent an important link between the politics of childhood and the pedagogy associated with these politics, including large-scale state investment in the production of desired, ideal and perfect childhoods. Through such an examination of contemporary and historical children's literature and media in China we also explore the ways in which contemporary media revitalise particular notions of child agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides information about children's creativity in the People's Republic of China. More specifically, it introduces the Chinese cultural and social background along with the school and family environments as they relate to young children's creativity. The article also provides some suggestions for schools and families to foster creativity as a crucial skill in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that was conducted to develop an automated hearing screening (AHS) test system for preschool children and to examine the risk factors associated with hearing loss. It informs that the study used a cross-sectional design which included 6,231 preschoolers aging 3–7 years from 41 kindergartens in Shanghai, China. The study findings concluded that AHS test system can be used in screening programmes for preschoolers aging five years or more.

The article presents a study that investigates the referral rate, prevalence and etiology of neonatal hearing loss in China. It describes the method of the study that observes 11,894 infants who were screened with a two-stage transient evoked otoacoustic emission testing. It also mentions the result of the study which suggests that bilateral referrals were more likely to suffer greater degrees of hearing loss than unilateral referrals.

Background. Ferric sodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate (NaFeEDTA) enhances iron absorption in the presence of phytate. However, the amount of NaFeEDTA that would have to be added to a complementary food to provide the necessary intake of iron for an infant or young child if NaFeEDTA were the sole iron fortificant exceeds the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of EDTA for this age group. EDTA increases iron absorption at a molar ratio EDTA:iron of less than 1:1. Objective. To determine whether iron absorption is enhanced with a mixture of ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) and NaFeEDTA. Methods. Two studies with a crossover design were conducted in separate groups of 14 and 15 children aged 24 to 31 months. A complementary food consisting of millet porridge with cabbage, tofu, and pork-filled wheat flour dumplings was fortified with 2 mg iron as either FeSO4 or NaFeEDTA (study 1) or 4 mg iron as FeSO4 or a mixture of 2 mg each of FeSO4 and NaFeEDTA (study 2). Iron absorption was determined based on erythrocyte incorporation of stable iron isotopes. Results. In study 1, the geometric mean (± SD) iron absorption was 8.0% (3.1, 20.8) and 9.2% (3.1, 27.0) from food fortified with FeSO4 and NaFeEDTA, respectively. In study 2, iron absorption was significantly higher from food fortified with 4 mg iron as 1:1 mixture of FeSO4/NaFeEDTA than from food fortified with FeSO4; the geometric mean iron absorption was 6.4% (3.0, 13.5) and 4.1% (1.9, 8.9), respectively. Conclusions. The enhancing effect of EDTA on iron absorption is less strong in composite meals containing enhancers; nevertheless, the equal mixture of FeSO4 and NaFeEDTA significantly enhanced iron absorption and can be a strategy to ensure adequate iron absorption from phytate-containing complementary foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how the intersection of two state policies, the market reforms initiated in 1978 and the "one-child" policy launched in 1979, is shaping gender, family, and kin relations in rural North China. It focuses particularly on women's ties with their natal families after marriage; these have become closer, with more frequent daughter-parent contact. The qualitative data were collected from interviews and focus group discussions conducted intermittently between 2002 and 2004 in three Hebei counties. The changing context of the new political economy, brought about by market reforms, has broken down the pre-reform institutional and economic constraints inherent in daughter-parent ties, thereby enhancing these relationships in post-reform rural society. Moreover, the "one-child" policy, which aims to regulate individual fertility and retard population growth, has had the unintended consequence of strengthening relations between married daughters and their birth parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Congenital auricular deformities are common diseases in newborn infants. We compared the efficacy of 2 ear molding systems in the nonsurgical management of newborn auricular deformities in Chinese infants. Methods: A total of 462 newborns with auricular deformities were treated with either the EarWell or the LiangEar ear molding systems. The posttreatment outcome was graded as excellent, fair, and poor. The differences in effectiveness between the 2 ear molding systems and factors that may affect the posttreatment outcome were analyzed. Results: Both ear molding systems showed substantial efficacy in the treatment of newborn auricular deformities. The effective rate was comparable between the EarWell and the LiangEar systems for 4 types of auricular deformities (cryptotia, prominent ear, helical rim abnormality, and cup ear), while the costs for the LiangEar systems were half as much as that for the EarWell systems. Multivariate regression analysis showed that earlier time points at treatment initiation, less severe auricular deformities, treatment duration, and breastfeeding were the most significant predictive factors for a better outcome. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that using the EarWell and the LiangEar systems are both optimal nonsurgical approaches for treatment of most newborn auricular deformities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kindergartners in China showed greater numerical knowledge than their age peers in the United States, not only when tested with arithmetic problems, which Chinese parents present to their children more often than U.S. parents do, but also when tested with number-line estimation problems, which were novel to the children in both countries. The Chinese kindergartners' number-line estimates were comparable to those of U.S. children 1 to 2 years more advanced in school. Individual differences in arithmetic and number-line-estimation performance were positively correlated within each country. These results indicate that performance differences between Chinese and U.S. children on both practiced and unpracticed mathematical tasks are substantial even before the children begin elementary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research demonstrates that understanding of theory of mind develops at different paces in children raised in different cultures. Are these differences simply differences in timing, or do they represent different patterns of cultural learning? That is, to what extent are sequences of theory-of-mind understanding universal, and to what extent are they culture-specific? We addressed these questions by using a theory-of-mind scale to examine performance of 140 Chinese children living in Beijing and to compare their performance with that of 135 English-speaking children living in the United States and Australia. Results reveal a common sequence of understanding, as well as sociocultural differences in children's developing theories of mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effects of stratification processes, based on family social origins, gender, and residential location, on educational attainment in urban China from 1949 to 1994. The authors emphasize the importance of political processes and the state socialist redistributive economy, arguing that shifting state policies led to varying mechanisms of stratification over time. Analyzing the educational experiences of a representative sample of urban residents in 20 cities in China, they found significant and varying effects of family social origins, with high levels of fathers' education and occupation (or status) not always conducive to their children's educational achievement. In addition, those who resided in the largest cities were the most educationally advantaged, and gender-based inequality in educational attainment persisted over time, despite noticeable variations induced by state policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression patterns of miRNA-let 7a, 7b, and 7c in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in infants with asthma and airway foreign bodies. Between January 2016 and February 2017, 27 infants were included and divided into observation group (infants with asthma, n = 15) and control group (infants with airway foreign bodies, n = 12). The differential expression profiles of miRNA-let 7a, 7b, and 7c were determined by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from infants of the 2 groups. The BALF was collected from infants undergoing flexible bronchoscopy. MiRNA-let 7a, 7b, and 7c increased significantly in infants from observation group as compared with control group (2.72 ± 0.48 vs 1, 8.23 ± 1.64 vs 1, 3.16 ± 0.62 vs 1, respectively). The increased expression of miRNA-let 7a, 7b, and 7c were associated with the asthma of infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both children and adults exhibit moderate conformity behaviors when facing group pressure. While some studies purport that children conform more with age, others have shown the opposite. The publicity of decision-making might be a major factor influencing the development of children’s conformity behavior. In this study, we recruited 295 Chinese children aged 9–15 years. We observed no significant correlation between children’s age and conformity behaviors when their answers were kept confidential. However, older children showed stronger conformity behaviors when their answers were made public. According to cultural evolutionary theory, with age, children find group acceptance and social recognition increasingly more important, which explains why older children are more likely to conform—namely, doing so has adaptive value. Further research should explore the cross-cultural coherence of this phenomenon and the genuine motivation behind children’s conformity behaviors. Meanwhile, designing a more reliable and valid experiment would also be a fruitful direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews of articles related to ways to increase creativity of Chinese children, assessment of children's knowledge of mathematics, issues regarding teacher training and impact of adult-infant attachments on quality of care of infants published in a 2014 issue of the journal are presented.