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This study investigates the relationship between three discourse synthesis skills (i.e., quotation, summarization, and connection) and students' overall integrated writing performance in Chinese, students' first language, and English, their second language. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that 63.6% of the variance in students' overall Chinese integrated writing performance was accounted for by the three discourse synthesis skills, with connection and summarization contributed almost equally to the overall scores. In the English test, the three skills explained 47.9% of the variance. Cross-linguistic facilitation of the L1 discourse synthesis skills to the overall L2 integrated writing performance was observed, although the predictive strength of the three skills was comparatively low. Eye-tracking data together with subsequent stimulated-recall interviews illuminated the differences in students' approaches to discourse synthesis. Findings of the study support the decisive role of discourse synthesis abilities in both L1 and L2 integrated writing assessments. Implications for writing instruction are discussed.

Farmland transfer is a crucial aspect of modernizing China's agriculture, which has a significant impact on farmers' income distribution. With rapid urbanization, farmers' livelihood has changed significantly, and the income effects of farmland transfer will differ among heterogeneous farmers. Based on the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data, this study examines the impact of farmland transfer on farmers' income growth and income disparity, as well as the income differences in farmland transfer among farmers with different types of livelihood capital. An endogenous switching regression model and unconditional quantile treatment effects are used to correct the selection bias and farmer heterogeneity. The results show that (1) farmland transfer increases farmers' income. Specifically, farmland transfer-in increases farmers' income by 21.15%, while transfer-out increases it by 43.33%. (2) The impact of farmland transfer on farmers' income has a "Matthew effect" and will widen the income gap between farmers. (3) Moreover, farmland transfer exhibits diverse income effects on heterogeneous farmers with livelihood capital. Capital-rich farmers experience the largest income-growth effect from farmland transfer-in, while capital-balanced farmers experience the largest income-growth effect from farmland transfer-out. The policy implications are to further improve the farmland transfer market and enable low-income farmers to participate by improving their qualifications and abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important legume crop. However, the yield of pea is adversely affected by heat stress in China. In this study, heat-tolerant germplasms were screened and evaluated in the field under multi-conditions. The results showed that heat stress could significantly affect pea yield. On the basis of grain weight per plant, 257 heat-tolerant and 175 heat-sensitive accessions were obtained from the first year's screening, and 26 extremely heat-tolerant and 19 extremely heat-sensitive accessions were finally obtained in this study. Based on SNaPshot technology, two sets of SNP markers, including 46 neutral and 20 heat-tolerance-related markers, were used to evaluate the genetic diversity and population genetic structure of the 432 pea accessions obtained from the first year's screening. Genetic diversity analysis showed that the average polymorphic information content was lower using heat-tolerance-related markers than neutral markers because of the selective pressure under heat stress. In addition, population genetic structure analysis showed that neutral markers divided the 432 pea accessions into two subpopulations associated with sowing date type and geographical origin, while the heat-tolerance-related markers divided these germplasms into two subpopulations associated with heat tolerance and sowing date type. Overall, we present a comprehensive resource of heat-tolerant and heat-sensitive pea accessions through heat-tolerance screenings in multi-conditions, which could help genetic improvements of pea in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterovirus (EV) 71 caused episodes of outbreaks in China and Southeast Asia during the last few decades. We have previously reported that EV71 induces reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Co-immunoprecipitation-proteomic analysis revealed that enteroviral 2B protein interacted with mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channel 3 (VDAC3). Knockdown (KD) of VDAC3 expression specifically inhibited enteroviral replication. Single-round viral replication was also inhibited in KD cells, suggesting that VDAC3 plays an essential role in replication. Consistent with this, VDAC3 gene KD significantly reduced the EV71-induced mitochondrial ROS generation. Exogenous 2B expression could induce the mitochondrial ROS generation that was significantly reduced in VDAC3-KD cells or in the Mito-TEMPO-treated cells. Moreover, VDAC3 appears to be necessary for regulation of antioxidant metabolism. VDAC3 gene KD led to the enhancement of such pathways as hypotaurine/taurine synthesis in the infected cells. Taken together, these findings suggest that 2B and VDAC3 interact to enhance mitochondrial ROS generation, which promotes viral replication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban land-use efficiency (ULUE) has been increasingly recognized as an issue of land-use management across the world in the last century as the globe experienced unprecedented rapid urban expansion. However, although a large body of studies was dedicated to analyzing the driving forces of ULUE, literature was rarely focused on the impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE. To bridge the knowledge gap, we used the Chinese trailblazer of regional cooperation–Yangtze River delta (YRD)—as a case to reveal the impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE. Social network analysis and a super efficiency SBM model with undesirable outputs were used to measure regional cooperation and ULUE, respectively. Furthermore, the impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE were examined by using the geographically and temporally weighted regression model. The results show that regional cooperation in the YRD strengthened from 2009 to 2016, among which Shanghai was the core node city in the YRD. Only seven cities maintained good ULUE with a stable trend during 2009–2016. The regression results indicated the positive impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE, which was more evident in the southern cities of the YRD. The potential mechanism to explain the impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE includes co-building transportation facilities and joint development zones. These findings provide insightful implications for improving ULUE by strengthening regional cooperation in Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to effectively promote the large-scale and market-oriented farmland leasing process in China is one of the most important practical issues concerning the current academic circle and decision makers. However, restricted by the current situation of rural social development, farmers' spontaneous and informal farmland leasing is still widespread. Exploring the long-term evolution characteristics of informal farmland leasing at the village scale is of great significance for optimizing the process of farmland leasing, perfecting the farmland leasing market, and promoting moderate-scale farmland management. Therefore, based on field survey data from the whole village and social network analysis methods, this research conducted a detailed empirical study on the characteristics, development process, and consequences of informal farmland leasing behavior in a traditional rural society in central China. The results show that with the development of time, the scope of informal farmland leasing in Huang village has been expanding, of which more than 70% of the farmland in 2020 was leased among acquaintances. Farmland leasing among acquaintances is becoming a trend toward informal farmland leasing in some villages. At present, 13 large-scale households lease 73.9% of the total area of farmland leasing in Huang village. The informal farmland leasing in the village has basically formed a centralized circulation pattern with the villager group as the core, which can promote moderate-scale farming to a certain extent. However, there are also problems, such as the ability of a simple internal leasing mode to resist external risks is limited. The findings may be helpful in rethinking China's farmland leasing policy and provide useful insights into the multifaceted rural sustainability of other similar traditional villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All over the world, Industrial agglomeration has become a key to improve the efficiency of urban land use and regulate the process of urbanization. Industrial agglomeration, as a universal economic geographical phenomenon, has been extensively studied, but few scholars have discussed the relationship between industrial agglomeration and urban land use efficiency. Based on this, after classifying the type of agglomeration externalities, our study uses OLS and GTWR models to explore the complex mechanism of interaction between industrial agglomeration externalities and urban land use efficiency, especially the spatiotemporal non-stationary characteristics. We found that the impact of industrial agglomeration externalities on urban land use efficiency is significantly unstable in time and space, and the coexistence, substitution and aging mechanism of agglomeration externalities among different types were also observed. Our research can provide reference for city managers to formulate reasonable industrial policies and enterprises to choose the location. Meanwhile, our research has made some contributions to the academic research on urban land use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since entering the 'Millennium of the cities' omnipresent rapid urbanization has caused dramatic changes to ecosystem functions and generated huge ecological risks across city catchments. An understanding of how multiple ecosystem services are associated across complex social-ecological systems is required for urban sustainability. However, few studies have explored how the trade-offs and synergies of ecosystem service response to the traits of urbanization processes such as the variation of undeveloped-developed continuum. In this study, we took the Yangtze River Delta in China, a typical megapolis, as the case study area and quantified seven ecosystem services at a 10 km x 10 km spatial scale. We presented the spatial distribution and interactions of these services and identified whether they coexist in the form of specific cluster types. We found positive spatial autocorrelations across the study site. A significant tendency of trade-offs was detected between regulating and agricultural provisioning services, and we also spotted the possibility of both trade-offs and synergies that regulating and (different) cultural services were able to provide. Our results identified four different cluster types, and the cluster distributions are strongly associated with the urbanization levels—a tendency for urbanizing areas to witness the function shift in the certain order of 'ecology – provision – multifunction – accessibility'. This provides a deeper understanding of the interactions among multiple ecosystem services and how they were determined by the ongoing social-ecological influences. The close connection between urbanization processes and ecosystems interact across developing and developed areas should be taken into consideration for future landscape planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land consolidation serves as a vital instrument for rural development worldwide. Various governance structures of land consolidation and their performance have been examined against diverse backgrounds; however, how institutional change affects different governance structures of land consolidation remains to be studied. A synthetic framework linking the institutional environment, governance structures and incentives of actors is proposed to examine the suitability and sustainability of different governance structures under changes in the institutional environment through the lens of land reallocation in land consolidation. The paper applies an embedded comparative case study using cases from China because the promotion of land consolidation in China is in parallel with rural land rights reform. The results have shown that both government-dominated land reallocation and self-organized land reallocation were suitable and individual exchanges was not suitable to solve the problem of large-scale fragmentation in China, while institutional environmental change characterized by the unimproved land consolidation legal framework and the enhanced private land right legal framework has undermined the suitability of government-dominated land reallocation. We conclude that whether initiation, land redistribution and conflict resolution match with the situation and align with each other determines the suitability of governance structures; Changing institutional environment may lead to mode fixing or mode shifting of governance structures in the long run, which depends on the incentives of actors. The government-dominated land reallocation is not sustainable because the behavior of the decision-makers in the mode, who are local government-officials, has a nature of upward accountability. The institutional environmental change has discouraged local government officials from conducting land reallocation. Based on this conclusion, we propose that land consolidation legal framework in China should be enhanced along with rural land rights reform, and in other developing countries that are undergoing similar reform, connections between related institutions should be carefully balanced rather than simply enhancing tenure security. • Government-dominance and self-organization are suitable governance structures for land reallocation in China. • Individual exchange fails to expand due to mismatches between parcels and strategic interactions among farmers. • Sustainability of governance structures is determined by institutions and incentives of actors. • Institutional environmental change in China undermines the suitability of government-dominated land reallocation. • Self-organized land reallocation is sustainable under institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Requisition–Compensation Balance of Farmland (RCBF) is a strict policy in China aimed at controlling farmland conversion and replenishing farmland loss caused by urban expansion through a set of top-down quotas. These conflict with local interests, since land conversion from agriculture to construction is a key tool by which local governments attract investment and raise fiscal revenue. How should local authorities respond to this centralized policy? This paper presents a framework “quantity–quality–productivity–environment” to investigate local governments’ coping strategy and the holistic performance of the RCBF. The empirical study indicated that local jurisdictions placed economic and financial growth first and continued expropriating farmland on a large-scale, including land of high quality, for development. However, impelled by compulsory quotas and supervision from governments at higher levels, local authorities would partly replenish the quantity loss through farmland exploitation, regardless of the quality of the new cropland and the possible environmental impact. Consequently, fast requisition and unqualified compensation undermined the capacity of regional agricultural output. We suggest that the RCBF is not capable of guaranteeing food security, whilst farmland supplementation threatens the local environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) for peasantries implemented in 2003 and the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) for the urban unemployed implemented in 2007 have many similarities. They both apply the financing mode of individual premiums plus government's subsidies, and the voluntary enrollment. The Chinese government plans to integrate these two systems and build a unified basic medical insurance system for the unemployed in order to achieve the medical equity and increase the general health level. Thus, to analyze the main influencing factors of the enrollment of the urban unemployed and rural residents is very important for improving the system and securing the stability of the system during the transition.Methods: The study uses data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) and adopts logistic regression models to test which factors influence the enrollment of the URBMI and the NCMS under the background of rather high enrollment rate of Chinese basic medical insurances and strong fiscal support of the Chinese government, especially whether health status or age influences enrollment of these two insurances greater.Results: There is indeed some adverse selection in the URBMI and the NCMS. Whether the individual has chronic diseases have significant influence on enrollments of both the urban unemployed and rural residents, while whether the individual got ill in last four weeks just influences enrollments of the urban unemployed. Age influences enrollment greater than health status. The older the insured are, the larger the enrollment rates are.Conclusion: Because of the active support for basic medical insurances of the Chinese government, the enrollment performance of the urban unemployed and rural residents has already changed. When implementing the new policy, the government should pay attention to the willingness to enroll in and the change of enrollment performance of the insured. Therefore, under the policy of voluntary enrollment, every coordinated province and city should enlarge the proportion of young people to insuring group, optimizing the age structure, and the financing proportion of governments and individuals should be measured properly. With the increasing of governments' subsidies, the proportion of individual's premiums should also be increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Land Administration Domain Model (LADM), an international standard (ISO 19152:2012), provides a conceptual data model for land administration. This study applies the LADM model to a previously unexplored case: the administration of homestead lands (residential lands) in rural China. In China, rural homestead tenures have been altered through several iterations since 1949, variously serving economic development, political governance and social security objectives. An intended contemporary reform of the homestead tenure system is based upon: (1) collective ownership by local communities; (2) qualification rights, a kind of personal servitude to safeguard the social security of individual community members; and (3) use rights, usufructuary interests offering management options to promote economic development. This work shows it is possible to translate this tripartite entitlement reform of rural homesteads into an LADM profile, with rights, persons, and land forming the base components. Four (sub) packages are formed, namely, Party, Administrative, Spatial Unit and Surveying and Representation. The work finds the LADM-based model, applied to the administration of China's rural homesteads, could facilitate the land tenure reform of rural homesteads, enable interoperability with other aspects of land administration, and could support national responses to those Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to poverty eradication, rural revitalization and intensive land use. • The evolution of rural homestead property system since the foundation of People's Republic of China is summarized. • The existing rural homestead rights structure after the tripartite entitlement reform is discussed. • An LADM-based rural homestead administration system for facilitating land tenure reform is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nursing students' and nurses' attitudes toward caring for the dying need to be explored. The Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying (FATCOD) scale has not previously been used in the Chinese language. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the FATCOD scale. A convenience sample of 154 nurses and 200 nursing students was recruited. The Chinese version of the FATCOD was used to test construct validity, concurrent validity, convergent validity, and internal consistency. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the Chinese version of the FATCOD scale, Form B (FATCOD-B-C) was 0.790. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for each subscale ranged from 0.610 to 0.863. The test-retest reliability was satisfactory (r = 0.959, P < 0.001). The overall content validity index was 0.92. Seven factors were identified in exploratory factor analysis. The results provide preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the FATCOD-B-C in nurses and nursing students. Additional psychometric testing is recommended to confirm the factor analysis, but this study provides further evidence of the applicability of the FATCOD-B-C in clinical care services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: We simulate and analyze Total Health Expenditure (THE) in financial sources and other economic indicators (such as THE per capita, GDP, etc.) in a province of China from 2002 to 2012 on System Dynamics. Methods: Based on actual data and certain mathematical methods, we use system dynamic software to construct a logic model for THE and changing proportions, and thus simulate the actual conditions of development and changes in THE. Results: According to the simulation results, the government possess the largest investment in the average annual growth rate of THE, which was 25.16 % in 2012. Social investment comprises the majority of the possession ratio, which was up to 41.20 %. Conclusions: The personal investment growth rate decreased by almost 21 %, but the total amount of personal investment increased by 28075 million yuan, which is far higher than the increase in government investment. Individuals are still the main carriers of health care expenses. The equity of health financial sources is still poor. The System Dynamics method used in this paper identifies a dynamic measurement process, provides a scientific basis for simulation and analysis of the changes in THE and its key constraining factors, as well as put forward suggestions for the improvement of equity of health financial sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Objective: To develop and validate a simple delirium-predicting scoring system in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery by incorporating preoperative risk factors and intraoperative surgical Apgar score (SAS).Design: Observational retrospective cohort study.Setting: A tertiary general hospital in China.Patients: 1055 patients who received major abdominal surgery from January 2015 to December 2019.Measurements: We collected data on preoperative and intraoperative variables, and postoperative delirium. A risk scoring system for postoperative delirium in patients after major open abdominal surgery was developed and validated based on traditional logistic regression model. The elastic net algorithm was further developed and evaluated.Main Results: The incidence of postoperative delirium was 17.8% (188/1055) in these patients. They were randomly divided into the development (n = 713) and validation (n = 342) cohorts. Both the logistic regression model and the elastic net regression model identified that advanced age, arrythmia, hypoalbuminemia, coagulation dysfunction, mental illness or cognitive impairments and low surgical Apgar score are related with increased risk of postoperative delirium. The elastic net algorithm has an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.842 and 0.822 in the development and validation cohorts, respectively. A prognostic score was calculated using the following formula: Prognostic score = Age classification (0 to 3 points) + arrythmia + 2 * hypoalbuminemia + 2 * coagulation dysfunction + 4 * mental illness or cognitive impairments + (10-surgical Apgar score). The 22-point risk scoring system had good discrimination and calibration with an AUROC of 0.823 and 0.834, and a non-significant Hosmer-Lemeshow test P = 0.317 and P = 0.853 in the development and validation cohorts, respectively. The bootstrapping internal verification method (R = 1000) yielded a C-index of 0.822 (95% CI: 0.759-0.857).Conclusion: The prognostic scoring system, which used both preoperative risk factors and surgical Apgar score, serves as a good first step toward a clinically useful predictive model for postoperative delirium in patients undergoing major open abdominal surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an epithelial malignancy facilitated by Epstein-Barr Virus infection. Here we resolve the major genetic influences for NPC incidence using a genome-wide association study (GWAS), independent cohort replication, and high-resolution molecular HLA class I gene typing including 4,055 study participants from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangdong province of southern China. We detect and replicate strong association signals involving SNPs, HLA alleles, and amino acid (aa) variants across the major histocompatibility complex-HLA-A, HLA -B, and HLA -C class I genes (PHLA-A-aa-site-62 = 7.4 x10-29; PHLA-B-aa-site-116 = 6.56x10 ;PHLA-C-aa-site-156 = 6.8x10-8 respectively). Over 250 NPC-HLA associated variants within HLA were analyzed in concert to resolve separate and largely independent HLA-A, -B, and -C gene influences. Multivariate logistical regression analysis collapsed significant associations in adjacent genes spanning 500 kb (OR2H1, GABBR1, HLA-F, and HCG9) as proxies for peptide binding motifs carried by HLA- A*11:01. A similar analysis resolved an independent association signal driven by HLA-B*13:01, B*38:02, and B*55:02 alleles together. NPC resistance alleles carrying the strongly associated amino acid variants implicate specific class I peptide recognition motifs in HLA-A and -B peptide binding groove as conferring strong genetic influence on the development of NPC in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are three childhood disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD). The most common comorbid disorder in ADHD is ODD. DSM-IV describes three ADHD subtypes: predominantly inattentive type (ADHD-IA), predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type (ADHD-HI), and combined type (ADHD-C). Prior work suggests that specific candidate genes are associated with specific subtypes of ADHD in China. Our previous association studies between ADHD and functional polymorphisms of COMT and MAOA, consistently showed the low transcriptional activity alleles were preferentially transmitted to ADHD-IA boys. Thus, the goal of the present study is to test the hypothesis that COMT Val158Met and MAOA-uVNTR jointly contribute to the ODD phenotype among Chinese ADHD boys. Methods: 171 Chinese boys between 6 and 17.5 years old (mean = 10.3, SD = 2.6) with complete COMT val158met and MAOA-uVNTR genotyping information were studied. We used logistic regression with genotypes as independent variables and the binary phenotype as the dependent variable. We used p < 0.05 as the level of nominal statistical significance. Bonferroni correction procedures were used to adjust for multiple comparisons. Results: Our results highlight the potential etiologic role of COMT in the ADHD with comorbid ODD and its predominately inattentive type in male Chinese subjects. ADHD with comorbid ODD was associated with homozygosity of the high-activity Val allele, while the predominantly inattentive ADHD subtype was associated with the low-activity Met allele. We found no evidence of association between the MAOA-uVNTR variant and ADHD with comorbid ODD or the ADHD-IA subtype. Conclusion: Our study of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder comorbid oppositional defiant disorder and its predominately inattentive type highlights the potential etiologic role of COMT for ADHD children in China. But we failed to observe an interaction between COMT and MAOA, which suggests that epistasis between COMT and MAOA genes does not influence the phenotype of ADHD-IA with comorbid ODD in a clinical sample of Chinese male subjects. To confirm our findings further studies with a larger number of subjects and healthy controls are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a significant public health problem that may lead to chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Approximately 30% of the world's population has been infected with HBV and approximately 350 million (5-6%) are persistent carriers. More than 120 million Chinese are infected with HBV. The role of host genetic factors and their interactions with environmental factors leading to chronic HBV infection and its complications are not well understood. We believe that a better understanding of these factors and interactions will lead to more effective diagnostic and therapeutic options. Methods/Design: This is a population-based, case-control study protocol to enroll 2200 Han Chinese from medical centers in northern and western China. Adult subjects in the following groups are being enrolled: healthy donors (n = 200), HBV infected persons achieving virus clearance (n = 400), asymptomatic HBV persistent carriers (n = 400), chronic hepatitis B cases (n = 400), decompensated liver cirrhosis with HBV infection cases (n = 400), and hepatocellular carcinoma with HBV infection cases (n = 400). In addition, for haplotype inference and quality control of sample handling and genotyping results, children of 1000 cases will be asked to provide a buccal sample for DNA extraction. With the exception of adult patients presenting with liver cirrhosis or HCC, all other cases and controls will be 40 years or older at enrollment. A questionnaire is being administered to capture dietary and environmental risk factors. Both candidate-gene and genome-wide association approaches will be used to assess the role of single genetic factors and higher order interactions with other genetic or environmental factors in HBV diseases. Conclusion: This study is designed and powered to detect single gene effects as well as gene-gene and environmental-gene interactions. The identification of allelic polymorphisms in genes involved in the pathway leading to chronic viral infection, liver cirrhosis and, ultimately, hepatocellular carcinoma would provide insights to those factors leading to HBV replication, liver inflammation, fibrosis, and the carcinogenic process. An understanding of the contribution of host genetic factors and their interactions may inform public health policy, improve diagnostics and clinical management, and provide targets for drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C and N stable isotope ratios of 19 human bones in Sanxingcun Site, Jintan, Jlangsu Province, were measured to explore the lifestyle and social economic structure. Although the bone collagen degraded to different extents, the atomic ratio of C/N was located in the range of 2.9-3.6, indicating that they were preserved very well. Average δ13C value (20.05±0.21‰3), average δ315N value (9.69 ±0.33‰) and poor positive correlation between each other suggested that rice agriculture was dominant with hunting-fishing supplemented In human lifestyle. Poor negative correlation between δ15N values and C3 percentages of foods implied relative independence of rice agriculture and hunting-fishing. Compared to Hemudu Site and Qingpu Site, rice agriculture was developed further, but hunting-fishing decreased. The mode for people in Sanxingcun Site to get the meat was still in the initial exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The evolution process of farmland right system since the foundation of new China is summarized. • The existing farmland right system after the tripartite entitlement reform is proposed. • An LADM-based farmland administration system is developed. • Some instance level diagrams for farmland administration activities is developed. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has undergone a promotion of industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural modernisation. This promotion has triggered the mass migration of rural labour forces into cities, leading to the virtual situation of the separation of farmland contract and operation rights. To respond to this issue, the central government proposed a strategy of farmland reform in China. Such reform aims to transform the former 'Bipartite Entitlement System' into a 'Tripartite Entitlement System (TES)'. 1 1 'Bipartite Entitlement System' refers to the separation of farmland contractual operation right and farmland ownership. 'Tripartite Entitlement System' is the second separation of farmland contractual operation rights, which is transformed into the contract and operation rights. Thus, the 'Tripartite Entitlement System' is composed of three individual farmland rights: ownership, contract right and operation right. Land registration provides the means for recognising formalised property rights and regulating the characteristics and transfer of land-related rights. As for farmland registration in China, it serves as a basis to explore effective forms of collective farmland ownership by implementing collective farmland ownership, stabilising farmers' contract rights and liberalising farmland operation rights. Thus, in this study, on the basis of the farmland tripartite entitlement (hereinafter referred to as 'FTE') reform in China, we develop a Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)-based TES model that will serve as the basis of subsequent system development. Specifically, first, we summarise the evolution process of China's farmland rights system since the foundation of new China. Second, we propose a farmland rights system after the FTE reform. Then, the corresponding TES model is developed based on the LADM standard and some instance-level diagrams for farmland administration activities. The new functionality of the model includes improved structuring of farmland rights and restrictions (and related source documents) and improved expansion of the land information infrastructure to rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection is an endemic disease in Southeast Asia and China. We have previously shown that EV71 virus causes functional changes in mitochondria. It is speculative whether EV71 virus alters the host cell metabolism to its own benefit. Using a metabolomics approach, we demonstrate that EV71-infected Vero cells had significant changes in metabolism. Glutathione and its related metabolites, and several amino acids, such as glutamate and aspartate, changed significantly with the infectious dose of virus. Other pathways, including glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid cycle, were also altered. A change in glutamine/glutamate metabolism is critical to the viral infection. The presence of glutamine in culture medium was associated with an increase in viral replication. Dimethyl α-ketoglutarate treatment partially mimicked the effect of glutamine supplementation. In addition, the immunoblot analysis revealed that the expression of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and trifunctional carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 2, aspartate transcarbamylase, and dihydroorotase (CAD) increased during infection. Knockdown of expression of glutaminase (GLS), GDH and CAD drastically reduced the cytopathic effect (CPE) and viral replication. Furthermore, we found that CAD bound VP1 to promote the de novo pyrimidine synthesis. Our findings suggest that virus may induce metabolic reprogramming of host cells to promote its replication through interactions between viral and host cell proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper examines the influencing factors of farmers' behavior in land reallocation in China. • The opportunity and ability of farmers to participate has significant influences on farmers' participation level. • Self-organization of farmers is a more effective way to implement land reallocation. • The government should take measures including legislation, social marketing and education to promote land reallocation. This paper empirically examines the factors which influence the behavior of farmers who participate in land consolidation, specifically in land reallocation. Based on the integrative Motivation–Opportunity–Ability (MOA) model, we assume that farmers' participation levels in land reallocation are not only determined by motivation, but also significantly influenced by their opportunity and ability to participate. We test our hypotheses with the method of structural equation modelling (SEM), and collect data through questionnaires from a random sample of households in 6 villages (4 different projects) in China. This is complemented by interviews with local cadres and some of the farmers in those villages in order to validate the consistency of questionnaire responses. The key finding is that the opportunity and the ability to participate have significant positive influences on the degree to which farmers participate, of which ability is the more influential construct. The scrutiny of the model results combined with the interviews also leads to the conclusion that allowing self-organization of farmers leads to more effective land reallocation. Based on the results, we suggest that governments should take measures including legislation, social marketing and education to clarify the legality of land reallocation and facilitate the self-organization of farmers and eventually promoting land reallocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid urbanization and industrialization have continually placed massive pressure on the country's natural resources. The fragmented departmental administration of natural resources also intensifies the problem of sustainable use. Accordingly, China's central government has launched natural resource administration reform from decentralization to unification. This study systematically analyzes the reform requirements from legal, organizational, and technical aspects. The right structure of China's natural resource assets for fulfilling such requirements is examined in this work through a review of relevant legal text, and such a right structure is converted into a draft national technical standard of China's natural resource administration on the basis of the land administration domain model (LADM). Results show that China's natural resource administration covers lands, buildings, structures, forests, grasslands, waters, beaches, sea areas, minerals, and other fields. The types of private rights over natural resources include ownerships, land-contracted management rights (cultivated land, forest land, grassland, and water area), rights to use construction land (state-owned and collective-owned), rights to use agricultural land, rights to use homestead land, breeding rights on water areas and beaches, rights to use sea areas, rights to use uninhabited islands, and mining rights. The types of public rights over natural resources include comprehensive land use, urban and rural, sea use, and territory space planning. Furthermore, various types of these property rights can be converted into corresponding classes in LADM on the basis of the analysis of the property subject, object, and rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies have investigated the effects of blood glucose (BG) on cognitive function in community-dwelling elderly individuals carrying the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε3 allele. Objective: To explore the effect of high BG levels on cognitive function in APOE ε3-carrying, non-demented, community-dwelling older adults, as compared to their counterparts carrying the APOE ε4 or APOE ε2 alleles. Methods: Within the China Longitudinal Ageing Study, we recruited 282 elderly adults without dementia. Data collected included demographic information; psychological measures; laboratory test results, including BG and plasma lipid levels; and APOE genotypes. We divided the participants into APOE ε2(ε2/ε2, ε2/ε3), ε3(ε3/ε3), and ε4(ε3/ε4, ε4/ε4) groups. Partial correlation analyses and multivariate linear regression analyses were utilized to compare the cognitive function and laboratory data between the APOE groups. White matter hyperintensity (WMH) was measured on magnetic resonance images in 77 participants. Results: With adjustment for age, sex, education, and diabetes, higher BG in non-demented community-dwelling older adults was associated with cognitive decline in immediate memory and executive function. In the APOE ε3 group, elevated BG was associated with cognitive decline in immediate memory, executive function, and perceptual reasoning. In the APOE ε4 group, higher BG was also correlated with a decline in abstract reasoning. There was a trend for association between higher BG and more severe WMHs. Conclusion: Worse cognitive function was correlated withApoEε3/ε3 genotype carriers with higher BG in community-dwelling older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The mixing of land uses lies at the core of understanding their characteristics in cities. Some existing land use mix measures have been used to quantify the mix degree from different perspectives. However, these existing indices mainly cover only two dimensions of the land use mix concept, namely, distance and quantity, and cannot effectively delineate the picture of land use mix. Thus, we propose a new quantification framework of land use mix by involving a third dimension, that is, the "attribute" level of the land use mix concept. On the basis of this framework, we develop a novel measure called (weighted) vector-based mix degree index (VMDI/WVMDI) to address the compatibility mix degree by incorporating the compatibility relations between different land uses. This novel measure adopts vector land use data and compatibility relations. To some extent, VMDI/WVMDI can overcome some of the deficiencies of existing land use mix measures. We select Guangzhou as a study area in evaluating the proposed measure. In addition, the "head/tail breaks" classification scheme is employed for results with heavy-tailed distribution. By using this scheme, we clearly identify several clustered regions of land use mix in Guangzhou, which might be useful for urban planners and policy makers. Compared with some traditional measures, VMDI/WVMDI can be more efficient in depicting the compatibility relation between land use parcels. Highlights • A more effective quantification framework of land use mix is proposed. • A novel measure is developed to address the compatibility mix degree among different land uses. • The "Head/tail breaks" classification scheme is adopted to reveal the underlying scaling pattern of outcomes in Guangzhou. • By comparing with previous measures, this measure shows some superior at the quantification of compatibility relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To compare the distribution, chemotherapy-decision making, and prognosis of the 21-gene recurrence score (RS) between Chinese breast cancer (BC) in the United States and White American (WA) BC., Methods: We identified early-stage and estrogen receptor-positive BC patients diagnosed between 2004 and 2015. Multivariate logistic regression, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used for statistical analyses., Results: A total of 67,486 patients were identified, including 66,215 (98.1%) WA patients and 1271 (1.9%) Chinese patients. Regarding the RS, 38,894 (57.6%) had low RS, 23,882 (35.4%) had intermediate RS, and 4710 (7.0%) had high RS. A similar distribution of RS was found between WA and Chinese BC (P = .280). The race was not the predictor associated with high RS. Similar trends of chemotherapy use were found in Chinese and WA BC. In WA BC, there were 4.1%, 31.5%, and 72.2% of patients receiving chemotherapy in low, intermediate, and high RS cohorts, respectively (P < .001). The proportion of chemotherapy use was 6.8%, 30.9%, and 74.0% in Chinese BC with low, intermediate, and high RS cohorts, respectively (P < 0.001). The multivariate prognostic analyses indicated that a higher RS was independently associated with an inferior breast cancer-specific survival. Similar trends were found among those with Chinese and WA BC., Conclusion: Our results demonstrate similar distribution, chemotherapy use, and outcome of the 21-gene RS between Chinese and WA BC in the United States., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Coix lachrymal-jobi L. var. ma-yuen Stapf of Gramineae are annual or perennial herbs and an important food-medicine homologous plants of high value in nutrition, health protection, and comprehensive utilization. In recent years, the revival of researches on its roles in food and medicinal applications of this underutilized grass for food security and economic empowerment of rural communities has been seen . In this research, Coix kernel endophytic fungi were isolated and identified by fungal colony morphology observation combined with the PCR-amplified fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence analyses. All together six isolates to five species of Coix endophytic fungi and two isolates to the genus level were identified from the kernels of six Coix cultivars: Penicillium expansum, Penicillium polonicum, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus flavus, and two genera of Aspergillus and Fusarium. Potential benefits and harms analyses showed that Penicillium expansum, Aspergillus oryzae, and Cladosporium cladosporioides can produce a variety of beneficial composite enzymes and have an extensive application in microbial chemistry, food science, and fermentation, whereas Penicillium, Aspergillus flavus, Alternaria alternate, and Fusarium can produce corresponding toxins harmful to plants, animals, and humans. These results not only provided a basis for the targeted prevention of contamination in the tissue culture of Coix kernels by the addition of specific antibiotics, but also enriched the endophytic fungi resource pool of Gramineae crops and suggested new ideas for the improvement, cultivation, post-harvest seeds/kernels storage, and the development of new natural drugs.

To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of modified Qingjin Huatan Decoction in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly, and provide evidence-based reference for the clinical application of this prescription. Randomized controlled trials of Qingjin Huatan Decoction in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly were collected by searching PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, China Biomedical Literature database, VIP database and WanFang database. Outcome indicators included clinical effective rate, inflammation index, symptom improvement time, chest radiograph improvement time, hospitalization time and adverse reactions. RevMan 5.3 and Stata/IC 15.1 software were used for Meta-analysis; TSA 0.9.5.10 Beta software was used for trial sequential analysis, and GRADE profiler 3.6 was used for grade evidence quality evaluation. Thirteen studies were included finally, including 1 058 patients, 536 patients in the experimental group and 522 patients in the control group.Meta-analysis showed that, the clinical effective rate of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group(RR=1.16, 95%CI[1.10, 1.21], P&lt;0.000 01); fever time(MD=-1.32, 95%CI[-1.93,-0.71], P&lt;0.000 1), cough time(MD=-1.95, 95%CI[-2.69,-1.21), P&lt;0.000 01), time to rale disappearance(MD=-1.55, 95%CI[-2.37,-0.73], P=0.000 2), time to chest radiograph improvement(MD=-1.72, 95%CI[-2.98,-0.46], P=0.007), and hospitalization time(MD=-3.16, 95%CI[-4.58,-1.74], P&lt;0.000 01) in the experimental group were significantly shorter than those in the control group. The improvement in CRP(WMD=-3.44,95%CI[-4.50,-2.38],P&lt;0.001), WBC(WMD=-2.04,95%CI[-3.31,-0.78],P&lt;0.01), IL-6(WMD=-4.27,95%CI[-4.62,-3.92],P&lt;0.001), and TNF-α(WMD=-0.47,95%CI[-0.55,-0.39], P&lt;0.001) of the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group. There was no significant difference in PCT improvement between the two groups(WMD=-0.63, 95%CI[-1.65, 0.40], P=0.23). No serious adverse reactions occurred in both groups. Sequential analysis of the trial showed that in the studies with cumulative inclusion of clinical effective rate, the data passed the traditional threshold and TSA threshold, further confirming its clinical efficacy. GRADE evaluation showed that the evidence level was low to extremely low. Western medicine treatment combined with Qingjin Huatan Decoction may improve clinical efficiency in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly, improve clinical symptoms faster, reduce CRP, WBC and other inflammatory indicators, and shorten hospital stay. The level of evidence obtained in this study is low, which needs to be further verified by high-quality multi-center, randomized controlled trials.

One hitherto unknown 24-nor-13,27-cycloursane-type triterpenoid, lucumic acid A (1), one new 24-nor-ursane triterpenoid, lucumic acid B (2), along with six known triterpenoids were isolated from the ethanol extract of the leaves of Lucuma nervosa. Their structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic data interpretation. Lucumic acid A (1) is the first example of a 24-nor-triterpenoid with a 13,27-cyclopropane ring., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Creating new germplasms and breeding new cultivars in peanut by radiation mutagenesis and tissue culture were conducted in this study, aiming to develop new breeding method of peanut. Mature seeds from Luhua 11, the most commonly grown peanut cultivar in Northern China, were treated by fast neutron irradiation. Then the embryo leaflets were separated from the irradiated seeds and inoculated on the media, and the regenerated seedlings were obtained through somatic embryogenesis pathway. The regenerated seedlings were grafted, acclimated and then transplanted into field and the selfed pods were harvested from 83 regenerated plants. The progenies were selected by the pedigree method, and 107 mutants were obtained from the progenies of the 83 regenerated plants. Different mutants showed obvious variation in many agronomic traits, including main stem height, branch number, pod shape and size, seed coat color, inner seed coat color, oil content and protein content etc. Yuhua 7, a new peanut variety with low oil content, early maturity and waterlogging tolerance was obtained. The yield of Yuhua 7 was over 14% higher than that of the mutagenic parent Luhua 11, and the oil content of kernels was 47.0%, lower than that of parent Luhua 11 with 52.1% oil content. Yuhua 7 had passed peanut variety regional multi-location trials in Liaoning Province in 2016 and its average yield was 13.8% higher than that of the control variety Baisha 1017. It had also passed national peanut variety registration, and the registration ID is "GPD peanut (2018) 370105". The results show that irradiation mutagenesis combined with tissue culture is an effective method for creating new germplasm and breeding new varieties of peanut.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been a worldwide public health concern. Current widespread AMR pollution has posed a big challenge in accurately disentangling source-sink relationship, which has been further confounded by point and non-point sources, as well as endogenous and exogenous cross-reactivity under complicated environmental conditions. Because of insufficient capability in identifying source-sink relationship within a quantitative framework, traditional antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) signatures-based source-tracking methods would hardly be a practical solution., Results: By combining broad-spectrum ARG profiling with machine-learning classification SourceTracker, here we present a novel way to address the question in the era of high-throughput sequencing. Its potential in extensive application was firstly validated by 656 global-scale samples covering diverse environmental types (e.g., human/animal gut, wastewater, soil, ocean) and broad geographical regions (e.g., China, USA, Europe, Peru). Its potential and limitations in source prediction as well as effect of parameter adjustment were then rigorously evaluated by artificial configurations with representative source proportions. When applying SourceTracker in region-specific analysis, excellent performance was achieved by ARG profiles in two sample types with obvious different source compositions, i.e., influent and effluent of wastewater treatment plant. Two environmental metagenomic datasets of anthropogenic interference gradient further supported its potential in practical application. To complement general-profile-based source tracking in distinguishing continuous gradient pollution, a few generalist and specialist indicator ARGs across ecotypes were identified in this study., Conclusion: We demonstrated for the first time that the developed source-tracking platform when coupling with proper experiment design and efficient metagenomic analysis tools will have significant implications for assessing AMR pollution. Following predicted source contribution status, risk ranking of different sources in ARG dissemination will be possible, thereby paving the way for establishing priority in mitigating ARG spread and designing effective control strategies.

With the development and change of Uygur medicine, The sources,medicinal parts and producing area of some Uygur Medicine have changed. It is more important to master the classification, distribution and change of Uygur medicinal materials. These were more than 1 200 kinds Uygur medicine in history were resaerched by field investigation, philological research, and textual research, which main source of original plant were 140 families, 510 genera, 840 species; and source of original animal were 76 families, 107 genera, the original animal 141 species; 55 kinds of original mineral, which main producer were Xinjiang and Central Asia, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and North Africa, Southeast Asia and other provinces in China, there are individual medicinal materials from the Americas, Europe and other places. Through this study the classification, distribution, source and evolution of specific families and genera of Uygur medicine resources have mastered.It is hoped to provide theoretical basis for further research and development of Uygur medicinal materials., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Objective: To evaluate the consciousness of health emergency and the abilities on self- and mutual medical aids among the public at the community level, as well as the community responses on health-related emergencies and other factors., Methods: Random equidistant sampling method was used to extract 617 households before choosing a family member sampled by Kish Grid method. All the members were investigated face to face on a questionnaire-"Health emergency and related ability regarding self and mutual medical aids of the residents". Data were entered into computer database by using software Epi Data 3.1 and were analyzed by SPSS 21.0., Results: Among the 617 households under survey, 47.84% of the public had general awareness on health-related emergencies. Regarding the following items as:prevention and isolation strategies of infectious disease, on safely procedures of earthquake and fires, on prevention of food poisoning, on prevention and first aid of emerging infectious diseases etc., the rates of awareness were 65.04%, 62.92%, 43.62% and 18.79% respectively. Proportions of households which had the first aid supplies were:first aid medicine box as 56.08%; fire extinguisher as 43.60%; spare water and food as 39.40%; having facilities as ropes, whistles and smoke masks for escape were all less than 15%. Rates of awareness on the following items as: correct use of gas switch as 81.52%, knowing the location of the circuit with gear and the fire hydrant as 74.39% and 35.98% , respectively. The correct disposal rates of the residents on the following items were:electric shock and falls (89.63%), patients of infectious diseases (83.31%), gas poisoning (82.98%), suspected symptoms on infectious diseases(82.66%), explosion and burns (66.78%), scald (62.72%)and sprain (57.05%). Scores on the related abilities were as follows: emergency(7.65, out of 10 points), escape(3.55, out of 5 points), self- and mutual medical aids (10.71, out of 16 points). Proportions of having learned and applied of first aid techniques among residents on the following items were:artificial breathing, chest compressions and cardiopulmonary resuscitation were all less than 10%. Level of knowing the first aid techniques was correlated with age and culture of the residents (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Both consciousness on health emergency and the abilities on self- and mutual medical aids were low among the community public, suggesting that both the government and pubic should pay more attention to the role of the abilities on self- and mutual medical aids.