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Understanding media frames and the public resonance during disasters is essential for making inclusive climate change and adaptation policies in the context of increasingly extreme weather events. In this study, we use the extreme weather and flood event that occurred in July 2021 in Zhengzhou, China, as a case study to investigate how official media in China reported this event and how the public responded. Moreover, since one accountability investigation report regarding this disaster was released in January 2022, we also compared these posts between the emergency response period and the post-crisis learning period after the report's release. Topic modeling using the LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) method and emotion analysis were conducted to analyze the posts from Weibo, China's primary social media platform. The results demonstrated that the posts from official media and the public comments differed in both topics and emotions, with relatively little coherence. During the emergency response period, the media's posts focused more on the facts, such as the extreme weather event, the places where it occurred, the impacts, and the search and rescue efforts, while the public comments were more about help appeals from the neglected ones in the rural areas, and emotional expressions such as moral support, condolence or encouragement to the victims and their families. After the accountability investigation in January, the media's posts primarily covered the investigation process, the punishment, the attribution of disaster consequences, and the lessons learned, while the public's comments were relatively emotional, praised the good, condoled the victims, and condemned the villains. The dominant emotion from the media's posts was "like" in July 2021, but it became depression in January 2022. Anger was the prevalent emotion from the public during all the stages. This study provided valuable knowledge to the current understanding of the different patterns and dynamics of official media reports and the public's resonance in disaster management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ras gene, a conserved member of the insulin pathway, and β-glucosidase gene, an important cellulase, are two important growth-related genes. However, there is no study on the association between mutations of these two genes and growth traits in bivalves. Here, the polymorphism of these two genes in Crassostrea gigas were revealed. Their association with growth traits was evaluated in 290 oysters from five families, and was further confirmed in another 186 oysters from three fast-growing strains. Seventeen and twelve SNPs were identified in the Ras gene and β-glucosidase gene, respectively. Among these SNPs, four SNPs in each gene (Ras: C.86C > A, C.90T > C, C.112A > G and C.118G > A; β-glucosidase: C.247G > A, C.284C > T, C.1260C > T and C.1293T > C) were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with the growth of these oysters. Furthermore, eight and nine haplotypes were constructed in the Ras gene and β-glucosidase gene, respectively. Oysters with both haplotypes R-Hap5 (CCAA) and β-Hap7 (ACCT), or with both R-Hap 6 (ATGG) and β-Hap 6 (ACTC), or with both R-Hap 6 and β-Hap 9 (ACTT), or with both R-Hap 7 (ATAA) and β-Hap 7, showed the highest growth performances. These results provide candidate markers for selecting C. gigas with fast growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shell color is regarded as an economic trait in many breeding programs of bivalve mollusks, but the relationship between shell color and production traits remains controversial. In our breeding program of Crassostrea gigas, solid white, black, and orange shell lines were obtained, and second-generation (F2) and testcross families with segregating shell colors were constructed by crossing these three lines. These segregating families provided ideal samples for investigating the relationship between shell color and production traits in C. gigas. The growth and survival of 7-month-old oysters with different shell colors sampled within the same families were compared in seven F2 families and 13 testcrosses. In addition, the growth and survival of oysters from the three shell color lines were compared at 4 and 16 months of age. The growth and survival rates of the orange shell line were significantly lower than those of the white and black shell lines. However, no significant difference in growth between oysters with different shell colors was observed within segregating families, except the testcrosses produced by crossing orange- and white-shelled grandparents, and no significant difference in survival was observed in any family. Overall, no significant correlation was observed between shell color and production traits in C. gigas. These results suggest that shell color cannot be used as a marker to guide the selection of growth and survival traits. Thus shell color and production traits should be selected independently in oyster breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster preparedness is an essential way to improve community resilience. This study examines the linkage between Chinese villagers' adoption of disaster preparedness activities and their perception of community resilience, measured by the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit. Survey data from three villages with different landscapes (loess plateau, plain and mountain) in northwest China with great earthquake risks but no occurrence for many years is used. Regression analyses demonstrate that the awareness related preparedness and public participation preparedness are significantly and positively associated with the community resilience assessment, while the material preparedness is not significant nor consistent across the domains of community resilience. Moreover, place (i.e., landscapes) matter in residents' assessment of their community resilience: villagers from the plain area and mountainous area reported much higher resilience scores, compared to those who live in the loess plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molluscan shell color polymorphism is important in genetic breeding, while the molecular information mechanism for shell coloring is unclear. Here, high-throughput RNA sequencing was used to compare expression profiles of coding and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) from Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas with orange and black shell, which were from an F2 family constructed by crossing an orange shell male with a black shell female. First, 458, 13, and 8 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), lncRNAs (DELs), and miRNAs (DEMs) were identified, respectively. Functional analysis suggested that the DEGs were significantly enriched in 9 pathways including tyrosine metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation pathways. Several genes related to melanin synthesis and biomineralization expressed higher whereas genes associated with carotenoid pigmentation or metabolism expressed lower in orange shell oyster. Then, based on the ncRNA analysis, 163 and 20 genes were targeted by 13 and 8 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs) and miRNAs (DEMs), severally. Potential DELs-DEMs-DEGs interactions were also examined. Seven DEMs-DEGs pairs were detected, in which tyrosinase-like protein 1 was targeted by lgi-miR-133-3p and lgi-miR-252a and cytochrome P450 was targeted by dme-miRNA-1-3p. These results revealed that melanin synthesis-related genes and miRNAs-mRNA interactions functioned on orange shell coloration, which shed light on the molecular regulation of shell coloration in marine shellfish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-disaster emergency medical rescue (EMR) is critical for people's lives. This paper presents a stochastic Petri net (SPN) model based on the process of the rescue structure and a Markov chain model (MC), which is applied to the optimization of the EMR process, with the aim of identifying the key activities of EMR. An isomorphic MC model is developed for measuring and evaluating the time performance of the EMR process during earthquakes with the data of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. This paper provides a mathematical approach to simulate the process and to evaluate the efficiency of EMR. Simultaneously, the expressions of the steady state probabilities of this system under various states are obtained based on the MC, and the variations of the probabilities are analyzed by changing the firing rates for every transition. Based on the concrete data of the event, the authors find the most time consuming and critical activities for EMR decisions. The model results show that the key activities can improve the efficiency of medical rescue, providing decision-makers with rescue strategies during the large scale earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community resilience has received growing attention in disaster risk management policies and practices, especially in China. However, few applicable instruments are available as a baseline for profiling and estimating a community's resiliency in the face of disasters. The purpose of this study is to cross-culturally adapt and validate the original version of the 10-Item Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measurement (CCRAM-10) in China. Our study further investigates if and to what extent community members translate their participation in disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities into perceived community resilience. A Chinese version of CCRAM-10 was generated and applied to 369 participants from a rural and an urban community in southwest China affected by the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. Internal consistency reliability and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to test the assessment instrument's applicability. The Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit Assessment Survey was used to establish the convergent validity for the Chinese version of CCRAM-10. Multiple linear regression models were used to explore the correlations between respondents' participation in activities and their perception of community resilience, while controlling for basic socio-demographic variables. Analysis results demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85) and satisfactory convergent validity for the Chinese version of the CCRAM-10. Construct validity was also confirmed (χ2/df = 2.161; CFI = 0.977; GFI = 0.971; NFI = 0.958; RMSEA = 0.056; SRMR = 0.030). The regression analysis results indicated that respondents' participation in DRR activities was positively correlated with their perception of community resilience. This study contributes to the wider collection of disaster studies by providing a tested tool for assessing community resilience in the context of China. Community workers and practice researchers may be interested in applying CCRAM-10 to evaluate the effect of specific DRR programmatic activities for improving community resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the past decade has witnessed the rise of studies on Chinese evaluations of the police, rural villagers' assessments of the police remain under-researched. Drawing upon performance theory and survey data from China's countryside, this study tested whether variations in satisfaction with government performance and life are linked to villagers' and officials' trust in county and local/town police. We found that villagers displayed lower levels of trust in the police than local officials. Higher satisfaction with government performance and integrity were associated with greater trust in county police among both villagers and officials. Villagers' greater satisfaction with crime control and safety led to their stronger trust in both county and town police, but such satisfaction was not significantly related to officials' trust in both levels of police forces. Rural residents' generalized trust and particularized trust were associated with a greater likelihood of viewing the police as trustworthy. Meanwhile, female respondents, both villagers and officials, and higher-income officials were more likely to view the police as trustworthy. Directions for future research and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Disasters may impair people's quality of life (QoL) indirectly through disaster risk perception. We intended to address this point by analyzing the correlation between disaster experience and QoL with a test of the mediating effects of risk perception at the example of earthquake.Methods: We employed the 2013 Taiwan Social Change Survey data as the data source (N = 1481). Unadjusted ordinal logistic regression models examined the correlation of disaster experience with QoL and earthquake risk perception at first. Another set of ordinal regressions were conducted to explore the mediating effect of earthquake risk perception between earthquake experience and QoL.Results: Earthquake experience had negative impact on QoL measured by self-reported happiness, general health status, and life satisfaction. People who had earthquake experience perceived higher earthquake risk compared to those who had never experienced an earthquake. Risk perception measured by perceived likelihood of future earthquake as a mediating factor for the impact of earthquake experience on QoL from the dimensions of both self-reported happiness and life satisfaction was confirmed.Conclusions: Findings are consistent with existing reports about the association between disaster experience and QoL. Research using multi-dimensional measures of disaster risk perception and QoL is needed to inform post-disaster recovery programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of trust in natural hazards risk management has not been widely examined yet. In this paper, the correlation between trust in government and individuals' risk perception, as well as the perceived preparedness for earthquakes is examined. Survey data from 501 households in a Tibetan area in China affected by the 2010 Yushu earthquake are analyzed. The dependent variables are perceived seismic risk probability and consequences, as well as reported household preparedness for future earthquakes. The main predictor variable is trust in government, while trust in family members, trust in most of people in the society, trust in friends/relatives/colleagues, disaster impact, social support, socioeconomic and demographic variables (income, estimated house value, owned land, number of kids, gender, age, ethnicity, education, job categories, marriage status, political affiliation, religion, rural/urban residence) are used as control variables. Ordinal logistic regression models are employed in the analysis. The results indicate that people with higher degrees of trust in government perceive lower consequences of potential earthquakes and tend to prepare less. In the preparedness model, both perceived probability and consequences are additional strong and significant predictors. Potential theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]