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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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.