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This paper examines how cognitive ability affects households' demand for financial advice and whether households with financial advisors reap better investment returns in China. Using data from the nationally representative China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) and China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find that math ability (i.e., one domain of cognitive ability) has a significant and negative effect on households' propensity to hire financial advisors, whereas the impact of verbal ability (i.e., another domain of cognitive ability) on seeking financial advice is insignificant. The analysis also suggests that the influence of cognitive limitation is larger for less educated and financially literate households. We conduct a regression discontinuity based on the Huai River policy, supporting the causal influence of cognitive ability on financial advice seeking. Furthermore, we find no evidence that financial advice improves investors' investment performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergent research identifies cultural tightness‐looseness as an important factor for understanding cross‐national outcome differences during the coronavirus pandemic. Because perceived tightness‐looseness can be measured as an individual‐level difference rather than a nation‐level difference, and because tightness‐looseness may shift during large‐scale crises, we investigated whether such shifts occurred early in the coronavirus pandemic in both China (a relatively tight nation, n = 3642) and the U.S. (a relatively loose nation, n = 3583) across three cohorts. Tightness increased across cohorts in China and reduced across cohorts in the U.S. These changes transmitted corresponding indirect effects whereby compliance and institutional trust (scientific and government) about the pandemic were increased in China across cohorts, but decreased in the U.S. across cohorts. These patterns extend advice that national governments can increase compliance and trust via "tightening" by cautioning against norm‐setters signaling the reverse (that norms about compliance are loose) given the outcomes observed in the U.S. samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the characteristics of the traditional village distribution contributes to the formulation of relevant protection and development strategies. We adopted a series of spatial analysis methods to investigate the characteristics of the traditional village distribution in China by using the watershed as the research unit. Moreover, we conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses of the relevant influencing factors affecting the distribution pattern using Geodetector and mathematical statistics. The findings indicate that traditional villages are distributed unevenly across watershed units. High–High clusters tend to occur at the boundaries of first-level watersheds. Traditional villages have a clear agglomeration trend in space, with a concentrated and contiguous distribution pattern based on the "core density area–ring-core expansion group–belt area". The key factors affecting the traditional village distribution are annual precipitation, annual average temperature, and river density. The traditional village number has a clear inverted U-shaped relationship with the annual average temperature, river density, and road density. The study reveals the complex and various characteristics of the traditional village distribution and its influence mechanism and offers scientific advice for traditional villages' future protection and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the ideology, guidelines, and policies of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on think-tanks and especially focuses on analysing Xi Jinping's policies towards them since the 18th Party Congress in 2012. Observing both the CPC's directives and the activities of some important think-tanks, this article finds that the relationship between the CPC and think-tanks in China has gotten increasingly closer. The closeness is reflected in indicators such as the CPC's promulgation of the policy to build 'a new type' of think-tank, increasing reliance on and appreciation for the advice of think-tanks, funding for official think-tanks, and frequent emphasis on the absolute leadership of the CPC over them. This is a typical model of the corporatism between the CPC and the state, market and social organisation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A large number of Chinese applicants use education agents to apply for overseas programs, and agents are one of the most significant influence factors on Chinese international students’ choice of overseas programs. However, there is limited research around agents’ experiences within the existing information landscape of international higher education. For example, information asymmetries between agents and universities may have an impact on the advice and guidance provided for international applicants. This research investigates agents’ practices with in- service Chinese applicants to UK universities in the context of information asymmetry. COVID-19 serves as a backdrop as an illustrative case of a period of high information uncertainty, which has generated severe challenges for the international higher education sector and for Chinese applicants’ plans to study overseas. This study reports on the findings from in-depth interviews with 16 Chinese agent consultants undertaken in nine cities across China in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic (May 2020). The findings indicate that education agents attempt to mitigate the information asymmetry and emotionally reassure applicants through a four-step information management process. Our contribution generates a new understanding of the role that education agents play in international students’ applications and mobility, voices that are often ignored but essential for international students’ decision-making processes and existing university recruitment services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although advice seeking has attracted increasing attention from scholars, research exploring the antecedents of advice seeking remains relatively sparse. To address this gap, this study focuses on evaluation sensitivity as an antecedent of advice-seeking behavior. We propose that the positive relationship between evaluation sensitivity and advice seeking is mediated by self-uncertainty, and that this mediation effect is in turn moderated by peer exclusion. Data were collected from 291 undergraduate students in eastern China through three waves. Analysis of these data revealed that evaluation sensitivity was positively related to advice seeking, and that this relationship was mediated by individuals' self-uncertainty. Furthermore, peer exclusion moderated the indirect relationship between evaluation sensitivity and advice seeking via self-uncertainty, such that the indirect effect was significant only when peer exclusion was high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND In China, pesticide retailers have often been accused of providing inaccurate advice on pesticide use to farmers in a chaotic pesticide market. However, it is unclear whether governmental regulation of sales and advice on pesticide use by pesticide retailers induces them to provide accurate advice. RESULTS: Using survey data of 242 pesticide retailers in 2016, this study analyzes how pesticide retailers in China provide advice on pesticide use to farmers and examines whether governmental regulation induces pesticide retailers to provide accurate advice. The surveyed retailers were found to advise farmers to use the correct active ingredients in only 75.6% of observations. Retailers recommended pesticide application rates higher than the scientifically recommended levels among 57.2% of observations. The bivariate probit model estimation results show that highly intensive governmental regulation increases the probability of correct advice on pesticide use of pesticide retailers in the county and township seats by 13% and 19%, respectively. Moreover, highly intensive regulation can also increase the probability of pesticide non‐overuse advice by the retailers from the retailers in the villages by 38%. CONCLUSION: Highly intensive governmental regulation can induce pesticide retailers to provide more accurate advice on pesticide use to farmers, but the effects differ across the locations of pesticide retailers. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research on transnational knowledge transfer has a strong bias toward (often conditionality-based) advice originating in the core OECD world and focuses nearly exclusively on the link from a source to a target of knowledge transfer. This contribution provides a broader and more nuanced picture by looking at the reverse logic of non-OECD countries proactively searching abroad for policy advice and assessing this advice based on their own requirements. Based on the role of conditionality and on the attitude of the recipient country toward cooperation with foreign sources of advice, five demand-side strategies in transnational policy-related knowledge transfer are distinguished, each of which is analyzed utilizing the example of health reform. The results highlight systematic differences in the attitude toward and employment of foreign advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on a popular form of civic practice in China: casual political talk that occurs in online spaces that are not ostensibly political. We investigate how Chinese citizens engage in politics through a comparative analysis of everyday talk on health issues across three popular online discussion forums: a government-orientated forum (Qiangguo Luntan), a commercial-lifestyle forum (Tieba), and a commercial-topical forum focused on parental advice (Yaolan). Our findings show that conventional deliberation directly involving conflictual and resistant attitude against state authorities is not prominently embraced by Chinese citizens in everyday online settings. However, communal and less confrontational forms of discourse are important for the proto-political talk to turn political, thus serving as prerequisite conditions for the emergence of an online public sphere. We argue that to explain how the public sphere emerges in everyday (non-political) spaces in China, it is essential to take communal discursive forms into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By comparing the production indexes of large blast furnaces (BF) in China between the first half of 2019 and 2015–2016, the production status, reductant consumption, raw materials and operation conditions have been reviewed. In the first half of 2019, Chinese large BFs still had made a lot of achievements, but it is also discovered by comparison that not only the raw materials quality but also the large BFs stability have the trend of getting worse, so some work should be done to stop and recover the unfavorable situation. Based on that, the expectations of enhancing the raw materials quality and improving the operation conditions are suggested. Large BFs make great contributions to energy saving, low-carbon, high automatic, environmental protection and economic development, so there will bemore large BFs constructed and put into production in China in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has reviewed the production status, total reductant consumption, raw materials and operation principle indexes of large blast furnaces in China from 2015 to 2016. The developing actuality of Chinese large BFs has been quantitatively analyzed and the existing problems have been proposed clearly. Based on that, maintaining production stable, enhancing the quality of raw materials and improving the operation principles are suggested. Large BFs take advantages of high-quality hot metal, energy saving, cost-cutting, high mechanization and automation levels and are sufficient to meet the challenges of economic crisis, environmental pressure and security risk form the future. Thus, the number of large BFs in China will continue to increase in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims There is inconsistent evidence that behavioural support to promote smoking reduction is effective at increasing smoking cessation. We examined the effectiveness of brief physician advice together with four very brief telephone calls in promoting smoking cessation among Chinese men via reduction compared with equivalent advice on diet and exercise. Design A two-group pragmatic randomized controlled trial. Participants and Setting Male patients attending the Endocrinology and Acupuncture out-patient clinics of a general hospital in Beijing, China. Intervention and comparators Physicians advised participants allocated to the smoking-reduction intervention (SRI, n = 181) group to reduce smoking to at least half of their current consumption within 1 month at baseline. At follow-up, a telephone counsellor repeated this advice if the participant had not reduced their cigarette consumption. Participants who had reduced consumption were encouraged to quit smoking. Physicians gave participants in the exercise and diet advice (EDA, n = 188) control group brief advice about physical activity and healthy diet at baseline, and a telephone counsellor reinforced this at each follow-up interview. Both groups had one face-to-face interview at baseline plus five telephone interviews and interventions (approximately 1 minute each) at 1 week and 1-, 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up. Measurements The primary outcome was self-reported 6-month prolonged abstinence rate at 12-month follow-up interview. Findings By intention-to-treat, the self-reported 6-month prolonged abstinence rate at 12-month follow-up in the SRI groups (19 quitters, 15.7%) was higher, but not significantly, than the EDA control group (10 quitters, 7.8%), and the adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) was 2.26 (0.97-5.26), P = 0.062. The self-reported 7-day point prevalence quit rate (secondary outcome) in the SRI group was significantly higher than the control group at each follow-up interview (at 12-month follow-up: 13.3 versus 6.9%, OR (95% CI) = 2.09 (1.01, 4.34), P = 0.049). Conclusions A very brief, proactive and low-cost smoking-reduction intervention without medications for Chinese male smokers with no intention to quit appears to increase smoking abstinence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important share of worldwide poverty reduction since the 1970s is due to China's decrease in rural poverty. This article asks how has this extraordinary story of success traveled beyond East Asia, and in particular how the World Bank reflected it. Building on studies of policy narratives, it shows how the Bank has since the 1990s constructed a perspective that aligns China with its broader depiction of "pro-market" East Asia. It downplays the role of the state as subsidizer and buyer of poor people's production and reduces Chinese policies to their land reform component, which then becomes the basis of policy advice extended to transitioning and African countries. The article's main contribution is showing the constitution of a development narrative spanning two decades and reaching the form of an extremely concise and therefore increasingly ubiquitous statement about a "liberalizing China" and the poverty-reducing and market-conforming effect of land reform alone. • The paper asks how the World Bank reflected China's successful poverty-reduction story. • The paper reviews the numerous statist elements present in China's rural poverty reduction. • The World Bank downplays the state's role as subsidizer and buyer of poor people's production. • It reduces Chinese policies to a simplified account of their land reform component. • The Bank's treatment of China becomes the basis of policy advice extended to transitioning and African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Receiving accurate and timely advice about extreme weather events can impact a person's likelihood to survive, cope with and minimise exposure. Advice-giving seems to be a common interpersonal strategy in weather commentaries in many Chinese newspapers, yet research into weather advice-giving is greatly lacking. This study investigated whether the discourse of advice-giving in newspaper weather commentaries differed depending on the newspaper source and/or on the weather reported. We focused on two popular metropolitan newspapers: Beijing Morning Post and Beijing Evening News . Forty texts from each source were chosen (20 for ordinary weather and 20 for extreme weather). Results showed that the advice given stems from a vast reservoir of advice themes, and we found clear differences depending on weather, with significantly more advice given during extreme events. We also found that Beijing Evening News , in general, provided more advice in their weather commentaries. Finally, writers who were prone to take an authoritative stance tended to increase their use of imperatives and “high-status” vocatives during extreme weather, whereas those who positioned themselves “with” their readers also used more imperatives, but did not change their vocative preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study assessed an integrated model of advice giving (Emotional support—Problem inquiry and analysis—Advice) with 572 participants from United States and 540 participants from mainland China. Participants read and responded to a hypothetical scenario in which they received advice from a friend. Advice that was offered following the moves of emotional support and problem inquiry and analysis was judged by both American and Chinese participants to be higher in quality and was more likely to be implemented than advice that did not follow this sequential pattern. Compared to Chinese participants, American participants evaluated advice offered with emotional support or problem inquiry and analysis as higher in quality. Participants with a higher independent self-construal also rated advice offered in conjunction with emotional support or problem inquiry and analysis as higher in quality than participants with a lower independent self-construal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study compared and contrasted American and Chinese college students’ responses to advice by examining the impact of perceived advice content features (response efficacy, feasibility, absence of limitations) and source characteristics (expertise, trustworthiness, liking) on recipient’s evaluation of advice quality and intention to implement advice in each cultural group. American (N = 262) and Chinese college students (N = 319) completed questionnaires reporting on a recent instance of receiving advice with regard to a personal problem. Across both cultural groups, each of the perceived content and source features was positively associated with participants’ evaluation of advice quality and intention to follow advice, and perceived content features had stronger and more direct influence on responses to advice than source characteristics did. Perceived content features had a stronger impact on Americans’ intention to implement advice than they did for Chinese, whereas perceived source characteristics had a stronger impact on Chinese’ intention to implement advice than they did for Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Topics on energy crises, environment protection have appeared in international conference time and again, usage of renewable energy is a popular subject, and wind power generation is the industry with relatively low cost and mature technology, which is developed by many governments as an important industry. The article first introduces current situation of China''s wind power generation briefly, and then describes its own features and problems differing from other countries in the world in detail. Finally, we put forward a proposal to develop wind power generation in Chinese pattern way, and meanwhile we give some advices and methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Performing diagnostic tests is a fundamental information-gathering activity in diagnostic process. However, little attention has been paid to the interactional process where a diagnostic test is advised and received, especially in Chinese medical settings. Decision making over prescribing diagnostic tests consists of clinicians' advice and patients' acceptance or resistance/rejection. Drawing on audio-recordings of clinician-patient encounters in Chinese outpatient clinics as data and conversation analysis as a method, we discuss how patient resistance to clinicians' diagnostic test-taking advice is displayed and managed over sequences of interaction. Two types of advice deliveries have been identified: advice either with no diagnostic utterances or with indeterminate diagnostic utterances. We find that patients demonstrate their resistance towards the former type of advice in two ways: questioning clinicians' decisions and proposing an alternative plan. Displaying resistance to the latter type of advice, patients have been found to recurrently resort to one way: proffering additional information about personal experience. Confronted with resistance, clinicians generally proceed to justify decisions by either asserting their epistemic primacy in determining a test or lowering certainty in the original speculative diagnosis. Towards persistent resistance, clinicians mainly employ two techniques to impose acceptance onto patients: repeating the initial advice and terminating forcefully current sequence. This study adds to a growing body of research on resistance in medical settings and contributes to our understanding of the decision making over medical investigations in Chinese outpatient clinic interaction. • We explore decision making over diagnostic tests in Chinese outpatient clinics. • This paper uses the methodology of Conversation analysis. • Two types of diagnostic test-taking advice is noted. • Resistance to diagnostic test-taking advice and resistance management are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deer is valuable all over the body,which is rich in nutritional value and medicinal value. Deer breeding and processing are very advanced in North America and New Zealand where many related standards have been published. The development of Chinese deer industry lack standard and normal management,neither standards' number nor coverage area formed complete frame structure. The international standards like Panax ginseng and P. notoginseng were more lacked. This paper makes a classification statistics on standardization organizations at home and abroad,foreign standards,Chinese national standards,industry standards,local standards and enterprise standards. The classes,contents,ages,implementation and promotion and demonstration area construction of standards were compared and analyzed. We found Chinese deer industry standards were deficient in coverage,uniformity,innovation,repeatability and support. And we give advises for the construction of industry quality standard system,organizational mobility and ideology of consumers,hoping to boost the standard construction and promote international competitiveness of Chinese deer industry.