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This study aims to analysis the influence of economic growth (EG) and energy consumption (EC) on sulfur dioxide emissions (SE) in China. Accordingly, this study explores the link between EG, EC, and SE for 30 provinces in China over the span of 2000e2019. This study also analyzes cross-sectional dependence tests, panel unit root tests, Westerlund panel cointegration tests, Dumitrescu-Hurlin (D-H) causality tests. According to the test results, there is an inverted U-shaped association between EG and SE, and the assumption of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is verified. The signs of EG and EC in the fixed effect (FE) and random effect (RE) methods are in line with those in the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimators. Moreover, the results verified that EC can obviously positive impact the SE. To reduce SE in China, government and policymakers can improve air quality by developing cleaner energy sources and improving energy efficiency. This requires the comprehensive use of policies, regulations, economic incentives, and public participation to promote sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Happiness is one variable of subjective well-being, which has been increasingly shown to have protective effects on health. Although the association between happiness and cognition has been established, the mechanism by which happiness leads to cognition remains unclear. Since happiness, depression, and physical activity may all be related to cognition, and happiness is related to depression and physical activity, this study explored the effect of depression and physical activity on the relationship between happiness and cognition among middle and old-aged individuals in China. Methods. Data on 14,344 participants above 45 years of age were obtained from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies survey. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify the correlation factors of cognition. The conditional process analysis was used to assess the mediatory effect of depression and physical activity on the relationship between happiness and cognition. Results. Residence, age, sex, income level, social status, smoking, napping, reading, education, exercise times, satisfaction, happiness, and depression had associations with cognition. When other variables were held constant, cognition score increased by 0.029 standard deviation(SD) for every 1 SD increased in happiness. Mediation analysis showed that happiness had a significant positive total effect on cognition. The direct effect of happiness was significant and accounted for 57.86% of the total effect. The mediatory effect of depression (path of happiness!depression→cognition) accounted for 38.31% of the total effect, whereas that of physical activity (path of happiness!exercise times!cognition) accounted for 3.02% of the total effect. Conclusion. Happiness has a positive correlation with cognitive function, and depres- sion and physical activity play mediatory roles in this association. Effective interventions to improve happiness levels of middle and old-aged population will not only improve their subjective well-being but also improve their cognitive function, which carries great potential for reducing public health burdens related to cognitive aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental temperature serves as a major driver of adaptive changes in wild organisms. To discover the mechanisms underpinning cold tolerance in domestic animals, we sequenced the genomes of 28 cattle from warm and cold areas across China. By characterizing the population structure and demographic history, we identified two genetic clusters, i.e., northern and southern groups, as well as a common historic population peak at 30 kilo years ago. Genomic scan of cold-tolerant breeds determined potential candidate genes in the thermogenesis-related pathways that were under selection. Specifically, functional analysis identified a substitution of PRDM16 (p.P779L) in northern cattle, which maintains brown adipocyte formation by boosting thermogenesis-related gene expression, indicating a vital role of this gene in cold tolerance. These findings provide a basis for genetic variation in domestic cattle shaped by environmental temperature and highlight the role of reverse mutation in livestock species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hospice care is a multidisciplinary approach that focused on patients' quality of life, and nurses allocate more of their time with patients and patients' families than those nurses working in other disciplines. Nurses' knowledge of and attitudes toward hospice care can affect the quality of hospice care. At present, China's hospice care institutions are suffering from an obvious shortage of nursing staff. Since clinical nurses are the main force behind the future provision of hospice care, their knowledge of, attitudes and willingness to practice can greatly promoted the growth of hospice care, however, available data on clinical nurses' willingness to practice hospice care are limited. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was employed to collect data from 1833 nurses working in tertiary or secondary general hospitals in Guangxi, China. We examined nurses' demographic characteristics and scores on the Chinese version of the hospice care knowledge scale, the Chinese version of the Bradley Attitude Assessment Questionnaire, and a brief quiz concerning their willingness to practice hospice care in the future. Descriptive, single factor, multiple regression analyses and logistic regression analyses were used for data analysis. Results: Nurses displayed moderate mean scores for both knowledge of and attitudes, and only 505 (27.5%) nurses expressed their willingness to practice hospice care, 1329 (72.5%) of nurses sampled expressed their unwillingness or uncertainty. Multivariate regression analyses showed that education, professional qualification, monthly income, whether they had been trained in hospice care, and willingness to practice hospice care were the main influencing factors of knowledge; education, whether they lived with someone aged >60 years, and whether they had been trained in hospice care were main factors influencing attitudes. Additionally, logistic regression analyses showed that hospice care knowledge, whether they had been trained in hospice care, and whether they had clinical experience affected the nurses' willingness to practice hospice care. Conclusion: This study highlighted a knowledge gap and moderate attitudes toward hospice care among nurses, and most nurses did not prefer to practice hospice care. Having been trained in hospice care was the main common factor of nurses' knowledge of, attitudes toward, and willingness to practice hospice care in the future, indicating the necessity to provide nurses with more targeted hospice care training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certified organic agriculture stipulates a range of principles and standards, which govern farmer practices. The recent global expansion of organic agriculture has raised new challenges for organic agriculture, particularly whether management practices in organic farms are subject to the forces of conventionalisation. We studied changes in agroecological practices in certified organic farms in China, Brazil and Egypt. The study takes departure in the conventionalisation hypothesis and the analysis is framed using organic and agroecological principles. The study focuses on agroecological design principles, inherent to organic agriculture, of diversity in crop production, pest, disease and weed management, and soil fertility management. The research design was as a multiple case study of five cases in China, Brazil and Egypt. We show that the adoption of organic agriculture has induced fundamental changes in organic farmer management practices, although agroecological practices of organic farmers do not fulfil organic principles. The forces of conventionalisation exert a strong influence on changes in organic farmer practices. Organic 'niche' market crops with a high-value influence organic farmers' management decisions, particularly regarding the prioritisation of diversity in the cropping systems for agroecological purposes. The farming systems have therefore not undergone major changes of their cropping patterns. Furthermore, there was a general heavy reliance upon input substitution for pest and soil fertility management. This study thus presents new data and a novel analysis of the implications at the farm scale of the global expansion of organic agriculture, and the influence of conventionalisation on farmers practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Growing global trade with organic products has increased the demand for environmental impact assessments during both production and transport. Environmental hotspots of organic soybeans produced in China and imported to Denmark were identified in a case study using a life cycle assessment approach. Furthermore, environmental impacts of organic and conventional soybeans at farm gate were compared in the case study. The total global warming potential (GWP) per ton organic soybeans imported to Denmark revealed that 51% came from transportation and 35% from the farm level. Comparing organic and conventional soybean at farm gate showed that GWP, non-renewable energy use, acidification and eutrophication was lower per ton organic soybeans, whereas land use was slightly higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on three case studies in China and Brazil, this paper explores the terms of access for farmers' participation in certified organic agriculture (OA) and investigates the influence of adoption on productivity, nutrient budgets, income and labour use. Small-scale farmers converting to OA require substantial external production-related, marketing and certification support. Access to OA was strongly dependent upon the type of support available to farmers. Organization based on a contract-farming model resulted in OA only being an option available to a narrow group of farmers, whilst OA initiated by a farmer cooperative provided better access. Gross output was significantly higher for oranges, whilst for the other crops gross output was similar. However, organic farmers in China felt that adoption had improved prices, incomes and market access. Farmers' perception of improved incomes is probably due to improved market access coupled with either a large production base, production intensification and production diversification. This study demonstrates that organization of farmers, and the manner in which this is structured, is crucial for external support to have an effect. Thus, OA may be a development path for small farmers if the supporting structures are provided at a small financial interest rate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Environmental temperature serves as a major driver of adaptive changes in wild organisms. To discover the mechanisms underpinning cold tolerance in domestic animals, we sequenced the genomes of 28 cattle from warm and cold areas across China. By characterizing the population structure and demographic history, we identified two genetic clusters, i.e., northern and southern groups, as well as a common historic population peak at 30 kilo years ago. Genomic scan of cold-tolerant breeds determined potential candidate genes in the thermogenesis-related pathways that were under selection. Specifically, functional analysis identified a substitution of PRDM16 (p.P779L) in northern cattle, which maintains brown adipocyte formation by boosting thermogenesis-related gene expression, indicating a vital role of this gene in cold tolerance. These findings provide a basis for genetic variation in domestic cattle shaped by environmental temperature and highlight the role of reverse mutation in livestock species.

Objective: To evaluate patients with stable COPD for the presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms (PPM), systemic inflammation and the effects of short-term antibiotic therapy in PPM positive patients., Methods: From January 2016 to June 2017, we enrolled 96 stable COPD patients. Bacterial cultures from sputum collections were quantitated, along with markers for systemic inflammation including serum C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and plasma fibrinogen (FIB) in all patients. All enrolled patients were followed for 12 months. Forty patients were identified as PPM positive and were randomly divided into an antibiotic group and a control group. The antibiotic group was treated with moxifloxacin orally for 6 days. Lung function and markers for systemic inflammation were repeatedly measured at 30 days and 6 months in PPM positive subjects., Results: Binary logistic regression analysis showed that risk factors for PPM positive are bronchiectasis (OR 4.18, 95% CI 1.20-14.59; P =0.025), COPD assessment test (CAT) ≥20 (OR 17.55, 95% CI 2.82-109.18; P =0.002), spontaneous sputum (OR 15.09, 95% CI 1.36-168.02; P =0.027) and sputum purulence (OR 38.43, 95% CI 5.39-274.21; P =0.000). CRP and IL-8 were higher in PPM positive group than those in PPM negative group ( P =0.001, P =0.007, respectively), but there were no differences of FIB between the two groups ( P =0.086). Compared to the PPM negative group, the rate of acute exacerbation of COPD was higher ( P =0.029) and time to next acute exacerbation was shorter ( P =0.030) in PPM positive group. There were no differences in lung function and systemic inflammatory markers either in the control group or the antibiotic group at different time points of follow-up., Conclusion: PPM exists in stable COPD patients and can cause systemic inflammation and is associated with acute exacerbation of COPD. Short-term antibiotic therapy had no effect on systemic inflammation nor on acute exacerbation of COPD. China Clinical Trials Registry: ChiCTR-IOR-15006769., Competing Interests: Jin-Xiang Wang and Hui-Qiao Li are co-first authors for this study. The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2019 Wang et al.)

The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of S-1-based therapy versus non-S-1-based therapy in advanced gastric cancer (AGC) patients.Eligible studies stratifying objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and adverse events (AEs) in AGC patients were identified from Embase, Pubmed, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. The STATA package (version 11.0) was used to pool the data from the eligible studies.Fifteen studies with 2973 AGC cases, of which 1497 (50.4%) received S-1-based therapy and 1476 (49.6%) received non-S-1-based therapy, were identified in the meta-analysis. AGC patients who had received S-1-based therapy had a higher median OS, median PFS, and ORR than those who had received 5-fluorouracil (FU)-based therapy (OS: hazard ratio [HR] 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.80-0.98, P = 0.015; PFS: HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.80-0.98, P = 0.016; ORR: OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.08-1.45, P = 0.003, respectively). S-1-based therapy had similar efficacy to capecitabine-based therapy in terms of median OS (HR 1.14, 95% CI 0.91-1.41, P = 0.253), median PFS (HR 1.01, 95% CI 0.82-1.25, P = 0.927), and ORR (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.63-1.12, P = 0.226). Subgroup analysis for grade 3 to 4 toxicity showed higher incidence of neutropenia (relative risk [RR] = 0.827, P = 0.006), nausea (RR = 0.808, P = 0.040), and lower diarrhea (RR = 1.716, P = 0.012) in 5-FU-based arm, and higher diarrhea (RR = 0.386, P = 0.007) in capecitabine-based arm.S-1-based chemotherapy is favorable to AGC patients with better clinical benefit than 5-FU-based chemotherapy and with equivalent antitumor compare with capecitabine-based therapy.