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Due to the increasingly serious environmental pollution, stakeholders are paying more attention on the environmental behavior of enterprises. Our paper investigates how institutional investors affect the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure (EID). Using a sample of A-share listed firms from the heavily polluting industries in China during 2008 to 2016, we conduct correlation analysis, OLS regression, and Tobit regression methods and find that institutional investors' shareholdings are positively correlated with the quality of EID. When institutional investors increase 1% shareholdings of the firm, the EID quality improves by 0.03%. In addition, the high concentration of institutional ownership enhances the impact of institutional investors' shareholdings on the EID quality. But this positive correlation is only observed in companies in regions with a high marketization level. Our paper extends the research on the influential factors of EID and improves the understanding of the impact of institutional investors on corporate environmental behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural products, exports, and agriculture environmental pollution are key issues in agricultural development, and the relationship between them have not been sufficiently studied by previous authors, the mechanisms of which deserve further investigation. This paper analyzes the impact of agricultural products' export on agricultural environmental pollution using data from OECD countries and China during the period of 2002 to 2019. The results show that: (1) the export of agricultural products has an inverted U-shaped relationship with agricultural environmental pollution. (2) This inverted U-shaped relationship between the agricultural products' export and agricultural environmental pollution is achieved through three mechanisms: agricultural production scale expansion, agricultural technology innovation, and green trade barrier development. This study supplements the research on products' export and environmental pollution in agricultural sector, recommending that the government should guide agricultural production to alleviate the contradiction between production and environmental conservation, as well as taking advantage of location to develop international trade while promoting the agricultural internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of government-oriented environmental governance in China, the environmental effect of local official turnover has become an important issue. How to improve governmental governance is an important issue that profoundly affects local environmental governance. Based on a literature analysis, this paper establishes an environmental-effect identification equation to deeply analyze the environmental effect of local official turnover on private enterprises. Then, this paper empirically analyzes the effect of local personnel turnover on the environmental pollution control of private enterprises and the persistence of this effect. The results show that the turnover of local officials has a positive effect on the pollution control investment of private enterprises, but the effect is not persistent. The interest collusion between local officials and private enterprises tends to be one main reason to explain the environmental effect, and two different types of interest collusions are determined: priority to self-interest and economic development. The reasons why the positive effect cannot last for long may be attributed to a lack of systematic and effective institutions or temporary administrative measures. It is important to make local officials fully realize the "green wealth" value of the ecosystems, to change their economic priorities. Finally, this paper proposes countermeasures for local governments on personnel affairs to promote environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Loess Plateau is one of the most severely eroded areas in the world. The complexity of the multiple challenges facing the Loess Plateau entails the support of scientific and systematic innovations in land use. Based on technological innovation cluster (TIC) theory, this paper develops a self-circulation structure model for the TIC to analyze the hierarchical structure of the land-use innovations in the Loess Plateau. Then, employing the self-circulation structure model and taking the "Gully Land Consolidation Project" (GLCP) as a case study, this paper proposes one TIC-driven sustainable land use mode (TSLUM). A TIC has been developed among innovations in the TSLUM. The structure of TSLUM consists of three types of innovations: basic, related, and infrastructure innovations. Basic innovations are generally radical innovations that breed related, and infrastructure innovations. Diffusion-based and reversal-based mechanisms govern the evolution of the TSLUM. These two clustering mechanisms integrate with each other and jointly promote the development of the TSLUM in a self-circulation way. Furthermore, the TSLUM exhibits multiple functions, such as optimizing gully-slope interaction mechanism, providing continuous driving forces, consolidating the achievements of the "Grain for Green Project", bolstering rural livelihoods, and fostering some feasible ways for food security. The results obtained will be useful for advancing sustainable land use and regional sustainable development in the Loess Plateau via TICs effectively and systematically. ● A self-circulation structure model for technological innovation cluster is developed. ● A sustainable land use mode based on technological innovation cluster is proposed. ● Technological innovation cluster revealed in the study exhibits multiple functions. ● Regional sustainable development can be upheld by technological innovation cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Chinese population has aged significantly in the last few decades. Comprehensive health losses including both fatal and non-fatal health outcomes associated with ageing in China have not been detailed.Methods: Based on freely accessible disability adjusted life years (DALYs) estimated by the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) 2017, we adopted a robust decomposition method that ascribes changes in DALYs in any given country across two time points to changes resulting from three sources: population size, age structure, and age-specific DALYs rate per 100,000 population. Using the method, we calculated DALYs associated with population ageing in China from 1990 to 2017 and examined the counteraction between the effects of DALYs rate change and population ageing. This method extends previous work through attributing the change in DALYs to the three sources.Results: Population ageing was associated with 92.8 million DALYs between 1990 and 2017 in China, of which 65.8% (61.1 million) were years of life lost (YLLs). Males had comparatively more DALYs associated with population ageing than females in the study period. The five leading causes of DALYs associated with population ageing between 1990 and 2017 were stroke (23.6 million), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (18.3 million), ischemic heart disease (13.0 million), tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer (6.1 million) and liver cancer (5.0 million). Between 1990 and 2017, changes in DALYs associated with age-specific DALY rate reductions far exceeded those related to population ageing (- 196.2 million versus 92.8 million); 57.5% (- 112.8 million) of DALYs were caused by decreases in rates attributed to 84 modifiable risk factors.Conclusion: Population ageing was associated with growing health loss in China from 1990 to 2017. Despite the recent progress in alleviating health loss associated with population ageing, the government should encourage scientific research on effective and affordable prevention and control strategies and should consider investment in resources to implement strategies nationwide to address the future challenge of population ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of apples produced in China are consumed by people around the world every year. The pesticide residues in apples and apple juice are receiving more attention. Herein, 14 frequently used pesticides and 3 metabolites were selected as targets to investigate their residues in apples (120 samples) and apple juice (40 samples) in the markets across China, and the dietary intake risk for consumers was estimated. The monitoring results showed 91.7% of apple samples contained detectable pesticide residues, and six pesticides including thiamethoxam, carbendazim, pyraclostrobin, tebuconazole, chlorpyrifos and fenpyroximate exceeded limits of quantification with a detection rate of 63.3%, 61.7%, 22.5%, 21.7%, 8.3% and 2.5%, respectively. All pesticide residues were below their maximum residue limits (MRLs) in China. However, the banned pesticide chlorpyrifos in the Europe Union and the United States exceeded the local MRL (0.01 mg kg−1) in 7.5% of apples. No target chemicals occurred in juice samples. Risk assessment showed in deterministic assessment, the chronic and acute risk quotients of pesticides were ≤1.66 × 10−1% and 6.84%, respectively. The risk quotients of probability assessment were no more than 1.56%. The results indicated a negligible risk for consumers from consuming apples and apple juice from markets across China. • A method was developed to detect 14 pesticides and 3 metabolites on apple and juice. • 91.7% of 120 apple samples contained detectable pesticide residues. • No pesticide was detectable in apple juice samples from markets in China. • Chlorpyrifos showed the highest chronic risk in deterministic assessment. • A negligible risk was revealed for human from apple consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Using the nutritional cognition of peers' parents as an instrumental variable to estimate the impacts of peer effects on sugar-sweetened beverages consumption among Chinese children and adolescents. • Peers' sugar intake from sugar-sweetened beverages has a significantly positive effect (0.349 SDs) on students, especially in carbonated beverages (0.415 SDs). • Peer effect on students' sugar intake from sugar-sweetened beverages are larger when students' peers are more popular or they are in lower grade. Sugar intake is approaching problematic levels among Chinese children and adolescents. Chinese governments have issued and supervised the implementation of relevant administrative regulations, which have not achieved good results. Peers are the most important social factors influencing children and adolescents' behavior and decision-making besides family members. This study examines how the peer effect impacts SSB consumption. To clarify this relationship, we use the nutritional cognition of peers' parents as an instrumental variable to resolve the endogeneity problem and employ the two-stage least squares estimation method to investigate the data of 4,118 students in north China. The results show a significant positive correlation between sugar intake among peers, indicating that individuals are more likely to consume excessive amounts of sugar when their peers also engage in this behavior. We find that the peer effect is enhanced with increased popularity among one's peers and gradually decreases as the distance within the social network increases. It is also more significant in short-term friendships than in long-term friendships. Our findings provide a basis for school-level intervention programs from the perspective of social interaction to regulate healthy eating behaviors and nutritional perceptions among children and adolescents through peer relationships. It also confirms the feasibility of reducing individual sugar intake by increasing nutritional awareness among adolescents and parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Higher score of perceived NEWS links to a lower risk of all-cause mortality and major CVD. • The association was observed in females and urban areas, but not in other demographic groups. • Developing healthy neighborhood environment may be an important strategy. Despite increased literature focusing on the role of the built environment (BE) in health, few cohort studies have quantitatively analyzed neighborhood walkability environment in relation to the risk of death and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This longitudinal study aimed at evaluating the association between perceived BE attributes with mortality and major CVD based on the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology study in China (PURE-China). The PURE-China study recruited 47,931 participants aged 35–70 years from 12 provinces of China between 2005 and 2009. The perceived BE information, including land use, street, aesthetics, and safety, was collected using the neighborhood environment walkability scale (NEWS) questionnaire, with higher scores indicating a more favorable rating. Two primary outcomes are all-cause mortality and major CVD event. The Cox frailty model with random intercepts was used to assess the association between the perceived total BE/subscales score and outcomes. Of 32,163 participants included in this study, 19,253 (59.9 %) were women, and the mean (SD) age was 51.0 (9.5) years. After a median follow-up period of 11.7 years (IQR 9.4 – 12.2), we observed that one standard deviation higher of combined BE scores was related to a lower risk of all-cause mortality (HR = 0.85; 95 %CI, 0.80–0.90), and major CVD events (HR = 0.95; 95 %CI, 0.90–0.99). The subscales of perceived BE were related to a lower risk, although a few were not significant. Land use mix-diversity and safety from crime were the two most significant subscales. Stronger risks were observed among urban and female participants. Favorable perceived BE characteristics were linked with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and major CVD events in Chinese population, especially in urban areas and females. Our findings can be used by policymakers to take action to mitigate the adverse effect of poor community conditions on health, such as improving local amenities and transport connectivity, providing building paths for walking, running and cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Different methods were established for within-season maize yield predictions. • Prediction errors decreased obviously after maize tasseling stage. • Using analogue-year weather data could dramatically improve prediction accuracy. • The most robust predictions were obtained with 10-leading-years weather data. Within-season crop yield prediction with a dynamic crop model can provide valuable references for field management practices and regional food security. However, weather ensembles containing the unknown future weather conditions occurring after prediction dates are essential for such predictions using crop models. Two strategies were established for selecting analogue weather years as the target growing season based on a five-year maize experiment conducted at eight sites in the Loess Plateau of China. The first strategy tried weather data from different lengths of years ahead the planting year. The second strategy used the k -nearest neighbor (k -NN) algorithm to select analogue weather according to different combinations of weather variables with daily or accumulative values. The results showed that satisfactory predictions could be obtained after maize tasseling (about 50 d prior to maturity). The mean absolute relative error (ARE) and coefficient of variation (CV) of the daily yield predictions after tasseling were 6.6% and 5.7%, respectively, in 2010 at the Yulin site. In the leading-year strategy, the most reliable predictions were obtained by the weather data from the 10 years ahead of planting, with an overall average ARE of 11.7%. In the k -NN strategy, the most reliable predictions were obtained by using the analogue weather selected with only accumulative precipitation, with an overall average ARE of 11.5%. Additionally, both of the two optimal strategies improved the original predictions in most cases. However, the k -NN strategy was more likely to generate worse predictions in the early part of the growing season. Generally, it was more convenient to use the weather data of 10 leading years before the planting year to represent the unknown weather data after the prediction dates. This strategy provided reliable prediction accuracy without complex programming and requirement for long-term weather records. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent changes in population-based prevalence for circulatory system diseases (CSDs) remain unreported either nationally or locally for China. Data were from the two-round health service household interview survey of Hunan Province, China, in 2013 and 2018. A Rao-Scott chi-square test was performed to examine prevalence differences across socio-demographic variables. The overall age-standardized prevalence of CSDs increased substantially between 2013 and 2018 for inhabitants aged 20 years and older (14.25% vs. 21.25%; adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.24-2.04). Hypertensive disease was the most prevalent type of CSD, accounting for 87.24% and 83.83% of all CSDs in 2013 and in 2018, respectively. After controlling for other socio-demographic factors, the prevalence of CSDs was significantly higher in 2018 (adjusted OR = 1.40), urban residents (adjusted OR = 1.43), females (adjusted OR = 1.12) and older age groups (adjusted OR = 5.36 for 50-59 years, 9.51 for 60-69 years, 15.19 for 70-79 years, and 12.90 for 80 years and older) than in 2013, rural residents, males and the youngest age group (20-49 years). The recent increase in the overall age-standardized CSD prevalence and the large prevalence disparities across urban/rural residents, sex and age groups merit the attention of policymakers and researchers. Further prevention efforts are needed to curb the increasing tendency and to reduce the prevalence of disparities across socio-demographic groups.

Environmental exposures, especially parenting quality, are critical for later child development. This study aimed to determine the status of parenting quality and suspected development delay of preschool children in China's urban area and explore the associations between these two factors. The research was based on a birth cohort study conducted in Changsha, Hunan province, China. We used the Parenting Assessment Tool and Ages and Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3), to measure parenting quality and child development status, respectively. Other data were collected from maternal health manuals and self-administered questionnaires during the follow-up period. The generalized estimating equation was used to examine whether parenting quality was significantly associated with child development outcomes. In the study, good parenting quality was 33.6% measured at 18 months, and suspected development delay was below 10% at 36-48 months among urban China; we observed negative associations between parenting quality scores and child development scores; poor parenting quality had a negative association with suspected development delay [OR and 95% CI: 2.74 (1.17, 6.40)], girls [OR and 95% CI: 0.33 (0.16, 0.69)] and maternal education years (>12 years) [OR and 95% CI: 0.27 (0.12, 0.64)] were protective factors for suspected development delay. Our findings highlighted the importance of good parenting quality among children in urban areas of China through a birth cohort study and may be used to reduce the children at high risk of developmental delay as a future intervention program.

A key and a distribution map of the Chinese species of the genus Pentacentrus Saussure are provided. Pentacentrus dulongjiangensis sp. nov. is described from Yunnan, China. The new species is similar to P. medogensis Zong, Qiu Liu, 2017 from Xizang, China, but differs from the latter by the shape of male genitalia and the color of the tegmina.