Search

This paper estimates the relationship between personality traits measured by the "Big Five Model" and occupational status with a nationally representative household survey from China. I find that four of the five personality traits except extraversion are significantly associated with occupational status in terms of occupational choices, occupational prestige, and socioeconomic status. In particular, conscientiousness is the most important predictor among the five dimensions of personality traits. The findings also suggest that the returns of personality traits to occupational status are higher for females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common bunt disease of wheat in China is caused mainly by Tilletia foetida. However, reliable approaches for determining disease-associated biochemical markers are rarely reported. Here, a headspace-solid-phase microextraction coupled with headspace GC-tandem mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was used to screen volatile substances in infected wheat, and an optimal chemical marker was selected to establish analytical methods for disease determination. Non-targeted screening of 13 volatile compounds unique to diseased wheat allowed a metabolite with rotten fish-like smell, trimethylamine (TMA), to be selected as the inspection marker. Subsequently, two analytical methodologies, HS-SPME-GC-MS and headspace gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (HS-GC-FID), were established to determinate the TMA content in wheat. The linear relationship, recovery and reproducibility of the methods were validated. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.02 µg/kg for the former method, 5000-fold lower than that for the latter. When analysing samples, HS-SPME-GC-MS showed excellent sensitivity and allowed for the determination of 0.05% infected kernels among whole wheat grains. Therefore, TMA determination using HS-SPME-GC-MS is an effective alternative method to detect wheat common bunt disease occurring at extremely low infection rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Apriori algorithm in association rules is the main algorithm used in the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases in data mining, and the algorithm in the current stage of China's medical field of association between chronic diseases has some problems, such as the need to scan the transaction database of cases several times, producing a large data set and more redundant rules. To address the above problems, a data mining algorithm of association rules combining clustering matrix and pruning strategy is proposed, which improves the algorithm by using the clustering matrix method to compress the stored transaction database and introducing the prepruning and postpruning strategy methods on the basis of adding constraint conditions. The experimental results show that the optimization algorithm has unique advantages in reducing the number of database scans and the number of candidate item sets generated and ultimately greatly reduces the running time and I/O load of the algorithm, and the running efficiency of the algorithm is greatly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how housing demolition affects labor supply using the China Family Panel Studies, a nationally representative household survey from China. We argue that housing demolition is likely to be random across households within the same community. We find that housing demolition reduces overall labor force participation by ~3.3 percentage points and farm work participation by ~4.4 percentage points. We also find that the negative impact on labor force participation is mainly driven by older people, women, less‐educated people, and people living in rural regions. The negative impact of housing demolition on labor force participation persists over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anti-angiogenic therapies demonstrate anti-tumor effects by decreasing blood supply to tumors and inhibiting tumor growth. However, anti-angiogenic therapy may leads to changes in tumor microenvironment and increased invasiveness of tumor cells, which in turn promotes distant metastasis and increased drug resistance. Methods: The CO-IP assays, N-STORM and cytoskeleton analysis were used to confirm the mechanism that p-VEGFR2/VE-cadherin/β-catenin/actin complex regulates vascular remodeling and improves the tumor microenvironment. 6-gingerol (6G), the major bioactive component in ginger, stabilized this complex by enhancing the binding of VEGFa to VEGFR2 with non-pathway dependent. Biacore, pull down and molecular docking were employed to confirm the interaction between 6G and VEGFR2 and enhancement of VEGFa binding to VEGFR2. Results: Here, we report that microvascular structural entropy (MSE) may be a prognostic factor in several tumor types and have potential as a biomarker in the clinic. 6G regulates the structural organization of the microvascular bed to decrease MSE via the p-VEGFR2/VE-cadherin/β-catenin/actin complex and inhibit tumor progression. 6G promotes the normalization of tumor vessels, improves the tumor microenvironment and decreases MSE, facilitating the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents into the tumor core and thereby reducing tumor growth and metastasis. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the importance of vascular normalization in tumor therapy and elucidated the mechanism of action of ginger, a medicinal compound that has been used in China since ancient times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on geographic information system (GIS) technology in conjunction with two methods for assessing landslide susceptibility (LS)—namely, a method using experts' knowledge and experience, and a mathematical/statistical method—the LS of southern Anhui, China is assessed using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) via an AHP-weighted information content method. Landslide-affecting factors are categorized into three main types and 10 subtypes. The values of spatial characteristics of the landslide-affecting factors are obtained using GIS technology. The AHP method is then employed to compare the importance and weights of landslide-affecting factors. The information content method is used to convert the measured values of the landslide-affecting factors in the study area to data reflecting regional stability. The closeness of the relationships between the classification levels of each landslide-affecting factor and landslide occurrence are calculated. The LS of the study area is assessed using the proposed method. The LS assessment shows that high LS, relatively high LS, moderate LS, relatively low LS and low LS regions account for 21.3%, 20.6%, 20.1%, 11.7% and 26.3% of the study area, respectively. Finally, the accuracy of the LS assessment results is analyzed using two methods: the assessment, including an analysis of random landslide sites for the validating models; and the area below a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of area under curve (AUC) value. The results show that the proportion of landslide sites in the regions of each LS level determined using the AHP-weighted information content method increases as the LS level increases, and that the accuracies of the AHP-weighted information content method were 8.1% and 5.7% higher than those of the AHP method and information content method, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Atmospheric particulate pollution in China has attracted much public attention. Occasionally, the particle number concentration increases sharply in a short time period, which is defined as a "particulate matter explosive increase". Heavy particulate matter pollution not only reduces visibility but also has an adverse effect on human health. Hence, there is an urgent need to discover the causes of particulate matter explosive increase. During this campaign, the particle number concentration and free radicals were measured at a tall building on the campus of Lanzhou University of Technology. Additionally, we examined a series of chemicals to reproduce the observed particulate matter explosive increase in a smog chamber to determine its potential factors. Then, we analyzed the mechanism of particulate matter explosive increase in the presence of free radicals. We found that, among the potential inorganic and organic sources analyzed, a mixture of organic and SO 2 in the research region had a major effect on particulate matter explosive increase. Moreover, free radical oxidation has a large effect, especially in the formation of organic particulates. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • CLL is rare in Asians. • The basis for less CLL is mostly genetic. • More people with CLL are being seen at some hospitals in China. • Is CLL really increasing in China? • The increase seems a predominately a result of surveillance bias. Abstract Background Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is 10- to 20-fold less common in Asians (including Han Chinese) compared with persons of predominately European descent. Why is unknown but seems predominately genetic. We observed an increasing frequency of new cases of CLL at our Haematology Centre beginning 2011 and wondered why. Objective Determine the cause(s) for this increased frequency. Method We interrogated the context of CLL diagnosis in 483 consecutive subjects seen at the Institute of Haematology of a large referral hospital in Beijing. 3 cohorts were considered based on why a CBC was done to establish the CLL diagnosis: (1) a CBC-testing situation unrelated to a health condition such as a routine annual health exam or application for employment or medical insurance (termed routine CBC); (2) an unrelated medical condition such as a cold, influenza, heart disease etc. (termed CBC for other disorders); and (3) signs and/or symptoms consistent with CLL such as lymph-adenopathy, hepato- or splenomegaly, fatigue, B-symptoms etc. (termed CBC for possible CLL). Results Data regarding context of CLL diagnosis were available for 389 subjects (81%). Proportions of subjects in the 3 cohorts were 44% (95% confidence interval [CI]; 39, 49%), 24% (20, 28%) and 32% (28, 37%). The proportion of subjects whose evaluation of CLL was prompted by an abnormal CBC not for possible CLL (cohorts 1 and 2) increased over the surveillance interval (r = 0.164; P = 0.001) as did median age at diagnosis (r = 0.207; P < 0.001). Age at diagnosis was correlated with probability of CLL being suspected because of an abnormal routine CBC (r = 0.249; P < 0.001); 42% (32, 53%) amongst subjects ≤50 years versus 86% (75, 92%; P < 0.001) among those >70 years. Consistent with this, older subjects were diagnosed at Rai stage-0 with asymptomatic disease compared with younger subjects (P < 0.001). Conclusion Our data suggest much of the increased frequency of CLL at our centre and likely elsewhere in China predominately reflects ascertainment bias. Other variables may also operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]