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Based on a quantitative analysis of a novel dataset comprising 10,093 publicly available judgments of adjudicated child custody disputes from the China Judgments Online website, this article identifies potential gender bias in Chinese family courts under certain conditions. Key findings include: 1. Mothers are generally more proactive in seeking custody and are awarded custody in the majority of cases compared to fathers. 2. Specifically, mothers have a significant advantage in cases involving daughters, while their advantage in cases involving sons is less pronounced. 3. In rural courts, the results are notably different: mothers are disadvantaged overall, fathers are particularly assertive in seeking custody of sons compared to daughters, and mothers are less likely than fathers to be awarded custody of sons. Building on existing literature, this study highlights potential judicial biases rooted in societal gender norms prevalent in rural areas. This raises questions about whether courts have achieved substantive gender equality and whether the legal principle of 'the best interests of the child' is consistently upheld in every court decision. This study enhances the understanding of gender bias within China's family court system by providing valuable insights for those interested in addressing gender inequality. It not only highlights specific challenges women face in custody cases but also calls for broader societal and policy changes to support women and combat gender discrimination in all its forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to budget and sensor technology constraints, a single sensor cannot simultaneously provide observational images with both a high spatial and temporal resolution. To solve the above problem, the spatiotemporal fusion (STF) method was proposed and proved to be an indispensable tool for monitoring land surface dynamics. There are relatively few systematic reviews of the STF method. Bibliometrics is a valuable method for analyzing the scientific literature, but it has not yet been applied to the comprehensive analysis of the STF method. Therefore, in this paper, we use bibliometrics and scientific mapping to analyze the 2967 citation data from the Web of Science from 1991 to 2023 in a metrological manner, covering the themes of STF, data fusion, multi-temporal analysis, and spatial analysis. The results of the literature analysis reveal that the number of articles displays a slow to rapid increase during the study period, but decreases significantly in 2023. Research institutions in China (1059 papers) and the United States (432 papers) are the top two contributors in the field. The keywords "Sentinel", "deep learning" (DL), and "LSTM" (Long Short-Term Memory) appeared most frequently in the past three years. In the future, remote sensing spatiotemporal fusion research can address more of the limitations of heterogeneous landscapes and climatic conditions to improve fused images' accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rice–crayfish co-culture system, a representative of Agri-aqua food systems, has emerged worldwide as an effective strategy for enhancing agricultural land use efficiency and boosting sustainability, particularly in China and Southeast Asia. Despite its widespread adoption in China's Jianghan Plain, the exact spatiotemporal dynamics and factors influencing this practice in this region are yet to be clarified. Therefore, understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors of the rice–crayfish fields (RCFs) is crucial for promoting the rice–crayfish co-culture system, and optimizing land use policies. In this study, we identified the spatial distribution of RCF using Sentinel-2 images and land use spatiotemporal data to analyze its spatiotemporal dynamics during the period of 2016–2020. Additionally, we used the Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression model to explore the key factors influencing RCF's spatiotemporal changes. Our findings reveal that (1). the RCF area in Jianghan Plain expanded from 1216.04 km2 to 2429.76 km2 between 2016 and 2020, marking a 99.81% increase. (2). RCF in Jianghan Plain evolved toward a more contiguous and clustered spatial pattern, suggesting a clear industrial agglomeration in this area. (3). The expansion of the RCFs was majorly influenced by its landscape and local agricultural conditions. Significantly, the Aggregation and Landscape Shape Indexes positively impacted this expansion, whereas proximity to rural areas and towns had a negative impact. This study provides a solid foundation for promoting the rice–crayfish co-culture system and sustainably developing related industries. To ensure the sustainable development of rice–crayfish co-culture industries in Jianghan Plain, we recommend that local governments optimize the spatial layout of rural settlements, improve transportation infrastructure, and enhance regional agricultural water sources and irrigation system construction, all in line with the national strategy of rural revitalization and village planning. Additionally, promoting the concentration and contiguity of RCF through land consolidation can achieve efficient development of these industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies showed that marrying younger is associated with a higher risk of divorce. We investigate the causal effect of marrying at an earlier age on women's divorce risk. We exploit the introduction of the 1981 reform in China, which facilitated legal marriage for urban women younger than 25 years old, using the Chinese Census data. We show that the reform generated a kink in the mean age at marriage for women, which we use in a fuzzy regression kink design (RKD) to assess the causal effect of marrying younger on the probability of divorce. First, we confirm in our data the existence of a negative (in fact, a U-shaped) association between age at marriage and divorce, as commonly observed in previous studies from the USA. Then, we show that this association disappears in our analyses based on RKD. This finding suggests that the well-documented association between early marriage and divorce is in fact attributable to unobservable factors driving both marriage timing and the likelihood of divorce. We discuss the implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mass rearing of high-quality queen bees is an essential beekeeping practice for producing new queens to maintain colony productivity. A strain of high royal-jelly-producing bees (RJBs; Apis mellifera ligustica) in China exhibits high potential for the rapid mass rearing of queens. To explore the potential changes in the quality of mass-reared queens, a set of morphometric traits and the sealed brood area were compared between the queens reared from 64 and 320 queen cells in RJB colonies. The increase in the queen cell number was found to induce a slightly but significantly reduced body weight and smaller wing length and thorax width in the reared queens at emergence. However, the ovariole number and sealed brood area, an indicator of the queen fecundity, were not observed to be significantly influenced. With respect to body weight and ovariole number, all the reared queens satisfied the current criteria for high-quality queens. Our findings provide evidence for the efficient mass production of high-quality queens using RJB colonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two types of turquoise, including homogeneous Cu-rich turquoise and oscillatory zoned turquoiseplanerite series, are recognized in association with quartz-barite veins hosted by Cambrian carbonaceous slates from western Hubei Province of China. Combined fluid inclusion and Raman micro-spectroscopic data reveal that turquoise-bearing barite-quartz veins contain three types of fluid inclusions (pure CH4-N2, carbonic-aqueous, and aqueous), suggesting the responsible fluid is of carbonic-aqueous composition with low oxygen fugacity. Pressure-corrected homogenization temperatures in quartz and barite show a range from 325 to 485 °C and 186 to 391 °C, respectively. Carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic data suggest that the mineral-forming fluids have a mixed metamorphic-organic affinity, in which the fluids have δ18O and δD values of 15.0 to 18.8‰ and –111 to –93‰, respectively. Generally, the formation of quartz-barite-turquoise veins could be triggered by prior metamorphic devolatilization, followed by the interaction of fluids with country rocks enriched in carbonaceous material, which resulted in the leaching of Cu, Fe, P, and Al from chalcopyrite, pyrite, magnetite, monazite, xenotime, apatite, feldspar, and muscovite in the wall rocks. Decomposition of the organic matter in the carbonaceous slates, caused by regional metamorphism and deformation, could also promote the concentration and transportation of necessary metals for the turquoise. Thus, we propose a new model and suggest that the turquoise gem deposits in western Hubei Province of China belong to the non-magmatic hydrothermal vein type deposit, not the previously proposed supergene origin. The turquoise-forming fluids were characterized by the coexistence of two immiscible fluids of non-magmatic affinity (i.e., moderate to high-temperature and low-salinity aqueous fluid and pure CH4-N2 fluid formed by interaction with carbonaceous slates). The bluish green homogeneous turquoise in the metamorphic quartz-barite-turquoise veins evolved toward the turquoise-planerite solid solution series as the metal-leaching capability of the aqueous fluids decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ionosphere is a crucial factor affecting Global Navigation Satellite System positioning. The Global Ionosphere Map (GIM) or the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model can be used for regional ionospheric correction. Since southern China is located near the electron density equatorial anomaly, this study evaluates the performance of the Wuhan University GIM (WHU‐GIM) and the IRI‐2020 from 2008 to 2020 over the China region. The comparison indicates that the Total Electron Content (TEC) from IRI‐2020 is lower than that from WHU‐GIM overall, the discrepancy is more obvious in high solar conditions and low‐latitude regions. The differential Slant TEC (dSTEC) during a phase‐arc with about 0.1 TECU accuracy derived from Global Positioning System (GPS) observations is used for model validation, the results show that the accuracies of WHU‐GIM and IRI‐2020 are 3.14 and 4.57 TECU, respectively. The dSTEC error is larger at low latitudes and decreases with increasing latitude. GPS‐derived TEC is taken for reference to evaluate the model reliability. Results show that both models can reproduce the diurnal TEC variations, but IRI‐2020 is more influenced by geomagnetic activities. The TEC correction percentage for IRI‐2020 is about 60%–80% under different ionospheric conditions, while for WHU‐GIM is 80%–90%. The Single‐Frequency Precise Point Positioning is performed with the ionosphere delay corrected by the two models, respectively. The positioning errors show that using IRI‐2020 has a lower accuracy, and the TEC discrepancy of the IRI‐2020 can cause a large bias in the up direction, especially at low‐latitude regions. Plain Language Summary: The ionosphere is a part of the Earth's atmosphere within an altitude of 60–1,000 km from the ground. The ionized molecules and free electrons that exist in the ionosphere will affect the Global Navigation Satellite System signals, and reduce the positioning accuracy finally. Ionospheric models such as the Global Ionospheric Map (GIM) and the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model provide the Total Electron Content (TEC) which is always used to mitigate ionospheric errors. The China region is close to the equator where the ionosphere is more active and disturbed, and is important to assess the performance of these two models in this area. This study evaluates the Wuhan University GIM (WHU‐GIM) and the IRI‐2020 model for 13 years according to the differential Slant TEC data, Global Positioning System TEC and Single‐Frequency Precise Point Positioning (SF‐PPP) technique. The results indicate that the TEC from the IRI‐2020 model is lower than that from the WHU‐GIM, especially under high solar conditions and in low‐latitude regions. According to the result of the SF‐PPP, the accuracy of the IRI‐2020 model is worse than WHU‐GIM, and the low TEC of the IRI‐2020 could cause a large bias in the up direction at the low‐latitude regions over China. Key Points: An assessment of Wuhan University Global Ionosphere Map (WHU‐GIM) and International Reference Ionosphere (IRI)‐2020 was conducted from 2008 to 2020 over the China region, with an overall better performance of WHU‐GIMCompared to WHU‐GIM, the Total Electron Content (TEC) derived from IRI‐2020 model is lower, such discrepancies are more obvious under the high solar conditionIRI‐2020 can be more influenced by geomagnetic storms, and its low TEC is reflected in a larger bias in the up component resulting from Single‐Frequency Precise Point Positioning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese traditional system features a hierarchical familial culture. When confronted with individualization and autonomy in choices of marriage and divorce, the system remains resilient and intervenes in the lives of young families. To analyze the discourses of divorced urban young adults, 46 participants (23 women and 23 men) aged 24–39 years were recruited from various regions in China. Through an analysis of the stressors involved in marriage and divorce, the concrete values and the conceptions shared in a unitary system of traditions were elicited. The promise of stability in a marriage was the appeal of this system while the focus on offspring was the general interest with evolutionary elements that justify this system. The concept of the individual autonomy of divorce grew from marital experiences and would be confined to the traditional system if its appeal remains unchallenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the current status of cognitive development and central auditory processing development of preschool children with minimal and mild hearing loss (MMHL) in Nanjing, China. Method: We recruited 34 children with MMHL and 45 children with normal hearing (NH). They completed a series of tests, including cognitive tests (i.e., Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence and Continuous Performance Test), behavioral auditory tests (speech-in-noise [SIN] test and frequency pattern test), and objective electrophysiological audiometry (speech-evoked auditory brainstem response and cortical auditory evoked potential). In addition, teacher evaluations and demographic information and questionnaires completed by parents were collected. Results: Regarding cognitive ability, statistical differences in the verbal comprehensive index, full-scale intelligence quotient, and abnormal rate of attention test score were found between the MMHL group and the NH group. The children with MMHL performed poorer on the SIN test than the children with NH. As for the auditory electrophysiology of the two groups, the latency and amplitude of some waves of the speech-evoked auditory brainstem response and cortical auditory evoked potential were statistically different between the two groups. We attempted to explore the relationship between some key indicators of auditory processing and some key indicators of cognitive development. Conclusions: Children with MMHL are already at increased developmental risk as early as preschool. They are more likely to have problems with attention and verbal comprehension than children with NH. This condition is not compensated with increasing age during the preschool years. The results suggest a possible relationship between the risk of cognitive deficit and divergence of auditory processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how adult children's divorce affected their financial support to older parents in rural China and how that relationship was dependent on children's gender. The sample was from rural Anhui Province and the working sample included 1629 older parents who reported their interactions with 6210 children across six waves of observations in 14 years (2001- 2015). Generalized Estimating Equations showed that divorced sons provided less financial support to their parents than married sons. In contrast, divorced daughters did not necessarily provide less financial support than married daughters. This gender difference was statistically significant. The findings were discussed in the context of changing rural Chinese families, where the norm of filial piety is still strong but patrilineal tradition and gender ideology have experienced desynchronized changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of two competing forces (i.e., socioeconomic transformation vs. traditional cultural norms) influencing Chinese family and its members, the paper uses the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to empirically examine the causal relation between intrahousehold bargaining power and women's marital satisfaction. By employing an instrumental variable approach, the paper finds that intrahousehold bargaining power negatively affects women's marital satisfaction. This conclusion remains valid after performing various robustness checks. However, there are some heterogeneous effects found that the negative effect is particularly significant among those women of higher age and constrained by external traditional norms. These women are more conservative in their own thoughts and thus tend to support the traditional gender belief of "men being the masters of the family." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. To investigate the association of the A/G rs1014290 polymorphism in SLC2A9 with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and prediabetes mellitus (pre-DM). Patients and Methods. We enrolled 1058 patients who attended the Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China. The patients underwent general testing and oral glucose tolerance tests and were divided into three groups: 352 patients newly diagnosed with T2DM, 358 patients with pre-DM, and 348 healthy controls. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was detected by ligase detection reactions. The χ2 test, one-way ANOVA, and binary logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the results. Results. In the T2DM group, the GG genotype frequency at the rs1014290 locus was significantly lower (14.8%) than it was in the healthy controls. Furthermore, the GG genotype group was associated with a reduced risk of T2DM in unadjusted and confounder-adjusted models compared with the risk in the AA genotype group. The G allele in the SLC2A9 rs1014290 locus decreased susceptibility to T2DM. In the pre-DM group, the GG and AG genotype groups had no significant correlation with the risk of pre-DM in any of the models. In the T2DM group, the uric acid level was significantly lower in the GG genotype group. In the T2DM and pre-DM groups, the HOMA-β levels were significantly higher in the GA (P < 0.001) and GG (P < 0.001) genotype groups than it was in the AA genotype group, and HOMA-IR was significantly lower in the GA (P < 0.001) and GG (P < 0.001) genotype groups than it was in the AA genotype group. Conclusion. The A/G (rs1014290) SNP in SLC2A9 is closely related to the occurrence and development of diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Males and females often exhibit differences in behaviour, life histories, and ecology, many of which are typically reflected in their brains. Neuronal protection and maintenance include complex processes led by the microglia, which also interacts with metabolites such as hormones or immune components. Despite increasing interest in sex-specific brain function in laboratory animals, the significance of sex-specific immune activation in the brain of wild animals along with the variables that could affect it is widely lacking. Here, we use the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) to study sex differences in expression of immune genes in the brain of adult males and females, in two wild populations breeding in contrasting habitats: a coastal sea-level population and a high-altitude inland population in China. Our analysis yielded 379 genes associated with immune function. We show a significant male-biased immune gene upregulation. Immune gene expression in the brain did not differ in upregulation between the coastal and inland populations. We discuss the role of dosage compensation in our findings and their evolutionary significance mediated by sex-specific survival and neuronal deterioration. Similar expression profiles in the coastal and inland populations suggest comparable genetic control by the microglia and possible similarities in pathogen pressures between habitats. We call for further studies on gene expression of males and females in wild population to understand the implications of immune function for life-histories and demography in natural systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership and crisis are closely intertwined, yet studies of leadership during crisis remain scarce. The 2020 Covid-19 outbreak offers an ideal context to examine leaders' roles during severe crises. Grounded in the theoretical framework of transformative leadership and based on a study of four cases in rural Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, the study examines rural tourism enterprises' post-pandemic recovery to identify how leadership navigated organizations through the recovery process. The study demonstrates that each case displays components of transformational leadership that facilitated businesses' recovery. Creativity appears especially important in promoting effective leadership amid crisis and uncertainty. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on crisis management reports that crises can be critical for organizations, including state and extra‐state actors; they either break down or reinvent themselves. Successful organizations, those that do not break down, use situations of crisis to restructure themselves and improve their performance. Applicable to all crises, this reasoning is also valid for the COVID‐19 pandemic and for government organizations in China. Drawing on documentary analysis, this article examines China's pandemic response from the social–political, technological and psychological perspectives using a holistic crisis management framework. It demonstrates that the Chinese state bureaucracy has assembled, expanded and strengthened its surveillance strategies to strive for comprehensive crisis response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have examined disasters and crises affecting the tourism industry but very few have explicitly explored public opinion regarding a health-related crisis alongside a policy response to its occurrence. The COVID-19 pandemic with its rapid evolution and lasting detrimental implications has provided a unique opportunity to fill this knowledge gap. This study conducts a systematic content analysis of an online petition platform to explore public opinion on COVID-19 in the tourism context and the actions undertaken by the national government of China. The results demonstrate that trip cancellations and postponements represent the prime area of tourist concern, closely related to the issue of refunds. Mounting dissatisfaction with the service provided is triggered by ineffective communication about how to cancel and process refunds, and generates numerous complaints. However, the study finds that the policy action does not always regard tourist concerns, demands, and interests, because it primarily revolves around the problem of financial losses and focuses on the rapid economic rebound of the national tourism industry. The study recommends the need for policy instruments to understand and subsequently integrate public concerns in the design of interventions for crisis recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There has been an increasing prevalence of parental separation in China due to divorce or migration for work in recent decades. However, few studies have compared the impacts of these two types of separation on children's mental health. This study aimed to investigate how parental divorce and parental migration impact children's mental health and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITB), while considering positive factors, including parent-adolescent communication and psychological resilience. Methods: We randomly recruited participants in grades 5–8 from 18 schools in 2 counties in Anhui Province. A self-administered questionnaire was conducted to measure children's mental health, SITB, parent-adolescent communication, psychological resilience, and socio-demographic characteristics. Results: Data from 1026 children with both parents migrating (BLBC), 1322 children with one parent migrating (SLBC), 475 children living in a divorced family (DC) and 1160 children with non-migrating parents (NLBC) were included. Regression model results showed that, compared to the other three groups (BLBC, SLBC, NLBC), DC exhibited higher internalizing problems (p < 0.05), higher externalizing problems (p < 0.01), less prosocial behaviors (p < 0.05), and higher rates of suicidal ideation (SI) (p < 0.05) and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behaviors (p < 0.05) when adjusting for social-demographic variables. However, when further adjusting for parent-adolescent communication and psychological resilience, DC no longer had higher levels of internalizing problems, externalizing problems, NSSI and SI than left-behind groups (BLBC, SLBC). Conclusions: The experience of separation from divorced parents had stronger negative effects on the mental health of children than was observed in LBC. The Chinese government should design special policy frameworks that provide support to DC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green buildings can play a role in helping countries meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Green building can provide an important contribution to sustainability, for example, by improving energy efficiency, by improving indoor air quality, and by effective waste treatment. In practice, we see that there is an increasing interest in various forms of green building. However, the existing literature has not identified the role of law in promoting green building. It is, moreover, striking that green building has taken off in a rather impressive manner in China. Although generally there are still huge environmental problems with which China is confronted, for many years already China has been engaged in green building. This paper wants to examine what explains the relative success of green building in China; What specific legal instruments can be used to promote green building; and what lessons can be drawn more generally from experience in China? The paper uses the theory of smart regulation (Gunningham/Grabosky) and the economic analysis of law to examine the importance of different instruments in promoting green building. The paper comes to two key results, being that no single instrument in itself is optimal to promote green building as a result of which a smart mix needs to be designed to promote green building; moreover, for the specific case of China, it is the large government involvement in the economy that has been able to jump-start green building. The Chinese government has, on the one hand, mandated green building in government projects, but on the other hand, also used market-based instruments (like subsidies and public procurement) to promote green building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Obesity is a risk factor associated with the onset and exacerbation of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However, the majority of OSA patients in Asian populations are nonobese. To date, there have been insufficient large-scale studies of the differences in the clinical and polysomnographic features of obese and nonobese OSA patients in this population, and few studies have sought to identify predictors of OSA severity in affected obese and nonobese patients., Methods: We conducted a case-matched retrospective study, including 652 consecutive Chinese OSA patients (326 nonobese and 326 obese) to assess differences in demographic, clinical, and polysomnographic data between these two groups. Independent predictors of OSA severity were identified through multivariate linear regression analysis., Results: The age and gender distributions of our obese and nonobese OSA patient cohorts did not differ significantly ( P > 0.05), and rates of comorbidities were comparable in these two patient groups ( P > 0.05). Nonobese patients were more likely to report atypical symptoms of OSA, including insomnia ( P < 0.001), irritability ( P < 0.05), and depressive symptoms ( P < 0.01), whereas obese patients were more likely to report typical symptoms of OSA, such as habitual snoring ( P < 0.001), witnessed apnea ( P < 0.05), and daytime sleepiness ( P < 0.001). Relative to nonobese patients, those who were obese exhibited significantly higher apnea-hypopnea index during total sleep time ( P < 0.001), apnea-hypopnea index during nonrapid eye movement sleep ( P < 0.001), and apnea-hypopnea index during rapid eye movement sleep ( P < 0.001), in addition to lower average oxygen saturation ( P < 0.001), minimal oxygen saturation ( P < 0.001), and a higher oxygen desaturation index ( P < 0.001) and arousal index ( P < 0.001). Total sleep time was, on average, shorter for nonobese patients ( P < 0.05), who also exhibited decreased sleep efficiency and more frequent awakening relative to obese patients ( P < 0.05). A multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that neck circumference and waist circumference were independent predictors of OSA severity in obese patients ( P < 0.05)., Conclusions: On average, OSA was typically less severe in nonobese patients, who were also more likely to experience atypical OSA symptoms relative to obese patients. These results also suggest that the differential contributions of body fat accumulation and distribution to OSA severity may offer insights into the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, and optimal management of this condition in nonobese and obese patient populations. It is vital that clinicians consider these differences to properly diagnose and treat this debilitating condition., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose, (Copyright © 2021 by the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society.)

The present study examined the effects of web-based metacognitive listening practice on L2 learners' listening comprehension over 14 weeks. Participants (N = 67) came from two intact classes of intermediate EFL university learners in China. The experimental group was involved in the web-based metacognitive listening practice built on the metacognitive listening principles. The control group undertook a traditional web-based listening practice with the same listening materials texts, yet without training on their metacognitive awareness. TOEFL tests and MALQ were used to track the development of listening achievements and metacognitive awareness. ANCOVA was employed to detect the differences between the two groups regarding listening achievements and metacognitive development. The results showed that the experimental group made significantly greater gains than the control group in listening achievements. However, the development of metacognitive awareness remained inconclusive. The study concludes that metacognitive listening practice under a web-based environment could outperform the traditional web-based listening practice in improving listening achievements among Chinese intermediate EFL learners. Besides, some recommendations for further study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer is a major disease worldwide and different approaches are needed for its prevention. Previous laboratory and clinical studies suggest that cancer can be prevented by chemicals, including those from the diet. Furthermore, epidemiological studies have suggested that deficiencies in certain nutrients can increase the risk of some cancers. In this article on chemo/dietary prevention, examples will be given to illustrate the effectiveness of chemopreventive agents in the prevention of breast, colon and prostate cancers in high-risk populations and the possible side effects of these agents. The potential usefulness of dietary approaches in cancer prevention and the reasons for some of the failed trials will be discussed. Lessons learned from these studies can be used to design more relevant research projects and develop effective measures for cancer prevention in the future. The development of effective chemopreventive agents, the use of nutrient supplements in deficient or carcinogen-exposed populations, and the importance of cohort studies will be discussed in the context of the current socioeconomic situation in China. More discussions are needed on how we can influence society to pay more attention to cancer prevention research and measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of interferon (IFN) on hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB) has not been fully investigated in Chinese patients. We enrolled 58 HBeAg-negative CHB Chinese patients with hepatitis B viremia in Taiwan to evaluate the response to IFN. 30 patients received recombinant IFN 5 million units 3 times weekly for 6–10 months, and 28 patients who refused IFN treatment served as controls. Rates of virological response and biochemical response were higher in the treated group at the end of treatment (57% vs 18%, P=0.006, and 73% vs 29%, P=0.002, respectively). Both effects were superior in the treated group at 6 months after IFN withdrawal (virological: 30% vs 7%, P=0.06; biochemical: 47% vs 7%, P=0.002). Improvement of liver histological activities with persistently biochemical response was found in 65% of the treated patients. After a mean of 32 months’ follow-up, virological response was rarely maintained (17% vs 4%, P=0.228) but biochemical response was better in the treated group (27% vs 4%, P=0.039). None of the treated patients but five controls developed severe complications of CHB during the follow-up period. A larger total IFN dosage or a younger age (≤ 40 years) were associated with ‘sustained’ virological response. Younger age and higher baseline alanine transaminase values (≥ 120 Ul–1) were related to ‘sustained’ biochemical response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]