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China's environmental criminal law serves as the strongest legal safeguard for the construction of an ecological civilization, revealing the country's determination and efforts in environmental protection. Prior to 2011, Article 338 of China's Criminal Law, which is most closely associated with the punishment of polluters, was rarely applied effectively. However, following the revision of Article 338 to address environmental pollution crime in 2011, more than 10,000 cases were filed in just a few years; thus, this law has played a significant role in the smooth advancement of China's ecological civilization. An empirical analysis of 1600 instances of environmental pollution crime revealed that Chinese courts continue to give precedence to conventional sentencing factors in the enforcement of this criminal law. Despite the vigorous promotion of the ecological civilization concept in recent years within China, its integration into the judiciary process appears inadequate, and the boundaries of environmental pollution crime remain vaguely delineated. Given these circumstances, there is a pressing need for China to enhance its legislative and judicial frameworks regarding environmental criminal law to ensure robust and enduring support for the nation's sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) have become a global public health concern among adolescents and young adults. However, Chinese university students exhibit a high prevalence of eating disorders. This study aims to investigate the effects of self-esteem (SE) and body shape (BS) on ED behaviors among Chinese university students. Methods: Using random sampling, 946 Chinese university students (aged 18 to 24, M = 19.94, SD = 1.04) participated in a survey comprising the Sick, Control, One, Fat, and Food Questionnaire (SCOFF-Q), the Body Shape Questionnaire (BS-Q), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RS-S) to assess their eating disorder or non-eating disorder (NED) behavior. Results: There was a significant positive correlation between body shape and eating disorder behaviors (r = 0.19, p < 0.01), while there was a significant negative correlation between self-esteem and eating disorder behaviors (r = −0.14, p = 0.001 < 0.01). Gender was a moderating factor in the relationship between body shape and eating disorder behaviors (t = 3.14, p = 0.002 < 0.01), while parents' marital status was a moderating factor in the relationship between self-esteem and eating disorder behavior (t = 2.72, p = 0.007 < 0.01). Body shape (z = 6.47, p = 0.001 < 0.01), self-esteem (z = −2.81, p = 0.005 < 0.05), and gender (z = 3.06, p = 0.002 < 0.01) significantly influenced eating disorder behavior among Chinese university students aged 18–24 years. Conclusions: There was a direct effect between body shape and self-esteem and eating disorder behaviors among Chinese university students aged 18–24 years. Alarmingly, female university students are becoming susceptible to external influences on self-esteem and body shape, leading to eating disorder behaviors at an increasingly younger age in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facility agriculture is an important initiative to adopt an all-encompassing approach to food and build a diversified food supply system. Understanding the evolution of facility agricultural land and the factors that drive it can contribute to the development of scientifically strategic agricultural planning and agricultural modernization. Therefore, this paper constructs a "situation-structure-behavior-value" theoretical framework; quantifies the relevant driving factors (physical, proximal, and socioeconomic) and their impacts on the development and layout of facility agriculture land by using a multivariate logistic regression model; and provides a strategy for optimizing land use. The results showed that the area of facility agriculture in Huzhou is rapidly expanding. Regarding drivers, facility agricultural land tends to be located in areas with higher slopes according to plot selection. Facility agriculture is more likely to develop in plots with convenient transportation and closer proximity to markets. At the economic level, economic efficiency, agricultural resource superiority, and policies significantly impact facility agriculture expansion. Finally, we propose three land use policy options to facilitate the sustainable development of facility agriculture. This study elucidates the underlying factors driving different types of facility agricultural land and offers methodological guidance for policy support, planning, control, and optimization strategies for facility agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hundreds of millions of internal migrants are present in cities in the developing world. Accurately predicting their commuting mode choice and clarifying the effect size of the influencing factors have become increasingly indispensable for formulating and executing socially inclusive transportation plans and policies. Yet, scholarship on internal migrants' travel mode choice is still scarce, particularly in the context of developing country. This study attempts to partly fill this gap. Using empirical data from Xiamen, China, it applies the Light Gradient Boosting (LightGBM) approach, a high-efficiency and high-performance machine learning framework, to predict the commuting mode choice of both the internal migrants and locals. The results show that (1) The built environment has larger impacts on locals' mode choice than on migrants'; (2) For both the migrants and locals, the relative importance of the built environment in predicting commuting mode choice exceeds that of socio-demographics and trip characteristics; (3) Distance to the closest commercial center is the most important factor influencing commuting mode choice of both groups, and bus stop density also contributes a great deal; hence, regional accessibility and transit infrastructure can be given higher priority in intervening the commuting behaviors of migrants and locals. (4) The LightGBM models yield rather high prediction accuracy; their results are further compared with those of conventional discrete choice models and are found to be generally consistent with the latter. Those findings can help inform decision-makers about nuanced policies concerning meeting locals' and migrants' travel demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's per capita dairy consumption has been far below the intake level recommended by the World Health Organization. Since the dairy industry is a significant contributor to carbon emissions, the recently launched "Double‐Carbon" goals in China may also suppress the supply of dairy products, further reducing Chinese residents' dairy intake. While the notion of sustainable (i.e., nutritious and environmentally friendly) food consumption has recently gained popularity in the policy arena, whether Chinese milk consumers are ready to embrace this notion and what specific measures can effectively promote sustainable milk consumption in China remain unclear. On the basis of a discrete choice experiment, this paper examines how information nudges (i.e., randomly provided messages with different contents and details) may steer Chinese consumers into choosing liquid milk products with attributes that are more nutritious and environmentally friendly. Our analysis, involving 839 consumers randomly selected from Beijing, China, shows that consumers value carbon labels the most, followed by nutrition claims, sustainable production claims, and energy conservation certificates. Meanwhile, nutrition information induces consumers to place higher values on nutrition claims; in contrast, environmental information raises consumers' willingness to choose environmental sustainability‐related attributes. Finally, the concreteness of the information provided strengthens these effects [EconLit Citations: D12, Q01, Q13, Q18]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, the Chinese government proposed the Rural Revitalization Strategy with the objective of bolstering economic development, social progress, and ecological protection in rural areas, thereby achieving rural modernization. This paper employs the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and the Malmquist index model to measure the efficiency and changes of the agricultural circular economy in 31 provinces and cities in China from 2017 to 2020. Using Tobit regression, we further examine the correlation analysis in the context of the rural revitalization policy. The study reveals that the efficiency of China's agricultural circular economy continued to grow between 2017 and 2020. The policy of the rural revitalization strategy significantly impacts the efficiency of the agricultural circular economy. Government financial support has a significant positive influence on the efficiency of the agricultural circular economy. Based on the research findings, we proposed several constructive suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As public figures, cinematic celebrities' behaviors have widespread influence on the whole society, and this also applies to China. Their influence is reflected in public recognition. This research classifies celebrity social responsibility as behavior within the law, professionalism, family ethics, public morality, and charity. We selected 286 cinematic celebrities as study objects and obtained public recognition data through 2,600 questionnaire surveys. The findings of the study indicate that there is a positive, linear relationship between cinematic celebrities' social responsibility and public recognition. In particular, family ethics and public moral responsibility demonstrate a significant positive correlation with public recognition. However, there was no significant correlation found between lawful responsibility and public recognition. Finally, this paper makes additional suggestions and recommendations drawn from the data and reported in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) is a type of encephalopathy mediated by an antigenic immune response in the central nervous system. Most research related to autoimmune encephalitis (AE) is focused on early diagnosis, treatment and prognosis analysis; there has been little research conducted on the characteristics of immune function, and the relationship between immune function and prognoses of patients with autoimmune encephalitis needs to be studied further. Methods: A total of 33 children with autoimmune encephalitis were identified through the clinic database and inpatient consults at Tianjin Children's Hospital from January 2013 to January 2021. Based on the one-year follow-up and the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) prognosis score, they were divided into a good prognosis group and a poor prognosis group. The immune function characteristics of the two groups of children with autoimmune encephalitis (AE) were compared using Spearman correlation to analyse the mRS score and immune function indicators (IgA, IgG, IgM, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8), and binary logistic regression was used to analyse the independent risk factors of the prognoses in patients with autoimmune encephalitis (AE). Results: The differences in abnormal mental disorders and limb dyskinesia, cognitive impairment, onset types, modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores at admission, and immune function status during remission between the two groups were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion: There is a close correlation between modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores and the immune function index CD4/CD8 in children with autoimmune encephalitis (AE) when they are admitted to the hospital. A young age, disturbance of consciousness, limb dyskinesia, abnormal immune function in remission and anti-NMDAR encephalitis are risk factors for poor prognoses in children with autoimmune encephalitis (AE). Clinical treatment requires more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates sentencing disparity under the sentencing guidelines in China. Drawing upon the firsthand data of 509 criminal cases from a county-level court in 2015, our research examines the impact of legal and extralegal factors on sentencing outcomes and unveils a multiplicity of sentencing practices by judicial officers with three particular findings. First, the sentencing guidelines have to a great extent guided and affected sentencing judges, especially with regard to their in/out decisions (e.g., probation vs. imprisonment) and decisions on the length of imprisonment sentences. Second, substantial discretionary power is still left open for judges to determine in/out decisions. More specifically, female, elderly, and socially advantaged offenders are given more lenient sentences than others in judges' in/out decisions. Third, there are different sentencing patterns across crime types (e.g., traffic casualty and dangerous driving); that is, offenders committing ordinary traffic casualty are under-punished while those committing dangerous driving are over-punished. These findings indicate that formal sentencing guidelines fail to reduce sentencing inconsistency by fostering a uniform and principled model of sentencing. This is mainly because the State's overarching criminal justice policy has continued to have strong ramifications for sentencing outcomes in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares official statements on democracy and ordinary people's understandings of the term to examine whether government propaganda works to shape the democratic conceptions of the masses. The findings show that official narratives centered on 'good governance' have gradually been picked up by ordinary people over time. While the finding could be interpreted as solely the outcome of top-down state propaganda, the authors argue that the mechanism involves two-way communication whereby Chinese leaders have incorporated elements of traditional culture as well as the concerns of ordinary people into their narratives of democracy, leading to a convergence between the elite and the masses. This two-way process has allowed 'democracy with Chinese characteristics' to become a viable counterpoise to liberal democracy in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in November 2013, China has begun another round of state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform. By examining policy documents, analysing the pilot SOE s and conducing an empirical study based on a unique dataset of control rights transfers between SOE s and privately owned enterprises in Chinese stock markets during 2014–2019, this study concludes that this round of SOE reform has made China's SOE s stronger and possibly bigger. These findings are important to firms, scholars and policy-makers around the world and make further contributions to the debates on China's SOE reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stigmatization associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is expected to be a complex issue and to extend into the later phases of the pandemic, which impairs social cohesion and relevant individuals' well-being. Identifying contributing factors and learning their roles in the stigmatization process may help tackle the problem. This study quantitatively assessed the severity of stigmatization against three different groups of people: people from major COVID-19 outbreak sites, those who had been quarantined, and healthcare workers; explored the factors associated with stigmatization within the frameworks of self-categorization theory and core social motives; and proposed solutions to resolve stigma. The cross-sectional online survey was carried out between April 21 and May 7, 2020, using a convenience sample, which yielded 1,388 valid responses. Employing data analysis methods like multivariate linear regression and moderation analysis, this study yields some main findings: (1) those from major COVID-19 outbreak sites received the highest level of stigma; (2) factors most closely associated with stigmatization, in descending order, are objectification and epidemic proximity in an autonomic aspect and fear of contracting COVID-19 in a controllable aspect; and (3) superordinate categorization is a buffering moderator in objectification–stigmatization relationship. These findings are important for further understanding COVID-19-related stigma, and they can be utilized to develop strategies to fight against relevant discrimination and bias. Specifically, reinforcing superordinate categorization by cultivating common in-group identity, such as volunteering and donating for containment of the pandemic, could reduce objectification and, thus, alleviate stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Due to ongoing expenses for both short-term and long-term needs for health services, people with chronic diseases tend to struggle with financial hardship. Health insurance is employed as a useful tool in aiding people to solve such financial strain. This study aims to examine and compare the impacts of public and private health insurance on solving financial barriers for people with chronic diseases.Methods: This research obtained an outpatient sample consisted of 1739 individuals and an inpatient sample consisted of 1034 individuals. We employed a Chi-square test and a two-sample T-test to explore differences in financial strain and insurance status between people with chronic diseases and those without. Then we adopted binary logistic regression technique to assess the impacts of different types of health insurance on outpatient and inpatient financial strain for people with chronic diseases.Results: Our research has five key findings: first, people with chronic diseases were more likely to experience both the outpatient and inpatient financial strain (P < 0.01); second, public health insurance was found to reduce the outpatient financial strain; third, private health insurance was found to positively associate with inpatient financial barriers; fourth, Urban Employment Insurance (UEI) was expected to reduce both the outpatient and inpatient financial barriers, while self-paid private insurance (SPI) was positively associated with inpatient financial barriers; and fifth, income was identified as a positive predictor of having outpatient and inpatient financial strain.Conclusions: Public health insurance has the potential to reduce the outpatient financial strain for people with chronic diseases. Private health insurance was identified as a positive predictor of inpatient financial strain for people with chronic diseases. Policy should be proposed to promote the capacity of public health insurance and explore the potential effects of private health insurance on solving the inpatient financial barriers faced by people with chronic diseases in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the theoretical links between two important ingredients of individuals' fundamental political values (i.e. authoritarian ideology and national attachment) and their life satisfaction assessments in an authoritarian context. We employ data from a 2016 national public survey in China to empirically examine how these political values relate to Chinese citizens' life satisfaction. Our regression analyses demonstrate that Chinese citizens with stronger authoritarian ideology and national attachment are likely to report a higher level of life satisfaction. Our study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the importance of the connections between political values and citizen life satisfaction. It also advances our understanding of the origins of social and political stability in authoritarian regimes, where citizen life satisfaction usually represents a major source of state legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop production in developing and emerging countries is increasingly dependent on the usage of farm machinery. However, it remains unclear whether low‐productive and high‐productive farmers benefit equally from farm machinery use. To address the research gap, this study examines the potential heterogeneous effects of farm machinery use on maize yields, using an unconditional quantile regression model and survey data from China. We employ a control function approach to address the selection bias issue associated with farm machinery use. The empirical results show that the use of farm machinery significant increases maize yields for all the selected quantiles (except for the 80th quantile); the low‐productive farmers tend to benefit more from farm machinery use relative to their high‐productive counterparts; and farm machinery use reduces the inequality and variability of maize yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Emerging evidence from China suggests that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is deadlier for infected men than women with a 2.8% fatality rate being reported in Chinese men versus 1.7% in women. Further, sex-disaggregated data for COVID-19 in several European countries show a similar number of cases between the sexes, but more severe outcomes in aged men. Case fatality is highest in men with pre-existing cardiovascular conditions. The mechanisms accounting for the reduced case fatality rate in women are currently unclear but may offer potential to develop novel risk stratification tools and therapeutic options for women and men. Content: The present review summarizes latest clinical and epidemiological evidence for gender and sex differences in COVID-19 from Europe and China. We discuss potential sex-specific mechanisms modulating the course of disease, such as hormone-regulated expression of genes encoding for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) entry receptors angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) 2 receptor and TMPRSS2 as well as sex hormone-driven innate and adaptive immune responses and immunoaging. Finally, we elucidate the impact of gender-specific lifestyle, health behavior, psychological stress, and socioeconomic conditions on COVID-19 and discuss sex specific aspects of antiviral therapies. Conclusion: The sex and gender disparities observed in COVID-19 vulnerability emphasize the need to better understand the impact of sex and gender on incidence and case fatality of the disease and to tailor treatment according to sex and gender. The ongoing and planned prophylactic and therapeutic treatment studies must include prospective sex- and gender-sensitive analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides the first systematic econometric study on the evolution of Chinese silver exchange and monetary regimes during the period 1898–1933. Using high‐quality datasets of monthly and daily prices of silver dollars, we apply the threshold autoregressive models to estimate the silver points between Shanghai and 18 other cities in northern and central China. We find a noticeable improvement in monetary integration between Shanghai and Tianjin from the 1910s, which then spread to other cities in our sample throughout the 1920s and 1930s. We supplement our analysis with new datasets on volumes and costs of silver flows and with an in‐depth historical narrative. This article re‐evaluates the efficiency of the silver regime and China's economic performance in the Republican era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the enactment of the Labour Law in 1995, China's urban labour market witnessed a divergence in both gender wage gap and discrimination against female workers before 2007, and thereafter a convergence in both. Contributions of endowment differentials between male and female workers to wage gap were diminishing because of the consistent improvement in the female workers' endowments. Discrimination against women, on the other hand, kept increasing and exceeded that of endowment differentials and eventually became the dominating contributor by 2002. Driven by the optimisation of female workers' endowments, the execution of new labour market legislation, the transformation of previously limitless labour supply into shortage, as well as the reform of income distribution policies, a long-term trend of convergence in both gender wage gap and discrimination has been forming. China has been striding forward into a society with more equity and justice ever since 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to evaluate the role of the determinants of China's free trade agreements (FTAs) partner choices. Although we note China's heterogeneous trade behavior, we assume that there are common traits as key drivers in China's trade policy. Empirical results based on a logit model show that traditional variables such as distance, a dummy for Asia, and the number of regional trade agreements held by the partner country are statistically significant. Besides, and most importantly, we find that the larger the share of the partner country in China's commodity imports the higher the probability to hold an FTA with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports new zircon U-Pb ages, Lu-Hf isotope data, and oxygen isotope data forMesozoicMobearing granitoids in the eastern Xing-Meng Orogenic Belt (XMOB) of Northeast China, within the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt. Combining these new laser ablation-inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) zircon U-Pb ages with the results of previous research indicates that two stages of Mo-bearing granitoid magmatism occurred in the eastern XMOB, during the Early--Middle Jurassic (200-165 Ma) and the Early Cretaceous (ca. 111 Ma). The eastern XMOB also contains Mobearing granitoids with variable δ18O compositions that record variations in source oxygen isotopic compositions. Combining δ18O data with zircon U-Pb and Hf isotopic data provides evidence of the origin of these granitoids. Three types of zircon have been identified within these granitoids. Type 1 zircons formed during the Mesozoic and having high δ18O values (5.71-7.05‰) that are consistent with the compositions of magmatic zircons from the Luming, Jiapigou, and Kanchuangou areas. These zircons suggest that the Mo-bearing granitoids were derived from a source containing supracrustal materials. The type 2 zircons have extremely low and heterogeneous δ18O values (4.64-4.89‰) that are consistent with the compositions of magmatic zircons from the Jidetun and Fuanpu areas. These magmas were generated by the remelting of juvenile crustal material that was previously significantly modified by interaction with fluids. Type 3 zircons generally havemantle-like δ18O values (5.42-5.57‰), with several zircons yielding higher δ18O values, suggesting that these intrusions formed from mantlederived magmas that assimilated and were metasomatized by crustal material. Combining these geochemical data with the geology of this region indicates that the Mo-bearing granitoids were generated as a result of subduction of the Palaeo-Pacific Plate beneath the Eurasian continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional investors, especially public funds, play an important role in governing listed firms as they grow in Chinese stock markets. We classify each fund as “dedicated,” “transient,” or “mixed,” according to the concentration, turnover, and profit sensitivity of their stock holdings. We find that listed firms with more shares held by dedicated funds have a higher disclosure quality, while firms with more shares held by transient funds have a lower disclosure quality. These findings are consistent in different model settings. In addition, dedicated funds improve the disclosure quality of non-state-owned enterprises more than state-owned enterprises. Dedicated funds can benefit from the lower debt-financing cost and higher stock liquidity of firms with better disclosure quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract : In China, the distribution of water resources is incompatible with the development of productivity. The construction of South-to-North Water Diversion Project has achieved inter-basin water diversion, and the project can alleviate the uneven distribution of water resources phenomenon effectively. However, in recent years, the aggregate effects of water pollution and water resource shortages have been serious. Establishing transverse eco-compensation mechanisms becomes the key method to achieve sustainable use of water resources. Based on statistical and questionnaire data, this paper uses the Opportunity Costs Method and Willingness to Pay approach to establish a transverse eco-compensation standard calculation model for the Middle Route Project of the Southto-North Water Diversion. The results show that the upper and lower limits of the transverse eco-compensation standard for the Middle Route Project is $2.52 billion and $2.20 billion every year, respectively. However, the paying and receiving standards varied widely among different compensation payers and compensation receivers. Meanwhile, the significant factors influencing the paying willingness of the receiver area citizens were age, education level, average revenue per month, knowledge about the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and recognition of the importance of eco-environmental integrity. This study began with a theoretical analysis, then analysed related problems related to calculating transverse eco-compensation standards for the Middle Route Project of the South-to-North Water Diversion by an empirical study. This empirical study helps to establish effective transverse eco-compensation mechanisma and promotea the development of effective policies and legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to investigate whether the current high housing price in Hong Kong contains a bubble and to identify the causes of such housing bubble if it exists by combining the generalised sup augmented Dickey–Fuller (GSADF) test and dynamic probit models. Empirical results indicate that the current Hong Kong housing market contains a bubble, and it’s the investors’ speculative demand and the increase of monetary supply that lead to the housing bubbles in Hong Kong. Moreover, speculative investors would prefer the mass markets to the luxury ones considering the outstanding performance of the former. Such preference would contribute to more bubbles in the mass markets than in the luxury ones. In view of these, Hong Kong Government should retrospect the linked exchange rate system and be alert to the impacts of the US monetary policies on Hong Kong residential market. To offset the housing bubble, a targeted and effective approach to the Hong Kong Government is to constrict the speculative demand from investors particularly in the mass markets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, consumers' willingness to pay for farming, slaughter and processing, distribution and marketing, and government certification information was investigated in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China using an experimental auction and real choice experiment based on incentive compatibility of the nonhypothetical elicitation method. No significant differences in consumers' willingness to pay were revealed by the experimental auction and real choice experiment on the whole, and results from both nonhypothetical experimental methods demonstrated that consumers were willing to pay certain premiums for all four types of traceability information and had the highest willingness to pay for government certification information. These results indicate that consumers trust in pork safety protection under governmental supervision. Moreover, it was found that government certification information played a significant role in improving consumer utility, demonstrating that consumers paid close attention to safety risks in farming. Therefore, this study predicts that the introduction of governmental supervision into the pork traceability system and establishment of a system for collecting traceability information starting from the stage of pig farming will play important roles in meeting consumer demands for pork quality and safety, as well as promoting the development of traceable food policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gay men across a variety of countries label themselves by their preferences for insertive anal intercourse or receptive anal intercourse. A 'top' is defined as someone who prefers the insertive role, a 'bottom' as someone who prefers the receptive role, and 'versatile' as someone who has no preferences regarding anal sex role. Previous studies documented that tops showed a masculine profile and bottoms showed a feminine profile in gendered personality traits. In this study, we examined the association among sexual self-label groups and empathizing-systemizing (E-S) cognitive styles among 509 gay men across multiple cities in China. There were significant differences in systemizing among sexual self-label groups, with tops scoring higher on systemizing than bottoms and versatiles. Tops were more likely to have S > E and high E and S cognitive styles than bottoms. Bottoms were more likely to have E > S and low E and S cognitive styles than tops. There was a significant indirect effect of systemizing on sexual self-label through Self-MF. There was also a significant indirect effect of sexual self-label on systemizing through Self-MF. The findings suggest that sexual self-labels among adult gay and bisexual men may reflect more than preferences for anal sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Hong Kong, people aged 50-64 years were added as a recommended priority group (recommended group) for influenza vaccination by the Department of Health (DH) starting from 2011/12 onwards. The coverage rate of influenza vaccination for this age group was suboptimal at 8.5 % in 2012/13. This study investigates the factors associated with the uptake of influenza vaccination among adults in Hong Kong aged 50-64 years. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in communities by street intercept interviews from 17 July to 15 August 2013. Cases were adults aged 50-64 years who had received the influenza vaccine in 2011/12 or 2012/13, while controls were the same as the cases, except they had not received the influenza vaccine in 2011/12 or 2012/13. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed on the data to explore the associations between vaccination status and the variables. Results: Six hundred and four respondents in total were interviewed and included in the analysis. There were 193 cases (vaccinated) and 411 controls (non-vaccinated), with a case-to-control ratio of 1:2.1. The following were strongly associated with vaccination compared to other factors: 'eligible for free government vaccine' (OR6.38, 95 % CI, 3.43-11.87, p < 0.001); 'willing to receive flu vaccination for free' (OR4.84, 95 % CI, 2.13-11.03, p < 0.001); 'perceived having severe or moderate symptoms when contracting flu' (OR2.90, 95 % CI, 1.21-6.97, p = 0.02), and 'convenient to reach a vaccination location' (OR2.87, 95 % CI, 1.06-7.74, p = 0.04). The majority of the cases (80.8 %) and controls (93.9 %) were not aware that they belonged to a recommended group for influenza vaccination and most (>80 %) were willing to be vaccinated if it was free. Conclusions: Factors related to free and convenient vaccination, the perception of the severity of symptoms when contracting influenza had a comparatively strong association with influenza vaccination uptake amongst 50-64 year olds, compared to other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated land transition and its driving mechanism are the hotspots among studies on land use change. In this study, we constructed a framework to study the driving mechanism of cultivated land transition from the quantitative perspective. Based on the vector data of land use in 1990, 2000 and 2009 of Yantai Proper, Shandong Province China, 11 explanatory variables were chosen from two aspects: the elevation, slope, cost distance to major water area and cost distance to minor water area, which presented physical factors; cost distance to district center, cost distance to town center, cost distance to city expansion center, cost distance to major roads, cost distance to city roads, cost distance to county roads and cost distance to rural roads, which presented the socio-economic factors. Combined with spatial analysis tools and Logistic regression analysis model, we construct Logistic regression analyses with four objectives that were urban construction land, rural residential land, orchard and other lands. The results show that, cost distance to district center, cost distance to town center, cost distance to city expansion center and cost distance to city roads are the significant explanatory variables for the transition of cultivated land into urban construction land. The main explained factors on the transition of cultivated land into rural residential land are slope, cost distance to town center, cost distance to county roads and cost distance to rural roads. Slope, cost distance to minor water area, cost distance to town center, cost distance to county roads and cost distance to rural roads are the significant explanatory variables for the transition of cultivated land into orchard land. Elevation, slope, cost distance to major water area and cost distance to minor water area are the main explanatory variables on the transition of cultivated land into other land uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Annals of Public & Cooperative Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study analyzes some fundamental factors that influence member willingness to invest in an agricultural cooperative. The relationship between the selected factors and willingness to invest (a binary variable) is investigated by probit regression using data from a survey of 122 members in 9 apple-marketing cooperatives in Shaanxi Province in north-central China. The investment regression identifies five factors that have a statistically significant positive effect on members' willingness to invest in the cooperative. These factors are members' perception of self-importance in the cooperative, the subjective evaluation of difficulties faced in farming operations and sales, the evaluation of the cooperative's economic performance, the evaluation of the cooperative's ability to deliver services, and the availability of government support to the cooperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of microcredit on women's empowerment remains controversial, as documented in the microfinance literature. While some studies claim that microcredit helps women increase their income earning abilities, leading to greater power to overcome cultural asymmetries, others contend that small loans allocated to women are usually controlled by their spouses, which results in more severe subordination of women and leaves them more vulnerable to the patriarchy system within the household and/or at society level. This paper evaluates the empowerment impact of microcredit on rural women in China. Logistic regression is employed for empirical analysis and data are collected through a rural household survey. The results confirm that microcredit has a significant impact on five dimensions of women's empowerment, ranging from economic security to awareness of social/legal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Chinese stock market, special treatment (ST) firms are the firms listed as facing imminent danger of delisting, unless they return to profitability after reporting two consecutive annual losses. Some ST firms voluntarily pay substantial fees to their external auditors to conduct interim audits, which are not required by regulations. In this study, we investigate and find that ST firms that pay for voluntary interim audits report greater discretionary accrued earnings, higher non-operating earnings, and higher returns on assets in ensuing annual reports. As a result, these firms are more likely to return to profitability and reduce their delisting risk. Our results, which contribute to the current debate on auditor independence, appear to be consistent with the possibility that ST firms 'buy' external auditors' cooperation to manipulate earnings when faced with the threat of delisting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has reformed its enforcement mechanisms of accounting practices, in particular, corporate governance, in order to facilitate the harmonisation of Chinese accounting practices with IFRS practices. However, this research reveals that the reformed corporate governance has not made a significant contribution towards this harmonisation. The move of Chinese accounting practices towards IFRS practices is mainly due to the CSRC’s 2001 compulsory harmonisation policy of eliminating the earnings gap. Corporate governance as an important enforcement mechanism for accounting standards has yet to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) inside cities have been the major complained sources of odor pollution in China, whereas there is little knowledge about the dose–response relationship to describe the resident complaints caused by odor exposure. This study explored a dose–response relationship between the modelled exposure and the annoyance surveyed by questionnaires. Firstly, the time series of odor concentrations were preliminarily simulated by a dispersion model. Secondly, the perception-related odor exposures were further calculated by combining with the peak to mean factors (constant value 4 (Germany) and 2.3 (Italy)), different time periods of "a whole year", "summer", and "nighttime of summer", and two approaches of odor impact criterion (OIC) ("odor-hour" and "odor concentration"). Thirdly, binomial logistic regression models were used to compare kinds of perception-related odor exposures and odor annoyance by odds ratio, goodness of fit and predictive ability. All perception-related odor exposures were positively associated with odor annoyance. The best goodness of fit was found when using "nighttime of summer" in predicting odor-annoyance responses, which highlights the importance of the time of the day and the time of the year weighting. The best predictive performance for odor perception was determined when the OIC was 4 ou/m3 at the 99th percentile for the odor exposure over time periods of nighttime of summer. The study of dose–response relationship could be useful for the odor management and control of WWTP to maximize the satisfaction of air quality for the residents inside city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]