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Compares the chemistry textbooks used in China's elite schools with those used in other levels. Comparisons indicate that the textbooks differ only in the quantity of material required. (MDH)

Background: The purpose of this study was to estimate the proportion of Chinese cancer survivors experiencing financial hardship and then examine the relationship between material and behavioral financial hardship.Methods: This study surveyed 964 cancer survivors who were 30 to 64 years old and 644 survivors who were 65 years old or older during 2015-2016 (1608 survivors in all). Material financial hardship was measured by whether they had borrowed money because of cancer, its treatment, or the lasting effects of treatment, and behavioral financial hardship was measured by whether they had forgone some cancer-related medical care because of cost. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine factors associated with material financial hardship by age group.Results: Approximately 44% of the cancer survivors who were 65 years old or older borrowed money or went into debt because of cancer, and 54% of younger patients (P < .01) reported cancer-related debts. Among these survivors with cancer care debt, survivors aged 65 years old or older had a lower proportion of borrowing more than 50,000 Chinese yuan (CNY; approximately US $7700) than survivors aged 30 to 64 years (14% vs 20%). In both age groups, approximately 10% of cancer survivors reported that they had experienced behavioral financial hardship. After adjustments for covariates, cancer survivors who reported material financial problems were more likely to report behavioral financial hardship (odds ratio [OR] for those aged 30-64 years, 3.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.13-6.50; OR for those aged 65 years or older, 5.48; 95% CI, 2.69-11.15).Conclusions: Older cancer survivors in China experience significant material financial hardship, but it is not as noticeable as younger patients' hardship. The results highlight the importance of identifying cancer survivors who are more likely to experience financial hardship and improving the affordability of cancer care in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China accounts for approximately 27% of global cancer deaths. However, to the authors' knowledge, the lasting effects of cancer and cancer treatments on patients have not been investigated in China. The authors developed a questionnaire, the China Survey of Experiences with Cancer, for Chinese cancer survivors. This article introduces the study design and domains covered in the questionnaire.Methods: The Cancer Survivorship Supplement of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) was used as a reference to develop the questionnaire. The final in-person surveys were conducted in 2015 and 2016. Samples were chosen through multistage sampling. The authors described the characteristics of the study participants and their cancer experiences.Results: At the time of last follow-up, a total of 1166 patients had completed at least 1 component of the survey. Approximately 59% of the cancer survivors were aged ≥60 years. Greater than one-half of the participants had an elementary education level or less (51%) and a yearly family income of <$3174. Chinese cancer survivors were more likely to retire earlier than planned compared with American cancer survivors (37% vs 9%). The majority of Chinese cancer survivors (84%) reported that their work abilities were hindered by their cancer or cancer treatments. Approximately one-half of patients in China had to incur debt because of cancer, whereas <10% of patients in the United States reported having incurred debt.Conclusions: The survey provides information regarding the burden of cancer in China that to the authors' knowledge currently is unavailable from other sources, including medical care use, financial impacts, employment patterns, and life experience after a cancer diagnosis for survivors and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

However much the Catholic Church may wish to free the peoples of the world from the excessive atheistic rationalism of the Enlightenment that has pitted science against religion, it is still in most other ways solidly on the side of modernity. Centesimus Annus endorses a form of democracy, a kind of capitalism, a sort of technological development, all of which are strongly undergirded by a resolute belief in human beings as rights-bearing individuals possessed of individual autonomy and a legitimate appetite for private property. The themes of liberal democracy, capitalist free enterprise, and the proliferation of rational technologies form the common focus of both the Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment sensibilities. From a Chinese perspective, these culturally alien themes are viewed with suspicion. The Chinese are increasingly troubled by the corrosive effects upon their culture and social fabric associated with and embedded in the modernizing impulse. But, for a variety of reasons, it certainly seems that China will have little choice but to accommodate modernity in some sense, whatever the risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the composition of leaf endophytic fungal communities could have important implications for orchard management. The planted area of pecan trees, Carya illinoinensis , is increasing in China. Leaf diseases of pecan trees cause huge economic losses and have incidence ofabout 50%–90%. However, little is known about whether the pathogens mainly persist on leaf surfaces, in the soil or in the air, or live within leaves as endophytes. In this study, pecan leaves were sampled from 2-, 3-, 6-, and 10-year old trees in the subtropical humid monsoon climate of China, and leaf endophytic fungal communities were characterized using high throughput sequencing. Leaf endophytic fungal OTUs (operational taxonomic units) mainly belonged to Ascomycota, with a much smaller fraction in the Basidiomycota. Ramularia was the dominant genus across all four tree ages. Plant pathogens were found to be the dominant functional guild by functional group annotation using FUNGuild. Three known disease agents of pecan (Trichomerium dioscoreae , Phaeosphaeria fuckelii and Alternaria alternata), were detected as leaf endophytes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of leaf fungal pathogens occurring as dominant endophytes in pecan leaves. • Leaf endophytic fungal communities of pecan were revealed for the first time • Most of the endophytic fungi were functionally annotated as pathogenic fungi • Three known pathogenic fungi of pecan were detected as its leaf endophytic fungi [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges in studying the rural health care workforce in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is that job satisfaction questionnaires used in advanced economies do not match the rural health care context in LMICs. This study develops and validates a survey questionnaire of job satisfaction for rural clinicians in China. The questionnaire was developed through an extensive literature review and consultation with an expert group. A pilot test was conducted in a landlocked province of China with GDP per capita equivalent to Namibia of Africa or Ecuador in South America. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. The questionnaire includes 28 questions in 6 domains, and they are significantly different from each other (p < .001). The total Cronbach's alpha coefficient is 0.930, with internal consistency reliability (Coefficient alphas) ranging from 0.775 to 0.874 and the total split-half reliability is 0.914. We conclude that the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire for Rural Clinicians has good topical discrimination, reliability, and validity, and may be used in other LMICs with necessary modifications for the purpose of scientific research or monitoring job satisfaction levels of rural health care professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relation between predispositions for conflict resolution (i.e., controversy and conflicts of interests) and orientations toward life and work was investigated in this study. Questionnaires were administered to 135 Chinese employees from four finance, commercial service, and information and technology companies in Beijing. All materials were presented in Chinese. The results indicated that predispositions for engaging in controversy and resolving conflicts of interests in ways that maximize mutual benefit (integrative agreements) were significantly related to a positive orientation toward life and work. Predisposition to distributively resolve conflicts of interests was related to a positive orientation toward life and a few of the work-specific measures. Avoiding conflict tended to be unrelated to positive orientation toward life and work, but positively related to alienation from work and co-workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Family caregivers (FCGs) play a key role in the plan of care provision for long-term cancer survivors, yet few studies have been conducted on the impact of long-term caregiving on FCGs and their employment patterns. This study aims to further our understanding of the effect that caregiving role has on FCGs by identifying what cancer-related characteristics influence reduction of employment hours among FCGs in the post-treatment phase in China., Methods: A total of 1155 cancer survivors participated in this study. Patients reported changes in the employment patterns of their FCGs. Descriptive analysis looked at demographic and cancer-related characteristics of cancer survivors and types of FCGs' employment changes in both primary- and post-treatment phases. Chi-square test was used to statistically test the association between survivors' characteristics and changes in FCGs' hours of labor force work in post-treatment phase. Separate multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between cancer-related characteristics of participants and employment reduction patterns among FCGs in post-treatment phase while controlling for demographic factors., Results: In the primary-treatment phase, 45.6% of all FCGs reduced their working hours and 17.4% stopped working altogether. In the post-treatment phase, 25.2% of FCGs worked fewer hours and 6.6% left the workforce completely. The results show that a higher probability of change in employment hours among FCGs is associated with the following patient characteristics: having comorbidities, receiving chemotherapy treatment, limited ability to perform physical tasks, limited ability to perform mental tasks, and diagnosis of stage II of cancer., Conclusions: Care for cancer patients in both primary- and post- treatment phases may have substantial impacts on hours of formal employment of Chinese FCGs. Interventions helping FCGs balance caregiving duties with labor force work are warranted.