Search

A solution to city expansion under limited land availability is relocation of existing habitants, demolition of existing buildings and redevelopment of new buildings. In the case of Chinese cities, however, such strategies have become a channel for municipalities to increase their revenue from sale of land and productivity from increased development, at the expense of low compensation to former occupants and vacant housing after development. We utilize a sequential real options pricing approach to find conditions when relocation/demolition and redevelopment in a finite time horizon are optimal and also to show what factors the governments can influence to delay or speed up redevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify housing challenges young people in Macao are facing, and how government policies can help to overcome them. It does so by investigating young people's housing choices, options and aspirations as well as the gaps between such aspirations and the reality of the housing system in Macao. The particular implications of government housing policies for young people in both the private and public housing markets are discussed. Finally, we provide a discussion on whether the housing problem for young people is as serious and urgent as perceived by the public in Macao. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a study using lake sediments to determine the extent and causes of human impacts to lakes along an east–west transect following the Yangtse River, sediment cores were taken from Taihu in eastern China. Previous studies have focussed on the impacts of direct inputs of pollutants from municipal and industrial wastewater but little work has been undertaken on trends in atmospheric deposition from the many industrial sources surrounding the lake. Analysis of the Taihu sediment cores for atmospheric pollutant indicators such as trace metals, magnetic parameters and spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) show the lake has become increasingly contaminated over the last 40–50 years. Sediment levels of atmospherically deposited pollutants are currently similar to some of the more contaminated lakes in Europe. Further, sediment nitrogen, phosphorus and geochemical analyses confirm the dramatic increase in eutrophication at the site and periods of recent soil erosion in the catchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To describe changes in the prevalence of visual impairment and glasses ownership with age and as associated with income and population density for visual impairment among rural and urban migrant Chinese students., Design: Meta-analysis of 12 cross-sectional, school-based studies conducted between 2012 and 2017., Setting: Rural and urban migrant schools in seven Chinese provinces., Participants: A total of 83 273 rural and urban migrant Chinese students aged 6-17 years., Results: Prevalence of visual impairment (uncorrected visual acuity ≤6/12 in either eye) rose from 19.0% at age 6 to 66.9% at 17, with the overall age-adjusted prevalence higher for girls (35.8%) than for boys (30.1%, p<0.001). The rate of glasses ownership among students who needed them increased from 13.0% at age 6 to 63.9% (p<0.001) at 17 and was significantly higher for girls (37.0%) than boys (34.7%, p<0.001). The unmet need for glasses as a proportion of the student population peaked in junior high school (31.8%). A 1% increase in per capita gross domestic product was associated with a 4.45% rise in uncorrected visual acuity (R 2 =0.057, p=0.020). Population density was significantly associated with glasses ownership among children (R 2 =0.359, p=0.012). A 1% population density increase was associated with an increase in the glasses ownership rate of 6.83%., Conclusion: Efforts are needed to improve vision screening coverage in China's schools, particularly junior high schools, as this is when many rural children leave school and glasses coverage is lowest., Competing Interests: Competing interests: NC is the Director of Research for Orbis International, a non-governmental organization that delivers children’s refraction service among other services in China and other countries., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Studies have shown that nearly half of rural toddlers in China have cognitive delays due to an absence of stimulating parenting practices, such as early childhood reading, during the critical first three years of life. However, few studies have examined the reasons behind these low levels of stimulating parenting, and no studies have sought to identify the factors that limit caregivers from providing effective early childhood reading practices (EECRP). This mixed-methods study investigates the perceptions, prevalence, and correlates of EECRP in rural China, as well as associations with child cognitive development. We use quantitative survey results from 1748 caregiver-child dyads across 100 rural villages/townships in northwestern China and field observation and interview data with 60 caregivers from these same sites. The quantitative results show significantly low rates of EECRP despite positive perceptions of early reading and positive associations between EECRP and cognitive development. The qualitative results suggest that low rates of EECRP in rural China are not due to the inability to access books, financial or time constraints, or the absence of aspirations. Rather, the low rate of book ownership and absence of reading to young children is driven by the insufficient and inaccurate knowledge of EECRP among caregivers, which leads to their delayed, misinformed reading decisions with their young children, ultimately contributing to developmental delays.

China's internal rural-urban migrants experience social exclusion that may have significant mental health implications. This has historically been exacerbated by the hukou system. Echoing recent calls for interdisciplinary research on the interdependencies of urbanization and mental health, this review examines evidence of rural-urban migrants' mental health status in comparison with nonmigrants and its association with various dimensions of social exclusion. We found conflicting evidence on the mental health status of migrants in comparison with nonmigrants, but strong evidence that social exclusion is negatively associated with migrants' mental health: limited access to full labour rights and experience of social stigma, discrimination and inequity were the most significant factors. We discuss the limitations of current social epidemiological research and call for an attempt to use close-up, street-level ethnographic data on the daily experience of being a migrant in the mega-city, and describe our aim to produce a new sociological deep surveying instrument to understand migration, urban living, and mental health., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

One of the features of advanced life sciences research in recent years has been its internationalisation, with countries such as China and South Korea considered 'emerging biotech' locations. As a result, cross-continental collaborations are becoming common generating moves towards ethical and legal standardisation under the rubric of 'global bioethics'. Such a 'global', 'Western' or 'universal' bioethics has in turn been critiqued as an imposition upon resource-poor, non-Western or local medical settings. In this article, we propose that a different tack is necessary if we are to come to grips with the ethical challenges that inter-continental biomedical research collaborations generate. In particular we ask how national systems of ethical governance of life science research might cope with increasingly global research collaborations with a focus on Sino-European collaboration. We propose four 'spheres' - deliberation, regulation, oversight and interaction - as a helpful way to conceptualise national systems of ethical governance. Using a workshop-based mapping methodology (workshops held in Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Xian, Shenzen and London) we identified three specific ethical challenges arising from cross-continental research collaborations: (1) ambiguity as to which regulations are applicable; (2) lack of ethical review capacity not only among ethical review board members but also collaborating scientists; (3) already complex, researcher-research subject interaction is further complicated when many nationalities are involved., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)