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As China becomes an aging society, the impacts of the aging population on the social meso domain, namely, the community level, have received increasing attention in recent years. However, relevant studies are limited. With the assumption that regular community participation positively influences wellbeing, this study investigated the mediating role of community participation between the sense of community and the general well-being of Chinese older adults and the moderating role of social support. A questionnaire survey was conducted with a valid sample size of 566 participants aged 60 and above in the urban communities of Chongqing, Chengdu, and Zunyi in southwest China. Moderated mediation models were constructed to explore factors related to the well-being of older adults, finding that encouraging community participation can improve the general well-being of older adults and build a better society in Chinese cities. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) a sense of community significantly and positively relates to community participation and general well-being; (2) community participation partially mediates the relationship between sense of community and general wellbeing; and (3) each pathway through which sense of community influences older adults' general well-being is moderated by social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Diet, environment, and genomic context have a significant impact on humans' intestinal microbiota. Moreover, migration may be accompanied by changes in human eating habits and living environment, which could, in turn, affect the intestinal microbiota. Located in southwestern China, Tibet has an average altitude of 4,000 meters and is known as the world's roof. Xianyang is situated in the plains of central China, with an average altitude of about 400 meters. Methods. To understand the association between intestinal microbiota and population migration, we collected the fecal samples from 30 Tibetan women on the first day (as TI1st), six months (as TI2nd), and ten months (as TI3rd) following migration from Tibet to Xianyang. Fecal samples were collected from 29 individuals (belonging to the Han women) as a control. The dietary information of the Tibetan women and the Han women was gathered. We performed a 16S rRNA gene survey of the collected fecal samples using Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Results. Following the migration, the alpha and beta diversity of Tibetan women's intestinal microbiota appeared unaffected. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analysis showed that Klebsiella, Blautia, and Veillonella are potential biomarkers at TI1st, while Proteobacteria and Enterobacteriaceae were common in TI3rd. Finally, functional prediction by phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states (PICRUSt) found no significant up-regulation or down-regulation gene pathway in the intestinal microbiota of Tibetan women after migration. The present study reveals that the higher stability in Tibetan women's intestinal microbiota was less affected by the environment and diet, indicating that Tibetan women's intestinal microbiota is relatively stable. The main limitations of the study were the small sample size and all volunteers were women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Citrus huanglongbing (HLB) is a destructive disease of citrus and a major threat to the citrus industry around the world. This disease accounts for substantial economic losses in China every year. Diaphorina citri Kuwayama is one of the major vectors by which citrus HLB is spread under natural conditions in China. Research is needed to identify the geographic distribution of D. citri and its major areas of occurrence and to formulate measures for early warning, monitoring, and control of this pest and citrus HLB. Methods: In this study, the ecological niche modelling software MaxEnt (maximum entropy model) was combined with ArcGIS (a geographic information system) to predict the potential geographic distribution of D. citri in China. Key environmental factors and the appropriate ranges of their values were also investigated. Results: Our results show that the training data provided a good forecast (AUCmean = 0.988). The highly suitable areas for D. citri in China are mainly concentrated to the south of the Yangtze River, and the total area is 139.83 × 104 km². The area of the moderately suitable areas is 27.71 × 104 km², with a narrower distribution than that of the highly suitable area. The important environmental factors affecting the distribution of D. citri were min temperature of coldest month, mean temperature of coldest quarter, precipitation of wettest quarter, mean temperature of warmest quarter, precipitation of warmest quarter, max temperature of warmest month, and temperature seasonality. These results provide a valuable theoretical basis for risk assessments and control of D. citri. Discussion: The predicted results showed that there were highly suitable areas for D. citri in Chongqing, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu. Therefore, the possibility exists for the further spread of D. citri in China in the future. Extreme temperature variables, especially the min temperature of the coldest month, play an important role in the distribution of D. citri and are most closely related to the distribution of D. citri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) usually varies at multiple scales in space, as affected by different soil and environmental processes operating at diverse scales. Identifying spatial process relationships can be challenging due to overlapping of underlying processes at different scales. The objective of this study was to evaluate noise-assisted multivariate empirical mode decomposition (NA-MEMD) for characterizing Ks variability and depicting its scale-dependent relationships with different soil properties and environmental factors. At an interval of 10 km along an 860-km south-north transect across the Loess Plateau of China, Ks, bulk density, soil organic carbon content, sand and clay contents at three depths of 0 to 10, 10 to 20 and 20 to 40 cm were investigated as well as four environmental factors of elevation, slope gradient, annual precipitation and temperature. Decomposed into different intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and residues by NA-MEMD, Ks at all depths were found to vary at the smallest scale of 29 km mainly, corresponding to IMF1s, which manifested 33.0 to 48.1% of the total Ks variance. The small-scale variations of Ks reflected not only in IMF1s but also in IMF2s and IMF3s were dominated by soil properties especially bulk density, and the large-scale variations corresponding to IMF4s and IMF5s were controlled by environmental factors in general. For each depth, Ks at the scale of investigation was estimated by adding all the IMFs and residue derived from the factor components at equivalent scales using multiple linear regression (MLR). Such Ks estimations after NA-MEMD evidently outperformed the MLR before NA-MEMD by explaining additional 9.4 to 18.7% of the total Ks variance, but underperformed the artificial neural network and state-space approach also implemented on undecomposed spatial series of Ks and its underlying factors. NA-MEMD serves as a useful tool for Ks characterization and its incorporation with nonlinear functions or spatial interactions with impact factors is suggested for the estimation of Ks and other soil processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we established a mathematical model for national fitness in China. Based on a questionnaire and data of the General Administration of Sport of China and the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the dynamics for three classes of people are expressed by a system of three-dimensional ordinary equations. Model parameters are estimated fromthe data. This study indicated that national fitness put out by the Chinese government is reasonable. By finding the key parameter, the best measure to promote national fitness is put forward. In order to increase the number of people who frequently participate in sport exercise in a short period of time, if only one measure can be chosen, guiding people who never take part in physical exercise will be the bestmeasure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]