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As a result of high energy consumption and pollution from energy-intensive industries, the Chinese government has implemented a series of policies. A comprehensive assessment of these policies is necessary to guide the green transformation and upgrading of the industry, however, little research has been conducted on this issue. This article takes China's economic policy uncertainty (EPU) Index as a comprehensive and continuous policy shock and investigates the impact of EPU on the financial performance of energy-intensive firms. Based on 289 listed energy-intensive companies from 2003 to 2018, we find that EPU negatively affects the financial performance of firms, and the negative effect is robust after replacing the dependent variable and endogenous discussion. Further, the negative impacts are more pronounced for midwestern, non-SOE firms, as well as ferrous metal and chemical product manufacturers. Moreover, our results indicate that the negative impact of EPU on performance is mitigated for firms with high cash holdings and low debt ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was threefold: (1) to further examine the possibility of using literature-based activities to raise EFL students' emotional intelligence (hereafter EI) and (2) to see whether there is any relationship between students' EI and writing achievement, in addition (3) to shed light on the implementation of such activities into the government-stipulated university syllabus of China. The participants of the study consisted of 68 non-English major freshmen in a university in HangZhou, China. To check the equality of the two groups, a writing ability test and TEIQue-ASF (Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Adolescent Short Form) were administered prior to the experiment. Then, the experimental group was given some pieces of short literature readings with high emotional content to motivate them to think, talk, and write about their emotions. Meanwhile, the control group was assigned texts exclusive of emotional words and taught as an ordinary English writing class in China. Results revealed that students in the experimental group scored significantly higher than those in the control group on TEIQue-ASF and writing in the post-tests. There was a relatively strong positive relationship between EI and writing achievement. Implications and limitations of the study were also discussed.

This article discusses an intervention project by means of motivational approaches in a British culture survey course for English majors in mainland China's university classroom context. The intervention uses such motivational theories as attribution and task orientation to motivate the teaching and learning of the EFL course so as to create a cooperative classroom environment. Theoretical bases of the Chinese heritage culture and motivation are examined, specific intervention procedures discussed, relevant data analysed and finally some suggestions regarding the EFL teachers' important role in promoting the quality of EFL education are made. The intervention results show that an innovative pedagogy to motivate students' metacognitive awareness, cognitive and socio-cognitive ability in cooperative classroom learning situations different from the traditional cramming methods and examinations proves effective. Motivation should be given a central role in promoting China's EFL quality education.

Gastric cancer is a common type of gastrointestinal malignant tumor in China. The mechanism of the development and progression of gastric cancer remains the continuing research focus. The tumor microenvironment plays an important role in the development and progression of tumors. The present study used single-cell sequencing data to characterize the microenvironment of gastric cancer, investigate the effects of oxidative stress on gastric cancer microenvironmental cells through the comparison between cancer tissue and normal tissue, and identify the key genes associated with gastric cancer patients' survival. The results showed that compared with normal gastric tissue, gastric cancer tissue had a decreased oxidative stress response, weaker oxidative detoxification ability, and increased oxidative stress-induced cell death. In the different types of single cells of gastric cancer microenvironment, the oxidative stress response of T cell was increased, the ability of oxidative detoxification was enhanced, and the oxidative stress-induced cell death was exacerbate. Mucous cell showed the same trend as gastric cancer cells: decreased oxidative stress response, weak oxidative detoxification ability, and weakened oxidative stress-induced cell death. Moreover, TRIM62, MET, and HBA1, which were significantly associated with oxidative stress, may be biomarkers for the prognosis of gastric cancer. High expression of TRIM62 indicated a good prognosis, while MET and HBA1 indicated a poor prognosis, which will be confirmed by further clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the studies focused on the immune response to hepatitis B vaccination in Chinese human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐positive patients are limited. In this study, the participants with an initial hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb) titer <10 mIU/ml were assigned to Cohort 1 to receive a standard dose of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine, and participants with an initial HBsAb titer between 10 and 100 mIU/ml were assigned to Cohort 2 to receive a single reinforced recombinant vaccine. In Cohort 1, the immune and high response rates in HIV‐positive patients were 93.4%/81.4%, 87.4%/51.5%, and 83.2%/40.7% at 1–3 months, 1 year, and 2 years postvaccination. Multivariate analysis showed that only age and HIV RNA status at baseline were independent factors related to sustained immune response at 2 years postvaccination. In Cohort 2, the high immune response rates in HIV‐positive patients were 78.8%, 60.6%, and 51.5% at 1–3 months, 1 year, and 2 years postvaccination. The immune or high response rates did not differ between HIV‐positive patients and healthy controls at 1–3 months postvaccination in these two cohorts; however, HBsAb titers were significantly lower in HIV‐positive patients. This study summarized the 2‐year data of immune response to hepatitis B vaccination and analyzed the factors related to sustained immune response at 2 years postvaccination in Chinese HIV‐positive patients. Highlights: Observation of the immune response to hepatitis B vaccination in Chinese HIV‐positive patientsTwo Cohorts were enrolled in this study: (1) the participants with an initial HBsAb titer < 10 mIU/ml were assigned to Cohort 1 to receive a standard dose of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine, (2) the participants with an HBsAb titer between 10 and 100 mIU/ml were assigned to Cohort 2 to receive a single reinforced recombinant vaccineTwo‐year immune response and high immune response rates in these 2 Cohorts were summarized.The factors related to sustained immune response at 2 years postvaccination in Chinese HIV‐positive patients were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the resource-based view (RBV) theory, this paper aims to shed light on how does the implementation of green strategies affect enterprises' performance. To distinguish the evolution of strategy implementation effect, we adopt a panel estimation strategy and gather data from 3869 listed companies in China from 2008 to 2019. Furthermore, we innovatively use the semi-supervised clustering algorithm to classify the companies according to whether they implement green strategies or not and then discuss long-term and short-term financial effects of implementing green strategies. Our study finds that the implementation of green strategy facilitates a company's long-term performance but hampers its short-term performance. According to the moderating analysis, a green strategy could negatively impact a company's financial performance by increasing debt ratios. The findings highlight the importance of implementing green strategies and the obstacles in the process of transforming enterprises to be green. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The follow-up study on neuropsychiatric changes after the lifting of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quarantine in patients with cognitive impairment and their caregivers is still lacking, and relative information is needed to formulate more comprehensive healthcare prevention measures worldwide. Aims: To provide data on the changes in neuropsychiatric performance after the lifting of COVID-19 quarantine in patients with cognitive disorders and their caregivers. Methods: Two surveys in Chongqing, China were conducted via telephonic interview with 531 patients and their caregivers. The baseline survey was performed from February 11 to 23, 2020, and the follow-up was from October 24 to November 9, 2020. The data of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs), sleep, nutrition, and chronic diseases of patients, as well as the burden of care, anxiety, and depression of caregivers were evaluated. Results: Significant alleviation of NPSs after the lifting of COVID-19 quarantine was observed in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia (both P < 0.05). Compared with baseline, the prevalence for NPSs of all participants dropped from 57.94 to 38.82%. Among NPS subdomains, apathy displayed the biggest decline at follow-up by 10.72%, followed by nighttime behavior by 8.65%. Mixed effect generalized estimation equation analysis showed significant amelioration in hallucination, depression, apathy, irritability, aberrant motor behavior, and nighttime behavior (all P < 0.05), with the most prominent changes in nighttime behavior and apathy. Among the patients with unsatisfactory control of chronic disease, the medication adherence rate dropped by approximately 30% after the lifting of quarantine. More importantly, around 13% increase of care burden was observed among the caregivers at follow-up, with both depression and anxiety rising by nearly 4%. Conclusion: The prolonged quarantine may exacerbate NPS in patients with memory disorders, while the care burden and mental stability of the caregivers after the pandemic should also be concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19 is erupting globally. Mass quarantine had been implemented all around China which could influence the psychological status of patients with memory disorders and their caregivers. Aim: To investigate the psychological impact of mass quarantine on patients with memory disorders and their caregivers in China. Methods: We completed a cross-sectional study in 787 patients and their caregivers registered from 2010 to 2019 in Memory Clinic, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, by telephone interviews. The performance in neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs), sleep, nutrition, chronic diseases of patients, and the burden of care, anxiety and depression of caregivers was assessed by six assessment scales (MNA-SF, PSQI, NPI, RSS, PHQ-9 and GAD-7). Results: Only 68 (8.6%) patients worried about the outbreak of COVID-19. The prevalence of NPSs among all subjects was nearly 60.0%. Approximately 50.0% of the caregivers reported distress. More than 70.0% of patients remained stable in NPSs. However, anxiety, depression, aberrant motor disorder and delusion were exacerbated (22.9%, 18.6%, 17.1% and 16.8%, respectively). Appetite and eating disorder led alleviation rate by 25.8% while disappearing rate of agitation led by 5.8%. 7.5% of caregivers manifested depressive symptoms while 4.9% expressed anxiety symptoms, and 40.8% showed care burden. The coefficients of RSS and PHQ-9, RSS and GAD-7, RSS and NPI-D, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were 0.7, 0.5, 0.5 and 0.6, respectively (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Changes in NPSs during COVID-19 were observed in some patients with memory disorders and their caregivers, and adherence to medication contributed to the stabilization of NPSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study aimed to elucidate whether malnutrition is associated with cognitive impairment in an older Chinese population. Methods: A cross‐sectional study was conducted in 2365 participants aged 60 years or older from January 2013 to September 2019. Nutritional status was measured by using the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA‐SF). Cognitive function was assessed with the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE). The relationship between malnutrition or each Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form domain and cognitive impairment was examined with univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: The prevalence of malnutrition, risk of malnutrition, and cognitive impairment was 5.54%, 33.45%, and 36.74%, respectively. The prevalence was higher in those 80 years and older: 7.88%, 40.75%, and 53.65%, respectively. The Mini‐Mental State Examination score was positively correlated with the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form score (r = 0.364, P < 0.001). After adjustment for age, gender, education, marital status, and living alone, malnutrition (odds ratio (OR) = 3.927, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.650–5.819), anorexia (OR = 1.454, 95%CI: 1.192–1.774), weight loss (OR = 1.697, 95%CI: 1.406–2.047), impaired mobility (OR = 4.156, 95%CI: 3.311–5.218), and psychological stress (OR = 1.414, 95%CI: 1.070–1.869) were significantly associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the prevalence of malnutrition and cognitive impairment is relatively high and increases with age. Malnutrition, anorexia, weight loss, impaired mobility, and psychological stress are significantly associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment. Therefore, clinicians should assess the nutritional and cognitive status of the elderly regularly to improve early detection and timely intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To investigate the use and adherence of antidementia drugs in elderly patients with dementia from the Memory Clinic of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Methods: Patients were recruited from the Memory Clinic of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from December 2010 to December 2018. Medical charts were reviewed, including diagnosis, dosage of antidementia medicines, neuropsychological testing scores, and the further questionnaires were conducted via face‐to‐face or telephone, included duration of treatment, types of antidementia drugs, and reasons for treatment discontinuation. Results: The data from 422 patients were analysed retrospectively for this study. Three hundred and fifteen were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 67 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 40 with other types of dementia. From the 422 patients, 26.8% were treated with original donepezil (n = 113), 11.6% with generic donepezil (n = 49), 24.6% with memantine (n = 104), 13.3% with huperzine A (n = 56), and 23.7% with a combination of drugs (n = 100). However, 73% of patients discontinued treatment within 1 year of initiation. Patients treated for more than 36 months (37.8%) were more likely to choose combined medication, as compared with patients treated for less than 36 months. Patients with less than 9 years of education (odds ratio (OR): 2.394; 95% CI: 1.508–3.801) were more likely to discontinue treatment than patients with more than 9 years of education. Patients with elevated physical self‐maintenance scale (PSMS) scores (OR: 1.195; 95% CI: 1.086–1.316) had a high risk of discontinuation. Conclusions: Overall treatment compliance is relatively poor in memory clinics in Chongqing. Our study demonstrates that higher education may lead to better treatment adherence in dementia care. Combination therapy may increase treatment time. However, poorer PSMS scores are a significant risk factor for treatment discontinuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Insomnia is a major public health problem affecting older people. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and clinical risk factors of insomnia in a representative sample of Chinese elderly (≥ 60 years) in Chongqing. Methods: A cross‐sectional study based on comprehensive geriatric assessment was conducted from January 2013 to February 2014. A questionnaire on sleep status was provided to each patient and insomnia was assessed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition criteria. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to illustrate risk factors correlated with insomnia. Results: Of the total 597 participants, 55.4% suffered from insomnia. The prevalence of insomnia in men and women was 48.2% and 63.2%, respectively. Coronary heart disease, dizziness, chronic pain, anorexia, malnutrition, depression and cognitive decline were identified as risk factors associated with insomnia. Hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia, headache, age and education level were not observed to be significantly associated with insomnia. Conclusions: Insomnia is highly prevalent among the elderly in Chongqing, and shows a positive correlation to coronary heart disease, dizziness, chronic pain, anorexia, malnutrition, depression, cognitive impairment. Moreover, women are more likely to experience insomnia than men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National civilized city selection activity organized by Chinese government is a kind of policy taking both environmental protection and economic growth into consideration. It is of great importance to high-quality economic growth of China. This paper mainly selects data of 280 at and above prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2016 and combines multi-stage difference-in-differences model to test the impacts of national civilized city selection on green total factor productivity (GTFP). The empirical results show that national civilized city selection activity can significantly promote the GTFP and have strong robustness. And the positive influence can be achieved through the mechanism of city innovation. In addition, heterogenous effects exist under different city administrative hierarchies and different regions. Finally, conclusions of this research for one thing provide empirical evidences for mutual development of economic growth and environmental protection; for another thing, this paper enriches policy evaluation researches of national civilized city by including environmental factors in total factor productivity calculation. • City carbon emission is used in evaluating green total factor productivity (GTFP). • National civilized city selection has positive impact on GTFP and is robust. • City innovation plays a vital role in the process of the policy promotes GTFP. • The policy effect varies in different city administrative hierarchies and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: It has been demonstrated that mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD); meanwhile, hypoxia-up-regulated mitochondrial movement regulator (HUMMR) plays an important role in regulating mitochondrial function. The present study aimed to confirm the association between HUMMR and mitochondrial function in AD. Methods: We detected the expression of HUMMR at transcriptional and translational levels in APP/PS1 double transgenic mice using real-time quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting. Age- and gender-matched wild-type (WT) littermates were used as controls. Mitochondrial morphology was observed in the hippocampus and cortex of APP/PS1 double transgenic mice using transmission electron microscopy. Results: Damage to mitochondrial morphology in the hippocampus and cortex of APP/PS1 double transgenic mice was found, including swelling and cavitations. Our analysis showed no statistical differences in the expression of HUMMR between APP/PS1 double transgenic mice and WT littermates (p > 0.05). These results showed that there was no association between HUMMR and mitochondrial dysfunction in APP/PS1 transgenic mice. Conclusion: These results indicate that HUMMR does not play a key role in mitochondrial dysfunction in the APP/PS1 double transgenic AD mouse. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This is a large-sample, prospective, long-term observational study to assess the retention rate of topiramate as initial monotherapy in Chinese patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy. The retention rate was calculated by Kaplan–Meier method using intention-to-treatment analysis. Cox proportional hazard models were used to analyze the risk factors for retention rate. A total of 229 patients were enrolled into this study. The retention rate was 75.5% at 1 year, 47% at 6 years. Three risk factors for treatment failure were female gender, rural residence, and frequent seizures before treatment. Four predominant causes leading to treatment failure were: lack of efficacy (7.4%), adverse effects (10.9%), follow-up loss (15.7%), and subjective misunderstanding (8.3%). Adverse effects occurred in 129 (56.3%) patients, with 7 (3.1%) patients suffered from renal calculus. This study suggests the long-term retention rate of topiramate as initial monotherapy is high in Chinese patients. Lower initial dose, lower target dose and slower titration contribute to better tolerability. Frequent abdominal ultrasound for detecting renal calculus is necessary. Rural patients and patients with poor education level should be paid more attention by physicians to ensure continued therapy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Observation of the clinical efficacy in three real-world DAAs cohorts in China. • Previous studies focused on changes of HCV genomes under selective pressure in relapsed patients are limited. • Next-generation sequencing was used as the detection method to cover near full-length genome of HCV (27 gene fragments for 1b and 3b, 26 gene fragments for 6a). • Resistance-associated variants, viral quasispecies diversity and selection analysis were analyzed in this study. Currently, direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAAs) are widely used as therapeutic methods for hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive patients, however, patients may experience treatment failure, and the dynamic changes of HCV genomes in these patients are unknown. In this study, three real-world DAAs cohorts were enrolled to observe clinical efficacy. In addition, serum samples from treatment failure patients at baseline and relapse were used to analyze changes of the HCV genomes at near full-length genome level, including resistance-associated variants (RAVs), viral quasispecies diversity and selection analysis. Next-generation sequencing was used as the detection method. The overall sustained virological response at 12 w after the end of treatment was achieved in 91.9% (57/62) of HCV patients, and 3 paired samples obtained from relapsed patients. All the 3 patients harbored baseline NS5A RAVs, the frequency of NS5A RAVs increased in 2 patients and a new NS5A RAV emerged in 1 patient at relapse, and almost all the viral strains existed with NS5A RAVs at relapse. The results of the viral quasispecies diversity analysis revealed that viral quasispecies diversity decreased at relapse compared to baseline, and the results of selection analysis indicated that the virus population experienced a bottleneck phenomenon, recent selective sweep and population expansion or was under purification selection after DAAs treatment. This study indicated that the clinical efficacy was excellent in real-world DAAs cohorts, and the viral strains existed at relapse were selective by DAAs therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is the most popular bariatric surgery procedure in China. However, its cost-effectiveness in Chinese patients is currently unknown., Objectives: This study aims to assess the cost-effectiveness of LSG vs no surgery in Chinese patients with severe and complex obesity, taking into account both healthcare expenses and the potential improvement in health-related quality of life (HRQoL)., Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted, encompassing 135 Chinese patients who underwent LSG between January 3, 2022 and December 29, 2022, at a major bariatric center. The study evaluated the cost-effectiveness from a healthcare service perspective, employing the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained. The analyses compared LSG with the alternative of not undergoing surgery over a 1-year period, using actual data, and extended to a lifetime horizon by projecting costs and utilities at an annual discount rate of 3.0%. Subgroup analyses were undertaken to explore cost-effectiveness variations across different sex, age and BMI categories, and diabetes status, employing a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). To ensure the reliability of the findings, one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were executed., Results: The results indicated that 1-year post-LSG, patients achieved an average total weight loss (TWL) of (32.7 ± 7.3)% and an excess weight loss (EWL) of (97.8 ± 23.1)%. The ICER for LSG compared to no surgery over a lifetime was $4,327/QALY, significantly below the willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold for Chinese patients with severe and complex obesity. From a lifetime perspective, LSG proved to be cost-effective for all sex and age groups, across all BMI categories, and for both patients with and without diabetes. Notably, it was more cost-effective for younger patients, patients with higher BMI, and patients with diabetes., Conclusions: LSG is a highly cost-effective intervention for managing obesity in Chinese patients, delivering substantial benefits in terms of HRQoL improvement at a low cost. Its cost-effectiveness is particularly pronounced among younger individuals, those with higher BMI, and patients with diabetes., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This paper takes the risk preference of modern listed companies as the research object, uses the financial data of Chinese listed companies combined with the literary inquisition file in Qing Dynasty to conduct an empirical study, and examines the influence of literary inquisition on the risk preference of modern corporate CEOs in Qing Dynasty. The study found that the literary inquisition incident in Qing Dynasty significantly affected and reduced the risk preference of modern enterprises. The competitive hypothesis of the influence of Confucian culture and China City Commercial Credit Environment Index (CEI) on CEOs' risk preference is excluded. In addition, through the study of heterogeneity, this paper also verifies that the influence of literary inquisition is more significant in areas with a higher degree of marketization, indicating that the influence of informal institutions depends on the establishment of formal institutions. Finally, in the mechanism study, this paper points out that the rulers' suppression of ideas will change long-term social capital and lead to the decrease of general trust in society, which will make the enterprise managers born in the region tend to be conservative in their risk preference., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: In this prospective study, we evaluated the usefulness of the advanced dementia prognostic tool (ADEPT) for estimating the 2-year survival of persons with advanced dementia (AD) in China., Methods: The study predicted the 2-year mortality of 115 persons with AD using the ADEPT score., Results: In total, 115 persons with AD were included in the study. Of these persons, 48 died. The mean ADEPT score was 13.0. The AUROC for the prediction of the 2-year mortality rate using the ADEPT score was 0.62. The optimal threshold of the ADEPT score was 11.2, which had an AUROC of 0.63, specificity of 41.8, and sensitivity of 83.3., Conclusions: The ADEPT score based on a threshold of 11.2 may serve as a prognostic tool to determine the 2-year survival rate of persons with AD in Chongqing, China. However, further studies are needed to explore the nature of this relationship., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Recently, the World Health Organization noted the increasing signs of pandemic fatigue around the world and repeatedly warned the public to continue to stay cautious. The current study explores whether social media use plays a role in the formation and development of pandemic fatigue. Drawing on a survey of 849 social media users in China, the findings indicated that different social media behaviors play different roles in affecting pandemic fatigue. Specifically, social interaction use is negatively associated with pandemic fatigue, mediated by more social support and reduced hopelessness. Active content use contributes to pandemic fatigue development, an association explained by information overload and desensitization. Notably, passive content use is found to trigger reactance but is negatively associated with pandemic fatigue, which is fully mediated by reduced information overload. This study seeks to understand how pandemic fatigue is associated with social media use and to explicate the underlying mechanism. The implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Drought is influenced by numerous factors, and traditional studies have only considered meteorological factors, but human activities are also an important influencing factor. From 1980 to 2010, the reform and opening up and the project of returning farmland to forest have largely changed the land use type of Loess Plateau in Shaanxi. In order to study the influence of land use types on drought in the study area, 8 stations with different land use types were selected based on remote sensing data and meteorological data. Based on univariate linear regression, the response of the drought index SPI to land use types was analyzed sequentially in each of the five time stages. The results showed that from 1980 to 2000, forest had the greatest drought intensity, followed by arable land and town and country. However, the response of arable land to the drought index was the greatest, followed by town and country. Forest had the weakest response to the drought index. From 2000 to 2010, the greatest degree of drought was observed in forest, followed by town and country and arable land. And forest has the strongest response to the drought index, followed by town and country, and finally, arable land. The area of forest, grass and town and country keeps increasing. The area of arable land is decreasing year by year. Land use types are constantly undergoing complex transformations. The drought index responds strongly to the change of both arable land to grass and arable land to town and country, while it responds weakly to the mutual transformation of both grass and town and country. In the areas where meteorological conditions are difficult to change, the local drought is considered to be improved by changing the substrate type., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between obesity and cognitive impairment in the Chinese elderly., Patients and Methods: Patients aged 60 years or above were enrolled from the Department of Geriatrics of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from March 2013 to May 2017. Mini-Mental State Examination scale was used to assess the cognitive function. Body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio were used to classify obesity. Student's t -test, Mann-Whitney U -test, or chi-squared test was used to compare the data between participants with normal cognition and participants with cognitive impairment as appropriate. Univariate logistic regression models and multivariate logistic regression models were performed to explore the relationship between BMI or abdominal obesity and cognitive impairment., Results: A total of 1,100 patients including 568 men and 532 women aged 60-98 years (median age 79 years) were enrolled. After adjusting for age, gender, smoking, drinking, education level, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes, overweight was significantly associated with a decreased risk of cognitive impairment (OR=0.458, 95% CI=0.298-0.703, P <0.001). After adjustment for age, education level, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes, abdominal obesity remained significantly associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment (OR=1.532, 95% CI=1.037-2.263, P =0.032)., Conclusion: Overweight is associated with a decreased risk of cognitive impairment in the Chinese elderly, while abdominal obesity is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment independent of conventional sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health-related comorbid factors., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Objective: We conducted this study to compare the efficacy and safety of entecavir and tenofovir in the treatment of treatment-naïve HBV e antigen (HBeAg)-positive patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) for 144 weeks., Methods: A total of 320 treatment-naïve HBeAg-positive CHB patients who received randomly a single regimen of either entecavir capsule (ETV) (n = 160) or tenofovir disoproxil fumarate capsule (TDF) (n = 160) for 144 weeks were consecutively enrolled from 14 tertiary hospitals or university hospitals in China between January 2012 and December 2014., Results: Two groups showed no difference in baseline characteristics. After 144 weeks of treatment, HBV DNA levels were similarly suppressed in both groups (ETV vs TDF; -6.6485 vs -6.692 log10IU/mL, P = .807). At the same time, both groups showed no difference in terms of the serologic and biochemical response. Of all patients, 2 dropped out due to adverse events and 5 experienced serious adverse reactions., Conclusion: Both capsules (ETV or TDF) were equally effective in nucleos(t)ide-naive CHB patients with a comparable side-effect profile even in a long-term of 144 weeks.