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This study attempts to explore the evolution process and driving factors of waste disposal facilities in China by employing a unique dataset that combines municipal-level data on socioeconomic characteristics with establishment-level information on waste disposal facilities over the years 2003–2020. This research reveals a noticeable transformation in the structure of waste disposal facilities in China, with rapid declines in landfill sites and steady increases in incineration plants and composting plants. Meanwhile, the distribution of waste disposal facilities exhibits an apparent spatial imbalance across regions. Specifically, landfill sites are primarily clustered in the central regions; incineration plants are concentrated in eastern areas; and composting plants are scattered and widely distributed. The results of the dynamic spatial Durbin model further indicate that consumption level and land area are the two main driving factors of the increase in the total number of waste disposal facilities and that of three different types of facilities; for each 1% increase in the two factors, the total number of waste disposal facilities will increase by 0.4551 and 0.1329 units respectively. However, waste generation, population density, land price, industrial structure and policy instruments have rather heterogeneous effects on waste disposal facilities and their different types. This study can provide guidelines for optimizing the distribution pattern of waste disposal facilities to mitigate against the unbalanced and inadequate development of waste disposal facilities in China and other developing countries with similar situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epidemiological research and systematic meta-analyses indicate a higher risk of B-cell lymphomas in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) compared to non-infected individuals. However, the genetic links between HCV and these lymphomas remain under-researched. Methods: Mendelian randomization analysis was employed to explore the association between chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and B-cell lymphomas as well as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Approximate Bayes Factor (ABF) localization analysis was conducted to find shared genetic variants that might connect CHC with B-cell lymphomas and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Furthermore, The Variant Effect Predictor (VEP) was utilized to annotate the functional effects of the identified genetic variants. Results: Mendelian randomization revealed a significant association between CHC and increased diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) risk (OR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.01–1.78; P = 0.0397). Subsequent colocalization analysis pinpointed two noteworthy variants, rs17208853 (chr6:32408583) and rs482759 (chr6:32227240) between these two traits. The annotation of these variants through the VEP revealed their respective associations with the butyrophilin-like protein 2 (BTNL2) and notch receptor 4 (NOTCH4) genes, along with the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) TSBP1-AS1. Conclusion: This research provides a refined genetic understanding of the CHC-DLBCL connection, opening avenues for targeted therapeutic research and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation and international entrepreneurship are important paths for family businesses to achieve sustainable growth. However, there are few relevant studies on the development and inheritance of family businesses. This paper has taken China's listed family businesses from 2007 to 2020 as a sample in order to explore how investment in innovation affects international entrepreneurial performances. The study found that family businesses with high investments in innovation had lower international entrepreneurial performances. When family businesses are inherited by the firstborn or managed by multiple generations, the degree of this negative impact will increase, while heirs with overseas work experience will reduce the negative impact. The gender and overseas educational experience of the heirs will not have an impact on the negative relationship. These findings emphasize the heterogeneous role of intergenerational succession, revise some traditional inheritance views of Chinese family businesses and reveal the important role of reasonable intergenerational succession strategies in coordinating innovation and international entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We examine household waste disposal monitoring under the IAD framework. • We employ bivariable probit model to analyze the household and community level survey data. • Sanitation cadres undermine the enthusiasm of households to conduct waste disposal supervision. • Stock of social capital and peer monitoring substantially increase waste disposal supervision. • Social norms, income, and age are primary predictors of the intention-behavior gap. Abstract While increasing consensus has grown around the important role of monitoring in environmental resource governance, little is known about under what conditions people would rather pay private costs to implement monitoring and punishment. Using field survey data on communities and households from four suburb areas in China, this paper employs Institutional Analysis and Development framework to empirically examine households' willingness and actual activities on waste disposal monitoring. The empirical results show that population density, community modernization, and being male significantly increase the likelihood of households supervising waste disposal while community size and heterogeneity of wealth and ethnicity seriously impede the involvement of households in waste disposal supervision. More importantly, our estimation results reveal that staffing community with full-time cadres for sanitation management suppress the enthusiasm of households in conducting waste disposal supervision, but stock of social capital and peer monitoring substantially increase the intention to supervise waste disposal and the possibility of households engaging in waste disposal supervision activities. In addition, social norms, household income, and householder age are primary predictors of the intention-behavior gap between hypothetical willingness to monitor and actual monitoring behavior. Therefore, improving community infrastructure and economic condition, reducing external intervention on community affairs, and cultivating social capital stock are important approaches to enhance public participation in environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public acceptance is the prerequisite for the siting of waste disposal facilities. The primary aim of the present study is to empirically examines the impact of perceived social justice on public attitudes toward waste disposal facilities in China. Taking advantage of data from a nationally representative questionnaire survey, the estimation results of ordinary least squares methods show that people with high levels of perceived social justice are more accepting of the presence of waste disposal facilities nearby. The finding is robust to employing an instrumental variable approach to account for the potential endogeneity issue of perceived social justice and to alternative measures of perceived social justice and the outcome of interest. The positive effect of perceived social justice is present only in the subsample of people who belonged to environmentalist groups or who described themselves as having no religious affiliation. Additionally, channel analysis indicates that political trust in local government and perceived government competence in addressing environmental pollution issues are plausible mechanisms through which perceived social justice operates. Our results provide new insights for understanding public acceptance toward waste disposal facilities from a more generic concept of social justice rather than a specific perceived justice during decision-making processes. • The impact of perceived social justice on public acceptance of waste disposal facilities is examined. • Perceived social justice has a favorable effect on accepting of the siting of waste disposal facilities nearby. • The result remains qualitatively unchanged when considering the endogeneity problem and conducing various robustness tests. • The positive effect of perceived social justice is present only in environmentalists or religiously unaffiliated people. • Political trust and perceived government competence are plausible mechanisms through which perceived social justice operates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in risk factors and drug susceptibility between Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare lung diseases in China. In total, 452 nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) strains isolated from patients with NTM lung diseases in four specialised TB hospitals were enrolled in this study. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was used to evaluate the drug susceptibility of M. avium and M. intracellulare isolates. In addition, demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with NTM lung diseases caused by M. avium and M. intracellulare were analysed. Of 452 NTM isolates, M. intracellulare (188; 41.6%) was the most frequently isolated organism. The percentages of moxifloxacin- and linezolid-resistant strains among the M. intracellulare isolates were significantly lower than those among the M. avium group ( P = 0.003 and P < 0.001, respectively). In contrast, M. avium harboured a lower proportion of rifampicin-resistant strains than M. intracellulare ( P = 0.005). Among patients with M. intracellulare lung diseases, the percentages of patients aged >64 years and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were significantly higher than among patients with M. avium ( P = 0.008 for age and P = 0.001 for COPD). In conclusion, these data demonstrated that M. intracellulare was the most common NTM species in China. This study also revealed that M. intracellulare and M. avium differed in their drug susceptibility profiles. In addition, clinical cases of M. intracellulare lung diseases were more likely to be found in the aged population and among patients with COPD co-morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early and effective detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), particularly in smear-negative tuberculosis (TB), is a priority for global TB control. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification with a procedure for ultra rapid DNA extraction (PURE-LAMP) can detect TB in sputum samples rapidly and with high sensitivity and specificity. However, the PURE-LAMP test has not been effectively evaluated, especially in resource-limited laboratories. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the PURE-LAMP test for TB detection in TB suspects from two county-level TB dispensaries in China. Methodology/Principal Findings: From April 2011 to February 2012, patients with suspected TB were continuously enrolled from two county-level TB laboratories in China. Three sputum samples (spot, night, and morning sputum) were collected from each recruited patient. Detection of MTB by PURE-LAMP was compared to a reference standard L-J culture. The results showed that the sensitivity of the PURE-LAMP test based on spot sputum for MTB detection was 70.67%, while the sensitivity of the PURE-LAMP test based on spot sputum for MTB detection in smear positive and culture positive patients and smear negative and culture positive patients was 92.12% and 53.81%, respectively. The specificity of PURE-LAMP based on spot sputum for MTB detection was 98.32%. The sensitivity and specificity of the PURE-LAMP test based on three sputa combination for MTB detection was 88.80% and 96.86%, respectively. The results also showed that the PURE-LAMP test had a significantly lower contamination rate than did solid culture. Conclusions/Significance: The study suggested that, in peripheral-level TB laboratories in China, the PURE-LAMP test showed high sensitivity and specificity for TB detection in TB suspects, making it a more effective, rapid, and safe method worthy of broader use in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Linezolid (LNZ) is a promising antimicrobial agent for the treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB). To investigate the efficacy of LNZ among MDR-TB and XDR-TB in China, the LNZ susceptibility of 158 MDR-TB isolates from the national drug resistance survey was determined by the minimum inhibitory concentration method. The 158 MDR-TB isolates were also sequenced in the 23S rRNA, rplC and rplD genes conferring LNZ resistance and were typed using spoligotyping to identify the Beijing genotype of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Overall, the prevalence of LNZ-resistant isolates was 10.8% (17/158) among MDR-TB isolates circulating in China. Beijing genotype was significantly associated with LNZ resistance in MDR-TB and XDR-TB (odds ratio=4.66, 95% confidence interval 1.03–21.16; P =0.033). In addition, a higher frequency of LNZ-resistant isolates was observed among XDR-TB strains (60%) compared with the MDR (5.6%; P <0.001) and pre-XDR groups (12.2%; P =0.004). Mutations in 23S rRNA and rplC were responsible for only 29.4% of LNZ-resistant M. tuberculosis among MDR-TB isolates, and a novel non-synonymous substitution His155Asp in rplC was first identified to be contributing to low-level LNZ resistance (2μg/mL) in M. tuberculosis. The unsatisfactory correlation between mutant genotypes highlights the urgent need to investigate another mechanism for LNZ resistance that has not yet been described. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Excessive nutrient loading and changing hydrological regimes can significantly impact the ecological function of wetland ecosystems. Three wetland sediment samples collected from West Lake, Xiazhuhu Wetland and Baoyang River in the Taihu Lake Watershed, China, were compared to understand the P retention properties responding to hydrological regimes by using static column and steady-flow flume laboratory-scale experiments. Sediment in Xiazhuhu Wetland currently function as a P sink with equilibrium P concentration (EPC0) values of 0.010mgL−1, while sediments from West Lake and Baoyang River, have EPC0 values of 0.050mgL−1 and 0.023mgL−1, respectively, and serve as an internal P source. The P retention by sediments ranged from 17.20 to 22.61mgm−2 d−1 under 35-d static conditions, while sediment beds continuously fed by the simulated inflow water containing 2mgL−1 P ranged from 59.20 to 171.93mgm−2 d−1. The P removal capacities by sediments were higher during the rainy season than the dry season when wetlands were subjected to excessive P input. Since the majority of external P stored in sediment is in the form of Al-P (e.g., for Xiazhuhu wetland), the application of alum to water column could potentially increase the P retention capacity of sediment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Wood exposed to termites decomposed significantly faster than that excluded. • Termites can exceed microbes in importance to wood decomposition. • The role of termites and microbes to wood decompose depended on soil contact types. • Wood in direct contact with the soil decomposed 1.4 times as fast as wood separated. Deadwood contains a sizeable proportion of total forest C, and its decomposition transfers organic C to the atmosphere, other organisms and soils. Microbes have traditionally been thought to be the primary drivers of wood decomposition worldwide, but few studies have tested the relative importance of termites to this process. The aim of this study was to compare the relative contributions of microbes and termites to wood (Cinnamomum camphora) decomposition by conducting a field experiment of termite access (with and without termite exclusion) and soil contact (with and without soil contact) treatments in subtropical China. After a two-year period, termites were responsible for an estimated 55.7% and 48.9% of observed wood loss from wood blocks with and without soil contact, respectively. Wood in direct contact with the soil decomposed 1.4 times as fast as wood separated from the soil. Our results show that termites can exceed microbes in importance to wood decomposition in subtropical forests and highlight the importance of soil contact in determining decay rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study examines the link between the selective waste collection schemes and waste source separation in China. • The pilot program significantly enhances the frequency of household waste sorting. • Social trust increases the effectiveness of the pilot program whereas individualism decreases it. • The pilot program has pronounced spillover effects on both neighboring cities and other waste-related behaviors. • Interpersonal interaction and waste-related knowledge are likely operative channels of impacts. Promoting waste source separation is one of the policy priorities for public authorities at all levels in China as well as other developing countries undergoing an extremely rapid expansion in waste generation. This paper views the selective waste collection schemes in pilot cities of China as one typical nudging policy and empirically examines its impacts on household waste source separation. Using a novel nationally representative dataset from the Chinese General Social Survey, we find that the pilot program significantly increases the frequency of household waste sorting, which are reinforced for people with high levels of social trust or low individualism. In addition, further evidence points to that the pilot program not only increases the frequency of household waste source separation in neighboring cities but also prominently stimulates waste prevention and reduction practices in targeted people. Finally, waste-related knowledge and interpersonal interaction are likely operative channels of impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The impact of social interaction-based factors on waste-related behaviors was examined. • Both social norms and networks exert a significant positive influence on waste sorting. • Only social norms proved to be a strong predictor of bags reusing. • Interaction effects are observed for bags reusing but not for waste sorting. • The impact exhibits heterogeneous patterns across socio-demographic population. With the economy growing rapidly, as well as the increasing diversification of human material and cultural needs, waste management poses a pressing challenge for local authorities in China. The primary aim of the present study is to examine the determinants of household waste-related behaviors, especially focusing on the roles of two important social interaction-based factors, social norms and networks, and their combinations. Specifically, this paper adopted the method of principal component analysis to capture social interactions and leveraged ordered logit models to explore their influences on the behaviors involving waste sorting, bringing their own shopping bags and reusing plastic bags in other aspects. Using the data from the Chinese General Social Survey in 2013 (CGSS2013), the results reveal that both social norms and social networks exert a significant positive influence on pure altruistic waste sorting while only social norms are positively associated with bringing their own shopping bags to store and reusing bags in other aspects with the nature of impure altruism. Meanwhile, there is no convincing evidence for the interaction effect between social norms and social networks on waste sorting, yet the interaction item does work together negatively influencing bringing their own bags and reusing bags behaviors. Moreover, the results show that social norms have a much larger effect on waste-related behaviors in males than females while social networks lead to significant promotion in waste sorting only for females. For people with higher education levels, the impacts of social norms and social networks on waste sorting and bringing their own bags behaviors are insignificant, while the higher income groups are weakly affected by social networks as well, partly because of time constraints and opportunity cost. Lastly, this paper provides new insight into waste management from the perspective of social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While evidence supports glycemic control benefits for individuals with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) using hybrid closed-loop (HCL) systems, HCL automated insulin delivery therapy in China has not been assessed. This study evaluated safety events and effectiveness during HCL system use by Chinese adolescents and adults with T1DM. Methods: Sixty-two participants (n = 12 adolescents with a mean ± standard deviation [SD] of 15.5 ± 1.1 years and n = 50 adults [mean ± SD of 37.6 ± 11.1 years]) with T1DM and baseline A1C of 7.1% ± 1.0% underwent a run-in period (∼2 weeks) using open-loop Manual Mode (sensor-augmented pump) insulin delivery with the MiniMed™ 770G system with the Guardian™ Sensor (3) glucose sensor, followed by a study period (4 weeks) with HCL Auto Mode enabled. Analyses compared continuous glucose monitoring data and insulin delivered during the run-in versus study period (Wilcoxon signed-rank test or t-test). Safety events included rates of severe hypoglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Results: Compared to baseline run-in, overall Auto Mode use increased time in range (TIR, 70–180 mg/dL) from 75.3% to 80.9% (P < 0.001) and reduced time below range (TBR, <70 mg/dL) from 4.7% to 2.2% (P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis demonstrated that participants (n = 29) with baseline A1C <7.0% had TBR that reduced from 5.6% to 2.0%, while participants (n = 21) with baseline A1C ≥7.5% had time above range (TAR, >180 mg/dL) that reduced from 31.6% to 20.8%. Auto Mode use also increased the percentage achieving combined recommendations for time at sensor glucose ranges (i.e., TIR of >70%, TBR of <4% and TAR of <25%) from 24.2% at baseline to 77.4% at study end. Total daily insulin dose reduced from 42.8 ± 19.8 to 40.7 ± 18.9 U (P = 0.013). There were no severe hypoglycemic, DKA, or serious adverse events. Conclusions: Chinese adolescents and adults, some of whom met target A1C at baseline, safely achieved significantly improved glycemia with 1 month of MiniMed 770G system use when compared to open-loop insulin delivery. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04663295. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• N deposition accelerates wood decomposition. • N deposition increases variability of microbial community in both studied woods. • Appropriate N deposition inducing more soil fauna attacked the decomposing wood. • Low levels of N deposition significantly increased the strength of HFA effect. Nitrogen (N) can influence the functions of forest ecosystems by altering the abundance and activity of microbial and faunal communities. The impact of N deposition on the home-field advantage (HFA) effect of dead wood decomposition remains unclear. In this study, a 24-month field reciprocal wood translocation experiment was conducted with three levels of N deposition (control (N0), 60 (N1) and 120 (N2) kg N ha−1 yr−1) in both Platycarya strobilacea (PL) forest and Cryptomeria japonica (CR) forest in subtropical China, where anthropogenic N deposition is among the highest in the world. The influence of soil biota groups on the HFA effect was partitioned using different sizes of mesh bags. We found that N1 facilitated wood decomposition by enhancing wood faunal and microbial community abundance and soil extracellular enzyme activity. However, N2 promoted wood decomposition in coarse-mesh bags by attracting more fauna and in fine-mesh bags by increasing fungal growth. In the control (CK) treatments, we found a 4.55-fold greater HFA effect in fine-mesh bags than in coarse-mesh bags. On average, a 6.6- and 4.8-fold greater HFA effect was observed with N1 treatment than with N2 and control treatments, respectively, and these differences were associated with greater differences in microbial and faunal communities between home and away fields. In summary, our results indicated that low levels of anthropogenic N enrichment could increase the HFA effect on wood decomposition through the modification of microbial and faunal communities in the wood decomposition process and thereby influence C sequestration, with peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality reached in the next few decades in the forests of subtropical regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using firm establishment-level data combined with provincial socio-economic characteristic panel data in China for the period of 2011–2015, this study seeks to empirically examine the impact of environmental regulation on location choices of polluting firms. The results of the conditional logit model provide compelling evidence that environmental regulations do affect the location choice of firms in polluting industries. Instead of supporting the pollution haven effect, our results consistently confirm the Porter effect at the country level. This result is robust when taking endogeneity problem into account, adopting various model specifications and estimation strategies, using alternative measurements of environmental regulation and location choices, and subsampling excluding international political events. However, the results also show divergent effect of environmental regulation on location choices for heterogeneous firms. Specifically, polluting firms in eastern region prefer to invest in provinces with stringent environmental policies but those in other regions, especially in northeastern region, choose to locate in provinces with lax environmental regulation. While water-dependent polluting firms with a low level of footlooseness are more likely to enter locations with loose environmental regulation, air pollution-intensive firms tend to locate in provinces with tight environmental legislation. These results have policy implications for transitional China as well as other developing countries with similar experience. Image 1 • We study the impact of environmental regulation on polluting firms' location choices. • We employ conditional logit model to analyze the firm establishment-level data. • Our results consistently confirm Porter effect rather than pollution haven effect. • The result is robust to consider endogeneity problem and to various robustness tests. • Divergence effect of environmental regulation for heterogeneous firms is also discovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Objective To evaluate the performance of Xpert MTB/RIF (MTB/RIF) in the county-level tuberculosis (TB) laboratory in China. Methods From April 2011 to January 2012, patients with suspected multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and non-MDR-TB were enrolled consecutively from four county-level TB laboratories. The detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) by MTB/RIF was compared to detection by Löwenstein–Jensen culture. The detection of rifampin resistance was compared to detection by conventional drug-susceptibility testing. The impact of multiple specimens on the performance of MTB/RIF was also evaluated. Results A total of 2142 suspected non-MDR-TB cases and 312 suspected MDR-TB cases were enrolled. For MTB detection in suspected non-MDR-TB cases, the sensitivity and specificity of MTB/RIF were 94.4% and 90.2%, respectively. The sensitivity in smear-negative patients was 88.8%. For the detection of rifampin resistance in suspected non-MDR-TB cases, the sensitivity and specificity of MTB/RIF were 87.1% and 97.9%, respectively. For the detection of rifampin resistance in suspected MDR-TB cases, the sensitivity and specificity of MTB/RIF were 87.1% and 91.0%, respectively. Using multiple sputum specimens had no significant influence on the performance of MTB/RIF for MTB detection. Conclusions The introduction of MTB/RIF could increase the accuracy of detection of MTB and rifampin resistance in peripheral-level TB laboratories in China. One single specimen is adequate for TB diagnosis by MTB/RIF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of natural habitats into cropland is a major issue in ecological conservation. Of particular concern is the large-scale biotic homogenization (reduced β-diversity) of soil microbial communities. Paddy fields represent the largest anthropogenic ecosystem in the world; however, bacterial homogenization and reduced biodiversity in paddy fields caused by intensive modern agricultural practices have yet to be explored. Here, samples were collected from 257 sites in four typical rice-growing regions across a 4,000-km transect in China, including both paddy fields and adjacent natural habitats. These four regions follow a unique gradient of rice cultivation management, from modern mechanical to traditional manual practices. Distance–decay patterns of bacterial communities in paddy fields revealed reduced β-diversity compared to surrounding natural habitats. Modern rice farming practices (plowing with machines) caused stronger homogenization of soil bacterial communities than traditional farming (plowing by hand). Among the four paddy regions, plowing by hand retained the highest soil bacterial β-diversity. Moreover, a significant inverse correlation was observed between bacterial β-diversity and the agricultural mechanization level. Among multiple environmental factors, dramatic spatial homogenization of soil physicochemical properties, particularly soil nutrient contents, and reduced dispersal limitation caused by modern farming activities both strongly predict a reduction of bacterial β-diversity in modern paddy fields. • Large-scale bacterial β-diversity in paddy fields depends on farming practices. • Modern farming practices lead to homogenization of soil bacterial communities. • Bacterial β-diversity is inversely correlated to the agro-mechanization level. • Reduced soil heterogeneity leads to bacterial homogenization. • A balance is required between agricultural management and biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through preferential treatment by education officials or through bribery, some adolescents can obtain admission to a junior high school. However, it is unclear whether it affects the mental health of adolescents. This study used Propensity Score Matching to examine the effects of corruption on adolescent mental health. A total of 17,254 junior high school students sample (11-18 years old; 48.7% girls and 53.1% boys) were used from the China Education Panel Survey. 14.1% of adolescents attended a junior high school by corrupt means, corruption had a significantly negative effect on the mental health of these adolescents (ATT = -0.388, p < 0.01), the reasons grounded in the fact that they received more criticisms from teachers and wanted to leave their current school. In general, corruption in the admissions process can have detrimental effects on the mental health of adolescents. This study extends the previous articles on how to improve adolescent mental health and complements the application of cognitive dissonance theory. Findings from this study revealed that anti-corruption in the education sector is necessary, and the institutional design to ensure fair enrolment in basic education will contribute to the mental health of adolescents., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Non-remunerated blood donation is the main approach for various medical institutions to get the source of blood supply, but the blood supply shortage is still a problem in today's society. Social media has become the main approach of information acquisition for youth groups nowadays, and the information on social media will have an impact on people's behavioral decisions. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the correlation between social media exposure to relevant information about blood donation and the willingness of youths to donate blood., Methods: We collected data from 455 questionnaires through an online questionnaire and structural equation modeling was constructed for validation. Data were analyzed for reliability, validity, and demographic differences using IBM-SPSS 26.0, and IBM-SPSS-AMOS 26.0 was used for model fit analysis and path analysis., Results: The results of the study showed that there was a positive correlation between social media exposure to relevant blood donation information and willingness to donate blood ( β  = 0.262, p  < 0.001), altruism ( β  = 0.203, p  < 0.001) and self-efficacy ( β  = 0.170, p  < 0.001). While there was also a positive correlation between attitude toward blood donation and self-efficacy ( β  = 0.560, p  < 0.001), there was no positive correlation between it and willingness to donate blood ( β  = -0.180, p  = 0.786). There was also a positive correlation between altruism and willingness to donate blood ( β  = 0.150, p  < 0.05) and attitude toward blood donation ( β  = 0.150, p  < 0.001). Similarly, there was a positive correlation between self-efficacy and willingness to donate blood ( β  = 0.371, p  < 0.001)., Conclusion: Exposure to more information related to blood donation on social media can increase the willingness of the youth population to donate blood, while exposure to information related to altruism and self-efficacy on social media can also enhance young people's attitudes toward blood donation, while further strengthening their willingness to donate., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhang and Liu.)

Increases in nitrogen (N) deposition and ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation play an important role in global climate change. Because coarse woody debris (CWD) represents a sizeable proportion of total carbon (C) pool in forest ecosystems, understanding the response of CWD decomposition to increased UV-B and N deposition become necessary for evaluating forest C storage under global climate change. In this study, we investigated the respiration of CWD (R CWD ) in response to increased UV-B and N deposition over a two-year period for two tree species in subtropical Chinese forests: Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook. (CL) and Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Presl (CC). We found that N and UV-B treatment, alone or in combination, significantly promoted R CWD , which was further magnified by increased temperature. Moreover, the combined treatment (UV-B + N) far exceeded the sum of the individual effects of N and UV-B treatments. Our results indicated that the three components of global climate change (increased UV-B, N deposition, and warming) worked interactively to accelerate CWD decomposition in forest ecosystems, suggesting that the biogeochemical cycling of subtropical forests could be altered greatly in the future, and this alteration must be considered in modelling the effects of global climate change., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ever increasing municipal solid waste (MSW) is becoming a serious city pollution trouble, extensive studies explored this question from micro demographic factors before. But testing the impact of spatial dependence on MSW from macroeconomic factors with city-level panel data has not received adequate attention it deserves in prior literature, and routinely ignoring spatial dependence is prone to estimation biases. This research utilizes panel data of 285 Chinese cities for the period of 2006-2015 to explore the spatial dependence of the MSW. Employing two elaborate spatial panel models, the empirical result indicates that while road length, tertiary proportion, urbanization rate have significantly accelerated MSW generation, sanitation investment and education level are slightly negatively correlated with MSW generation, and GDP per capita has a mutual improvement relationship with MSW generation instead of inverted U-shape as predicted by Environmental Kuznets curve, which provides a new insight into city planning and environment protection when facing the fierce socio-environmental conflicts. Besides, there obviously exists spatial dependence and convergence phenomenon of MSW generation among China's cities., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We used 335 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains from 2010 National Epidemiologic Survey for TB in China and performed comparative sequence analysis of 38 kDa gene after amplification. From the results, we found that there were 5.07% M.tuberculosis strains that demonstrated genetic diversity of 38 kDa in China, and 2.99% strains showed polymorphism of the 38 kDa antigen, and this may be the reason for changes in the antigen produced, which may in turn cause alterations of related functions, thereby allowing immune evasion., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Mixed infections have been considered as a potential obstacle for tuberculosis treatment and control. To date, few studies have been done to determine the rate of mixed infections of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in China., Methods: In this study, we used the standard 24-loci MIRU-VNTR method to genotype the representative M. tuberculosis isolates from the national drug-resistant survey conducted in China. A total of 3248 M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) strains had complete 24-loci MIRU-VNTR results and available for the analyses., Results: Overall, MIRU-VNTR typing identified 115 (3.5%) isolates as being mixed MTBC infections in China. Statistical analysis revealed that mixed infections were significantly more likely to occur in men than women. Compared with the percentage of mixed infection from patients aged 45-56 years, the percentages of mixed infections were higher among patients aged 25-44 years [OR (95% CI): 1.844(1.129-3.014)] and old patients [older than 65 years OR (95% CI): 1.908(1.097-3.319)]. In addition, significantly higher frequencies of hemoptysis (P = 0.022) and chest pain (P = 0.012) were observed among mixed infections, using patients infected with a single strain as a reference., Conclusions: In conclusion, this study has provided the first comprehensive understanding of mixed MTBC infections in China, which will be essential to generate the effective TB control strategies., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Clofazimine (CLO) is a promising candidate drug for use in the management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients. In this study, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method was used to investigate drug susceptibility to CLO as well as potential synergies between CLO and other antituberculous drugs, including ethambutol (EMB), levofloxacin (LEV), moxifloxacin (MOX), amikacin (AMK) and capreomycin (CAP), among MDR-TB isolates from China. A total of 195 MDR-TB isolates were collected from the national drug resistance survey conducted in China. Of the 195 MDR-TB isolates, 54 (27.7%) were classified as CLO-resistant, whilst 141 (72.3%) were CLO-susceptible with MICs of ≤ 1 μg/mL. In addition, the prevalence of CLO-resistant isolates among the extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB group was 61.5% (8/13), which was significantly higher than that of the MDR-TB group (23.0%) (P = 0.006). When fractional inhibitory concentration indexes (FICIs) were calculated for 24 isolates, synergy was found in 11 isolates (45.8%) against the CLO/EMB combination, 6 (25.0%) against the CLO/LEV combination, 8 (33.3%) against the CLO/MOX combination, 4 (16.7%) against the CLO/AMK combination and 5 (20.8%) against the CLO/CAP combination. In addition, <15% of MDR-TB isolates showed antagonistic effects against these five combinations. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that the combination of CLO and EMB shows better synergism than the other combinations containing CLO. The CLO/MOX combination is more likely to show synergy against MDR-TB isolates than the CLO/LEV combination. Taken together, we suggest that CLO, in combination with EMB or MOX, may be a promising drug regimen for the treatment of MDR-TB., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. and the International Society of Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.)

This study was designed to characterize the dynamic formation of zeolite synthesized from fly ash (ZFA) and to identify the zeolitization mechanisms during a 160-h-long hydrothermal alkaline conversion at 95°C by using fly ash (FA) samples collected from four typical thermoelectric power plants in China, with the purpose of improving ZFA quality. The process of synthesizing ZFA can be fundamentally divided into five stages: induction stage (0-0.5 h), accelerating dissolution stage (0.5-12 h), nucleation and/or crystallization stage (12-24 h), crystal growth stage (24-72 h) and crystal transformation stage (72-160 h). The crystal growth stage determined the quality of zeolite crystallization, coupled with functions of re-assembling the silicon-aluminium tetrahedral network and developing submicro- and/or nanometer microstructure. A 48-h-long hydrothermal conversion generated ZFAs that had a greater specific surface area (26.0-89.4 times) and cation exchange capacity (29.6-71.0 times) than FA, which successfully sequestrated 41-95% of ammonium and 75-98% of phosphate from swine manure. However, over-reaction resulted in more stable hydroxysodalite and/or sodalite, surface agglomeration and cracking, and energy wasting. This work suggests that the reuse of recycled synthesis materials should occur during the fourth step (24-72 h).

Manure produced from confined animal farms can threaten public and environmental health if not managed properly. Herein, a full-scale commercial bioconversion operation in DeQing County, China for value-added swine manure reduction using house fly, Musca domestica L., larvae is reported. The greenhouse-assisted larvae bioreactor had a maximum daily treatment capacity of 35 m(3) fresh raw manure per day. The bioconversion process produced a fresh larvae yield of 95-120 kg m(3) fresh raw manure. This process provided an alternative animal foodstuff (having 56.9 and 23.8% protein and total fat as dry matter, respectively), as well as captured nutrients for agricultural re-utilization. Bioconversion reduced odour emission (characterized by 3-methylindole) and the Escherichia coli (E. coli) index by 94.5 and 92.0%, respectively, and reductions in total weight, moisture and total Kjeldahl nitrogen in solids were over 67.2, 80.0 and 76.0%, respectively. Yearly profit under this trial period ranged from US$33.4-46.1 per m(3). It is concluded that swine manure larvae bioconversion technology with subsequent production of value-added bio-products can be a promising avenue when considering a programme to reduce waste products in an intensive animal production system.

Municipal wastewater discharge is threatening the ecological security of the local water environment. This study investigated the field process performance and microorganism characteristics of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in China. The results showed that three WWTPs met the required criteria of phosphorus for discharge (< or = 1 mg/L), but with a low level of Accumulibacter (6.4 to 3.8%, on average) and a relatively high level of Competibacter (3.2 to 9.1%) in sludge. The phosphorus release and uptake rates were varied from 0.224 to 7.770 mg/gVSS x h and 0.386 to 7.901 mg/gVSSh, respectively. Denitrifying polyphosphate-accumulating organisms were estimated to be 28.2% of the polyphosphate-accumulating organisms. Sludge characteristics (phosphorus release and uptake rates) were positively correlated with the abundance of Accumulibacter and negatively correlated with the proportion of Competibacter. Moreover, the lower the ratio of anaerobic phosphorus/acetate (e.g., 0.496) is, the more abundant the Competibacter would be. Further discussion on an improvement strategy for these WWTPs for EBPR should be comprehensively based on the data of periodic investigations on field operation, sludge activities, and microbial populations.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence and the diversity of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) among Escherichia coli isolates in Zhengzhou, China., Methods: Clinical isolates were collected and investigated from the first affiliated hospital of Zhengzhou University and its associated health-care facilities in Zhengzhou, China, during the period from January 2006 to June 2008. Antibiograms were performed on Mueller-Hinton agar plates with the disc-diffusion method and MICs were determined by the agar-dilution method. Total DNA was extracted with a Qiagen mini kit and screened by PCR., Results: Of 94 nonduplicate ESBL-positive isolates, TEM-type was encoded in 74 and 79% of the ESBL isolates. Fifty-six isolates were SHV type ESBLs. CTX-M-1, CTX-M-14, CTX-M-25, and CTX-M-38 types were encoded in 30, 54, 6, and 4, respectively. OXA-1-type beta-lactamases were encoded in six and OXA-20-type was encoded in two isolates., Conclusions: We describe a complex ESBL epidemiology. The study revealed a high rate of ESBL-producing E. coli isolates. TEM and CTX-M enzymes dominated in ESBL-positive E. coli isolates in Zhengzhou, China.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of rebamipide on symptom, histology, endogenous prostaglandin, and mucosal oxygen free radicals in chronic erosive gastritis (CEG) patients by using sucralfate as a control. The trial also examined whether Helicobacter pylori infection would affect rebamipide-induced protection. A total of 453 endoscopy-confirmed CEG patients from 11 hospitals in China were enrolled in the study. They randomly received either rebamipide (100 mg t.i.d) or sucralfate (1.0 t.i.d) for 8 weeks with a ratio of 3:1. Per-protocol analysis (n = 415) showed the accumulated symptom score in the rebamipide group dropped from 5.54 +/- 0.97 to 0.80 +/- 0.47 after 8 weeks (P < 0.001 versus control). The endoscopic inflammation score in rebamipide group also decreased from 2.65 +/- 0.09 to 0.60 +/- 0.10, which showed better effects than sucralfate. It was shown a significant improvement (P < 0.01) in prostaglandin E2 (PGE(2)) contents in rebamipide-treated subjects mucosa (225.4 +/- 18.3 pg/g versus 266.7 +/- 14.7 pg/g) compared with that in sucralfate group after 8 weeks of treatment. Malondialdehyde (MDA) contents were significantly depressed both in the trial and control group. When Helicobacter pylori infection was considered, no statistically difference was found in the effect of rebamipide on either symptom or inflammation scores. In conclusion, Rebamipide demonstrated a stronger suppressive effect on the mucosal inflammation in chronic erosive gastritis than sucralfate. The gastroprotection induced by rebamipide is not influenced by H. pylori infection, which indicates its usage in the treatment of H. pylori-associated CEG.