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Dementia is a complex human disease. The incidence of dementia among the elderly population is rising rapidly worldwide. In the United States, Alzheimer''s disease (AD) is the leading type of dementia and was the fifth and eighth leading cause of death in women and men aged ≥ 65 years, respectively, in 2003. In Taiwan and many other counties, dementia is a hidden health issue because of its underestimation in the elderly population. In Western countries, the prevalence of AD increases from 1–3% among people aged 60–64 years to 35% among those aged > 85 years. In Taiwan, the prevalence of dementia for people aged ≥ 65 years was 2–4% by 2000. Therefore, it is important to identify protective and risk factors for dementia to prevent this disease at an early stage. Several factors are related to dementia, e.g. age, ethnicity, sex, genetic factors, physical activity, smoking, drug use, education level, alcohol consumption, body mass index, comorbidity, and environmental factors. In this review, we focus on studies that have evaluated the association between these factors and the risk of dementia, especially AD and vascular dementia. We also suggest future research directions for researchers in dementia-related fields. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines the evolution of U.S. chemical firms' corporate strategies in Asia over the past decade. Prior to the Asian financial crisis, these firms treated the Asian market as an expansion outlet due to a persistent lack of growth in Western markets. Since the crisis, U.S. firms have reformulated their market and organizational strategies to better withstand disruptions of business or product life cycles, specifically through refocusing core competence and establishing regional production networks. Meanwhile, their nonmarket strategies have lagged behind market strategies in specificity and sensitivity to the Asian context. This article explores the early effort in safety and environmental self-governance of the chemical firms in Asia, and argues that the history of domestic competition and government-business relations in the home market has to a large degree determined the transnational strategies of U.S. firms. Finally, U.S. chemical firms strategies are increasingly dependent on the behavior of their Asian competitors - in particular whether Asian producers enter into alliances with U.S. firms or resist liberalization and regional market interpenetration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine pegiviruses (PPgV) have been first discovered in serum samples from domestic pigs in Germany in 2016 and then in the USA in 2018. To date, there is no documentation with respect to the presence of PPgVs in domestic pigs in China. Herein, we attempted to determine the presence and prevalence of PPgV in China and its genetic characterization. In this study, 469 sera were tested and 34 (7.25%) were positive for PPgV. An ascending trend of the positive rate for PPgV was observed from suckling piglets (1.61%) to nursing piglets (1.85%), finishing pigs (6.56%), and sows (11.34%). The complete genome sequence of a representative strain of PPgV, PPgV_GDCH2017, and the complete E2 gene of 17 PPgV isolates discovered in this study was determined. Sequence analysis indicated that PPgV_GDCH2017 was highly related to other PPgVs with nucleotide and amino acid identities ranging from 87.3 to 97.4% and 94.6-99.3%, respectively, in the complete coding region. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the PPgV_GDCH2017 discovered in this study was closely related to the PPgVs from the USA and clustered in the same genus with pegiviruses from other hosts. The topology of the phylogenetic tree based on the complete E2 gene was consistent with that based on the complete genome of PPgV. Further studies on pathogenicity and pathogenesis of PPgVs are needed.