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All-solid-state metal batteries (ASSMBs) have been regarded as the ideal candidate for the next-generation high-energy storage system due to their ultrahigh specific capacity and the lowest redox potential. However, the uncontrollable chemical reactivity during cycling which directly determines the growth behaviour of metal dendrites, the low coulombic efficiency and the safety concerns severely limit their real-world applications.. Crystallographic optimization based on solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) provides an atomic-scale and fundamental solution for the inhibition of dendrite growth in metal anodes, which has attracted widespread attentions. From this perspective, we summarize the recent advance of the crystallographic optimization for various classes of solid-state electrolytes. We highlight the recent experimental findings of crystallographic optimization for a new generation of all-solid-state batteries, including lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, magnesium-ion batteries, with the aim of providing a deeper understanding of the crystallographic reactions in ASSMBs. The challenges and prospects for the future design and engineering of crystallographic optimization of SSEs are discussed, providing ideas for further research into crystallographic optimization to improve the performance of rechargeable batteries. more...

Liver fibrosis therapy remains limited due to the inefficiency of drug delivery and inflammation induced by Kupffer cells. In this study, an exosome-liposome hybrid drug delivery system (LIEV) was developed to increase the efficacy of clodronate (CLD)-inhibition of Kupffer cells and to effectively deliver nintedanib (NIN) to liver fibroblasts to ensure enhanced anti-fibrosis therapy. CLD and NIN co-loaded LIEV (CLD/NIN@LIEV) exerted non-specific inhibition of phagocytosis by Kupffer cells, reduced inflammatory cytokines, and showed homologous homing properties mediated by fibroblast-derived exosomes, thereby achieving superior antifibrotic effects in a CCl more...

Poly-2-hydrobutanedioic acid (P2HBD), produced by the yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans, is a new type of water-soluble polyhydroxy acid with potential applications in the biomaterial and biomedical fields. more...

This report outlines the results from the research project Food for Urban Life and Localities (FULL) funded by Formas (2020-02864). The research set out to learn how COVID-19 response strategies in six cities (Stockholm, London, Wuhan, Singapore, Sydney, and Seoul) have facilitated access to food for vulnerable groups and how new food supply solutions have emerged through social and technological innovations. This report presents the case of each city in turn and pauses on the role of community-based organisations, ad- hoc community initiatives and municipalities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report provides a detailed discussion of local or community-level responses in cities that aim to provide access to food through social and/or technological innovations. The lessons learned are important for the Swedish context in the case of similar events that challenge local access to food. The research collected data through qualitative and quantitative methods, and also made use of the breadth of online data sources in response to COVID-19 restrictions on free movement and travelling. The overall finding is that in situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, local access to food is extremely challenging and cannot be addressed by existing welfare or state arrangements only;civil society organisations and voluntary community organizations (VCOs) step in to fill the gap in public provision; and the stricter the lockdown, the more dependent on civil society response urban areas and communities were. 2023-03-27 First published online.2023-05-17 New version published with a minor correction in the abstract including funding information. To this date, the report has been downloaded 188 times. more...

This is the supplementary information for the paper -Life-course inequalities in intrinsic capacity and healthy ageing: retrospective evidence from pre-old and older populations in China

What can we learn from civil society responsesto COVID-19 food supply? The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in food shortages, lockdowns, and restrictions onmovement, which have completely reshaped the food system and the interaction betweenpeople and their food environment. The pandemic has highlighted that while states arestruggling to handle all the impacts of the pandemic, civil society organizations have taken onan important role in filling the gaps and mitigating the shocks from the pandemic. Actionstaken by civil society and the market have shown that the existing welfare structures createdby states are unable to handle the impact of a pandemic when it comes to critical tasks suchas food supply for vulnerable groups. more...

There is a growing interest in whether and how parents’ experiences of discrimination may affect their children’s health and well-being. Considering that the intergenerational influence of discrimination on child well-being is still underexplored in China, there is an urgent need to determine whether children become depressed as a result of their parents’ discrimination experiences and to identify the pathways leading to their depressive symptoms. This study examined whether and how parents’ experiences of discrimination may lead to child (aged 10–15 years) depressive symptoms using data from the 2016 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The analytic sample included 1554 triads comprising children and both parents. Generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) was employed to examine whether parents’ experiences of discrimination were related to child depressive symptoms through more serious parents’ depressive symptoms and greater tension between the two parents and between parents and their children. The analysis indicated that both mothers’ and fathers’ experiences of discrimination were indirectly related to children’s depressive symptoms through fathers’ and mothers’ depressive symptoms, parent–child quarreling, and interparental quarreling. The study also showed a crossover effect from fathers’ discrimination experiences to mothers’ depressive symptoms and indicated that fathers’ experiences of discrimination could influence children’s depressive symptoms through mothers’ depressive symptoms. The findings suggested that children whose parents were likely to suffer from discrimination, from either the father’s or mother’s side, could become vulnerable. Policies and practices targeting adult discrimination need to be extended to children to enhance parents’ awareness and improve their strategies for coping with discrimination. more...

Argyrodite sulfide solid electrolytes, such as Li6PS5Cl (LPSC), have received much attention due to their high ionic conductivity (>1 mS cm–1) and success in all-solid-state batteries (long cycle p... more...

Migration may lead to changing power dynamics between parents and children in families. Children may change their behavior in order to exercise agency to respond to migration of family members or themselves. This systematic review seeks to understand how children exercise agency within families in the context of migration. The authors searched ten databases to collect English-written articles published in academic journals in or after 2010. The studies were coded to generate a quality indicator. 65 Articles with moderate and strong quality were included in this review, including 41 qualitative studies, 16 quantitative studies, and 8 mixed-methods studies. Children and adolescents with demographically and culturally diverse backgrounds were analyzed in these studies. The systematic review shows that children have different levels of behavioral agency in the migration decision-making process; they also exercise agency in different aspects of family life. For example, left-behind children exercise agency in care provision and information nondisclosure, and migrant children in media and language brokering. Children’s behavioral agency is place-specific. Adults working with children need to pay more attention to children’s behavioral agency in order to support children’s healthy development and facilitate their adaptation in the context of migration. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40894-021-00175-0. more...

In 2014, the Chinese government adopted a version of the controversial Big Push approach to poverty reduction, and augmented this once-discredited developmental narrative by enlisting very large private enterprises to operate in the poorest regions. Not without controversies, this approach and the resources associated with it has created new state-large business relations in China. This article studies four large enterprises and examines why they participated in poverty reduction, the resulting state–business relations and the outcomes of poverty reduction. The field research was conducted in 2018 through in depth interviews with company management and site visits. The findings show that the local state became collaborators of big businesses that were endorsed by the central government. Whether these relationships become formalised will depend on the future direction of poverty reduction. This research contributes to the literature on how state–business relations may initiate economic growth. more...

ImportanceFalls have become a major public health issue in China with population aging. Although falls prevention for older community-dwelling people has been included in the National Essential Public Health Service Package since 2009, there is limited understanding of the implementation of this program.ObjectiveTo identify the associated factors and provide recommendations to inform the better implementation of falls prevention in the Chinese primary health care system.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis qualitative study was conducted in 3 purposively selected cities in China from March 1 to June 7, 2021. Health administrators from the local health commission or bureau, staff members from local Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and primary health care facilities and community-dwelling older people were recruited, using a combination of purposive sampling and snowball sampling.Main Outcomes and MeasuresIn-depth interviews were conducted with health administrators and focus groups with other participants. Data analysis followed the guidance of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Study outcomes included facilitators and barriers of implementing falls prevention for older people in the Chinese primary health care settings. A framework with recommendations was developed to inform the future intervention implementation.ResultsAmong a total of 130 participants interviewed, 77 (59.2%) were female and the mean (SD) age was 47.4 (16.7) years. Clear recognition of the challenges and benefits of falls prevention, adaptive regionally tailored guidance plans, and continuous governmental policy and financial support were the major facilitators, whereas the major barriers consisted of insufficient confidence in delivering interventions and poor understanding of the falls burden, low recognition of the importance of falls prevention, limited multisectoral collaboration, and weak financial incentives. A 7-strategy embedded framework—including data-driven surveillance, audit and feedback, implementation strategy, workforce strengthening, community empowerment, internal services integration, and external enabling environment—was developed to foster successful implementation.Conclusions and RelevanceThis qualitative study identified major facilitators and barriers to the implementation of falls prevention for older people at the primary care level, which have the potential to contribute to better implementation of falls prevention for older people in the Chinese primary health care system. more...

Urban-centric growth resulting from urban expansion and land redevelopment may result in rural–urban conflicts. Over time, in China, the affected social groups, such as urban residents in the poore... more...

All-solid-state lithium–sulfur batteries (ASSLSBs) possess higher safety, longer lifespan, and elevated energy density compared to the traditional liquid lithium–sulfur batteries (LLSBs). However, the ion-electron insulating nature along with the large volume changes of sulfur and Li2S significantly hinder the full exploitation of their high theoretical specific capacities, especially in ASSLSBs. In this work, dense composite sulfur carbon (S/C) cathodes featuring sulfurized polyacrylonitrile (SPAN) supported by a macroporous carbon (MaPC) conductive matrix (SPAN@MaPC) are prepared to solve the above issues. ASSLSBs consisting of the SPAN@MaPC-Li6PS5Cl-vapor grown carbon fiber (VGCF) composite cathode are evaluated. With ∼1 mg cm−2 pure sulfur loading in the cathode, the assembled ASSLSBs achieved a high reversible capacity of 1396.2 mA h g−1 under an applied current of 0.1C at room temperature and still retained 715.5 mA h g−1 after 200 cycles. The reason it has achieved such performance is that the sulfur in SPAN, which is uniformly dispersed at the atomic level and covalently bonded to the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) carbon skeleton, has higher electrochemical reactivity. Further, the electrochemical behavior of SPAN@MaPC in the first cycle is revealed. Also, it is evidenced that the irreversible C–Li bonding contributes partially to the super-theoretical capacity. more...

The ‘publish or perish’ system has been widespread in the global higher education sector to incentivize academic performance. How the system affects academics in non-western countries has received ... more...

Background Maintaining and optimising intrinsic capacity (IC) across a person’s life course is a core component of the World Health Organization’s model of healthy ageing. However, the contribution of cumulative health inequalities over time to subtle changes in IC in late life is not well understood. Methods We included 21,783 participants aged 45 + from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study and calculated a validated prognostic value of IC. We included eleven early-life factors to investigate their direct influence on IC over thirty years later and cumulative influence through four current socioeconomic factors. We used multivariable linear regression and concentration index decomposition to investigate the contributions of each determinant to IC inequalities. Mediation analysis identified the direct and cumulative contribution of early-life factors. Results Participants with an advantaged environment in childhood and a higher current socioeconomic position had a significantly higher IC score. This inequality was greatest for cognitive capacity and sensory capacity. Overall, early-life factors directly explained 13.92% (95% CI: 12.07–15.77%) of IC inequalities, while 28.57% (95% CI: 28.19–28.95%) of IC inequalities were explained through the cumulative effects of socioeconomic inequalities over a person’s life course. Conclusion In China, unfavourable early-life factors appear to directly decrease late-life health status, particularly cognitive and sensory capacities rather than locomotor functioning, psychological capacity or homeostasis, and these effects are exacerbated by the cumulative socioeconomic inequalities over a person’s life course. Interventions in early life and subsequently across the life course may be effective in reducing these disparities. more...

Objective Healthcare expenditures have increased very fast in many countries. Overuse of health care is a potential factor explaining the rapid increase. However, overuse, defined as ‘the provision of health care service when its likely risk of harm exceeds its potential benefit’ is difficult to measure 1. This study employs a novel method using unannounced standardised patients (SPs) to identify overuse, document its patterns, and quantify its financial impact on patients in primary care in China. Methods We conducted an SP study in a capital city of western China in 2017 and 2018. We trained 18 SPs to present consistent cases of two common chronic diseases, unstable angina and asthma. The SPs recorded 492 physician-patient interactions in 63 public and private primary hospitals. Overuse, defined as the provision of unnecessary medical tests and drugs, was identified by a judging panel based on national clinical guidelines. We estimated linear regression models to quantify the financial impact of overuse after controlling for hospital, physician and patient characteristics and a series of fixed effects. Findings We found overuse in 72.15% (95% CI: 68.18–76.13%) of the SP visits, including overuse of medical tests (54.67%, 95% CI: 50.26–59.09%) and overuse of drugs (28.05%, 95% CI: 24.07–32.03%). The high prevalence of overuse was similar among public and private hospitals, low-competence and high-competence physicians, male and female physicians, junior and senior physicians, and male and female patients but varied across patients presenting different diseases. Compared to the non-overuse group, the overuse had significantly increased the total cost by 118.8% (95% CI: 75.5–162.2%), the test cost by 60.0% (95% CI: 22.2–97.9%) and the drug cost by 100.2% (95% CI: 56.8–143.7%). The financial impact of overuse did not vary substantially across high-competence and low-competence physicians, male and female physicians, junior and senior physicians, and patients presenting different diseases. However, the financial impact of overuse was driven by physician-patient interactions in public hospitals rather than private hospitals, and it was driven by female patients rather than male patients. Interpretation Overuse of health care is pervasive in the primary care of China and leads to a significant increase in healthcare expenditure. The overuse in this study seems unlikely to be attributable to physician incompetence. We use a consultation-treatment transaction model to understand physician behaviour and show that overuse of medical tests and overuse of drugs are partial substitutes. These findings shed light on the cost escalation of primary care in China, which is a form of medical inefficiency and low quality of care that should be urgently addressed. more...

Despite being disproportionately affected by poor mental health, culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) individuals seek help from mental health services at lower rates than others in the Australian population. The preferred sources of help for mental illness amongst CaLD individuals remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore sources of help in Arabic-, Mandarin-, and Swahili-speaking communities in Sydney, Australia. Eight focus-group discussions (n = 51) and twenty-six key informant interviews were undertaken online using Zoom. Two major themes were identified: informal sources of help and formal sources of help. Under the informal sources of help theme, three sub-themes were identified: social, religious, and self-help sources. All three communities strongly recognised the role of social sources of help, with more nuanced roles held by religion and self-help activities. Formal sources of help were described by all communities, although to a lesser extent than informal sources. Our findings suggest that interventions to support help-seeking for all three communities should involve building the capacity of informal sources of help, utilising culturally appropriate environments, and the collaboration between informal and formal sources of help. We also discuss differences between the three communities and offer service providers insights into unique issues that require attention when working with these groups. more...

To compare axial elongation, relative corneal refractive power (RCRP) distribution within the pupillary diameter, and corneal higher-order aberrations (HOAs) in myopic children wearing orthokeratology (ortho-k) lenses with different back optic zone diameters (BOZD).Children aged 8-11 years were fitted with 5.0 or 6.2 mm-BOZD ortho-k lenses (groups A and B, respectively). Axial length (AL) and corneal topography were measured at baseline and during the annual visit. RCRP and corneal HOAs were compared between the two groups after one-year treatment. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to determine the association between AL elongation and RCRP parameters, corneal HOAs, and other variables between the groups.After one-year treatment, axial elongation was slower in group A than in group B, with a difference of 0.15 mm. Children in group A showed smaller treatment zone size, smaller 3/4X value (describing the distance from the apex RCRP profile rising to its three-quarter-peak level), greater RCRP sum value within the pupillary area, and higher increases in corneal total HOAs and horizontal coma (ZOrtho-k lenses designed with smaller BOZD increased myopia control efficacy, induced a steeper distribution of the RCRP profile within the pupillary diameter, and induced greater increases in corneal total HOAs and horizontal coma (Z more...

This study aims to review China's national policies related to non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control at the primary health care (PHC) level since China's 2009 health system reform. Policy documents from official websites of China's State Council and 20 affiliated ministries were screened, where 151 out of 1,799 were included. Thematic content analysis was performed, and fourteen ‘major policy initiatives’ were identified, including the basic health insurance schemes and essential public health services. Several areas showed to have strong policy support, including service delivery, health financing, and leadership/governance. Compared with WHO recommendations, several gaps remain, including lack of emphasis on multi-sectoral collaboration, underuse of non-health-professionals, and lack of quality-oriented PHC services evaluations. Over the past decade, China continues to demonstrate its policy commitment to strengthen the PHC system for NCD prevention and control. We recommend future policies to facilitate multi-sectoral collaboration, enhance community engagement, and improve performance evaluation mechanisms. more...

Argyrodite sulfide solid electrolytes, such as Li

This paper captures the on-going “talent war” between Chinese cities by studying how municipal governments have coordinated migration settlement policies and subsidized rental housing policies to r... more...

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) sometimes disagree with their funders’ accountability requirements; however, their dependence on the funders’ resources makes it difficult to express their disagreement. This dilemma for NGOs may keep funders from substantively holding NGOs to account and cause mission drift for the NGOs. This paper analyzes an in-depth case study of an understudied scenario: how a newly founded NGO engages with multiple funders with varying competence in accountability practices. By analyzing a Chinese NGO’s accountability relationships with its funders, we found that the NGO’s responses varied according to its organizational interests and how it perceived the funders’ competence. Better trust meant better compliance. Therefore, to secure compliance, it is important to enhance NGOs’ trust in funders’ competence. Based on the findings, we suggest that funders be more aware of NGOs’ agency, be ready to engage in ongoing collaborative learning with NGOs and align NGOs’ interests with the accountability requirements. Refereed/Peer-reviewed more...

An uncommon ‘homeowner’ protest in Shanghai in 2017 manifested public anger towards a government crackdown on commercial property converted apartments (CPCAs). Spotlighting this previously ...