Livelihood Diversification and Residents' Welfare: Evidence from Maasai Mara National Reserve.

The contradiction between environmental protection and livelihood development is becoming increasingly serious for most protected areas in developing countries. Livelihood diversification is an efficient way to increase household income to alleviate poverty related to environmental protection. However, its impacts on household welfare in protected areas have rarely been quantitatively explored.

Women's Empowerment, Food Security, and Nutrition Transition in Africa.

Despite mounting recognition of the essential role of women's empowerment in household dietary and nutrition changes, the diversity of culture across African countries presents ambiguity as to whether its impact is experienced homogeneously across the continent. This article presents a systematic review of whether women's empowerment changes household dietary patterns, contributes to nutrition improvement, and consequently affects diet-related health outcomes in Africa. We find that whilst more research needs to be conducted, particularly with improved methodologies that can establish cause-effect relationships, there is consensus among the literature on the link between women's empowerment and some domains of food security and dietary improvement.

Heterogeneous Effects of Skill Training on Rural Livelihoods around Four Biosphere Reserves in China.

The growing contradiction between protection and livelihood is a common challenge for most protected areas in developing countries. Skill training is an important way to increase household income and alleviate the dilemma between conservation and development. However, its effects on household income around protected areas have rarely been explored.

Association between Diet Quality and Health Outcomes among Children in Rural Areas of Northwest China.

This study aims to examine the relationship between diet quality and health outcomes among children in rural remote areas of China. We draw on a cross-sectional dataset of 1216 children from two counties in the Gansu Province in Northwest China. Child health outcomes were assessed with both anthropometric measurements and reports by primary caregivers of the children.

Effects of conservation measures on crop diversity and their implications for climate-resilient livelihoods: the case of Rupa Lake Watershed in Nepal.

Agrobiodiversity conservation is vital for achieving sustainability, but empirical studies on the effects of different practices or measures on crop diversity are rare. This study aims to estimate the effects of raising conservation awareness (RCA), building diversity blocks (BDB), and their combination on crop diversity among 240 randomly selected households surrounding the Rupa Lake Watershed in Nepal. Based on descriptive analysis and multiple regression models, the results indicate that the two single measures had no significant effect on the numbers of crop species and varieties grown by households in 2018.

Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Monolith Catalysts for Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane.

It's of paramount importance to develop renewable nanocarbon materials to replace conventional precious metal catalysts in alkane dehydrogenation reactions. Graphene-based materials with high surface area have great potential for light alkane dehydrogenation. However, the powder-like state of the graphene-based materials seriously limits their potential industrial applications.

Roles of land-scale expansion and household labor allocation in nitrogen fertilizer use in Chinese croplands.

The roles of land scale and household labor allocation have always been a hot button in nitrogen (N) fertilizer use. Rural part-time farming is the main form of household labor allocation in China. This study aimed to quantify the N fertilizer use responses to land-scale expansion and rural part-time farming with different degrees and types in Chinese croplands.

Climate change vulnerability assessment for smallholder farmers in China: An extended framework.

Climate change brings uncertainty and challenges to achieving sustainable development goals. The dually vulnerable regions in terms of the environment and economy are facing substantial threats from climate change; particularly, smallholder farmers who heavily rely on natural ecosystems in these regions are being the most affected. Paying attention to the vulnerability assessment of these regions is conducive to precisely improving the ability of their people to cope with climate change.

The Impact of Social Support on the Health of the Rural Elderly in China.

With the dramatic trend of global aging, the physical and mental health of the rural elderly has attracted significant attention. Social support plays an important role in improving the health of the elderly. However, assessing the impact of social support on the physical and mental health of the elderly is challenging in rural China.

Factory employment exposure and human health: Evidence from rural China.

Quantitating the health effects of employment history in factories, especially polluting ones, is essential for understanding the benefits or losses of industrialization in rural areas. Using a traced subset of nationwide panel data from 2005 covering five provinces, 101 villages, and 2026 households (collected recently in 2016) and the econometric models, this study estimated the effect of factory employment history on workers' health. The results showed that: the absolute number of factory workers increased from 1998 to 2015, and the proportion of factory workers was 7.

Synthesis of Four Illudalane Sesquiterpenes Utilizing a One-Pot Diels-Alder/Oxidative Aromatization Sequence.

The concise, divergent total syntheses of four illudalane sesquiterpenes using an indanone as the key intermediate are reported. The key elements in these total syntheses, which involve only four to six operational steps, consist of a Suzuki cross-coupling and a one-pot Diels-Alder/oxidative aromatization reaction.

Impacts of Nutrition Subsidies on Diet Diversity and Nutritional Outcomes of Primary School Students in Rural Northwestern China-Do Policy Targets and Incentives Matter?

Many developing countries have implemented nutrition intervention programs to reduce child malnutrition. However, the effectiveness of these programs differs greatly, and it remains unclear what is causing the differences in effectiveness across different programs. To shed some light on this issue, this article examines the role the specificity of policy targets, along with the incentives attached, plays in affecting the effectiveness of nutrition intervention programs.

Management principles for heavy metal contaminated farmland based on ecological risk-A case study in the pilot area of Hunan province, China.

A pilot project for farmland soil remediation was carried out in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan (CZX) area of Hunan province, China. However, the pilot project focused mainly on the risk of exposure to heavy metals on grain safety, and little attention was paid to the risk to ecosystem quality. The study selected three areas in counties of in the CZX, and focused on five high toxicity heavy metals-Cd (cadmium), Cr (chromium), Pb (lead), As (arsenic), Hg (mercury) to explore the potential ecological risks of the soil.

The More Educated, the Healthier: Evidence from Rural China.

Education, as an important aspect of human capital, not only affects the economic returns of an individual, but also affects non-economic returns. This paper uses data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2014 and explores the impact of education on the health status of rural residents by using the family fixed-effect model. We find that education can improve the self-reported health status and reduce the possibility of depression of rural residents.

Total synthesis, structural revision and biological evaluation of γ-elemene-type sesquiterpenes.

Total synthesis and absolute configuration confirmation of γ-elemene-type sesquiterpenes, which possess vast potential for biological activities, was investigated based on a convergent synthetic strategy. A key intermediate with all functional groups of this family of natural products was accessed by an intermolecular aldol reaction and then an acetylation of a known ketone (12) derived from commercially available verbenone. The versatile intermediate can be easily transformed into structurally different γ-elemene-type sesquiterpenes based on control of base-promoted cyclization manipulation in different solvents.

AN INVESTIGATION OF VISION PROBLEMS AND THE VISION CARE SYSTEM IN RURAL CHINA.

This paper examines the prevalence of vision problems and the accessibility to and quality of vision care in rural China. We obtained data from 4 sources: 1) the National Rural Vision Care Survey; 2) the Private Optometrists Survey; 3) the County Hospital Eye Care Survey; and 4) the Rural School Vision Care Survey. The data from each of the surveys were collected by the authors during 2012.

Soil-Transmitted Helminths in Southwestern China: A Cross-Sectional Study of Links to Cognitive Ability, Nutrition, and School Performance among Children.

Background: Empirical evidence suggests that the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections in remote and poor rural areas is still high among children, the most vulnerable to infection. There is concern that STH infections may detrimentally affect children's healthy development, including their cognitive ability, nutritional status, and school performance. Medical studies have not yet identified the exact nature of the impact STH infections have on children.