Inhibition of autophagy enhances cadmium-induced apoptosis in duck renal tubular epithelial cells.

Increasing evidence indicates autophagy and apoptosis are involved in the toxicity mechanism of heavy metals. Our previous studies showed that cadmium (Cd) could induce autophagy and apoptosis in duck kidneys in vivo, nevertheless, the interaction between them has yet to be elucidated. Herein, the cells were either treated with 3CdSO·8HO (0, 1.

Economic impact of government interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: International evidence from financial markets.

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic came as a rare, unprecedented event and governments around the globe scrambled with emergency actions including social distancing measures, public awareness programs, testing and quarantining policies, and income support packages. In this paper, we examine the expected economic impact of government actions by analyzing the effect of such actions on stock market returns. Using daily data from January 22 to April 17, 2020 from 77 countries, we find announcements of government social distancing measures have a direct negative effect on stock market returns due to their adverse effect on economic activity, while an indirect positive effect through the reduction in COVID-19 confirmed cases.

Can labor transfer reduce poverty? Evidence from a rural area in China.

The aim of this paper is to examine how labor transfer can alleviate poverty caused by regional inequality. Based on a survey dataset of poor farmers in traditionally poverty-stricken areas in the Jiangxi province of China, we concluded that labor transfer and improvement in health can positively affect poverty reduction. Particularly, the labor transfer distance has a significant and positive effect on poor households in the middle- and low-income levels.

The effect of China's pilot carbon emissions trading schemes on poverty alleviation: A quasi-natural experiment approach.

As an important new tool for ecological poverty alleviation, carbon trading compensation is combining ecological protection with rural poverty alleviation. This paper evaluates the poverty alleviation impact of China's pilot carbon emissions trading schemes (ETS) at the provincial level before and after the program, which was implemented from 2007 to 2017. Specifically, we measure poverty alleviation in terms of rural residential income growth and rural job creation.

Does Scale and Efficiency of Government Health Expenditure Promote Development of the Health Industry?

Macro-economic development of China's health industry is essential to the sustainable development and growth momentum of the national economy. Strategies to promote the development and rebalancing of the industrial structure need to be improved in order to transform China's health industry and drive development. Based on panel data of 25 regions in China from 2004 to 2016, this paper analyzes the linear and non-linear relationship between Chinese government health expenditure (GHE), GHE efficiency, and the macro-economic development of the health industry.

Association between neighborhood aesthetics and childhood obesity.

The lack of neighbourhood aesthetics (e.g. public art and well-maintained properties) may reduce walkability in the neighbourhood and increase the risk of childhood obesity.

Determinants of Public-Private Partnership Adoption in Solid Waste Management in Rural China.

Rural solid waste management is a severe challenge in China. The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is an effective method for rural solid waste management. However, policy efforts aimed at stimulating the adoption of PPP in rural solid waste management have been limited in their success.

Efficiency evaluation of urban wastewater treatment: Evidence from 113 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China.

To resolve the increasing water pollution crisis, scientifically evaluating the urban wastewater treatment efficiency (UWTE) is an essential prerequisite to ensure the success of any policies aiming to decrease water pollution. Using 113 city-level panel data in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB)-the biggest economic belt in China, during 2008-2017, this study aims to evaluate the UWTE based on a Bootstrap-DEA and to measure the efficiency changes through a Malmquist index model. The results show that the overall UWTE is at a low level, evidenced by the fact the average efficiency score is 0.

Research on the relationship between China's greenhouse gas emissions and industrial structure and economic growth from the perspective of energy consumption.

A comprehensive understanding of the relationships between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and industrial structure and economic growth holds great significance for China to realize the development of a green economy. This paper calculates GHG emissions based on China's energy consumption, divides the industrial structure in detail, and uses the extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology model that is realized by PLS method and Tapio decoupling model to study the relationship of GHG emissions to industrial structure and economic growth. The results show that (1) China's total GHG emissions showed a year-on-year growth trend from 2000 to 2017.

Combination of multiple functional markers to improve diagnostic accuracy.

Combination of multiple biomarkers to improve diagnostic accuracy is meaningful for practitioners and clinicians, and are attractive to lots of researchers. Nowadays, with development of modern techniques, functional markers such as curves or images, play an important role in diagnosis. There exists rich literature developing combination methods for continuous scalar markers.

Neighborhood sidewalk access and childhood obesity.

The lack of access to sidewalks is a barrier for physical activity (PA) and may be a risk factor for childhood obesity. However, previous studies reported mixed findings and the association between sidewalk accessibility and childhood obesity remains unclear. This study systematically examined the evidence on the association between sidewalk accessibility and childhood obesity.

Additive integer-valued data envelopment analysis with missing data: A multi-criteria evaluation approach.

Traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) models assume that all the inputs and outputs data are available. However, missing data is a common problem in data analysis. Although several scholars have developed techniques to conduct DEA with missing data, these techniques have some disadvantages.

Assessing Changes in Ecosystem Service Values in Response to Land Cover Dynamics in Jiangxi Province, China.

This paper examines the ecosystem service values of Jiangxi province, China using the benefit transfer approach. The land cover dynamics results show that cropland and forest are the main land cover types in Jiangxi province. Urban land drastically increased after 2000, expanding from 846.

The buffer effect of physical activity: Why does parental marital satisfaction affect adolescents' problematic Internet use.

Introduction: To explore the moderating effect of physical activity and the mediating effect of depression on the relationship between marital satisfaction and adolescents' problematic internet use (PIU).

Methods: This study adopted a sample of 288 adolescents and their parents, and measured adolescents' depression, PIU, physical activity, and parents' marital satisfaction.

Results: These results showed that parental marital satisfaction negatively predicted adolescents' PIU.

Coronavirus pandemic and tourism: Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium modeling of infectious disease outbreak.

•We propose a DSGE model to examine the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on tourism.•The model is generalizable to any epidemic.•The model supports the policy of providing tourism consumption vouchers for residents.

Validation and modification of staging Systems for Poorly Differentiated Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Carcinoma.

Background: The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (ENETS) staging classifications are two broadly used systems for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. This study aims to identify the most accurate and useful tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging system for poorly differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinomas (pNECs).

Methods: An analysis was performed to evaluate the application of the ENETS, 7th edition (7th) AJCC and 8th edition (8th) AJCC staging classifications using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry (N = 568 patients), and a modified system based on the analysis of the 7th AJCC classification was proposed.

How does fossil energy abundance affect China's economic growth and CO emissions?

The paper uses the nonparametric additive regression model with data- driven characteristics to investigate the impact of fossil energy abundance on China's economic growth and carbon dioxide (CO) emissions. The results show that the effect of fossil energy abundance on economic growth shows an inverted "U-shaped" pattern in the eastern region, due to the changes in coal mining, oil processing, and coking investments. On the contrary, fossil energy abundance exerts a positive "U-shaped" nonlinear effect on economic growth in the central region.

An optimization model for fleet sizing and empty pallet allocation considering CO2 emissions.

Pallets are the most common equipment for transporting and storing goods. More and more companies are willing to rent pallets. Pallet rental companies need to transport pallets from their pallet rental service stations to customers and take these pallets back when they are unloaded.

Plantanone D, a new rare methyl-flavonoid from the flowers of with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.

Flowers of have been used for the treatment of inflammation-related diseases in traditional Chinese medicine with limited scientific validation. In the present work, we reported one new rare methyl-flavonoid, plantanone D () and one known compound 4-hydroxybenzoic acid () from the flowers of . Their structures were elucidated on the basis of chemical and spectral evidence, as well as by comparison with literature data.

[Effects of Land Use Types at Different Spatial Scales on Water Quality in Poyang Lake Wetland].

Water is a crucial environmental element that affects various ecological processes in wetlands. Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China, where seasonal variation in water level generates a unique landscape of wetland in the dry season-a critical habitat for Siberian migratory birds. Nevertheless, the water quality of the Poyang Lake wetland has not been systematically and rigorously studied.

Warning of negative effects of land-use changes on ecological security based on GIS.

Urbanization leads to dramatic changes in regional land-use patterns and threatens regional ecological security. Based on GIS and existing key ecological spaces, timely threat warnings to regional ecological spaces caused by artificial land-use changes and the identification of appropriate precautionary measures are necessary for the sustainable development of regional land resources. Taking 2010 as the base year, the study forecasts the demand for new construction land in the surveyed region in 2015 and 2030 using a Markov model; on this basis, a logistic cellular automata (CA) model is built to forecast the land use distribution related to construction land expansion and requisition-compensationbalanceofcultivated land.

Pyrrole-quinazoline derivative as an easily accessible turn-off optical chemosensor for Cu and resultant Cu complex as a turn-on sensor for pyrophosphate in almost neat aqueous solution.

A simple chemosensor, 6-(1H-pyrrol-2-yl)-5,6-dihydro-benzo[4,5]imidazo[1,2-c]quinazoline (1), was synthesized via simple nucleophilic addition reaction coupled with Schiff base condensation. The probe 1 is aggregation-induced emission-active and could be used as an on-off fluorescence sensor toward Cu in HO/CHCN (99.5%, v/v) solution.

Longitudinal Evidence for the Effects of Social Group Engagement on the Cognitive and Mental Health of Chinese Retirees.

Background: Research investigating the health benefits of social group participation in the retirement transition has provided little insight into the longitudinal effects on cognitive health and the generalizability of these relationships to non-Western samples. The present paper addresses these issues by examining the effects of social group engagement on the cognitive performance and depression symptoms of Chinese older adults followed over 4 years in their transition to retirement.

Methods: Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data, a sample of 1,297 Chinese seniors transitioning to retirement were followed between 2011 and 2013, and then 2 years later (in 2015) after retirement.

Molybdenum and cadmium co-induce oxidative stress and apoptosis through mitochondria-mediated pathway in duck renal tubular epithelial cells.

High doses of molybdenum (Mo) and cadmium (Cd) cause adverse reactions on animals, but the joint toxic effects of Mo and Cd on duck renal tubular epithelial cells are not fully illustrated. To investigate the combined effects of Mo and Cd on oxidative stress and mitochondrial apoptosis in primary duck renal tubular epithelial cells, the cells were either treated with (NH)MoO·4HO (480, 960 μM Mo), 3CdSO·8HO (2.5, 5.