Banking Reform and Efficiency in China: 1995-2008

Employing the one-step stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) approach, this paper examines bank efficiency in China, paying special attention to the ownership, selection effect and dynamic effects of governance changes on bank performance. Bank efficiency has improved over the data period 1995-2008. The estimated average cost and profit efficiencies are 74% and 63% respectively. Joint Stock Commercial Banks (JSCBs) and City Commercial Banks (CCBs) outperform State-owned Commercial Banks (SOCBs). The results suggest a strong selection effect for foreign investors. Foreign ownership participation has a negative effect on profit efficiency in the long-term while initial public offerings (IPOs) improve bank profitability in the short-term. The research findings have important implications on future bank reforms in China in the aftermath of the current financial crisis.SFA, Efficiency, Banking, China

The effects of governance changes on bank efficiency in China: A stochastic distance function approach

China has accelerated and deepened bank reform since it joined the WTO in 2001. Employing a stochastic distance function, this paper investigates the technical efficiency of banks and examines the static, selection and dynamic effects of governance changes on bank efficiency in China for the period 1995-2005. Our results show that bank efficiency has been improved and state-owned banks still perform poorly except for a noticeable improvement from 2003. Strong selection effects are found from both the foreign acquisition and going-public reform strategies. Foreign acquisition may benefit bank efficiency in the long run, but going-public appears to have just some short run effects. One obvious policy implication is that foreign competition is beneficial to China 's on-going bank reform, and going-public is just a means to allow effective foreign competition.Distance function, Efficiency, Banking, China

The Impact of High-Speed Railway on Urban Housing Prices in China : A Network Accessibility Perspective

This research is financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (71973019, 71673033, 71973148), the Social Science Foundation of China (18ZDA005, 19ZDA082), Chongqing Social Science Planning Project (2017YBJJ024), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NO.2020CDJSK02PT26, NO.2019CDSKXYJG0037). The authors are solely responsible for any error or omission herein.Peer reviewedPostprin

Hepatitis B time series in Xinjiang, China (2006–2021): change point detection based on the Mann-Kendall-Sneyers test

Hepatitis B is a major global challenge, but there is a lack of epidemiological research on hepatitis B incidence from a change point perspective. This study aimed to fill this gap by identifying significant change points and trends in hepatitis time series in Xinjiang, China. The datasets were obtained from the Xinjiang Information System for Disease Control and Prevention. The Mann-Kendall-Sneyers (MKS) test was used to detect change points and trend changes on the hepatitis B time series of 14 regions in Xinjiang, and the effectiveness of this method was validated by comparing it with the binary segmentation (BS) and segment regression (SR) methods. Based on the results of change point analysis, the prevention and control policies and measures of hepatitis in Xinjiang were discussed. The results showed that 8 regions (57.1%) with at least one change fell within the 95% confidence interval (CI) in all 14 regions by the MKS test, where five regions (Turpan (TP), Hami (HM), Bayingolin (BG), Kyzylsu Kirgiz (KK), Altai (AT)) were identified at one change point, two change points existed for two regions (Aksu (AK), Hotan (HT)) and three change points was detected in 1 region (Bortala (BT)). Most of the change points occurred at both ends of the sequence. More change points indicated an upward trend in the front half of the sequence, while in the latter half, many change points indicated a downward trend prominently. Finally, in comparing the results of the three change point tests, the MKS test showed a 61.5% agreement (8/13) with the BS and SR

A longitudinal study on new onset anxiety among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 epidemic

Objective·To investigate the occurrence of new onset anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 epidemic, and analyze the influencing factors.Methods·Based on Chengdu Positive Child Development (CPCD) cohort, a total of 5 566 children and adolescents from five primary and secondary schools in Chengdu were enrolled. Two longitudinal study cohorts of new anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents were established, and two rounds of survey were conducted. The first round of survey (baseline survey) was conducted from December 2019 to January 2020, and the general demographic characteristics of the cohort members were collected through the Student Questionnaire for the Study on Promoting Positive Growth of Children and Adolescents. The second round of survey (follow-up survey) was conducted from February to July 2020 to collect additional information on the cohorts' infection history of COVID-19, and whether their eating, learning, and social and recreational activities were affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) was used to evaluate the new onset anxiety symptoms of all subjects. The multivariate Logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of new onset anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents.Results·The results of SCARED assessment showed that the incidence of new onset anxiety symptoms among children and adolescents in Chengdu during the COVID-19 epidemic was 13.47%. In the longitudinal study cohort of new onset anxiety in children,the incidence was 11.91%, and in the longitudinal study cohort of new onset anxiety in adolescents, the incidence was 14.25%. The results of chi square test showed that there were statistically significant differences in the incidence of new onset anxiety symptoms among children in terms of age, whether they or their family members were infected with COVID-19, and whether their eating, learning and social activities were affected (all P<0.05); there were also statistically significant differences in the incidence of new onset anxiety symptoms among adolescents in gender, grade, age, residential area, and whether their eating, learning, and social and recreational activities were affected (all P<0.05). The results of multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that, for children, 6‒8 years old was the protective factor for their new onset anxiety symptoms, while they or their family members infected with COVID-19 and the impact of their learning activities were the risk factors (all P<0.05); for adolescents, males, residing in urban areas, and grades ≤ 6 were the protective factors for their new onset anxiety symptoms, while the impact of their learning activities was the risk factor (all P<0.05).Conclusion·For children and adolescents, the factors that affect their new onset anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 epidemic are not completely the same. For children, age, whether they or their family members are infected with COVID-19, and whether their learning is affected are independent influencing factors; but for adolescents, gender, grade, residential area, and whether their learning is affected are independent influencing factors. Therefore, in the process of dynamically paying attention to the mental health status of children and adolescents and continuously doing a good job of mental health intervention, it is necessary to follow the law of growth, fully consider the developmental characteristics of children and adolescents, and adopt different strategies and measures

Enhanced B7-H4 expression in gliomas with low PD-L1 expression identifies super-cold tumors.

BACKGROUND: Characterizing expression profiles of different immune checkpoint molecules are promising for personalized checkpoint inhibitory immunotherapy. Gliomas have been shown as potential targets for immune checkpoint inhibitors recently. Our study was performed to determine coexpression levels of two major B7 immune regulatory molecules programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and B7-H4, both of which have been demonstrated to inhibit antitumor host immunity in gliomas. METHODS: We assessed tumor tissues from stage II-IV primary gliomas (n=505) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) for protein levels of both PD-L1 and B7-H4. Gene coexpression analysis assessing clusters based on extent of PD-L1/B7-H4 classifier genes expression were investigated in two transcriptome datasets (The Cancer Genome Atlas and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas). In addition, levels of immune cell infiltrates were estimated with IHC and RNA-seq data for assessing the tumor immune microenvironment of PD-L1/B7-H4 subgroups. RESULTS: High expression of PD-L1 and B7-H4 in gliomas was 23% and 20%, respectively, whereas coexpression of two proteins at high levels was limited to 2% of the cases. Comparable results were seen in RNA-seq datasets where PD-L1 mRNA expression levels negatively correlated with that of B7-H4. Gene coexpression modules clustered within each grade of gliomas demonstrated lack of double-high modules (cluster with high expression of both PD-L1 and B7-H4 classifier genes). B7-H4 mRNA expression levels showed negative correlation with extent of immune cell infiltration and High-B7-H4 module gliomas (high B7-H4 but low PD-L1 classifier genes expression) had less tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). IHC assessment also showed few TILs and TAMs in High-B7-H4 subgroup gliomas. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of gliomas express PD-L1 or B7-H4, however, coexpression of both at high levels is minimal. The high-B7-H4 patients could be considered as \u27super-cold\u27 gliomas with significantly deficient in TILs, suggesting that B7-H4 might inhibit T-cell trafficking into the central nervous system. This study demonstrated that PD-L1 and B7-H4 may serve as mutually compensatory immune checkpoint molecules in gliomas for immune targeted or active-specific immunotherapy. The distinct B7-H4 pathways modulating T-cell function and immune evasion in glioma patients deserved to be further explored in the future during immunotherapy

Acceptability and feasibility of smartphone-assisted 24 h recalls in the Chinese population

Abstract Objective To examine the acceptability and feasibility of using smartphone technology to assess beverage intake and evaluate whether the feasibility of smartphone use is greater among key sub-populations. Design An acceptability and feasibility study of recording the video dietary record, the acceptability of the ecological momentary assessment (EMA), wearing smartphones and whether the videos helped participants recall intake after a cross-over validation study. Setting Rural and urban area in Shanghai, China. Subjects Healthy adults ( n 110) aged 20–40 years old. Results Most participants reported that the phone was acceptable in most aspects, including that videos were easy to use (70 %), helped with recalls (77 %), EMA reminders helped them record intake (75 %) and apps were easy to understand (85 %). However, 49 % of the participants reported that they had trouble remembering to take videos of the beverages before consumption or 46 % felt embarrassed taking videos in front of others. Moreover, 72 % reported that the EMA reminders affected their consumption. When assessing overall acceptability of using smartphones, 72 % of the participants were favourable responders. There were no statistically significant differences in overall acceptability for overweight v. normal-weight participants or for rural v. urban residents. However, we did find that the overall acceptability was higher for males (81 %) than females (61 %, P =0·017). Conclusions Our study did not find smartphone technology helped with dietary assessments in a Chinese population. However, simpler approaches, such as using photographs instead of videos, may be more feasible for enhancing 24 h dietary recalls

Association Analysis of NLRP3 Inflammation-Related Gene Promotor Methylation as Well as Mediating Effects on T2DM and Vascular Complications in a Southern Han Chinese Population

Objective: To explore the association between the methylation levels in the promoter regions of the NLRP3, AIM2, and ASC genes and T2DM and its vascular complications in a Southern Han Chinese population and further analyze their interaction and mediating effects with environmental factors in T2DM.Methods: A case-control study was used to determine the association between population characteristics, the methylation level in the promoter region of the NLRP3, AIM2, and ASC genes and T2DM and vascular complications. A mediating effect among genes-environment-T2DM and the interaction of gene-gene or gene-environment factors was explored.Results: In the logistic regression model with adjusted covariants, healthy people with lower total methylation levels in the AIM2 promoter region exhibited a 2.29-fold [OR: 2.29 (1.28~6.66), P = 0.011] increased risk of developing T2DM compared with higher-methylation individuals. T2DM patients without any vascular complications who had lower methylation levels (&lt;methylation median) in NLRP3 CpG2 and AIM2 total methylation had 6.45 (OR: 6.45, 95% CI: 1.05~39.78, P = 0.011) and 9.48 (OR: 9.48, 95% CI: 1.14~79.00, P = 0.038) times higher risks, respectively, of developing diabetic microvascular complications than T2DM patients with higher methylation. Similar associations were also found between the lower total methylation of the NLRP3 and AIM2 promoter regions and macrovascular complication risk (NLRP3 OR: 36.03, 95% CI: 3.11~417.06, P = 0.004; AIM2 OR: 30.90, 95% CI: 2.59~368.49, P = 0.007). Lower NLRP3 promoter total methylation was related to a 17.78-fold increased risk of micro-macrovascular complications (OR: 17.78, 95% CI: 2.04~155.28, P = 0.009). Lower ASC CpG1 or CpG3 methylation levels had significant partial mediating effects on T2DM vascular complications caused by higher age (ASC CpG1 explained approximately 52.8% or 32.9% of the mediating effect of age on macrovascular or macro-microvascular complications; ASC CpG3 explained approximately 38.9% of the mediating effect of age on macrovascular complications). No gene-gene or gene-environment interaction was identified in T2DM.Conclusion: Lower levels of AIM2 promoter total methylation might increase the risk of T2DM. NLRP3, AIM2, and ASC promoter total methylation or some CpG methylation loss might increase the risk of T2DM vascular complications, which merits further study to support the robustness of these findings