Love me, love my dog: an experimental study on social connections and indirect reciprocity

This paper conducts a laboratory experiment to investigate the role of social connections in behavioral indirect reciprocity. We provide the evidence of spillovers effects of social ties, e.g., the recipient’s indirect reciprocal act varies with the relations between the donor and a third party. Naturally occurring friendship is employed to study social connections. Thus, a beneficiary might either be a “friend” or a “stranger” of the donor. We demonstrate that knowing social connections significantly increases the recipient’s repayment only if the donor is kind enough in the first place. Overall, recipients’ indirect reciprocity almost doubles when introducing social networks among donors and beneficiaries. It is also shown that this spillovers effect is unlikely the result of recipients’ perception of donors’ expectations. Major theories of social preferences, e.g., fairness, intention-based, guilt-aversion, cannot offer satisfactory explanations of our findings. We propose an explanation based on in-group and out-group differences but with endogenous group status, in which social connections play a crucial role

Love me, love my dog: an experimental study on social connections and indirect reciprocity

This paper conducts a laboratory experiment to investigate the role of social connections in behavioral indirect reciprocity. We provide the evidence of spillovers effects of social ties, e.g., the recipient’s indirect reciprocal act varies with the relations between the donor and a third party. Naturally occurring friendship is employed to study social connections. Thus, a beneficiary might either be a “friend” or a “stranger” of the donor. We demonstrate that knowing social connections significantly increases the recipient’s repayment only if the donor is kind enough in the first place. Overall, recipients’ indirect reciprocity almost doubles when introducing social networks among donors and beneficiaries. It is also shown that this spillovers effect is unlikely the result of recipients’ perception of donors’ expectations. Major theories of social preferences, e.g., fairness, intention-based, guilt-aversion, cannot offer satisfactory explanations of our findings. We propose an explanation based on in-group and out-group differences but with endogenous group status, in which social connections play a crucial role

The Prevalence of Scoliosis Screening Positive and Its Influencing Factors: A School-Based Cross-Sectional Study in Zhejiang Province, China

ObjectiveEarly detection of scoliosis is of great significance to patients with scoliosis and the whole society. This paper aims to learn the prevalence of scoliosis screening positive among students in primary and secondary schools and to explore the influencing factors.MethodsIn 2019, a stratified cluster sampling technique was employed in this school-based cross-sectional study. The sampling covers all prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang Province. Based on the whole class, at least 80 students in each grade of primary school, junior high school, and senior high school were selected. Physical examination and scoliosis screening were performed in the school-based investigation. The distribution of demographic characteristics and nutritional status of children and adolescents with scoliosis screening positive were explored.ResultsA total of 45,547 students were screened. The overall prevalence of children and adolescents with scoliosis screening positive were 3.9%. Higher prevalence of scoliosis screening positive was found in students living in urban area (4.1%), women students (4.1%), students with low weight (5.3%) (p < 0.05), and the prevalence increased with age (p < 0.05). In logistic analysis, we found age (OR = 1.145; 95% Cis: 1.128, 1.162), gender (OR = 1.118; 95% Cis: 1.016, 1.230) and low weight (OR = 1.48; 95% Cis: 1.25, 1.751) were the influencing factors for prevalence of scoliosis screening positive (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThere were no disparities between living areas, but there was a significant difference between genders, among different ages, and among different nutritional statuses of children and adolescents with or without scoliosis screening positive. In multi-analysis, age, gender, and low weight were the influencing factors for the prevalence of scoliosis screening positive. Age and gender-specific scoliosis screening strategies and nutritional public health policies for children and adolescents are needed

Understanding macroinvertebrate metacommunity organization using a nested study design across a mountainous river network

Metacommunity ecology highlights the importance of integrating simultaneously environmental filtering and spatial processes, such as mass effects and dispersal limitation, into investigation of community assembly. However, few studies to date have tried to examine mass effects and dispersal limitation as independent ecological mechanisms along with environmental filtering in shaping biological communities in river networks. We examined the relative importance of three factor groups, i.e., environmental variables, within-river spatial factors (indicative of mass effects) and basin identity (referring to dispersal limitation) on a macroinvertebrate metacommunity and nine trait-based deconstructed sub-metacommunities from seven subtropical rivers. We applied redundancy analysis and variance partitioning to reveal the pure and shared effects of the three groups of factors on community variation. Environmental filtering, mass effects and dispersal limitation were all significant mechanisms affecting variation in macroinvertebrate communities, but their relative importance depended on biological traits. Environmental filtering explained more of the variation in the whole metacommunity, tolerant taxa and macroinvertebrate groups with weak dispersal ability (i.e., aquatic dispersal, aerial passive dispersal and large body size). In contrast, mass effects accounted for more variation in the communities of intolerant taxa and macroinvertebrate groups with strong dispersal ability (i.e., aerial active dispersal mode and medium body size). Dispersal limitation was more influential for sub-communities of moderately tolerant taxa and large-sized taxa. Our study highlights that simultaneously accounting for different spatial processes and using a trait-based approach are essential to improve our understanding of community assembly in river networks

Developing a questionnaire to evaluate the health information literacy in China

IntroductionHealth information literacy is critical for individuals to obtain, understand, screen, and apply health information. However, there is currently no specific tool available to evaluate all four dimensions of health information literacy in China. Public health emergencies can present an opportunity to evaluate and monitor the health information literacy level of residents. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a questionnaire to evaluate the level of health information literacy and to measure the reliability and validity.MethodsThe development process of the questionnaire consisted of the determination of questionnaire items, expert consultation, and validation. Based on the National Residents Health Literacy Monitoring Questionnaire (2020) and the 2019 Informed Health Choices key concepts, the researchers drafted the questionnaire, including all four dimensions of health information literacy. Experts in relevant fields were invited to evaluate the draft questionnaire, and revisions were made accordingly. Finally, the reliability and validity of the finalized version were examined in Gansu Province, China.ResultsThe research team preliminarily formulated 14 items encompassing the four dimensions of health information literacy. After consulting with 28 experts, modifications were made. A convenience sample of 185 Chinese residents was invited to participate. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.715 and McDonald's omega was 0.739 for internal consistency, and the test-retest intra-class correlation coefficient after 4 weeks was 0.906, indicating that the questionnaire content and measurement structure was relatively stable.ConclusionThis questionnaire is the first evidence-based assessment tool developed for monitoring health information literacy in China, and it has shown good reliability and validity. It can help to monitor the health information literacy levels of Chinese residents, promote evidence-based decision-making, and guide interventions to improve health information literacy

Patterns of human social contact and contact with animals in Shanghai, China

East Asia is as a principal hotspot for emerging zoonotic infections. Understanding the likely pathways for their emergence and spread requires knowledge on human-human and human-animal contacts, but such studies are rare. We used self-completed and interviewer-completed contact diaries to quantify patterns of these contacts for 965 individuals in 2017/2018 in a high-income densely-populated area of China, Shanghai City. Interviewer-completed diaries recorded more social contacts (19.3 vs. 18.0) and longer social contact duration (35.0 vs. 29.1 hours) than self-reporting. Strong age-assortativity was observed in all age groups especially among young participants (aged 7–20) and middle aged participants (25–55 years). 17.7% of participants reported touching animals (15.3% (pets), 0.0% (poultry) and 0.1% (livestock)). Human-human contact was very frequent but contact with animals (especially poultry) was rare although associated with frequent human-human contact. Hence, this densely populated area is more likely to act as an accelerator for human-human spread but less likely to be at the source of a zoonosis outbreak. We also propose that telephone interview at the end of reporting day is a potential improvement of the design of future contact surveys