Methodology of an exercise intervention program using social incentives and gamification for obese children

BACKGROUND: Traditional exercise [supervised exercise (SE)] intervention has been proved to be one of the most effective ways to improve metabolic health. However, most exercise interventions were on a high-cost and small scale, moreover lacking of the long-term effect due to low engagement. On the other hand, it was noteworthy that gamification and social incentives were promising strategies to increase engagement and sustain exercise interventions effects; as well as mobile technologies such as WeChat also can provide an appropriate platform to deploy interventions on a broader, low-cost scale. Thus, we aim to develop a novel exercise intervention (\u27SandG exercise intervention\u27) that combines SE intervention with gamification and social incentives design through WeChat, with the aim of improving metabolic health and poor behaviors among overweight and obesity children. METHODS: We propose a randomized controlled trial of a \u27SandG exercise intervention\u27 among 420 overweight and obese children who have at least one marker of metabolic syndrome. Children will be randomized to control or intervention group in a 1:1 ratio. The exercise intervention package includes intervention designs based on integrated social incentives and gamification theory, involving targeted essential volume and intensity of activity (skipping rope) as well as monitoring daily information and providing health advice by WeChat. Participants will undertake assessments at baseline, at end of intervention period, in the follow-up time at months 3,6,12. The primary outcome is outcome of metabolic health. Secondary outcomes include behavioral (e.g., diary physical activity, diet) and anthropometric measures (e.g., body fat rate and muscle mass). DISCUSSIONS: This will be the first study to design an exercise intervention model that combines traditional supervised exercise (SE) intervention with gamification and social incentives theory through WeChat. We believed that this study could explore a low-cost, easy-to-popularize, and effective exercise intervention model for improving metabolic health and promote healthy among obese children. Furthermore, it will also provide important evidence for guidelines to prevent and improve metabolic health and health behaviors. TRIAL REGISTRATION: 10-04-2019;Registration number: ChiCTR1900022396

Rural Land Transfer and Financial Impact: Evidence from China

Land is the most valuable capital that farmers own. Land transfer can improve income of farmers through an optimal allocation of factors of production. The land transfer is not only transferring of the ownership but also transferring of the management rights. Chinese rural land system has its unique characteristics: ownership, contract, and management rights. Ownership rights are owned by collectives, farmers have contract management rights which are divided into management transfer rights and contract rights. Since 2008, farmers are provided with both land contract rights and land management transfer rights. This reform has provided farmers with financial opportunities to obtain revenues using different channels. Transferring-in land needs additional capital thereby causing demand effects, but transferring-out land allows farmers to earn income thereby causing supply effects. Land transfer also changes farmer’s agricultural investment and insurance behavior. This paper uses 2014 data from nine Chinese provinces to test farmers’ financial behavior change between land management rights transfer-out and transfer-in. Results from doubly-robust estimator with inverse probability weighting estimator, regression-adjustment, and propensity score matching indicate a significant difference of financial selection between land transfer-in farmers and land transfer-out farmers. Land market gives an unblocked transmission channel to rural financial market through mechanism innovation

Factors affecting agricultural land transfer-in in China: a semiparametric analysis

© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. We use interview survey data collected randomly from 2677 farm households in nine provinces of China to understand the role of demographic, economic, land, and village characteristics on agricultural land transfer-in by farmers. Results show that variables such as borrowing from informal sources, household labour availability, percentage of total income from agricultural sources, and the household with village cadre have significant positive effects on land transfer-in. Low economic development and low transportation network availability in a county reduces land transfer-in. We also find that two variables (land holding and land idling) should be entered into the model nonparametrically. Land holding and land idling have U- and L-shaped impacts on land transfer-in, respectively. Land transfer-in has endowment equilibrium and provides Chinese households more opportunities to earn agricultural income, thereby reducing rural poverty

Factors affecting agricultural land transfer-out in China: a semiparametric instrumental variable model

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper uses a semiparametric instrumental variable model to study the determinants of agricultural land transfer-out, using face-to-face survey data collected in 2014 from 2,677 farmers in nine provinces of China. Results show that variables, such as the number of parcels of land, the collective’s total land transfer-out, and the availability of a transportation network, have significant linear positive effects on households’ farmland transfer-out. Having family members with a lower educational level affect land transfer-out negatively. Landholding size and land idling have an inverted-U and L shaped impact, respectively, on land transfer-out. Results also indicate that agricultural income ratio has an overall negative influence on land transfer out. Land transfer-out has the potential to provide opportunities to earn additional income from the land, increase land productivity, and reduce poverty in rural China

Financial inclusion, land title and credit: evidence from China

© 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study land title’s credit effect from a financial inclusion perspective in China. The focus is both small land holding and poor farmers. Formal and informal finances are considered to test their differences in land title’s credit effect. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use augmented inverse-probability weights of the doubly robust method to test the effect of land titling on the rural credit market by addressing self-selection, endogeneity and heterogeneity concerns. Findings: Results show that the poor, non-poor and small land holders with land titles are willing to borrow more from formal financial institutions. Land titling increases loan accessibility for non-poor and small land holding farmers. As for informal financing, large land holding and non-poor farmers show a decrease in informal lending. Land titling has a financial inclusion effect for some farmers, but poor farmers’ credit restrictions are not entirely solved by land titling. Originality/value: This is the first study that focuses on the financial inclusion effect of farm land titling in China

Comparative study on material properties of ancient fired clay bricks of China

The city wall is a military defense building of an ancient city and a unique landscape architecture of a modern country that has extremely important historical, artistic, and scientific values. Most ancient Chinese walls were built of bricks and have been severely damaged and degraded by environmental and human influences. To protect these historical building monuments, it is necessary to determine scientifically the material properties of the bricks used in the ancient walls. In this study, the physical and mechanical properties, chemical element composition, mineral composition, micromorphology, and pore structure of 20 ancient fired clay bricks from four different regions, including white and blue wall bricks from Nanjing, blue wall bricks from Xi'an and Linqing, and the Great Wall bricks from Beijing, were compared using various modern analysis and testing methods. The results show that talc could be one of the raw materials to produce white bricks and the firing temperature of some white bricks could exceed 1200 ℃. The ancient blue bricks were mainly composed of quartz and feldspar, whereas the ancient white bricks were mainly composed of quartz and long prismatic and rod-like enstatite. The solid density and compressive strength of the white bricks were higher than that of the blue bricks. The proportion of pores larger than 10 µm in all ancient bricks is less than 10%. The pores smaller than 0.1 µm is less than 6% at higher firing temperatures. The results of this study can provide scientific guidance for the restoration and conservation of fired clay bricks of ancient city wall

Degradation of endogenous proteins and generation of a null-like phenotype in zebrafish using Trim-Away technology

Abstract Trim-Away is a recent technique to rapidly deplete a protein from any cell type. Guided by antibodies, TRIM21 selects proteins for destruction. However, the applicability of this method in model organisms has not been investigated. Here, we show that Trim-Away can degrade proteins in zebrafish embryos. Trim-Away depletes proteins faster than morpholinos, which enables analysis of protein function during early embryogenesis. Furthermore, Trim-Away can be applied to evaluate the role of maternally contributed proteins in zebrafish embryos. Our findings indicate that Trim-Away is a powerful tool to perform functional analysis of proteins during zebrafish development

Universal Fluorescence Biosensor Platform Based on Graphene Quantum Dots and Pyrene-Functionalized Molecular Beacons for Detection of MicroRNAs

A novel biosensor platform was developed for detection of microRNAs (miRNAs) based on graphene quantum dots (GQDs) and pyrene-functionalized molecular beacon probes (py-MBs). Pyrene was introduced to trigger specifically fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between GQDs and fluorescent dyes labeled on py-MBs, and the unique fluorescent intensity change produced a novel signal for detection of the target. The platform realized detection of miRNAs in a wide range from 0.1 nM to 200 nM with great discrimination abilities, as well as multidetection of different kinds of miRNAs, which paved a brand new way for miRNA detection based on GQDs