Old Age Protection in the Context of Rural Development

This study examines the potential of rural communities for generating and allocating resources for rural old age support in the context of decreasing family resources and inadequate state provision. In?depth interviews with elderly people, their families, community leaders and government officials of three villages, respectively located in three provinces provide us with clear evidence on existing local institutional arrangements for rural old age support and the role of both government and community in organising such programmes. They confirm the potential of rural communities to generate and distribute resources for old age support, offering community opportunities for social inclusion through fair flows of resources to promote social harmony and stability, and accelerating economic growth. The findings of the study imply that there is a need for policymakers to link the state effort for old age protection to rural community development, and encourage grassroots efforts in old age support

Profiling analysis of long non-coding RNAs in early postnatal mouse hearts

Mammalian cardiomyocytes undergo a critical hyperplastic-to-hypertrophic growth transition at early postnatal age, which is important in establishing normal physiological function of postnatal hearts. In the current study, we intended to explore the role of long non-coding (lnc) RNAs in this transitional stage. We analyzed lncRNA expression profiles in mouse hearts at postnatal day (P) 1, P7 and P28 via microarray. We identified 1,146 differentially expressed lncRNAs with more than 2.0-fold change when compared the expression profiles of P1 to P7, P1 to P28, and P7 to P28. The neighboring genes of these differentially expressed lncRNAs were mainly involved in DNA replication-associated biological processes. We were particularly interested in one novel cardiac-enriched lncRNA, ENSMUST00000117266, whose expression was dramatically down-regulated from P1 to P28 and was also sensitive to hypoxia, paraquat, and myocardial infarction. Knockdown ENSMUST00000117266 led to a significant increase of neonatal mouse cardiomyocytes in G0/G1 phase and reduction in G2/M phase, suggesting that ENSMUST00000117266 is involved in regulating cardiomyocyte proliferative activity and is likely associated with hyperplastic-to-hypertrophic growth transition. In conclusion, our data have identified a large group of lncRNAs presented in the early postnatal mouse heart. Some of these lncRNAs may have important functions in cardiac hyperplastic-to-hypertrophic growth transition

The role of community support for the rural aged during the transition This Research Report was written About CSP

The Centre for Social Protection was established in 2006, to provide a global focus for research, policy analysis, and capacity building in social protection. Based at IDS, the Centre supports interaction between networks of equal partners, including researchers and policy-makers who work to mainstream social protection in development policy, and to build effective social protection systems throughout the world that are national, comprehensive, sustainable and equitable, and that improve the wellbeing of poor and vulnerable people. This study examines the potential for rural communities to generate and allocate resources for rural old age support in the context of decreasing family resources and inadequate state provision. In-depth interviews with elderly people, their families, community leaders and government officials of three villages respectively, located in three provinces, provide us with clear insights into existing local institutional arrangements for rural old age support and the role of both government and community in organising such programmes. They confirm that rural communities are able to generate and distribute resources for old age support, to offer community opportunities for social inclusion through fair flows of resources to promote social harmony and stability, and to accelerate economic growth. The findings of the study imply that there is a need for policymakers to link state efforts towards old age protection to rural community development, and to encourage grassroots efforts in old age support. CSP

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Its Potential Therapeutic Strategies

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is diffuse steatosis of hepatocytes and is the most common type of chronic liver disease. The benign and reversible stage of NAFLD is defined as simple fatty liver, which further progresses to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), liver fibrosis, and even liver cancer. It is believed that in the future, NASH would be one of the primary reasons for advanced liver failure and the need for liver transplantation. NAFLD is considered to be closely related to genetics, environment, metabolic diseases, such as obesity and hyperlipidemia. From the macro-level of NAFLD understanding, this chapter systematically analyzes the research progress on the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and development trends of NAFLD

Toward the Origin of Long‐Period Long‐Duration Seismic Events during Hydraulic Fracturing Treatment: A Case Study in the Shale Play of Sichuan Basin, China

Long‐period long‐duration (LPLD) seismic events have been recently observed over several unconventional reservoirs, and are postulated to play a significant role in accommodating deformation within the stimulation zone. However, the origin of LPLD events is still under debate. In this study, we present observations of tremor‐like events during the multistage hydraulic fracturing treatment of a pilot horizontal well within the Weiyuan Shale play in southwestern Sichuan basin, China. These tremor‐like signals recorded by the deep downhole monitoring array (15 Hz geophones) resemble the previously reported LPLD examples in terms of both duration and frequency content. In this particular case, with the concurrent records from the surface broadband array, we however confirm that these signals are located well outside the treatment area, and most probably originate from regional earthquakes that occurred during the treatment course within 250 km radius of the treatment well, instead of local sources directly related to the hydraulic stimulation. This study implies that the attenuated signals of regional seismicity may constitute a particularly deceptive pitfall for identifying and misinterpreting LPLD events during hydraulic fracturing, especially in seismically active regions. Our results also highlight the importance of surface broadband array in monitoring hydraulic fracturing activities