Measuring Rural Poverty in China: a Case Study Approach

This paper measures rural poverty in Hubei Province and Inner Mongolia in China. The poverty lines we derived by Ravallion's method differ from the official Chinese poverty lines. The official pan-country poverty line underestimates rural poverty in Hubei Province and overestimates rural poverty in Inner Mongolia. Poverty determinants are estimated by Logit as well as Probit models. The study notes that factors such as living in a mountainous area, lack of better irrigation conditions, a large family size, few fixed assets, few land owned and sole dependence on agriculture as a livelihood source would make a rural household more vulnerable to poverty. On the other hand, a rural household whose members are either better educated or trained laborers would statistically be less poor. The growth-redistribution decomposition reveals that for all the three FGT indexes in Hubei province, income growth contributed much to the alleviation of poverty, while the redistribution or inequality effects counteracted the growth effects and worsened poverty. The poverty incidence decomposition results reveal that about one third of the growth effects had been counteracted by the redistribution effects. This implies that future anti-poverty programs should pay more attention to solving the inequality problem in China. Poverty dominance analysis also helps us better understand the poverty situation. It reveals that rural poverty in Inner Mongolia is more severe than that in Hubei, and that poverty incidence in Hubei has lessened from 1997 to 2003, which are the same findings as those drawn from deriving poverty lines.Rural Poverty Line, Poverty Determinants, Growth Redistribution Decomposition, Poverty Dominance, China

A New Load Transfer Model of Skin Friction for Super-long Pile Under Axially Load

In present investigation, a new load transfer model was proposed, in which the softening and strengthening of super-long pile skin friction was considered. The influence of parameters variation on the softening load transfer model was discussed in detail. The load transfer model proposed was verified by engineering results. The nonlinear iterative calculation method of the super-long piles was improved with considering the nonlinear compression model of concrete and the weight of the pile body. Comparing calculation results and the engineering measured data, it demonstrates that the relationship between pile skin friction and the relative displacement and the settlement results are generally in good agreement with the practical engineering results. The skin friction of super-long piles increases with the increase of the depth, while decreases with the increase of the depth near the end of the pile and it has an obvious downward trend. As the load continues to increase, the skin friction near the pile end increases significantly and shows a gradual expansion of the pattern. It completely reflects the softening and strengthening properties of pile skin friction

Antimicrobial Use in COVID-19 Patients in the First Phase of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic:A Scoping Review

This scoping review provides new evidence on the prevalence and patterns of global antimicrobial use in the treatment of COVID-19 patients; identifies the most commonly used antibiotics and clinical scenarios associated with antibiotic prescribing in the first phase of the pandemic; and explores the impact of documented antibiotic prescribing on treatment outcomes in COVID-19 patients. The review complies with PRISMA guidelines for Scoping Reviews and the protocol is registered with the Open Science Framework. In the first six months of the pandemic, there was a similar mean antibiotic prescribing rate between patients with severe or critical illness (75.4%) and patients with mild or moderate illness (75.1%). The proportion of patients prescribed antibiotics without clinical justification was 51.5% vs. 41.9% for patients with mild or moderate illness and those with severe or critical illness. Comparison of patients who were provided antibiotics with a clinical justification with those who were given antibiotics without clinical justification showed lower mortality rates (9.5% vs. 13.1%), higher discharge rates (80.9% vs. 69.3%), and shorter length of hospital stay (9.3 days vs. 12.2 days). In the first 6 months of the pandemic, antibiotics were prescribed for COVID-19 patients regardless of severity of illness. A large proportion of antibiotic prescribing for mild and moderate COVID-19 patients did not have clinical evidence of a bacterial co-infection. Antibiotics may not be beneficial to COVID-19 patients without clinical evidence of a bacterial co-infection

Efficacy and safety of hydrogen gas versus standard therapy in Chinese patients with cerebral infarction: A pilot study

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of hydrogen (H2) gas versus standard therapy in Chinese patients with acute cerebral infarction (ACI)Method: Chinese patients with ACI who had National Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) scores of 2 - 6 were enrolled and randomized to receive hydrogen gas through inhalation route or standard therapy. Hydrogen gas (3 %) was administered twice daily for 1 hour each over a period of 2 weeks using a facial mask (non-rebreathing). Standard treatment included edaravone 30 mg (iv every 12 h + antiplatelet drugs for 2 weeks. Efficacy endpoints were change in vital signs, change in NIHSS scores from baseline, change in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal intensity, and improvement in rehabilitation index. Safety was also assessed.Results: Data for 200 patients were analyzed. Patients treated with H2 gas had significantly greater improvement in NIHSS score than patients treated with standard therapy. This indicates that the neurological improvement was significantly greater in patients treated with H2 gas than those that received standard therapy for all the days tested (p < 0.05). The onset of NIHSS score reduction was faster in patients treated with H2 gas when compared to standard therapy. Furthermore, H2 gas demonstrated significant improvement in MRI signal Intensity score, which indicates that H2 gas was effective in recovery of infraction site.Conclusion: The findings of this study show that H2 gas administered via the inhalation route is effective and safe in Chinese patients with acute cerebral infarction, and is therefore, superior to standard therapy

Damage Identification of Piles Based on Vibration Characteristics

A method of damage identification of piles was established by using vibration characteristics. The approach focused on the application of the element strain energy and sensitive modals. A damage identification equation of piles was deduced using the structural vibration equation. The equation contained three major factors: change rate of element modal strain energy, damage factor of pile, and sensitivity factor of modal damage. The sensitive modals of damage identification were selected by using sensitivity factor of modal damage firstly. Subsequently, the indexes for early-warning of pile damage were established by applying the change rate of strain energy. Then the technology of computational analysis of wavelet transform was used to damage identification for pile. The identification of small damage of pile was completely achieved, including the location of damage and the extent of damage. In the process of identifying the extent of damage of pile, the equation of damage identification was used in many times. Finally, a stadium project was used as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method of damage identification for piles. The correctness and practicability of the proposed method were verified by comparing the results of damage identification with that of low strain test. The research provided a new way for damage identification of piles

Climate drives global soil carbon sequestration and crop yield changes under conservation agriculture

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant Nos. 41530533 and 41573069) and the National Key R&D Program of China (grant No. 2017YFE0104600). We thank Prof. Xuhui Lee in Yale University, Dr. Zhongkui Luo in Zhejiang University, Prof. Ben Smith in Lund University and Dr. Xunyu Hu in East China Inventory and Planning Institute, State Forestry and Grassland Administration for their helpful comments that led to the improvement of this paper.Peer reviewedPostprin

Plasmid-mediated novel blaNDM-17 gene encoding a Carbapenemase with enhanced activity in a sequence type 48 Escherichia coli strain

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) have spread worldwide, leaving very few treatment options available. New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) is the main carbapenemase mediating CRE resistance and is of increasing concern. NDM-positive Enterobacteriaceae of human origin are frequently identified; however, the emergence of NDM, and particularly novel variants, in bacteria of food animal origin has never been reported. Here, we characterize a novel NDM variant (assigned NDM-17) identified in a β-lactam-resistant sequence type 48 (ST48) Escherichia coli strain that was isolated from a chicken in China. Compared to NDM-1, NDM-17 had three amino acid substitutions (V88L, M154L, and E170K) that confer significantly enhanced carbapenemase activity. Compared to NDM-5, NDM-17 had only one amino acid substitution (E170K) and slightly increased isolate resistance to carbapenem, as indicated by increased MIC values. The gene encoding NDM-17 (blaNDM-17) was located on an IncX3 plasmid, which was readily transferrable to recipient E. coli strain J53 by conjugation, suggesting the possibility of the rapid dissemination of blaNDM-17. Enzyme kinetics showed that NDM-17 could hydrolyze all β-lactams tested, except for aztreonam, and had a significantly higher affinity for all β-lactams tested than did NDM-5. The emergence of this novel NDM variant could pose a threat to public health because of its transferability and enhanced carbapenemase activity

Genome-wide analysis of a avirulent and reveal the strain induces pro-tective immunity against challenge with virulent Streptococcus suis Serotype 2

BACKGROUND: It was previously reported in China that two recent large-scale outbreaks of Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (S. suis 2) infections in human were caused by two highly virulent S. suis 2 strains, from which a novel genomic island (GEI), associated with disease onset and progression and designated 89 K, was identified. Here, an avirulent strain, 05HAS68, was isolated from a clinically healthy pig. RESULTS: By comparing the genomes of this avirulent strain with virulent strains, it was found that massive genomic rearrangements occurred, resulting in alterations in gene expression that caused enormous single gene gain and loss. Important virulent genes were lost, such as extracellular protein factor (ef) and suilysin (sly) and larger mutants, such as muramidase-released protein (mrp). Piglets vaccinated with the avirulent strain, 05HAS68, had increased TNF-α and IFN-γ levels in the peripheral blood and were fully protected from challenge infection with the most virulent S. suis 2 strain, 05ZYH33. Transfusion of T cells and plasma from vaccinated pigs resulted in protection of recipient animals against the 05ZYH33 challenge. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that analysis genome of the avirulent strains are instrumental in the development of vaccines and for the functional characterization of important of genetic determinants

Normal weight obesity is associated with lower AFC and adverse IVF outcomes

BackgroundBody weight could be classified into underweight, normal weight and overweight according to percentage of body fat (%BF), and normal weight obesity (NWO) is defined as a normal BMI but a high %BF. While the impact of NWO in women fecundity remain unknow. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the associations between %BF and reproductive outcomes among in vitro fertilization (IVF) women with normal BMI.MethodsA total of 469 women were included in this study and were classified into low %BF, normal %BF and high %BF according to previous study. Multivariate generalized regression models were employed to evaluate the associations of %BF with ovarian reserve parameters, IVF outcomes and early pregnancy outcomes. We further run sensitivity analyses by restricted the analysis to young women and those only with tubal factor, respectively.ResultsAbout 32.2% of normal BMI women were misclassified according %BF, with 16.4% of them were low %BF and 15.8% were high %BF. The high %BF group had significantly lower antral follicle count (AFC) than normal %BF groups, and the AFC showed a tendency of decrease as %BF increased. In sensitivity analysis in young women, high %BF group also had significantly lower number of good-quality embryos when compared to normal %BF groups. The results expanded to all IVF outcomes when analysis restricted to tubal factor women.ConclusionIn summary, misclassifications of body weight status based on BMI are common according to %BF, and NWO is associated with adverse reproductive outcomes

Specific N-glycans of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Surface and the Abnormal Increase of Core-α-1, 6-fucosylated Triantennary Glycan via N-acetylglucosaminyltransferases-IVa Regulation

Glycosylation alterations of cell surface proteins are often observed during the progression of malignancies. The specific cell surface N-glycans were profiled in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with clinical tissues (88 tumor and adjacent normal tissues) and the corresponding serum samples of HCC patients. The level of core-α-1,6-fucosylated triantennary glycan (NA3Fb) increased both on the cell surface and in the serum samples of HCC patients (p \u3c 0.01). Additionally, the change of NA3Fb was not influenced by Hepatitis B virus (HBV)and cirrhosis. Furthermore, the mRNA and protein expression of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase IVa (GnT-IVa), which was related to the synthesis of the NA3Fb, was substantially increased in HCC tissues. Knockdown of GnT-IVa leads to a decreased level of NA3Fb and decreased ability of invasion and migration in HCC cells. NA3Fb can be regarded as a specific cell surface N-glycan of HCC. The high expression of GnT-IVa is the cause of the abnormal increase of NA3Fb on the HCC cell surface, which regulates cell migration. This study demonstrated the specific N-glycans of the cell surface and the mechanisms of altered glycoform related with HCC. These findings lead to better understanding of the function of glycan and glycosyltransferase in the tumorigenesis, progression and metastasis of HCC