Stereotypical Images of STEM Professionals and STEM Career Interests in Chinese Elementary School Students

This study investigated stereotypical images of STEM professions and STEM career interest in Chinese elementary school students. The relationships between stereotypical images of STEM professionals and STEM career interests were also determined. Data for this study was gathered from two elementary schools in China, forming a convenience sample of 318 students enrolled from 3rd to 6th grade. Quantitative data of stereotypes about STEM professionals’ social skills, positive images of STEM professionals, views on STEM implications for society, and STEM career interests were gathered by a questionnaire with Likert scale. Follow-up structured interviews were performed with 12 participants. Elementary school students had strong stereotypes about STEM professionals’ social skills, slightly deep positive image of STEM professionals, and very positive views on STEM implications for society. However, their STEM career interests were not very high. Besides, elementary school students’ stereotypes about STEM professionals’ social skills have minor negative effects on their STEM career interests. Their positive image of STEM professionals and views on STEM implications for society have significant correlation with their STEM career interests

Stroke Risk among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Zhejiang: A Population-Based Prospective Study in China

Objective. This study aimed to explore the incidence of stroke and stroke subtypes among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) based on the long-term surveillance data in Zhejiang, China, during 2007 to 2013. Materials and Methods. During January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2013, a total of 327,268 T2DM and 307,984 stroke patients were registered on Diabetes and Stroke Surveillance System, respectively. Stroke subtypes were classified according to standard definitions of subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, and ischemic stroke. The incidence of stroke and stroke subtypes was calculated by standardized incidence ratio (SIRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) compared with general population. Results. The incidence of stroke and stroke subtypes among patients with T2DM was significantly higher than in general population. Stroke risk was found significantly increased with an SIR of 3.87 (95% CI 3.76–3.99) and 3.38 (95% CI 3.27–3.48) in females and males, respectively. The excess risk of stroke was mainly attributable to the significantly higher risk of cerebral infarctions with the risk for T2DM being four times that for general population. Conclusions. The relationship between stroke and T2DM was strong, especially in female. The incidence of stroke and stroke subtypes among patients with T2DM was up to 3-fold higher than in general population in Zhejiang province, especially the subtype of cerebral infarctions

Subjective evaluation of the environmental quality in China's industrial corridors.

Based on 270 questionnaire surveys in 8 cities of 5 industrial corridors in China, this study aims to examine the effects of industry construction on the evaluation of environmental pollution, natural environment, built environment, personal perception and development and policy. The results show that the evaluations on environmental pollution and landscape design are both below the medium level, but the evaluations of the living comfort and safety are both above the medium level. Further analysis, females usually give lower evaluation scores than males, and age and health situations are negatively related to the evaluation results; People indicate a great desire to reduce the environmental pollution and protect the natural environment. Moreover, the landscape was analysed using colour extraction techniques based on video recording, there are significant correlations between industrial pixel ratio and evaluation results of air quality, vegetation pixel ratio and evaluation results of river water quality, and public facilities pixel ratio and evaluation results of comfort levels

Modification effect of changes in cardiometabolic traits in association between kidney stones and cardiovascular events

BackgroundsWhether longitudinal changes in metabolic status influence the effect of kidney stones on cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclarified. We investigated the modification effect of status changes in metabolic syndrome (MetS) in the association of kidney stones with risk of incident CVD events.MethodsWe performed a prospective association and interaction study in a nationwide cohort including 129,172 participants aged ≥ 40 years without CVDs at baseline and followed up for an average of 3.8 years. Kidney stones information was collected by using a questionnaire and validated by medical records. The repeated biochemical measurements were performed to ascertain the metabolic status at both baseline and follow-up.Results4,017 incident total CVDs, 1,413 coronary heart diseases (CHDs) and 2,682 strokes were documented and ascertained during follow-up. Kidney stones presence was significantly associated with 44%, 70% and 31% higher risk of CVDs, CHDs and stroke, respectively. The stratified analysis showed significant associations were found in the incident and sustained MetS patients, while no significant associations were found in the non-MetS at both baseline and follow-up subjects or the MetS remission ones, especially in women. For the change status of each single component of the MetS, though the trends were not always the same, the associations with CVD were consistently significant in those with sustained metabolic disorders, except for the sustained high blood glucose group, while the associations were consistently significant in those with incident metabolic disorders except for the incident blood pressure group. We also found a significant association of kidney stone and CVD or CHD risk in the remain normal glucose or triglycerides groups; while the associations were consistently significant in those with incident metabolic disorders except for the incident blood pressure group. We also found a significant association of kidney stone and CVD or CHD risk in the remain normal glucose or triglycerides groups.ConclusionsA history of kidney stones in women with newly developed MetS or long-standing MetS associated with increased risk of CVD. The mechanisms link kidney stones and CVD risk in the metabolic and non-metabolic pathways were warranted for further studies

The Relative Body Weight Gain From Early to Middle Life Adulthood Associated With Later Life Risk of Diabetes: A Nationwide Cohort Study

AimTo determine the effect of decade-based body weight gain from 20 to 50 years of age on later life diabetes risk.Methods35,611 non-diabetic participants aged ≥ 50 years from a well-defined nationwide cohort were followed up for average of 3.6 years, with cardiovascular diseases and cancers at baseline were excluded. Body weight at 20, 30, 40, and 50 years was reported. The overall 30 years and each 10-year weight gain were calculated from the early and middle life. Cox regression models were used to estimate risks of incident diabetes.ResultsAfter 127,745.26 person-years of follow-up, 2,789 incident diabetes were identified (incidence rate, 2.18%) in 25,289 women (mean weight gain 20-50 years, 7.60 kg) and 10,322 men (7.93 kg). Each 10-kg weight gain over the 30 years was significantly associated with a 39.7% increased risk of incident diabetes (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.33-1.47); weight gain from 20-30 years showed a more prominent effect on the risk of developing diabetes before 60 years than that of after 60 years (Hazard ratio, HR = 1.084, 95% CI [1.049-1.121], P <0.0001 vs. 1.015 [0.975-1.056], P = 0.4643; PInteraction=0.0293). It showed a stable effect of the three 10-year intervals weight gain on risk of diabetes after 60 years (HR=1.055, 1.038, 1.043, respectively, all P < 0.0036).ConclusionsThe early life weight gain showed a more prominent effect on developing diabetes before 60 years than after 60 years; however, each-decade weight gain from 20 to 50 years showed a similar effect on risk developing diabetes after 60 years

(Bilingual children's overgeneralisation of the classifier ge in Chinese : what is the role of caretakers' input?)

Children’s acquisition of specific classifiers in classifier languages (such as Chinese) has received much scholarly attention. In this study, preschool children’s overuse of the general classifier ge in Mandarin is investigated in order to find out the influence of caretakers’ input on young learners’ choice of classifiers. In Chinese, the general classifier ge can be used for a variety of head nouns, yet there are some nouns which grammatically require other specific classifiers. Previous studies showed that children’s ‘overgeneralisation’ of ge in Mandarin reflects a rule-based learning mechanism. Methodologically, the elicitation counting in previous studies ignored the authentic input from caregivers, so it is unclear whether children’s overuse of ge is simply a case of overgeneralisation in acquisition or an outcome caused by other factors such as caretakers’ input. In this study, a corpus of teachers’ and children’s natural conversations are used to analyse the patterns of ge in caretakers’ productions in relation to children’s uses of the classifier. The corpus includes Mandarin transcripts of weekly recordings of teachers and children in a childcare centre in China, and the participants involved are five teachers, seven English-Mandarin bilingual children and twelve Mandarin monolingual children. The results show that bilingual and monolingual children show similar patterns of overuse of ge, and both teachers and children extend the use of ge for nouns which require specific classifiers, though the rate of teachers’ overuse is significantly lower than that of children. The results suggest that children’s overuse of ge is influenced by caretakers’ input as well as rule-based learning. Thus, we propose that the caretakers’ input and children’s rule-based mechanism are two contributing factors for the generalized use of ge for young learners in China

Input and acquisition of Mandarin classifiers by English-Mandarin bilingual children

Previous studies on acquisition of classifiers by Mandarin-speaking monolingual children report that in comprehension studies the children often correctly select referents on the basis of classifiers, but in production they often use "general" classifiers like ge "[Chinese character]" and zhi "[Chinese character]" instead of the correct and specific classifiers. This study reports two tests adopted from Ning & Gu 2013 on how successive English-Mandarin bilingual children comprehend and produce classifiers while they acquiring English at the same time. Five English-Mandarin bilingual children whose parents are native English speakers and nine monolingual Mandarin-speaking children from the same kindergarten in Xi'an China are recruited. Their input information is collected through questionnaires and recordings from parents, childcare givers and observational data. Both bilingual children and monolingual children participated in the elicited tasks for comprehension and production of Mandarin classifiers. The results show that the bilingual subject group, though with only half or even less exposure time in comparison to their monolingual peers, have achieved a similar pattern of classifier acquisition in comprehension and production. There are no qualitative differences between these two groups, although individual differences are found within these two groups. The findings on bilingual children's comprehension of Mandarin classifiers are consistent with the previous monolingual research. Bilingual children even perform better than monolingual peers in production for certain classifiers. It seems that limited input does not affect bilingual children's acquisition of Mandarin classifiers and their syntactic combinations

Bilingual development by children of immigrant families : what parents and teachers should know?

More and more children from immigrant families are becoming bilinguals by exposure to two languages in a context-bound bilingual situation. However, most previous studies on childhood bilingualism only investigate how children develop two languages with the one parent-one language strategy. Parents of these bilingual children usually have different native languages from each other, and each parent speaks his or her own language to the child. This paper discusses how children of immigrant families develop two languages in the one environment-one language situation, where neither parent is a native speaker of the mainstream language. Research activities and findings from the Bilingualism Research Laboratory of Western Sydney University and Jinan University are reported. The research has implications for parents and teachers on how to raise and educate the children from immigrant families bilingually