Rising mortality from injury in urban China: demographic burden, underlying causes and policy implications

In urban China, mortality from injuries has increased over the past five decades. By contrast, life expectancy has continued to increase and has come to nearly equal life expectancy in developed countries. Currently, most of the life expectancy lost due to injury (65%) in urban China would be recovered if injury rates were the same as in countries with low injury-related mortality. Fundamentally, the rising trend in urban injury mortality in China reflects a continued focus on injury treatment rather than prevention in the face of fast socioeconomic development and increasing exposure to risk factors for injury. Despite improved injury prevention legislation and a 'Safe Community' campaign, urban China needs to modify its approach to urban injury management and focus on prevention. The gap between urban China and countries with low injury mortality can be closed by means of legislation, strengthened law enforcement and the establishment of safer communities. Risks affecting children and migrants deserve greater attention, and the government needs to allocate more resources to injury prevention to mid-western urban areas in particular. Based on the population size of urban China, measures for the prevention of injury mortality would save an annual 436.4 million years of life

The influence of institutional fragility on corporate cash holdings: evidence from China

This study examines the relationship between institutional fragility and corporate cash holdings. Using data from China between 2004 and 2017, we find that institutional fragility is associated with increased corporate cash holdings. The relationship is stronger for non-state-owned enterprises and stronger when firms have no relationship with banks. Furthermore, we find that institutional fragility reduces current investment opportunities, leading to an increase in corporate cash holdings. Investment opportunities play an intermediary effect; hence, institutional fragility affects corporate cash holding

Pattern formation and bifurcation analysis of delay induced fractional-order epidemic spreading on networks

The spontaneous emergence of ordered structures, known as Turing patterns, in complex networks is a phenomenon that holds potential applications across diverse scientific fields, including biology, chemistry, and physics. Here, we present a novel delayed fractional-order susceptible-infected-recovered-susceptible (SIRS) reaction-diffusion model functioning on a network, which is typically used to simulate disease transmission but can also model rumor propagation in social contexts. Our theoretical analysis establishes the Turing instability resulting from delay, and we support our conclusions through numerical experiments. We identify the unique impacts of delay, average network degree, and diffusion rate on pattern formation. The primary outcomes of our study are: (i) Delays cause system instability, mainly evidenced by periodic temporal fluctuations; (ii) The average network degree produces periodic oscillatory states in uneven spatial distributions; (iii) The combined influence of diffusion rate and delay results in irregular oscillations in both time and space. However, we also find that fractional-order can suppress the formation of spatiotemporal patterns. These findings are crucial for comprehending the impact of network structure on the dynamics of fractional-order systems.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

The Influence of Peer Behavior as a Function of Social and Cultural Closeness: A Meta-Analysis of Normative Influence on Adolescent Smoking Initiation and Continuation

Although the influence of peers on adolescent smoking should vary depending on social dynamics, there is a lack of understanding of which elements are most crucial and how this dynamic unfolds for smoking initiation and continuation across areas of the world. The present meta-analysis included 75 studies yielding 237 effect sizes that examined associations between peers’ smoking and adolescents’ smoking initiation and continuation with longitudinal designs across 16 countries. Mixed-effects models with robust variance estimates were used to calculate weighted-mean Odds ratios. This work showed that having peers who smoke is associated with about twice the odds of adolescents beginning (OR = 1.96, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.76, 2.19]) and continuing to smoke (OR = 1.78, 95% CI [1.55, 2.05]). Moderator analyses revealed that (a) smoking initiation was more positively correlated with peers’ smoking when the interpersonal closeness between adolescents and their peers was higher (vs. lower); and (b) both smoking initiation and continuation were more positively correlated with peers’ smoking when samples were from collectivistic (vs. individualistic) cultures. Thus, both individual as well as population level dynamics play a critical role in the strength of peer influence. Accounting for cultural variables may be especially important given effects on both initiation and continuation. Implications for theory, research, and antismoking intervention strategies are discussed

Relationship between body mass index reference and all-cause mortality: Evidence from a large cohort of Thai adults

We investigate variation in body mass index (BMI) reference and 5-year all-cause mortality using data from 87151 adult Open University students nationwide. Analyses focused on BMI reference bands: "normal" (≥18.5 to <23), "lower normal" (≥18.5 to <20