Inequality of opportunity in outpatient expenditure among the elderly with multimorbidity: evidence from China.

BACKGROUND: Inequality of opportunity (IOp) stemming from social circumstances exists in outpatient service utilization for the multimorbid elderly in China. However, little is known regarding the magnitude of the IOp and its composition. Therefore, this study aims to measure the IOp in outpatient expenditure and provide potential pathways for policy reform by assessing the contribution of each circumstance. METHODS: This study included 3527 elderly aged ≥ 65 years with multimorbidity from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Study conducted in 2017-2018. An ordinary least squares regression model was used to analyze the circumstance-influencing factors of outpatient expenditure. The parametric approach was performed to quantify the IOp in outpatient expenditure and the Shapley value decomposition method was employed to determine the contribution of each circumstance. By extracting heterogeneity in the residual of the circumstance-dependent equation of outpatient expenditure across circumstance groups divided based on cluster analysis, we captured the effect of unobserved circumstances. RESULTS: Except for pension and distance to health facilities, all the associations between circumstance and outpatient expenditure were statistically significant. The inequality caused by circumstances accounted for 25.18% of the total inequality. The decomposition results revealed that the reimbursement rate contributed 82.92% of the IOp, followed by education duration (4.55%), household registration (3.21%), household income (3.18%), pension (1.49%), medical insurance (1.26%), physical labor (0.99%), unobserved circumstances (0.86%), distance to health facilities (0.83%) and region (0.71%). CONCLUSIONS: The priority of policy enhancement is to effectively improve the outpatient reimbursement benefit for treating chronic diseases. Additional crucial actions include enhancing the health literacy of the multimorbid elderly to promote the shift from medical needs to demands and accelerating the construction of rural capacity for providing high-quality healthcare to the elderly with multimorbidity.

Healthcare costs attributable to abnormal weight in China: evidence based on a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of abnormal weight is on the rise, presenting serious health risks and socioeconomic problems. Nonetheless, there is a lack of studies on the medical cost savings that can be attained through the mitigation of abnormal weight. The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of abnormal weight on healthcare costs in China. METHODS: The study employed a 4-wave panel data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) between 2012 and 2018 (11,209 participants in each wave). Inpatient, non-inpatient and total healthcare costs were outcome variables. Abnormal weight is categorized based on body mass index (BMI). Initially, the two-part model was employed to investigate the impact of overweight/obesity and underweight on healthcare utilisation and costs, respectively. Subsequently, the estimated results were utilised to calculate the overweight/obesity attributable fraction (OAF) and the underweight attributable fraction (UAF). RESULTS: In 2018, healthcare costs per person for overweight and obese population were estimated to be $607.51 and $639.28, respectively, and the underweight population was $755.55. In comparison to people of normal weight, individuals who were overweight/obese (OR = 1.067, p < 0.05) was more likely to utilise healthcare services. Overweight/obesity attributable fraction (OAF) was 3.90% of total healthcare costs and 4.31% of non-inpatient costs. Overweight/obesity does not result in additional healthcare expenditures for young people but increases healthcare costs for middle-aged adults (OAF = 7.28%) and older adults (OAF = 6.48%). The non-inpatient cost of underweight population was significantly higher than that of normal weight population (ß = 0.060,p < 0.1), but the non-inpatient health service utilisation was not significantly affected. CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal weight imposes a huge economic burden on individuals, households and the society. Abnormal weight in Chinese adults significantly increased healthcare utilisation and costs, particular in non-inpatient care. It is recommended that government and relevant social agencies provide a better social environment to enhance individual self-perception and promote healthy weight.

Variational methods and deep Ritz method for active elastic solids.

Variational methods have been widely used in soft matter physics for both static and dynamic problems. These methods are mostly based on two variational principles: the variational principle of minimum free energy (MFEVP) and Onsager's variational principle (OVP). Our interests lie in the applications of these variational methods to active matter physics. In our former work [H. Wang, T. Qian and X. Xu, Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 3634-3653], we have explored the applications of OVP-based variational methods for the modeling of active matter dynamics. In the present work, we explore variational (or energy) methods that are based on MFEVP for static problems in active elastic solids. We show that MFEVP can be used not only to derive equilibrium equations, but also to develop approximate solution methods, such as the Ritz method, for active solid statics. Moreover, the power of the Ritz-type method can be further enhanced using deep learning methods if we use deep neural networks to construct the trial functions of the variational problems. We then apply these variational methods and the deep Ritz method to study the spontaneous bending and contraction of a thin active circular plate that is induced by internal asymmetric active contraction. The circular plate is found to be bent towards its contracting side. The study of such a simple toy system gives implications for understanding the morphogenesis of solid-like confluent cell monolayers. In addition, we introduce a so-called activogravity length to characterize the importance of gravitational forces relative to internal active contraction in driving the bending of the active plate. When the lateral plate dimension is larger than the activogravity length (about 100 micron), gravitational forces become important. Such gravitaxis behaviors at multicellular scales may play significant roles in the morphogenesis and in the up-down symmetry broken during tissue development.

Effect of high soil C/N ratio and nitrogen limitation caused by the long-term combined organic-inorganic fertilization on the soil microbial community structure and its dominated SOC decomposition.

The application of organic fertilizers, such as straw and manure, is an efficient approach to maintain soil productivity. However, the effect of these organic fertilizers on soil microbial nutrient balance has not yet been established. In this study, the effects of the long-term combined organic-inorganic fertilization on microbial community were investigated by conducting a 30-year-long field test. Overall, the following five fertilizer groups were employed: inorganic NP fertilizer (NP), inorganic NK fertilizer (NK), inorganic NPK fertilizer (NPK), NPK + manure (MNPK), and NPK + straw (SNPK). The results indicated that the mean natural logarithm of the soil C:N:P acquisition enzyme ratio was 1.04:1.11:1.00 under organic-inorganic treatments, which showed a deviation from its overall mean ratio of 1:1:1. This indicates that microbial resources do not have a balance. Vector analysis (vector angle <45°) and threshold elemental ratio analysis (RC:N-TERC:N > 0) further demonstrated that the microbial metabolism was limited by Nitrogen (N) under SNPK and MNPK treatments. N limitation further influenced soil microbial community structure and its dominated SOC decomposition. Specifically, Microbial communities transformed into a more oligotrophic-dominant condition (fungal, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi) from copiotrophic-dominant (Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria) condition with increasing N limitation. Lysobacter genus and Blastocatellaceae family, in the bacterial communities along with the Mortierella elongata species in fungal communities, were markedly associated with the N limitation, which could be the critical biomarker that represented N limitation. Both correlation analysis and partial least squares path modeling showed significant positive effects of N limitation on the ratio of bacterial functional genes (Cellulase/Amylase), involved in recalcitrant SOC degradation.

Onsager's variational principle in active soft matter.

Onsagers variational principle (OVP) was originally proposed by Lars Onsager in 1931 [L. Onsager, Phys. Rev., 1931, 37, 405]. This fundamental principle provides a very powerful tool for formulating thermodynamically consistent models. It can also be employed to find approximate solutions, especially in the study of soft matter dynamics. In this work, OVP is extended and applied to the dynamic modeling of active soft matter such as suspensions of bacteria and aggregates of animal cells. We first extend the general formulation of OVP to active matter dynamics where active forces are included as external non-conservative forces. We then use OVP to analyze the directional motion of individual active units: a molecular motor walking on a stiff biofilament and a toy two-sphere microswimmer. Next we use OVP to formulate a diffuse-interface model for an active polar droplet on a solid substrate. In addition to the generalized hydrodynamic equations for active polar fluids in the bulk region, we have also derived thermodynamically consistent boundary conditions. Finally, we consider the dynamics of a thin active polar droplet under the lubrication approximation. We use OVP to derive a generalized thin film equation and then employ OVP as an approximation tool to find the spreading laws for the thin active polar droplet. By incorporating the activity of biological systems into OVP, we develop a general approach to construct thermodynamically consistent models for better understanding the emergent behaviors of individual animal cells and cell aggregates or tissues.

Cutting environmental footprints of maize systems in China through Nutrient Expert management.

Excessive fertilizer consumption, poor management, and intense pollution currently restrict sustainable agriculture in China. To address these problems, two 9-year experiments involving typical maize production systems in Northcentral China (summer maize) and Northeast China (spring maize) were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of Nutrient Expert (NE) management, a Nutrient Decision Support System which combines 4 R nutrient management with improved varieties and optimized plant density, on reducing carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) footprints. The mean grain yields under NE were 7.4 and 11.5 tons ha-1, which were 3.9% and 6.9% higher than those of local farmers' practices (FP) in the summer and spring maize systems, respectively; the N-derived (affected by N fertilization) yield accounted for 21.7% and 73.5% of the total yield under NE, respectively. Compared with FP, NE achieved 21.8% and 16.0% lower reactive nitrogen (Nr) losses, 18.4% and 20.9% lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 24.8% and 21.4% smaller N footprints (9.1 and 2.3 kg N ton-1 grain), and 21.5% and 26.0% smaller C footprints (436 and 206 kg CO2 eq ton-1 grain) in summer and spring maize, respectively. NE reduced the N-derived N and C footprints by 30.3% and 27.2% in summer maize and 22.9% and 28.0% in spring maize, respectively, as a result of greater yields and optimal N management. Moreover, compared with summer maize, spring maize showed significantly smaller N-derived N (12.6-fold) and C (7.2-fold) footprints. The results demonstrated the ability of long-term NE management to sustain maize yields, reduce Nr losses and GHG emissions, and cut C and N footprints, indicating its potential suitability as an alternative management for sustainable agriculture. Moreover, the summer maize system still had considerable potential for environmental footprints reduction even when current NE management practices were adopted.

Elastic Anisotropy Governs the Range of Cell-Induced Displacements.

The unique nonlinear mechanics of the fibrous extracellular matrix (ECM) facilitates long-range cell-cell mechanical communications that would be impossible for linear elastic substrates. Past research has described the contribution of two separated effects on the range of force transmission, including ECM elastic nonlinearity and fiber alignment. However, the relation between these different effects is unclear, and how they combine to dictate force transmission range is still elusive. Here, we combine discrete fiber simulations with continuum modeling to study the decay of displacements induced by a contractile cell in fibrous networks. We demonstrate that fiber nonlinearity and fiber reorientation both contribute to the strain-induced elastic anisotropy of the cell's local environment. This elastic anisotropy is a "lumped" parameter that governs the slow decay of displacements, and it depends on the magnitude of applied strain, either an external tension or an internal contraction, as a model of the cell. Furthermore, we show that accounting for artificially prescribed elastic anisotropy dictates the decay of displacements induced by a contracting cell. Our findings unify previous single effects into a mechanical theory that explains force transmission in fibrous networks. This work may provide insights into biological processes that involve communication of distant cells mediated by the ECM, such as those occurring in morphogenesis, wound healing, angiogenesis, and cancer metastasis. It may also provide design parameters for biomaterials to control force transmission between cells as a way to guide morphogenesis in tissue engineering.

Continuum elastic models for force transmission in biopolymer gels.

We review continuum elastic models for the transmission of both external forces and internal active cellular forces in biopolymer gels, and relate them to recent experiments. Rather than being exhaustive, we focus on continuum elastic models for small affine deformations and intend to provide a systematic continuum method and some analytical perspectives on the study of force transmission in biopolymer gels. We start from a very brief review of the nonlinear mechanics of individual biopolymers and a summary of constitutive models for the nonlinear elasticity of biopolymer gels. We next show that the simple 3-chain model can give predictions that fit well the shear experiments of some biopolymer gels, including the effects of strain-stiffening and negative normal stress. We then review continuum models for the transmission of internal active forces that are induced by a spherically contracting cell embedded in a three-dimensional biopolymer gel. Various scaling regimes for the decay of cell-induced displacements are identified for linear isotropic and anisotropic materials, and for biopolymer gels with nonlinear compressive-softening and strain-stiffening elasticity, respectively. After that, we present (using an energetic approach) the generic and unified continuum theory proposed in [D. Ben-Yaakov et al., Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 1412] about how the transmission of forces in the biogel matrix can mediate long-range interactions between cells with mechanical homeostasis. We show the predictions of the theory in a special hexagonal multicellular array, and relate them to recent experiments. Finally, we conclude this paper with comments on the limitations and outlook of continuum modeling, and highlight the need for complementary theoretical approaches, such as discrete network simulations, to force transmission in biopolymer gels and phenomenological active gel theories for multicellular systems.

Inequalities in health-related quality of life and the contribution from socioeconomic status: evidence from Tibet, China.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to understand the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and the contribution of SES to health inequality among Tibetans of agricultural and pastoral areas (APA) in Tibet, China. METHODS: The data were from Health Survey of Tibetans in APA conducted in 2014. A total of 816 respondents were enrolled for the analysis Multiple linear regression was employed to examine the relationship between SES and HRQoL. Concentration index (CI) was used to measure the degree of health inequality and a Wagstaff-type CI decomposition method was applied to measure the contribution of SES to inequality. RESULTS: SES had significant association with HRQoL among the Tibetans in APA. The high SES group was more likely to have a higher Eq-5d index (0.77 vs. 0.67, P < 0.001) and VAS (72.94 vs. 62.41, P < 0.001) than the low SES group. The Concentration index of the Eq-5d index and VAS for total sample was 0.022 and 0.026 respectively, indicating a slight pro-rich inequality among this population. The decomposition analyses showed the SES is the main contributor to health inequality and contributed 45.50 and 41.39% to inequality for the Eq-5d index and VAS, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results showed SES is positively associated with HRQoL among Tibetans in APA. There was a slight pro-rich inequality in the health of the participants and most health inequality was attributable to SES. This study is helpful in gaining an insight into the HRQoL, health inequality and the relationship between SES and health inequality among Tibetans of APA in China.

Estimation of nitrogen supply for winter wheat production through a long-term field trial in China.

Excessive synthetic nitrogen (N) applications, high mineral N accumulation and low N use efficiency (NUE) are current issues in intensively cultivated winter wheat production system impeding the sustainable development of agriculture in China. To solve these problems, soil accumulated N in the top 1 m of the soil profile before sowing (Nsoil), returned straw-N from the previous maize crop (Nstraw) and fertilizer N application (Nfertilizer) should be comprehensively considered N supply sources in N management. As such, the objective of this research was to determine the optimal total N supply (TNsupply) level needed to meet crop requirements while minimizing environmental impacts. A 9-year on-farm experiment was conducted in accordance with a split-plot design involving two different fertilizer management systems (main treatments) and three N application strategies (sub treatments). Extensive TNsupply levels (ranging from 61 kg ha-1 to 813 kg ha-1) were detected, and relative yield (RY), N input and N output in response to the TNsupply were measured. The relationships between TNsupply and RY, N input, and N output strongly fit linear-plateau, linear, and linear-plateau models, respectively. The minimum TNsupply levels needed to achieve the maximum RY and N output were 325 and 392 kg ha-1, respectively. On the basis of N supply capacity, the TNsupply was removed from the growing system by 61% (N input). As the N input increased past 209 kg ha-1, the NUE declined, at which point the TNsupply reached 433 kg ha-1. Therefore, the suitable TNsupply should range from 325 kg ha-1 (ensuring a total N supply for high yield and N uptake) to 433 kg ha-1 (obtaining a relatively higher NUE and less N loss to the environment). The TNsupply was highlighted to be an indicator for use in N management recommendations. Considering the average high N accumulation in winter wheat production systems, N management should essentially take into account the consumption of Nsoil, the levels of Nstraw and the minimum application of Nfertilizer to obtain high yields while minimizing environmental impacts under suitable TNsupply levels.

Accurate in situ Measurement of Ellipticity Based on Subcycle Ionization Dynamics.

Elliptically polarized laser pulses (EPLPs) are widely applied in many fields of ultrafast sciences, but the ellipticity (ϵ) has never been in situ measured in the interaction zone of the laser focus. In this Letter, we propose and realize a robust scheme to retrieve the ϵ by temporally overlapping two identical counterrotating EPLPs. The combined linearly electric field is coherently controlled to ionize Xe atoms by varying the phase delay between the two EPLPs. The electron spectra of the above-threshold ionization and the ion yield are sensitively modulated by the phase delay. We demonstrate that these modulations can be used to accurately determine ϵ of the EPLP. We show that the present method is highly reliable and is applicable in a wide range of laser parameters. The accurate retrieval of ϵ offers a better characterization of a laser pulse, promising a more delicate and quantitative control of the subcycle dynamics in many strong field processes.

Measurement and decomposition of income-related inequality in self-rated health among the elderly in China.

BACKGROUND: Population ageing in China has brought increasing attention to the health inequalities of the elderly. The purpose of this paper is to measure income-related health inequality among the elderly in China and decompose its causes. METHODS: The data are from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) survey in 2013, which contains 6176 individuals aged 60 years and above. A multiple linear regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of self-rated health (SRH) among the elder people. Furthermore, the corrected concentration index were used to measure income-related health inequality. Wagstaff-type decomposition analysis was employed to explore the cause of inequality. The measurement and decomposition of health inequality was also performed separately in the male and female subgroups. RESULTS: Most elderly declared their health status as "fair" (51.33%) or "poor" (21.88%). Income, gender, residence, region, health insurance and other factors had significant association with SRH (P < 0.05). The corrected concentration index (CCI) was 0.06, indicating pro-rich inequality in health among the elderly. Decomposition analyses revealed that the main contributors to health inequality included income, residence, region, health insurance, and employment. For female elderly, most of the inequality was due to residence (50.78%) and income (49.51%); for male elderly, most of the inequality was due to insurance (38.65%) and income (22.26%); for the total sample, employment had a negative contribution to health inequality (- 25.83%). CONCLUSION: The findings confirm a high proportion of elderly with poor SRH, and health inequality in the Chinese. Some socioeconomic strategies should be conducted to reduce this health inequality among the elderly, such as reducing income disparities, consolidating health insurance schemes, and narrowing urban-rural and regional gaps. Older females with low incomes in rural areas are a vulnerable subgroup and warrant targeted policy attention.

Social determinants of delivery mode in Jiangsu, China.

BACKGROUND: Less evidence exists regarding the association of social determinants and delivery mode in Jiangsu, and if the trend is influenced by the type of residence. This study aims to identify the significant social determinants of delivery mode, and also to compare the main differences in delivery mode between urban and rural areas. METHODS: We used data from the cross-sectional National Health Service Surveys conducted in Jiangsu Province in 2013. For the purposes of this study, information from women (15-64 years old) who had experienced childbirth the last 5 years were examined, and a total of 1365 participants were selected as research subjects. RESULTS: Participants using vaginal delivery mode and cesarean delivery mode were found in 616 (45.1%) and 751(54.9%) participants, respectively. The proportion of women using cesarean delivery was 53.5% in rural area and 58.2% in urban area. Meanwhile, our results showed that women in middle Jiangsu were more likely to use cesarean delivery, and cesarean delivery is more prevalent among richer women. We also find that the more use of prenatal care visit, the more use of cesarean delivery. CONCLUSIONS: This study validated the relationship between social determinants and the mode of delivery in Jiangsu province. Social determinants are contextual factors, which may vary by region and additional work is needed to fully understand these relationships globally. Further studies are needed to elucidate mechanisms and pathways across various populations, and these social determinants should be incorporated into future multi-level interventions designed to decrease the cesarean delivery rate.

Generic Long-Range Interactions Between Passive Bodies in an Active Fluid.

A single nonspherical body placed in an active fluid generates currents via breaking of time-reversal symmetry. We show that, when two or more passive bodies are placed in an active fluid, these currents lead to long-range interactions. Using a multipole expansion, we characterize their leading-order behaviors in terms of single-body properties and show that they decay as a power law with the distance between the bodies, are anisotropic, and do not obey an action-reaction principle. The interactions lead to rich dynamics of the bodies, illustrated by the spontaneous synchronized rotation of pinned nonchiral bodies and the formation of traveling bound pairs. The occurrence of these phenomena depends on tunable properties of the bodies, thus opening new possibilities for self-assembly mediated by active fluids.

Disparities in awareness and utilisation of National Essential Public Health Services between the floating population and the registered residents: a cross-sectional study in China.

OBJECTIVE: There are differences between the floating population and the registered population in the awareness and use of the National Essential Public Health Services (NEPHS) due to the influence of China's household registration system. The Equalization of Basic Public Health and Family Planning Services (EBPHFPS) policy aims to reduce disparities among populations by enhancing the migrant population's access to basic public health services. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the EBPHFPS targeted at the floating population and the disparities in access to and utilisation of NEPHS between registered residents and the floating population. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: 8 cities (regions, autonomous prefectures) in China. PARTICIPANTS: 13 998 floating population and 14 000 registered residents in eight cities (regions, autonomous prefectures) were included in the analysis. OUTCOME MEASURES: Three binomial variables, including awareness of NEPHS, acceptance of health education and establishment of health records, were used as outcome indicators to examine the relationship between the EBPHFPS and the disparities between the floating and registered populations. METHODS: A linear regression model, fairness gap calculation and propensity score matching were used to explore the associations. RESULTS: The areas that implemented EBPHFPS exhibited an 8.3% increase in awareness of the NEPHS (p<0.01) and a 4.0% increase (p<0.05) in the likelihood of individuals having received health education within the previous year compared with the areas without the policy implementation. In contrast to registered residents, however, the floating population still faces significant disparities in NEPHS awareness and utilisation. Compared with areas without the equalisation policy, the inequality of opportunity in health education of the floating population in implementation areas is significantly lower (p<0.01), whereas no significant difference is observed in the inequality of opportunity regarding NEPHS awareness among the floating population (p>0.1). The floating population in the pilot areas of the policy encountered greater disparities in the establishment of health records (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Positive associations between the EBPHFPS policy and NEPHS awareness and utilisation among the floating population were demonstrated to some extent; however, the floating population was still confronted with a degree of inequality of opportunity. The government needs to develop target-oriented policies and a guaranteed mechanism to ensure access to NEPHS among the floating population.

Environmental regulatory intensity, green finance and corporate green sustainable development performance.

In the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the emphasis is made on green and low-carbon initiatives, which has become a defining feature of China's development, and it is of great significance to help enterprises realize green and sustainable development under the guidance of environmental regulation to achieve the goal of "dual-carbon". At first, this research analyzes the decision-making process between the government and enterprises under environmental regulation using the evolutionary game model. Moreover, using the TOPSIS method, this paper constructs the indicators of corporate green sustainable development performance, and empirically examines the impact of the intensity of environmental regulation on the green sustainable development performance of enterprises based on the data of Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2022. A noteworthy positive correlation between the intensity of environmental regulation and the sustainable green development performance of enterprises is unveiled by the results. Mechanism tests suggest that the intensity of environmental regulation has a positive impact on the green sustainable development performance of enterprises through enhancing green finance and green technological innovation. Moreover, this effect tends to be more pronounced for enterprises that are in the mature life cycle, with green executive team, and high media attention. The research presented in this study contributes to establishing a novel theoretical foundation for corporate sustainable development.

Synergistic Effects of Soil-Based Irrigation and Manure Substitution for Partial Chemical Fertilizer on Potato Productivity and Profitability in Semiarid Northern China.

Soil-based irrigation and the partial substitution of chemical fertilizers with manure are promising practices to improve water and nitrogen (N) use efficiency. We hypothesize that their combination would simultaneously benefit potato production, tuber quality and profitability. A two-year experiment was conducted in semiarid northern China to investigate the combined effects of three water treatments [rainfed (W0), soil-based irrigation (W1), conventional irrigation (W2)] and three N treatments [no N (N0), chemical N (N1), 25% manure substitution (N2)] on these indicators, and to perform a comprehensive evaluation and correlation analysis. The results showed that water and N treatments separately affected all indicators except vitamin C content. Compared to W2, W1 significantly increased water productivity by 12% and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) by 30% due to 10% lower evapotranspiration and 21% lower water use. However, W1 and W2 negatively affected crude protein content. Conversely, this was compensated by the combination with N1 and N2. There were slight differences between N1 and N2 for all indicators on average across water treatments, while under W1, N2 significantly increased leaf area index (LAI) and N recovery efficiency (REN) by 18% and 29.4%, respectively, over N1. Also, comprehensive evaluations showed that W1N2 performed best, with the highest tuber yield, profit and acceptable quality. This can be explained by the increase in LAI, IWUE and REN due to the positive correlations with tuber yield and net return. Consequently, soil-based irrigation combined with 25% manure substitution had complementary effects on tuber quality and synergistic effects on potato productivity and profitability.

Social causation, social selection, and economic selection in the health outcomes of Chinese older adults and their gender disparities.

Background: The economic selection hypothesis, which argues that the initial economic situation determines both subsequent health and economic conditions, has been drawn into the debate on causation-selection issues. This study aims to construct a path model with self-rated health and depression score of older adults as health outcomes to measure and compare the social causation forces of wealth accumulation, social selection forces of adulthood health, and economic selection forces of childhood economics, and to examine their gender disparities. Methods: Data was obtained from a sample of 19613 older adults aged 45 years or above from the 2014 life history survey and the 2015 routine follow-up survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted employing the full information maximum likelihood estimation method. Results: The presence of social causation, social selection, and economic selection were all statistically supported. In self-rated health, social selection forces held the dominant position, while social causation forces were comparable to economic selection forces. In depression score, social selection still exhibited stronger forces than economic selection, but social causation had forces close to social selection and greater than economic selection. The forces of the three hypotheses in self-rated health did not significantly change with gender, but social causation exerted mightier forces than economic selection within the male group, unlike the female group. The forces of economic selection in depression score were greater in females than males and no significant differences were observed among the forces of the three hypotheses in the female group. Conclusions: Social causation, social selection, and economic selection operate simultaneously on the self-rated health and depression score of older adults. However, the force magnitudes of the three hypotheses and/or their rankings differ by health outcomes and gender.

Career adapt-ability scale -short form: Validation among early career stage of Chinese university graduates.

The Career Adapt-Ability Scale (CAAS) is the favored method among researchers for measuring career adaptability. The 12-item version of CAAS-SF, which was made by Maggiori, Rossier, and Savickas based on a change to CAAS, has been slowly used by different groups in different countries and regions. As samples for the validation of the scale in this study, 571 Chinese university graduates in the early stages of their professions were chosen. Principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis suggest that CAAS-SF and CAAS have very similar psychological measurement features and factor structures. And the internal consistency of each subscale and total scale are equivalent to or greater than that of the CAAS assessment. These findings indicate that the CAAS-SF is a valid and reliable instrument for evaluating China's career adaptability. In addition, limitations, issues for further research, and suggestions are emphasized.

Soil aggregation is more important than mulching and nitrogen application in regulating soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in a semiarid calcareous soil.

Evaluating soil aggregation and microbial activities within soil aggregates contributes to understanding carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling. Here we examined soil aggregate distribution, C and N pools, and extracellular enzymatic activities (EEAs) in soil aggregates after 16-year mulching (CT, no mulch; RF, plastic-mulched ridges and straw-mulched furrows; SM, straw mulch) and N fertilization (0, 120, and 240 kg ha-1). RF and SM significantly increased macroaggregate formation and aggregate stability (MWD, mean weight diameter) but N rate did not. Mulching had similar effects on aggregate-associated SOC (soil organic C) and TN (total N), with the order SM > RF > CT in macroaggregates and macroaggregate-occluded microaggregates. N input significantly increased TN in most cases, whereas its effect on SOC was only significant in SM. Notably, the majority of SOC and TN was isolated in the macroaggregate-occluded silt and clay fractions. SOC, TN, microbial biomass C (MBC), and microbial biomass N (MBN) decreased as aggregate-size decreased, whereas C- and N-acquiring enzymes varied greatly across aggregate fractions. Mulching had greater effects than N-fertilization on soil C and N pools and EEAs, whilst SM performed more beneficial effects than RF on SOC, TN, MBC, MBN, and EEAs. MBC rather than SOC was associated with MWD in bulk soil, while significant relations between MWD and SOC were observed in macroaggregates and macroaggregate-occluded microaggregates. Partial least squares path modeling illustrated that soil aggregation was the most important factor affecting SOC and TN, followed by mulching and N addition. Regression analysis further revealed that α-glucosidase and leucine aminopeptidase were major variables mediating SOC and TN dynamics at the aggregate scale. This study highlights the importance of macroaggregate-occluded microaggregate fraction sensitively evaluating soil C and N dynamics, and straw mulch can effectively increase soil aggregation and stabilization of C and N in semiarid areas with infertile soils.