Public health impacts of air pollution from the spatiotemporal heterogeneity perspective: 31 provinces and municipalities in China from 2013 to 2020.

Air pollution has long been a significant environmental health issue. Previous studies have employed diverse methodologies to investigate the impacts of air pollution on public health, yet few have thoroughly examined its spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Based on this, this study investigated the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the impacts of air pollution on public health in 31 provinces in China from 2013 to 2020 based on the theoretical framework of multifactorial health decision-making and combined with the spatial durbin model and the geographically and temporally weighted regression model. The findings indicate that: (1) Air pollution and public health as measured by the incidence of respiratory diseases (IRD) in China exhibit significant spatial positive correlation and local spatial aggregation. (2) Air pollution demonstrates noteworthy spatial spillover effects. After controlling for economic development and living environment factors, including disposable income, population density, and urbanization rate, the direct and indirect spatial impacts of air pollution on IRD are measured at 3.552 and 2.848, correspondingly. (3) China's IRD is primarily influenced by various factors such as air pollution, economic development, living conditions, and healthcare, and the degree of its influence demonstrates an uneven spatiotemporal distribution trend. The findings of this study hold considerable practical significance for mitigating air pollution and safeguarding public health.

Influence of intergenerational support on the mental health of older people in China.

Today, population aging is the main trend of population development. Home-based care is mainly adopted in Chinese society, and scholars have paid ample attention to the effect of intergenerational support on the mental health of older people. However, research conclusions differ. This study uses data from the 2018 China Health and Pension Tracking Survey (CHARLS), which we analyzed with STATA software to construct least squares regression and two-stage least squares regression models. The regression model included 6,647 respondents to investigate the mental health status of older people based on depression status. Intergenerational support was defined as economic support, emotional support, and daily care provided by the children of older people. We studied the impact of three aspects of intergenerational support on the mental health of the elderly. We performed a robustness test using the variable replacement and propensity score matching methods, and analyzed age, gender, and urban-rural heterogeneity. The results showed that economic support had no significant impact on the mental health of older people, while emotional support and daily care had a positive effect. The heterogeneity results indicated that the relationship between intergenerational support and mental health of older people differed significantly based on age, gender, and urban and rural areas. Therefore, children should raise their awareness of supporting their parents, pay attention to their parents' mental health, and provide emotional support and daily care. Furthermore, community work improves family relations, creates a good social environment, and encourages young people to respect and be filial to older people. The government should improve the medical security system and old-age service system, and provide policy support to help the mental health of older people.

Measurement and characteristics of the temporal-spatial evolution of China's healthcare services efficiency.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare services efficiency (HSE) is directly related to the healthcare demands of the general public and also plays an essential role in the country's coordinated economic and social development. METHODS: In this study, the stochastic frontier approach (SFA)-Malmquist model was applied to measure the HSE of 31 Chinese provinces based on panel data from 2010-2020. Then, kernel density estimation, Markov chain, and exploratory spatial data analysis were adopted to study the temporal-spatial dynamic evolution characteristics of the HSE. RESULTS: The study found that China's HSE showed an average value of approximately 0.841, indicating room for improvement. The HSE varied significantly across regions, presenting an "East > Central > West" distribution layout. The TFP of healthcare services in China grew by 1.6% per year, driven mainly by technological progress of 1.8% per year. The trend of the HSE shifting to a high level in China was significant, but its evolution exhibited stability of maintaining the original state, and it was harder to achieve leapfrog transfer. The temporal-spatial evolution of the HSE was also significantly affected by geospatial factors, with a clear spatial spillover effect and spatial agglomeration characteristics. Provinces with high-level HSE exhibited positive spatial spillover effects, while provinces with low-level HSE had negative spatial spillover effects. Thus, the "club convergence" phenomenon of "high efficiency concentration, low efficiency agglomeration, high levels of radiation, and low levels of suppression" was formed in the spatial distribution. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that countermeasures should be taken to improve the HSE in China. Theoretical support for the improvement of HSE is provided in this paper.

Numerical model built for the simulation of the earth magnetopause by lobster-eye-type soft X-ray imager onboard SMILE satellite.

Solar wind magnetosphere ionosphere link explorer (SMILE) scientific satellite is dedicated to observe solar wind-magnetosphere coupling. The key payload, soft X-ray imager (SXI), is designed to map the location, shape, and motion of dayside magnetospheric boundaries by Angel-type lobster-eye optical system. Contrast to traditional Wolter-type X-ray telescope with very narrow field-of-view, the lobster-eye-type optics has a unique capability of providing wide field of view for panoramic imaging with moderate spatial resolution in soft X-ray band. Since the lobster-eye optics focus X-ray by reflecting of the inner walls of the micro-channel array shaped in spherical surface, traditional optical design tools can't well match to the requirements of simulation for SXI. In this paper, a 3D Angel-type lobster-eye model is designed for simulation of lobster-eye optics and its capability is demonstrated for the applying scenarios including the imaging of point light source, surface light source with uniform and non-uniform intensity distribution. The simulation results are well consistent with those of theoretical estimate.