Association between alcohol use and frailty among elder adults in three Chinese cities.

BACKGROUND: Frailty is often described as a condition of the elderly and alcohol use is associated with frailty. The aim of this study is to examine the associations between alcohol use and frailty in three cities in elder adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in three cities in China from June 2017 to October 2018. In total, 2888 residents aged ≥65 years old were selected by using a multi-level stage sampling procedure. Alcohol use was assessed by Focusing on Cutting down, Annoyance by criticism, Guilty feeling, and Eye-openers (CAGE) four-item questionnaire. Frailty was measured by a validated Chinese version of the Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illness, and Loss of weight (FRAIL) scale. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine the association of alcohol use with pre-frailty and frailty after controlling for varied covariates. RESULTS: In general, the prevalence of pre-frailty and frailty was 38.64 and 20.26%, respectively. After controlling for covariates and interaction of age and problematic drinking, non-problematic drinkers neither had association with pre-frailty (OR: 1.15, 95%CI:0.86-1.52) nor with frailty (OR:0.90, 95%CI:0.60-1.36), and problematic drinkers neither had association with frailty (OR: 1.21, 95%CI:0.83-1.76), while problematic drinkers had high odd ratios of frailty (OR:3.28, 95%CI:2.02-5.33) compared with zero-drinker. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found a positive association between problematic drinking and frailty, no relationship between non-problematic drinking and (pre-)frailty compared with zero-drinking among Chinese elder adults. Based on previous findings and ours, we conclude it is important for the prevention of frailty to advocate no problematic drinking among elder adults.

Associations of individual social capital with subjective well-being and mental health among migrants: a survey from five cities in China.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to examine the associations of cognitive and structural social capital with subjective well-being (SWB) and mental health among internal migrants in five cities in China. METHODS: We conducted healthy cities surveys from June 2017 to April 2018. In total, 3038 migrants submitted surveys. Generalized linear regressions for SWB and logistic regressions for mental health were used to examine the associations of social capital, SWB and mental health after controlling for covariates. RESULTS: The median level of SWB was 75.7 (interquartile range 62.9-85.7). Self-rated health and physical activity were positively associated with SWB. The SWB level among migrants who perceived high individual social cohesion was much higher than that of their counterparts (unstandardized coefficients, ß=7.01 [95% confidence interval {CI} 5.82 to 8.21]). The prevalence of poor mental health was 10.0%. High social cohesion (odds ratio [OR] 0.32 [95% CI 0.24 to 0.44]) and high social participation (OR 0.77 [95% CI 0.57 to 0.97]) were significantly associated with a low ratio of poor mental health when compared with their counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive social capital is positively associated with SWB, while both cognitive and structural social capitals were negatively associated with poor mental health. It is beneficial to migrants' mental health and SWB to promote social participation and social cohesion.

Conductivity Size Effect of Square Cross-Section Polycrystalline Nanowires.

A theoretical model for the electrical conductivity size effect of square nanowires is proposed in this manuscript, which features combining the three main carrier scattering mechanisms in polycrystalline nanowires together, namely, background scattering, external surface scattering, as well as grain boundary scattering. Comparisons to traditional models and experiment data show that this model achieves a higher correlation with the experiment data.

The "Dark Side" Effects of Social Capital on Harmful Drinking among Chinese Community Residents: A Multilevel Study.

Background: To determine the effects of social capital on harmful drinking (HD) among Chinese community residents using a multilevel study. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted from 2017⁻2018. In total, 13,610 participants were randomly interviewed from 29 districts of 3 cities in China with a multi-stage sampling procedure. Social capital, including social cohesion, membership in social organizations, and frequency of social participation, were assessed using validated scales. HD was assessed using the CAGE four-item questionnaire. Multilevel models were developed to determine whether social capital was related to HD when socioeconomic and demographic covariates were controlled. Results: In general, the prevalence of HD was 8.18%, and more specifically, 13.77% for men and 2.74% for women. After controlling for covariates and stratifying by gender, compared to residents in the low individual-level membership of social organizations, we found that the odds ratio (OR) for HD was 1.30 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.07⁻1.56 among men and 1.95 (95% CI: 1.29⁻2.97) among women. Compared to residents in the low individual-level frequency of social participation groups, the odds ratio of HD among women was 1.58 (95% CI: 1.10⁻2.26). There was no association between district-level social capital and HD. Conclusions: A high level of social capital may promote HD among the residents of Chinese neighborhoods. Intervention to modify social capital under the Chinese drinking culture may help reduce HD.

Associations between psychosocial work environments and social capital: a multilevel analysis study in a Chinese context.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the determinants of social capital is the prerequisite to building social capital. However there was few studies to explore factors related to workplace social capital. We aim to examine associations between psychosocial work environments and social capital in a Chinese context through a cross-sectional study. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Shanghai, China from December 2016 through March 2017. In total, 2380 workers from 32 workplaces were randomly sampled by a two-stage sampling procedure. Workplace social capital (WSC), psychosocial work environments (PWEs), and workplace Chinese Confucian values (CCVs), were assessed using validated and psychometrically tested measures. Multilevel ordinal regression models were used to examine the associations of WSC with individual- and workplace-level PWEs and workplace CCVs after controlling for individual socioeconomic characteristics. RESULTS: After controlling for individual socioeconomic characteristics, all individual-level PWEs (unstandardized coefficients [B] ranging from 0.280 to 2.467) were positively associated with WSC. Individual-level workplace CCVs had mixed associations with WSC-high individual levels of respect for authorities (B: 0.325; 95%CI: 0.134, 0.516) and altruism (B: 0.347; 95%CI: 0.155, 0.539) were associated with high WSC, while high individual levels of acceptance of authorities (B: - 0.214; 95%CI: - 0.381, - 0.046) and the mianzi rule (B: - 0.258; 95%CI: - 0.435, - 0.080) were associatecd with low WSC. No workplace-level variable was associated with WSC. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that workplace social capital associates with multiple factors. Psychosocial work environments and cultural context are important in understanding variations in workplace social capital between individuals.

Association Between Workplace Social Capital and Absolute Presenteeism: A Multilevel Study in a Chinese Context.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between workplace social capital (WSC) and presenteeism in a Chinese context. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study in Shanghai, China, from December 2016 to March 2017. Totally, 2380 workers were randomly sampled through a two-stage sampling procedure. Validated and psychometrically tested measures were used to assess job stress, self-rated health and absolute presenteeism (AP), and WSC. RESULTS: Job stress [unstandardized coefficients, B:1.83, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.43 to 3.24] was positively associated with AP. Compared with participants with excellent self-rated health, those with very good, good, and general self-rated health had gradationally higher levels of AP. High individual-level WSC (B: -6.32; 95% CI: -7.62 to -5.02) and workplace-level WSC (B: -4.43; 95% CI: -7.44 to -1.42) were negatively associated with AP. CONCLUSION: Interventions on promoting workers' health, decreasing job stress, and enhancing WSC may contribute to decreasing AP in Chinese workplaces.

A review of optical NDT technologies.

Optical non-destructive testing (NDT) has gained more and more attention in recent years, mainly because of its non-destructive imaging characteristics with high precision and sensitivity. This paper provides a review of the main optical NDT technologies, including fibre optics, electronic speckle, infrared thermography, endoscopic and terahertz technology. Among them, fibre optics features easy integration and embedding, electronic speckle focuses on whole-field high precision detection, infrared thermography has unique advantages for tests of combined materials, endoscopic technology provides images of the internal surface of the object directly, and terahertz technology opens a new direction of internal NDT because of its excellent penetration capability to most of non-metallic materials. Typical engineering applications of these technologies are illustrated, with a brief introduction of the history and discussion of recent progress.