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This study explores the employment experiences of care leavers in China, addressing a gap in understanding their transition into the workforce. Through qualitative interviews with 19 participants, five distinct work pathways were identified: (i) placement approach – typical, (ii) placement approach – typical plus, (iii) self-job-searching approach – typical, (iv) self-job-searching approach – typical plus, and (v) self-job-searching approach – typical ‘on the way.’ The findings highlight care leavers’ proactive roles in navigating their employment journeys, yet also reveal challenges such as educational setbacks, insufficient work skills, lack of support, and societal discrimination, particularly against those with physical impairments. Enhanced support systems are essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been increasing recognition of the complexities surrounding alternative care arrangements for children, especially within China’s changing childcare landscape. This paper addresses the gap in understanding the nuances of alternative care options in China by conducting a narrative review of existing literature and governmental documents, focusing specifically on kinship care, institutional care, family foster care, and adoption. The review reveals recent developments and current challenges associated with each form of alternative care, providing insights into the evolving childcare system in China. Key findings include significant progress in diversifying childcare options, increased funding investment in the system, and efforts to standardize alternative childcare practices through policies and legislative measures. However, challenges persist in promoting psychosocial development and preparing individuals living in institutions for leaving care, ensuring adequate resources and support for kinship caregivers, and enhancing participation rates in family foster care and adoption practices. Practical implications for policymakers and child welfare agencies are discussed, emphasizing the importance of promoting family-based care options, providing quality caregiver training, considering various aspects of children’s needs, extending support for kinship care, and formulating inclusive adoption policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper serves as an introduction to a PhD thesis titled "Transition to Adulthood for Young People with Care Experience in China." The thesis is a comprehensive exploration of the lived experiences and perspectives of young individuals as they navigate life within care institutions, transition out of care, and adapt to life after leaving care. This highlight outlines the fundamental components of the research project, encompassing the background, primary aim, objectives, research questions, selected methodology, and the theoretical frameworks applied throughout the study. Additionally, it provides a concise summary of the key findings derived from the thesis and underscores their significance in advancing our understanding of this knowledge field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A qualitative study involving 34 individuals who had lived experiences in institutional care of China. • Exploring youth perspectives and lived experiences in institutional care. • Eight risk factors associated with institutional care have been identified. • Practice reforms of institutional care are urgently needed, although ongoing research is essential to contextualise care experiences. Amid global shifts towards family-based alternatives, China persists with prevalent institutional care, drawing attention to concerns surrounding caregiving practices. Official data indicates a substantial population, approximately 27.36% of all childcare recipients, living in state-funded care institutions, prompting an exploration of the risks factors faced by these young individuals. This study focuses on exploring risk factors of living in institutions, providing a unique perspective often absent in existing literature—the voices of the care-experienced youth themselves. It included 34 young people who had lived experiences in institutional care. Participants were interviewed to gather their experiences of living in care. Thematic analysis reveals that the overriding risk factors during young people's living in care range from care identity and parental absence to substandard living conditions, unqualified caregiving, excessive domestic responsibilities, institutional neglect of education, environmental instability, and physical impairments. These challenges contribute to unfavourable outcomes during the transition to adulthood. Therefore, this study concludes that institutional care is suboptimal for children and young individuals in need of genuine care. Based on the findings, practical implications are provided for policymakers and practitioners to make improvements. Nonetheless, ongoing research is essential to contextualise care experiences within current policies, ensuring lessons from historical accounts guide future efforts to enhance the lives of young people in care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A scoping study provides a better understanding of how local authorities in China support care-experienced young people. • Twenty-two social policies in China are mapped and examined. • Across localities, housing and employment services are prioritised to support care-experienced young people. • Current policy responses are insufficient, and people's opportunities to access the stipulated support are quite limited. An increasing amount of attention is being paid to young people with care experience on an international scale. They are often associated with negative outcomes after leaving care, such as low educational attainment, unstable housing, job instability and social exclusion. While many countries have prescribed social policies for supporting them for a more fruitful transition out of care, there is little information available in the context of China at local levels. Given this, this paper maps and examines existing local policies, exploring how local authorities support care-experienced young people in China. To achieve, it adopts a scoping review. The findings highlight (i) China's local polices as a whole prescribe a variety of services, resources, and/or measures to support care-experienced young people, of which housing and employment are at the top of the list; (ii) current policy responses are insufficient, and opportunities of this group of people to access the stipulated support are quite limited. The findings of this study indicate that policymakers need to improve local policies in order to make them more operable, sophisticated, and comprehensive, so that care-experienced young people can reap the greatest benefits from them. Also, a national leaving-care policy that provides guidance to local authorities should be considered, adding consistency and clarity to relevant policies across the country. The limitations of this paper relate mainly to its review methods, which point to the need to expand data sources and conduct cross-reviews to enhance the findings' credibility and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Arterial stenosis activates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system subsequently resulting in renovascular hypertension (RVHT) and renal oxidative injury. We explored the effect of sodium thiosulfate (STS, Na2S2O3), a developed antioxidant in clinical trial, on RVHT-induced hypertension and renal oxidative injury in rats. Methods: We induced RVHT in male Wistar rats with bilaterally partial ligation of renal arteries in the 2-kidney 2-clip model. We evaluated the STS effect on RVHT-induced oxidative injury and apoptosis by a chemiluminescence amplification method, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry. Results: We found STS displayed a dose-dependent antioxidant H2O2 activity and adapted the maximal scavenging H2O2 activity of STS at the dosage of 0.1 g/kg intraperitoneally 3 times/week for 4 weeks in RVHT rats. RVHT induced a significant elevation of arterial blood pressure, blood reactive oxygen species amount, neutrophil infiltration, 4-HNE and NADPH oxidase gp91 expression, Bax/Bcl-2/poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-mediated apoptosis formation, blue Masson-stained fibrosis, and urinary protein level. STS treatment significantly reduced hypertension, oxidative stress, neutrophil infiltration, fibrosis, and Bax/Bcl-2/PARP-mediated apoptosis formation and depressed the urinary protein level in the RVHT models. Conclusion: Our results suggest that STS treatment could ameliorate RVHT hypertension and renal oxidative injury through antioxidant, antifibrotic, and antiapoptotic mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macronutrient contents in human milk are the common basis for estimating these nutrient requirements for both infants and lactating women. A mid‐infrared human milk analyser (HMA, Miris, Sweden) was recently developed for determining macronutrient levels. The purpose of the study is to compare the accuracy and precision of HMA method with fresh milk samples in the field studies with chemical methods with frozen samples in the lab. Full breast milk was collected using electric pumps and fresh milk was analyzed in the field studies using HMA. All human milk samples were thawed and analyzed with chemical reference methods in the lab. The protein, fat and total solid levels were significantly correlated between the two methods and the correlation coefficient was 0.88, 0.93 and 0.78, respectively (p  <  0.001). The mean protein content was significantly lower and the mean fat level was significantly greater when measured using HMA method (1.0 g 100 mL−1 vs 1.2 g 100 mL−1and 3. 7 g 100 mL−1 vs 3.2 g 100 mL−1, respectively, p  <  0.001). Thus, linear recalibration could be used to improve mean estimation for both protein and fat. There was no significant correlation for lactose between the two methods (p  >  0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean total solid concentration (12.2 g 100 mL−1vs 12.3 g 100 mL−1, p  >  0.05). Overall, HMA might be used to analyze macronutrients in fresh human milk with acceptable accuracy and precision after recalibrating fat and protein levels of field samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]