Search

This study aims to investigate the knowledge and attitudes of participants and potential participants in clinical trials toward electronic informed consent. We conducted a survey-based cross-sectional study in Hunan Province, China in March 2021. A total of 547 respondents were included in this study. All questions in an 8-item survey section assessing participants' knowledge of electronic informed consent received correct answers from at least 70% of participants. In terms of attitude scores, most participants (86.3%) believed that electronic informed consent is more convenient than the paper-based version, and more than half (51.2%) believed that electronic informed consent could completely replace the paper-based version. Responses indicated that common concerns about electronic informed consent were its security and confidentiality, legal benefits, and implications for rights protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To investigate clinical characteristics and identify risk factors for severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia outside of Wuhan, China. Materials and methods: We included 213 patients with confirmed COVID-19 who had been discharged or died by 15 March 2020. We retrospectively collected epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, computed tomography imaging and outcome data. Clinical characteristics were described and relative risk factors were compared. Results: Most clinical characteristics of this study were similar to those from studies in Wuhan, but there were lower mortality rate and milder severity. The median time from onset of symptoms to confirmation and hospitalization was 4 and 5 days, respectively. The median virus clearance and shedding times were 10 and 15 days, respectively. When the severe/critical group was compared with the mild/moderate group, significant risk factors included: older age; dyspnea; hypertension; poor appetite; fatigue; higher white cell count, neutrophil count, prothrombin time, creatine kinase, creatine kinase-MB, D-dimer, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and C-reactive protein; and lower lymphocyte count and albumin (p < 0.05). In the intensive care unit (ICU) group compared with the non-ICU group, risk factors included: older age; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); dyspnea; poor appetite; higher white cell count, D-dimer, ALT, AST and LDH; and lower lymphocyte count and albumin (p < 0.05). Independent risk factors associated with the severe/critical group were dyspnea [odds ratio (OR) = 19.48], ALT (OR = 6.02) and albumin (OR = 3.36). Independent risk factors associated with the ICU group were dyspnea (OR = 8.88), COPD (OR = 31.80), D-dimer (OR = 8.37), ALT (OR = 28.76) and LDH (OR = 9.95) (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The severity of COVID-19 outside Wuhan, China was milder than that within Wuhan. The clinical infective period was long, and the longest virus shedding time was 35 days. The most important risk factors were dyspnea, COPD, D-dimer, ALT, LDH and albumin. The reviews of this paper are available via the supplemental material section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on detailed ethnographic fieldwork, this paper compares two cases of peasant protest against heavy taxes and fees in a northern Hunan county in the 1990s. It argues that peasant protest did not arise spontaneously. Rather, it erupted when leaders emerged who used central policy documents on lowering peasant taxes and fees to mobilise peasants. Protest leaders were articulate and public-spirited peasants who had received political training from the local party-state. Furthermore, the number of leaders, their education level, and their relationship with the local party-state explain why the repertoire and the scope of the two protests varied. Protests led by less educated veteran Communist Party cadres tended to be milder and smaller than those led by better-educated peasants more distant from the local party-state. This paper helps us to understand the process of peasant mobilisation in contemporary China and explains why peasant protest varies across cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the 5th International Conference on Hydrometallurgy held in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province in China from July 6 to 8, 2009. Organized by Central South University, the conference was attended by more than 200 people. Plenary lectures given during the event focused on such topics as trends in hydrometallurgy and developments in the processing of copper sulfides.

Objective: The purpose of the present paper was to examine the disposition of individuals in Hunan, China who are found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder or defect. Method: Self-developed questionnaires were mailed to the family members of 240 patients who had received forensic psychiatric evaluations at the forensic psychiatric assessment center of Central South University, between 2001 and 2002. Results: One hundred and seventy questionnaires were fully completed and returned by the patients' family members. According to the answers, 64.1% (109 patients) were found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder or defect. In 87.6% of the cases, a judgement of guilty was in agreement with the psychiatrist's recommendation concerning criminal responsibility. A total of 61.8% of the patients found not guilty were discharged to their families and did not receive any further psychiatric treatment. Conclusion: In most cases, judicial decisions are consistent with a psychiatrist's opinion of criminal responsibility due to a mental disorder or defect. After such adjudication, further psychiatric treatment is often neglected due to the lack of resources and information. Hunan, China must make a continued investment into the availability and quality of outpatient mental health treatment for forensic patients after they have been discharged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The dried rhizome of Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce has been widely used in traditional medicinal preparations in China, Japan, and Korea. In China, it is distributed in Hunan, Guangdong, and Liaoning provinces, and its quality differs from habitat to habitat. In addition, P. odoratumhas some adulterants, such as Polygonatum inflatumKom, Polygonatum prattii Baker, and Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua. The morphological traits and chemical composition of the aforementioned adulterants have many similarities with those of P. odoratum. Therefore, it is possible that people often use adulterants instead of P. odoratum for clinical treatment. Objectives: We aimed to establish a reliable and accurate classification model of P. odoratum based on the support vector machine (SVM) and identify it from different habitats; we also aimed to identify its adulterants. Materials and Methods: In this study, we first determined the ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectrum of the water extract of the rhizome from 162 samples (including P. odoratum from Hunan, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, Yunnan, and Liaoning Provinces and adulterant species including P. inflatum, P. prattii,P. cyrtonema, and Disporopsis pernyi (Hua) Diels) by UV-visible spectrophotometry. The UV absorption data were preprocessed with the SVM model before establishing the habitat and other details. Results: According to our results, the SVM model showed a prediction accuracy of 100%. The model accurately identified five different habitats and four different adulterants of P. odoratum. Pretreatment of samples with UV spectrum might be useful in the accurate identification of P. odoratum. Conclusion: The SVM model seems very prospective in identifying herbs with multiple habitats and its adulterants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite many researches on household recycling behavior, little attention has been paid to socio-psychological determinants of rural household recycling behavior in mainland China and their effect levels. On the basis of the survey data from 756 respondents applying structural equation modeling, the final results show that concern for the community, and followed by self-efficacy, subjective norm, justification, moral norm, attitude toward recycling, situation factor, and knowledge of environmental harms of nonrecycling influence household recycling behavior most significantly. The effect of justification is negative and other effects are positive. The attitude is influenced positively by perceived usefulness. Comparisons with previous researches show two significant differences in effect level of each determinant and in rank orderings of determinants. Implications of the findings as well as study limitations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)