Search

Facial features are important sources of information about perceived trustworthiness. Masks and protective clothing diminish the visibility of facial cues by either partially concealing the mouth and nose or covering the entire face. During the pandemic, the use of personal protective equipment affected and redefined who trusts whom in society. This study used the classical investment game of interpersonal trust with Chinese participants to explore the impact of occlusion on interpersonal trust. Faces with moderate initial trustworthiness were occluded by a mask or protective clothing in Experiment 1 and were digitally occluded by a square in Experiment 2, and faces with three levels of initial trustworthiness were occluded by a mask in Experiment 3. Results showed that both undergraduates (Experiment 1a) and non-student adults (Experiment 1b) perceived the faces with protective clothing as more trustworthy than faces wearing standard masks and faces not wearing masks. Faces with the top halves showing were perceived as trustworthy as full faces, while faces with the bottom halves showing were perceived as less trustworthy. The effect of masks is weak and complex. Masks reduced participants' trust in faces with high initial trustworthiness, had no effect on faces with low and moderate initial trustworthiness, and only slightly increased the trust of undergraduates in faces with moderate initial trustworthiness. Our findings indicate that the lack of information caused by occlusion and the social significance associated with occlusion collectively affect people's trust behavior in Chinese society. We believe the findings of this study will be useful in elucidating the effects of personal protective equipment usage on perceptions of trustworthiness.

Background: The Professional Master of Pharmacy (M. Pharm.) education program in China has undergone 10 years of development and has rapidly achieved great progress. The aim of this study was to summarize and introduce the development of M. Pharm. education in China. Materials and Methods: The data related to M. Pharm. education in China was obtained from literature retrieval, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (MOE), and related university websites. Some data was obtained from the Chinese National Steering Committee for the Professional Degree of Pharmacy Graduate Education (NSCPDP). The NSCPDP data was a result of questionnaires sent to 113 training institutions in 2021 and from a survey of recent graduates of China Pharmaceutical University (CPU) in 2019. Results: The main findings are that the training goals, degree education, qualifications and admission standards of institutions, training fields, curriculum setting, teaching methods, professional practice, faculty teams, quality assurances and evaluations, degree awarding and employment direction in the M. Pharm. education system are relatively well developed, and that M. Pharm. education has become an important part of pharmacy education in China. Conclusion: M. Pharm. education in China not only draws lessons from foreign advanced experience in the administration of schools and universities, but also has formed its own Chinese characteristics and emphasis. M. Pharm. education in China has a bright future through a program of continuous quality improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's unique energy reserve structure abundant in coal and scarce in crude oil and natural gas has promoted heavy investment on the research and development of clean coal chemical technologies during last two decades, which has turned China into a heartland for demonstrating, developing, and commercializing virtually every aspect of new coal chemical process technologies. Consequently, breakthroughs in coal gasification, indirect and direct coal-to-liquid (CTL) processes, and methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technologies are catching attention worldwide. Gasification technology for syngas production is the key to high plant availability and economic success for most coal chemical projects. During the past 20 years, both international and Chinese gasifier vendors have reaped great successes in licensing their technologies in the domestic market. Notably, the local vendors have been investing heavily on inventing and improving their technologies to suit the specific requirement of gasifying a variety of coals. The opposed multinozzle gasification technology from East China University of Science and Technology was taken as an example to demonstrate the recent development in this field. The coal chemical industry in China has witnessed several notable achievements in chemical engineering progress, namely CTL (indirect and direct) and MTO. Comprehensive reviews on topics such as catalysis, kinetics, and reactor design and process integration will be provided by leading scientists in related fields with firsthand information to showcase the contributions of Chinese researchers to chemical engineering science and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Braconid parasitoids reared from Malus sieversii and Malus domestica trees in NW China infested by Agrilus mali Matsumura (Coleoptera, Buprestidae) are illustrated and discussed. Six species were found parasitising Agrilus mali in NW China, namely, Atanycolus ivanowi (Kokujev) (Braconinae), Doryctes undulatus (Ratzeburg), Pareucorystes varinervis Tobias, Polystenus rugosus Foerster, Spathius sinicus Chao, and Spathius brevicaudis Ratzeburg (Doryctinae). All listed species are newly recorded parasitoids of Agrilus mali. Pareucorystes varinervis and Spathius brevicaudis are new records for the Chinese fauna, but Spathius brevicaudis has been recorded from Taiwan before. Both sexes of Spathius brevicaudis are redescribed here to allow inclusion in the recent revision of the Chinese Spathius species. An identification key to the six braconid parasitoids of Agrilus mali in NW China is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensions in the Asia-Pacific region are rising as a consequence of the U.S. "pivot" to Asia and China's increasingly assertive foreign policy. Other states in the region must try to reconcile potentially conflicting economic and strategic imperatives as a consequence. Australia illustrates these dilemmas. We ask what role regional institutions can play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article serves as an introduction to the five articles submitted for the special issue on IPE in China. In addition to summarizing the special issue articles on key themes in IPE, we outline the genesis of IPE as a field of study inside China, detail the core characteristics of Chinese IPE, as seen in this special issue, and consider the limits of the development of Chinese IPE to date. Finally, we provide a road map for the development of the IPE field in China, and identify the potential contributions which the Chinese scholarship could make to knowledge creation in IPE, and to the global conversation, in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We evaluated the response of male Reeves's pheasants Syrmaticus reevesii to different forest edges in a fragmented forest landscape in central China using radio-telemetry. Our fieldwork was carried out from April 2000 to August 2003 in the Dongzhai National Nature Reserve within the Dabie Mountains, China. We identified four major types of forest edges: shrub, farmland, road and residential edge. The association of male Reeves's pheasants with these edges was nonrandom and varied by season, suggesting that land-cover and land-use patterns surrounding forest fragments could have variable effects on habitat use of Reeves's pheasants. Shrub edges were preferred by males in all seasons and male Reeves's pheasant seldom moved >200 m from this type of edge. Pheasants tended to avoid farmland edges in summer, stayed within 100 m of the nearest road edges in spring and moved farther from residential edges with season shifts. Furthermore, edge use by male Reeves's pheasants also differed between winter and the other three seasons. Our data demonstrated the relationships between edge effects and the spatial distribution patterns of Reeves's pheasants, and suggested that landscape configuration, including juxtaposition of forest and shrubby vegetation, should be incorporated into management and conservation for addressing edge effects at landscape scales. We suggest monitoring the spatial responses of this species to different forest edges over a longer term and at a larger landscape scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of the genus Goniurosaurus (Squamata: Eublepharidae) is described from Yingde, Guangdong Province, China: Goniurosaurus yingdeensis sp. n. It can be discriminated from other known congeners by having 10-13 precloacal pores; dorsal ground color of head, body, and limbs in adults dark brown; posteriorly rounded nuchal loop situated low on the nape of the neck; five body bands between the nuchal loop and the caudal constriction; tail length and snout-vent length almost equal in individuals with original tail; the base of claws being sheathed by four scales; and short conchoidal lateral scales at claw base. First-hand data on the natural history of G. yingdeensis, and an expanded key to the genus Goniurosaurus, are provided. Being found outside the known geographical distribution of the genus Goniurosaurus, this is the first record in Guangdong Province in southern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that examined home range, daily movement and seasonal variations of male Reeves' pheasants Syrmaticus reevesii in the Dabie Mountains in central China. It aims to estimate home range, quantify daily movements and examine home range fidelity among seasons and years. The researchers found that daily movements in spring were almost twice than that of winter. It mentions that estimating home range size can provide an important insight into important ecological processes.