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This study decomposed the indicator of decoupling of carbon emissions due to fossil energy consumption from economic growth in China via the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method to explore key factors influencing decoupling status in different periods. The decoupling indicator was decomposed into energy structure, energy intensity, economic structure, and economic output effects over each period. Decoupling varied due to changes in economic growth and energy intensity during different periods. The economic output effect significantly enhanced decoupling, while the energy intensity effect greatly decreased decoupling. The energy structure and economic structure effects had slight impacts on decoupling. A comparative analysis across different sectors and industrial subsectors revealed that industrial growth determined the status of decoupling of carbon emissions from economic growth in China. In terms of industrial subsectors, the major sources of carbon emissions were electricity, steam, and water production and other energy-intensive subsectors. The energy-intensive subsectors, such as coal mining and washing, petroleum and natural gas exploitation, and chemical manufacture, had great effects on the decoupling of carbon emissions, whereas non-energy-intensive subsectors, such as instruments, meters, cultural and office machinery, and ordinary equipment manufacture, had relatively slight impacts on the decoupling. Policy implications in terms of economic growth, economic structure, and energy consumption were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the influence of the bed allocation and utilization efficiency in healthcare institutions on the isolation proportion of Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) to provide data to support prevention and control of MDROs. In this study, the provincial panel data from 2014 to 2020 in China on health resource indicators, including the number of beds per 1,000 population, hospital bed utilization rate, and average hospital stay from 2014 to 2020 in China were used to analyze the relationship between bed allocation or utilization efficiency and MDROs by the panel data quantile regression model. It was shown that the number of beds per 1,000 population had a negative effect on the isolation proportion of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, and cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Escherichia coli (regression coefficient < 0, P < 0.05). The utilization rate of hospital bed had a positive effect on the isolation proportion of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Escherichia coli, carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli, cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (regression coefficient > 0, P < 0.05). The average hospital stay had a positive effect on the isolation proportion for several antibiotic-resistant organisms, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Escherichia coli, carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli, quinolone-resistant Escherichia coli, cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (regression coefficient > 0, P < 0.05). Bed allocation and utilization efficiency in healthcare institutions may affect the isolation proportion of MDROs in varying degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Articulated natural assemblages contain direct evidence of the element numbers, morphologies, positions and structures for reconstructing the feeding apparatuses of conodont animals, but these kind of materials are very rare in fossil records. Here we report ten new conodont natural assemblages from Member II of the Guanling Formation in Luoping County, eastern Yunnan Province, southwestern China. These assemblages were obtained from the fossil-bearing layers of the Luoping Biota, dated to the early Middle Triassic Anisian stage (Pelsonian substage). These fossiliferous laminated limestones mainly consist of calcites and dolomites, with platy clay minerals and pyrites as subordinate components, indicating that the conodont assemblages were preserved in a lower energy and anoxic sedimentary environment. The new natural assemblages preserve the primary collapse orientations of the Nicoraella feeding apparatus from the Luoping Biota, showing the relative original positions of the S, M and P elements, that could be further used to refine the architecture of this apparatus in space variable M elements and the position unclear P1 elements. Integrating previously reported three-dimensional and bilaterally symmetrical fused clusters, we statistically analyze the size of the positional homogenous elements within different sized materials, in particular S4, S3, or S2 elements, indicates that elements ontogenic changes do not affect the apparatus architecture. Architecture of Nicoraella apparatus remains stable in the process of ontogeny, so our reconstructed model is credible. It is the first time that ample types of materials have been used to restore a conodont apparatus within one genus, namely natural assemblages (articulated and disarticulated), fused clusters (articulated, disarticulated, compressed, and relatively three-dimensional), and abundant discrete elements, respectively. These materials together record the most complete information on architecture in the gondolelloid apparatuses, thus enabling us to reconstruct a reliable fifteen-element apparatus and propose it as a standard template for gondolelloid apparatus reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese intellectuals turned to the West for truth. China's modern education system has since been built upon Western experience, with little space for China's vast indigenous intellectual traditions. Meanwhile, Chinese traditions remain omnipresent and ubiquitous in the society. Due to many fundamental differences, Chinese and Western traditions are not compatible with each other. Constant tensions between them have led to Chinese people's loss of spiritual homeland. Universities are both part of the reason for and a result of such a historical development. The shift of knowledge system from traditional learning to Western intellectual formation symbolizes the establishment of modern disciplines in Chinese universities. A better understanding of how traditional Chinese intellectual traditions were driven out of their homeland as Western knowledge became institutionalized is much needed in the literature. This article intends to fill the gap by exploring how the Chinese mind was transformed through the lens of institutionalization of social sciences. It focuses on internationalization and indigenization of China's social sciences with particular attention to the interactions between Chinese and Western intellectual traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lime mud (i.e., micrite) is a major component of carbonate deposits. Various mechanisms (biotic versus abiotic) have been proposed for the formation of lime mud in Earth's history. However, the detailed role that microbes play in the nucleation and subsequent precipitation of micrites remains to be resolved. Herein we undertook a detailed geobiological characterization of laminated lime mudstone from the Middle Triassic Guanling Formation in Yunnan Province, southwestern China. Morphological features, together with previous geobiological investigations, suggest that the laminated lime mudstones represent the former presence of microbial mats. These lime mudstones consist mainly of calcite, dolomite and quartz, with clay minerals and pyrites as subordinate components. In particular, micro-analysis shows copious nano-globules (65–878 nm) and capsule-shaped nano-rods in laminations. These low-Mg calcite nano-globule aggregates are closely associated with mucilaginous biofilms resembling extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Nano-sized globules coalesce to form semi-euhedral micrite crystals. We suggest that a decaying hydrolytic destruction of the EPS by microbial communities within microbial mat leads to the precipitation of the nano-globules by enhancing alkalinity in local micro-environment. As an intermediate, these nano-globules further aggregate to form micrite crystals possibly through a dissolution-reprecipitation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Childhood vitiligo is a common pediatric skin disorder. The pathogenesis of vitiligo is unclear, and immunological dysfunction may play an important role. Objectives: This prospective study aimed to profile childhood vitiligo and to discuss its correlation with immunological dysfunction. Methods: All of the 620 enrolled patients were aged younger than 14 years, and were assessed with a standard questionnaire. The levels of immunoglobulins, complement, and T-lymphocyte subsets were measured in 270 of these 620 patients. Results: Of the 620 children, 302 (48.71%) were boys and 318 (51.29%) were girls, with an average disease onset age of 7.57 years. The average duration was 13.45 months. 453 (73.06%) children had head and neck involvement and 160 (25.81%) children had segmental vitiligo. 84 (13.55%) children had a family history. There was a correlation between the disease and seasons. The onset or progression usually occurred in summer and spring. Halo nevus was seen in both segmental and non-segmental vitiligo. Precipitating factors such as stress appeared more commonly in segmental vitiligo. As to the immunological findings, in segmental vitiligo, the levels of C3 and C4 were lower in the active relative to the quiescent stage (p < 0.05); and in non-segmental vitiligo, the percentages of CD3+ and CD4+ lymphocytes and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio were lower in the active relative to the quiescent stage (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Childhood vitiligo has its own clinical features. The different types of vitiligo have different characteristics. There is immunological dysfunction in children with vitiligo. Dysfunction of humoral immunity may play a role in the progression of segmental vitiligo, while non-segmental vitiligo is more related to cellular immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secular change in 87Sr/86Sr ratio of the Mesozoic recorded the highest value above 0.7083 in Early–Middle Triassic boundary, i.e., the Triassic maximum, suggesting that a major reform in oceanography occurred after the end-Permian mass extinction. We have detected correlative highest 87Sr/86Sr value from the Triassic carbonate, including our data. The stratigraphic horizon of the maximum was constrained to the Olenekian–Anisian boundary (OAB) (247.2 Ma), by conodont. As the oceanic data represent the global average, the present study confirmed the chemostratigraphical utility of the "Triassic maximum" of 87Sr/86Sr ratio in global correlation. After the sharp rise throughout Early Triassic since the end-Permian mass extinction, a remarkable turnover of seawater-87Sr/86Sr values appeared in the OAB. A major global change likely appeared in the OAB to change the Sr-isotope balance in seawater from a continental flux-dominated to a mantle flux-dominated regime. The sharp turning point in 87Sr/86Sr values likely has recorded the timing of the biological influence on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Luoping Biota discovered from the early Middle Triassic (Anisian) Guanling Formation of southwestern China represents a fully recovered shallow marine ecosystem, marking the end point of Early Triassic biotic recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction. Contemporaneously preserved are prolific trace fossils, which offer good opportunities to understand the palaeoecology of marine invertebrates from a fully recovered shallow marine ecosystem. Here we present a newly discovered sinuous branching burrow from the fossil-bearing unit in Member II of the Guanling Formation. Several features, including the horizontal regular sinuous nature, the branching pattern, typical H-junction, and the small wavelength/amplitude ratio of these sinuous structures within the burrow systems justify assignment of these traces as Sinusichnus sinuosus, a trace possibly produced by decapod crustaceans. Close association of S. sinuosus with Rhizocorallium commune suggests a deposit-feeding strategy of these trace makers. The newly reported Anisian material from the Guanling Formation in Luoping represents first report of Sinusichnus from South China. The global record of Sinusichnus occurrence suggests that these burrows might have an older history than Early Middle Triassic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of gigantic apex predators in the eastern Panthalassic and western Tethyan oceans suggests that complex ecosystems in the sea had become re-established in these regions at least by the early Middle Triassic, after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME). However, it is not clear whether oceanic ecosystem recovery from the PTME was globally synchronous because of the apparent lack of such predators in the eastern Tethyan/western Panthalassic region prior to the Late Triassic. Here we report a gigantic nothosaur from the lower Middle Triassic of Luoping in southwest China (eastern Tethyan ocean), which possesses the largest known lower jaw among Triassic sauropterygians. Phylogenetic analysis suggests parallel evolution of gigantism in Triassic sauropterygians. Discovery of this gigantic apex predator, together with associated diverse marine reptiles and the complex food web, indicates global recovery of shallow marine ecosystems from PTME by the early Middle Triassic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the EQ-5D in a general population sample in urban China. Methods: Thousand and eight hundred respondents in 18 communities of Hangzhou, China were recruited by multi-stage stratified random sampling. Respondents self-administered a questionnaire including the EQ-5D, the SF-36, and demographic questions. Test-retest reliability at 2-week intervals was evaluated using Kappa coefficient, the intraclass correlation coefficient. The standard error of measurement (SEM) was used to indicate the absolute measurement error. Construct validity was established using convergent, discriminant, and known groups analyses. Results: Complete data for all EQ-5D dimensions were available for 1,747 respondents (97%). Kappa values were from 0.35 to 1.0. The ICCs of test-retest reliability were 0.53 for the EQ-5D index score and 0.87 for the EQ VAS score. The SEM values were 0.13 (9.22% range) and 4.20 (4.20% range) for the EQ-5D index and EQ VAS scores, respectively. The Pearson's correlation coefficients between the EQ-5D and the SF-36 were stronger between comparable dimensions than those between less comparable dimensions, demonstrating convergent and discriminant evidence of construct validity. The Chinese EQ-5D distinguished well between known groups: respondents who reported poor general health and chronic diseases had worse HRQoL than those without. Older people, females, people widowed or divorced, and those with a lower socioeconomic status reported poorer HRQoL. Respondents reporting no problems on any EQ-5D dimension had better scores on the SF-36 summary scores than those reporting problems. Conclusions: The Chinese version of the EQ-5D demonstrated acceptable construct validity and fair to moderate levels of test-retest reliability in an urban general population in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]