Search

Understanding the mechanisms underlying diversity–productivity relationships (DPRs) is crucial to mitigating the effects of forest biodiversity loss. Tree–tree interactions in diverse communities are fundamental in driving growth rates, potentially shaping the emergent DPRs, yet remain poorly explored. Here, using data from a large‐scale forest biodiversity experiment in subtropical China, we demonstrated that changes in individual tree productivity were driven by species‐specific pairwise interactions, with higher positive net pairwise interaction effects on trees in more diverse neighbourhoods. By perturbing the interactions strength from empirical data in simulations, we revealed that the positive differences between inter‐ and intra‐specific interactions were the critical determinant for the emergence of positive DPRs. Surprisingly, the condition for positive DPRs corresponded to the condition for coexistence. Our results thus provide a novel insight into how pairwise tree interactions regulate DPRs, with implications for identifying the tree mixtures with maximized productivity to guide forest restoration and reforestation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From integrated textural and compositional studies of auriferous and barren pyrite/marcasite in the epithermal Axi gold deposit, China, we have identified a relationship between multiple gold mineralizing events, mafic magma recharge, and fluid-rock reactions. Three generations of pyrite (Py1–3) and four generations of marcasite (Mar1–4) record episodic gold mineralizing events, followed by silver-copper-lead-zinc-cadmium enrichment. The gold mineralizing events are recorded by high concentrations of subnanometer-sized gold in Py1, Py3, and Mar3 (max. = 147, 129, and 34 ppm, med. = 39, 34, and 12 ppm). Based on previous Re-Os age determinations of pyrite and U-Pb zircon ages of the andesitic wallrock, these gold events slightly postdate pulsed mafic magma recharge and represent the incursion of Au-As-S-rich magmatic volatiles into circulating meteoric water. Silver-Cu-Pb-Zn-Cd enrichment in Py2, Mar2, and Mar4 are consistent with quiescent degassing and gradual Ag-Cu-Pb-Zn-Cd enrichment in an evolved felsic magma. Barren Mar1 records the dominance of meteoric water and a limited magmatic fluid contribution. High-Co-Ni-V-Cr-Ti contents in porous cores of Py1 and Mar2 are attributed to wall rock alteration and dissolution-reprecipitation. The results provide convincing evidence that the metal budget (especially for Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, Zn, Sb) of the hydrothermal fluids and sulfides in epithermal systems are controlled by the influx of magmatic fluids and associated magma, whereas the enrichment of certain fluid-immobile elements, such as Co, Ni, V, Cr, and Ti, is caused in part by fluid-rock interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines monetary policy spillovers from the US and the People's Republic of China (PRC) to real and financial sectors in advanced and emerging Asian economies over the period 2000 to 2020. Using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) approach, we find that Asian economies overall are more susceptible to spillovers to GDP, inflation, and the current account emanating from monetary policy shocks in the PRC than to those from the US. This is related to high inter-regional trade integration in Asia and is in line with previous research findings. However, while the prevailing literature has highlighted the dominant role of US monetary policy as a transmitter of shocks to global and Asian financial markets, we find more persistence in the response of advanced Asian interest rates to PRC monetary policy shocks. In addition, emerging Asian economies are found to be more susceptible to shocks emanating from the PRC in respect of equity markets and exchange rates. The rising synchronization of Asian financial markets in relation to the PRC as the financial account in the PRC has gradually opened as well as indirect effects via trade and regional value chains help to rationalize our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seit China dabei ist, zur größten Wirtschaftsmacht aufzusteigen und den Anspruch erhebt, spätestens 2049 die politische Führung in der Welt zu übernehmen, drängt sich die Frage auf, wie dieser phänomenale Aufstieg zu erklären ist. Sie stellt sich umso mehr, weil dort seit 1949 eine Kommunistische Partei (KP) an der Macht ist, staatliche Planung den ordnungspolitischen Rahmen setzt und trotz aller privatwirtschaftlichen Lockerungen die strategischen Bereiche in der Hand von Staatskonzernen sind. Das gilt besonders für die Außenwirtschaft. In der Sowjetunion, noch in den 1950er Jahren das vermeintliche Vorbild, ist dieses System krachend gescheitert, musste die KP trotz aller Reformen 1989 abdanken, während sie sich in China trotz des Pekinger Frühlings behaupten konnte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese monetary and financial authorities have been among the pioneers in promoting green finance. This article investigates the use of one specific monetary policy tool, namely window guidance, by the Peoples' Bank of China (PBC) and the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) to encourage financial institutions to expand credit to sustainable activities and curb lending to heavy-polluting industries. 'Window guidance' is a relatively informal policy instrument that uses benevolent compulsion to 'guide' financial institutions to extend credit and allocate lending in line with official (government) targets. We investigate window guidance targets for the period 2001–2020 and find that 'green' targets were included by the CBRC from at least 2006 and by the PBC from 2007 to discourage lending to carbon-intensive and polluting industries and/or to increase support to sustainable activities. In 2014, both authorities stopped discouraging lending to carbon-intensive/polluting industries through window guidance. Sustainable objectives were subsequently also removed from the PBC's list of window guidance priority sectors at the start of 2019, ending the practice of green window guidance in China. Sustainability-enhancing window guidance targets were replaced and formalized through new 'Guidelines for Establishing the Green Financial System', reflecting efforts to move away from controls-based towards market-based policy instruments. Based on this analysis, the article draws four lessons for the design of green finance policies for other countries that seek to enhance sustainable finance and mitigate climate change and related risks. Key policy insights The Chinese experience of using window guidance to direct bank lending to support national sustainability targets and goals shows how the instrument can be successfully used in financial markets that are at an early stage of financial market development. The efficacy of window guidance and other directed bank-lending policies is likely to diminish as financial markets mature and direct monetary policy instruments become less powerful. When window guidance is used, it should be linked to clear criteria of success, the achievement of which should be monitored. Green window guidance should be embedded in a broader framework of green finance policies, as well as climate and environmental policies. While today's framing and language on sustainable finance policy in China focuses increasingly on market-based instruments, the Chinese experience of using window guidance offers valuable lessons for other emerging economies in Asia and beyond with financial systems dominated by banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financing climate change mitigation and adaptation in Asia is critical for its population and economies but also for those of the world. This editorial provides a commentary and overview of ten articles within this special issue of Climate Policy on 'Green Finance in Asia'. Contributions are diverse in terms of focus and methods. Most of the articles focus on managing transition risk with six of the articles having an energy focus; the dominant themes are the risk of stranded coal assets in China; the role of export finance by China and Japan for fossil fuel-fired power generation assets within Asia; and investment in renewable power generation and the policies to support such investment. The remaining four articles explore various policies in specific country contexts: the effects of green bond policies in China; the greening of monetary policy in China; the governance of sustainable finance in Indonesia; and policies to support investment and finance of off-grid electricity access in Bangladesh. Most of the ten contributions come from researchers in developed countries and principally from non-Asian countries, suggesting there is a need to develop green finance research capability and capacity across Asia. Despite being withing scope of the special issue, this collection does not contain papers on physical risk or adaptation finance. We highlight these as important gaps and priorities for future research. Key policy insights This editorial provides a commentary and overview of ten articles within this special issue of Climate Policy on 'Green Finance in Asia'. Most of the ten contributions come from researchers in developed countries and principally from non-Asian countries. There is a need to develop green finance research capability and capacity across Asia. Most contributions were focussed on transition risk, with limited or no focus on physical risk and adaptation finance. This likely reflects the multiple resource and expertise challenges faced when conducting physical risks assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: We analyzed the value of response time information in supply chain bargaining and how the transparency of response times affects bargaining dynamics and outcomes. Academic/practical relevance: The research on supply chain bargaining has focused on agents' choices, whereas the value of process data, such as response times, has received limited attention. The process data underlying a decision can contain valuable information about the agents' preference. Methodology: We conducted two laboratory experiments with multiround bargaining between a supplier and a retailer, where the supplier had private information about production costs. The retailer proposed wholesale prices to the supplier, and the supplier decided whether to reject or accept them. The experiments were composed of treatments with response time information (RT-Treatments) and those without response time information (noRT-Treatments). Suppliers' response times were transparent to retailers in the RT-Treatment but were not transparent to those in the noRT-Treatment. Results: We found that suppliers' response times could indicate their preference strengths regarding retailers' proposals. In the RT-Treatment, retailers could use suppliers' response times to their advantage. Compared with those in the noRT-Treatment, retailers in the RT-Treatment made lower initial proposals. The final wholesale prices in agreements were also lower in this treatment, resulting in higher average retailer and channel profits but lower supplier profits. Managerial implications: We demonstrated that response time information in supply chain bargaining revealed bargainers' preferences and affected bargaining dynamics and outcomes. Bargainers could use their partners' response times to improve their bargaining outcomes. Funding: F. Chen gratefully acknowledges support from the Ministry of Science and Technology [Grant 2021ZD0200409] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 71803174 and 72173113]. Y. Zhao and U. Thonemann gratefully acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [Grant TH 1425/2-1]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1138. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: The measurement of laboratory biomarkers plays a critical role in managing patients with COVID-19. However, to date most systematic reviews examining the association between laboratory biomarkers and mortality in hospitalized patients early in the pandemic focused on small sets of biomarkers, did not account for multiple studies including patients within the same institutions during overlapping timeframes, and did not include a significant number of studies conducted in countries other than China. Objective: To provide a comprehensive summary and an evidence map examining the relationship between a wide range of laboratory biomarkers and mortality among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the early phase of the pandemic in multiple countries. Evidence review: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science were searched from Dec 2019 to March 9, 2021. A total of 14,049 studies were identified and screened independently by two raters; data was extracted by a single rater and verified by a second. Quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Case Series Critical Appraisal tool. To allow comparison across biomarkers, standardized mean differences (SMD) were used to quantify the relationship between laboratory biomarkers and hospital mortality. Meta-regression was conducted to account for clustering within institutions and countries. Results: Our systematic review included 94 case-series studies from 30 countries. Across all biomarkers, the largest and most precise SMDs were observed for cardiac (troponin (1.03 (95% CI 0.86 to 1.21)), and BNP/NT-proBNP (0.93 (0.52 to 1.34)), inflammatory (IL-6 (0.97 (0.67 to 1.28) and Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (0.94 (0.59 to 1.29)), and renal biomarkers (blood urea nitrogen (1.01 (0.79 to 1.23)) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (-0.96 (-1.42 to -0.50)). There was heterogeneity for most biomarkers across countries with studies conducted in China generally having larger effect sizes. Conclusions and relevance: The results of this study provide an early pandemic summary of the relationship between biomarkers and mortality in hospitalized patients. We found our estimated ESs were generally attenuated compared to previous systematic reviews which predominantly included studies conducted in China. Despite using sophisticated methodology to examine studies across countries, heterogeneity in reporting of case-series studies early in the pandemic limits clinical interpretability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With improving PM2.5 air quality, the tropospheric ozone (O3) has become the top issue of China's air pollution control. Here, we combine comprehensive observational data analysis with models to unveil the contributions of different processes and precursors to the change of O3 during COVID-19 lockdown in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), one of the most urbanized megacity regions of eastern China. Despite a 44 to 47% reduction in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, maximum daily 8-h average (MDA8) ozone concentrations increase from 28 ppbv in pre-lockdown to 43 ppbv in lockdown period. We reproduce this transition with the WRF-Chem model, which shows that ~80% of the increase in MDA8 is due to meteorological factors (seasonal variation and radiation), and ~20% is due to emission reduction. We find that daytime photochemistry does not lead to an increase but rather a decrease of daytime O3 production during the lockdown. However, the reduced O3 production is overwhelmed by the weakened nitric oxide (NO) titration resulting in a net increase of O3 concentration. Although the emission reduction increases O3 concentration, it leads to a decrease in the Ox (O3 + NO2) concentration, suggesting reduced atmospheric oxidation capacity on a regional scale. The dominant effect of NO titration demonstrates the importance of prioritizing VOCs reduction, especially from solvent usage and the petrochemical industry with high emission ratios of VOCs/NOx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global change exposes forest ecosystems to many risks including novel climatic conditions, increased frequency of climatic extremes and sudden emergence and spread of pests and pathogens. At the same time, forest landscape restoration has regained global attention as an integral strategy for climate change mitigation. Owing to unpredictable future risks and the need for new forests that provide multiple ecosystem services, mixed-species forests have been advocated for this purpose. However, the successful establishment of mixed forests requires intrinsic knowledge of biodiversity's role for forest ecosystem functioning. In this respect, a better understanding of tree-tree interactions and how they contribute to observed positive tree species richness effects on key ecosystem functions is critical. Here, we review the current knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of tree-tree interactions and argue that positive net biodiversity effects at the community scale may emerge from the dominance of positive over negative interactions at the local neighbourhood scale. In a second step, we demonstrate how tree-tree interactions and the immediate tree neighbourhood's role can be systematically assessed in a tree diversity experiment. The expected results will improve predictions about the effects of tree interactions on ecosystem functioning based on general principles. We argue that this knowledge is urgently required to guide the design of tree species mixtures for the successful establishment of newly planted forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 virus crisis is related to virology, medicine, politics, economy, lockdown, the constitution, masks, the future, and short-time work. But what about the mental health of the medical practitioners on the frontline? Experiences and research in China provide not only an insight into the almost superhuman medical performance, but also the most extreme mental stress and strain of these same practitioners. Some of the key conclusions derived from these studies may be of interest to practitioners in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Nachrichten aus der Chemie is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

Bioerosional trace fossils can offer invaluable insights into taphonomic processes, ecosystem dynamics and environmental conditions that are not obtainable by other lines of evidence. Here, we describe the first invertebrate trace fossils on dinosaur bone from the Upper Jurassic Shishugou Formation of the northeastern Junggar Basin. The traces occur as spherical holes in the bone, closely resembling boreholes attributed to either indeterminate insects or dermestid beetles and thus they are here likewise ascribed to feeding and/or pupation by necrophagous insects. Such bioerosional trace fossils have several taphonomical and palaeoecological implications for they are only inflicted on subaerially exposed tissues and preferentially when carcasses are desiccated. We, therefore, conclude that the dinosaur carcass was exposed for at least several weeks under a semi-arid and seasonal climate before it was buried by sediment. This supports the general palaeoclimatological and paleoenvironmental reconstructions for the Shishugou Formation from sedimentological data. Moreover, this is the first evidence for invertebrate–vertebrate interactions from the Late Jurassic of Asia, offering a novel glimpse into the diverse biotic relationships of this ancient Jurassic ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Laozuoshan deposit, located in the central Jiamusi Block of north‐east China, is characterized by two types of mineralization, including principal skarn‐type Au mineralization occurring along the contact zone between granite and migmatite, and minor auriferous quartz‐arsenopyrite veins hosting in plagiogranite and granite. Re–Os dating of auriferous pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite were performed to determine the metallogenic ages of the Laozuoshan gold deposit. Analyses of arsenopyrite from quartz vein‐type ores yield a weighted average model age of 89.0 ± 3.1 Ma (mean standard weighted deviation（MSWD） = 9.3), which is within uncertainty in agreement with the 187Re/188Os versus 187Os/188Os isochron age of 93.2 ± 2.6 Ma (MSWD = 1.3) and the 187Re versus 187Os isochron age of 97 ± 14 Ma (MSWD = 7.4). Pyrrhotite samples from skarn‐type ores have model ages from 82.6 Ma to 424.8 Ma, indicating an unclosed Re–Os isotope system. However, the skarn‐type Au mineralization likely occurred during the Permian following the emplacement of the Laozuoshan granite. Results of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) trace element analysis show that element contents in sulphides from different types of ores are systematically different. Au, Ag, Bi, Pb, Co, and Ni are significantly enriched in skarn‐type arsenopyrite. These data suggest that the Laozuoshan deposit formed from two gold mineralization events. Combined with previous studies, we suggest that the skarn‐type Au mineralization was associated with the subduction of the Panthalassic oceanic plate, whereas the rollback of the Palaeo‐Pacific Plate was responsible for the quartz vein‐type Au mineralization in the Laozuoshan deposit. The multiple mineralization events have important implications for regional exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China is an important actor in the transition to large scale solar power in Africa. • The article is an in-depth study of the largest solar power project in Kenya. • Solar PV project functions as an arena for struggles and contestations. • The frictional encounters between Chinese and Kenyan actors are elaborated in detail. • Illuminates the previously overlooked micro-politics and African agency. China is a 'rising power' in Africa, and growing Chinese investments in the renewable energy sector in SSA (e.g. in wind and solar) are gaining traction. The ways in which China is shaping low-carbon energy transitions in SSA and the implications of it doing so merit attention. While existing research has tended to focus on fossil fuels and hydropower, it is crucial to undertake analysis of Chinese-backed wind and solar projects and of the micro-level engagements of Sino-African actors in order to further unpack the nature and complexity of Chinese involvement as it unfolds on the ground. In this article, we employ the concept of 'frictional encounters' in order to investigate empirically the development of the first utility-scale solar PV project in Kenya, which was delivered as a turnkey package along with a Chinese investor, technology supplier and construction contractor. Building on qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions, we explore the micro-level frictional encounters between Chinese and Kenyan actors involved in the project in the areas of community development and employment. The article offers two important insights: (I) that the project organization has important implications for the scope of the development outcomes; and (II) that these outcomes are not likely to accrue automatically without deliberate government intervention. In addition, the article offers a finer-grained perspective on Chinese projects in Africa focusing on the often overlooked significance of local African agency in Sino-African relations. Finally, the article provides a contribution to furthering understanding of the theoretical processes and features of the concept of frictional encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landsliding is a prominent geomorphological process in both the Loess Plateau and the Qinba Mountains in Central China. The size distribution of landslides plays an important role in quantifying their occurrence and magnitude, estimating erosion and sediment yields, and determining hazards. We generated landslide inventories for six study sites within the two study regions based on results from field surveying and remote sensing analyses. Landside size distribution differs considerably in both regions and can be described by the double Pareto and inverse gamma distributions. The power law decays faster in the Loess Plateau than in the Qinba Mountains; the locations of the rollover occur at larger landslide size in the Loess Plateau. Moreover, α, an exponent of power law scaling related to slope in the double Pareto function, is strongly related to ρ + 1, a control of power law decay in the inverse gamma. This study provides an insight into the landslide size probability distribution in different landscape types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reforms of international trade and investment law and institutions are hampered by conflicting economic paradigms. For instance, utilitarian Anglo-Saxon neo-liberalism (e.g. promoting self-regulatory market forces privileging the homo economicus), constitutional European ordo-liberalism (e.g. protecting multilevel, constitutional rights and judicial remedies of European Union citizens), and authoritarian state-capitalism (e.g. protecting totalitarian power monopolies of the communist party in China) pursue different legal and institutional designs of trade and investment agreements. Globalization and its transformation of national into transnational public goods (PG s) require extending constitutional and institutional economics to multilevel governance of transnational PG s in order to enhance the wealth of nations. Maintaining the worldwide legal and dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO) – and interpreting its regional and national exception clauses broadly in order to reconcile diverse, national and regional institutions of economic integration and of 'embedded liberalism' – remains in the interest of all WTO member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese "coal-to-gas" and "coal-to-electricity" strategies aim at reducing dispersed coal consumption and related air pollution by promoting the use of clean and low-carbon fuels in northern China. Here, we show that on top of meteorological influences, the effective emission mitigation measures achieved an average decrease of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations of ∼14% in Beijing and surrounding areas (the "2+26" pilot cities) in winter 2017 compared to the same period of 2016, where the dispersed coal control measures contributed ∼60% of the total PM2.5 reductions. However, the localized air quality improvement was accompanied by a contemporaneous ∼15% upsurge of PM2.5 concentrations over large areas in southern China. We find that the pollution transfer that resulted from a shift in emissions was of a high likelihood caused by a natural gas shortage in the south due to the coal-to-gas transition in the north. The overall shortage of natural gas greatly jeopardized the air quality benefits of the coal-to-gas strategy in winter 2017 and reflects structural challenges and potential threats in China's clean-energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) disease, which was declared in China in December 2019, very early on became a pandemic, claiming more than 28 million victims worldwide to date. Its impact on the central nervous system is still poorly understood. The objective of this work is to assess the involvement of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the aggravation of seizures in children known to have epilepsy and in the epileptogenesis of children hitherto seizure-free. Prior to conducting this work, we had obtained informed consent from patients and parents. We report the cases of three (3) patients, one known epileptic and the other two apparently healthy, who presented a febrile seizure in a context of COVID-19 infection. The aggravation of the epileptic seizure was indicative of a SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first patient, while the seizure occurred after induction of chloroquine sulfate treatment in the 2 other patients. Although our current concern is to limit the spread of the disease to COVID-19, it is crucial to address its possible complications. Notably, the worsening of seizures in children with epilepsy and the occurrence of first seizures in children without epilepsy following drug treatment. Equipping our COVID-19 patient management facilities with electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment could facilitate continuous electroencephalographic monitoring of children for proper management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the opinion of the medical societies of hygiene and pediatrics undersigning the present statement, the analyses published to date regarding transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the course of CoVid-19 show that children play a much less significant role in the spread of the virus than do adults. According to the findings available to date, not only do children and adolescents less frequently fall ill with CoVid-19, they also generally become less severely ill than do adults. The vast majority of infections in children and adolescents are asymptomatic or oligosymptomatic. Even the first analyses from China demonstrated that children and ad- olescents play a subordinate role in the transmission of the virus – not only to other children and adolescents, but also to adults. Taking into account regional infection rates and available resources, daycare centers, kindergartens and elementary schools promptly should be reopened. For children, this should be possible without excessive restrictions, such as clustering into very small groups, implementation of barrier precautions, maintaining appropriate distance from others or wearing masks. A factor more decisive than individual group size is the issue of sustaining the constancy of respective group members and the avoidance of intermixing. Children can be taught basic rules of hygiene such as handwashing and careful hygiene behavior when coming into contact with others during mealtimes and/or when using sanitary facilities. Independent of the prevention measures implemented for children and adolescents, the protection of teachers, educators and caregivers is crucial, (e.g., the maintenance of appropriate distance from others, use of medical masks, situation-dependent hand disinfection, when necessary, supported by regular pool testing). Children over the age of 10 and adolescents up to school graduation age are more capable of actively understanding and conforming to specific hygiene rules. For this group, maintaining appropriate distance from others (1.5 meters), wearing a mouth-and-nose protection (whenever they are not sitting in their assigned classroom seats) and consistent education regarding the basic rules of infection prevention may provide increased options for normalizing teaching activities. Children and adolescents suspected of infection with SARS-CoV-2 should be tested immediately in order to either confirm or rule out such an infection. Evidence of individual infections in children or students must not automatically lead to the closure of the entire daycare center or school. A detailed analysis of the chain of infection is a prerequisite for a balanced approach to infection control. The opening of schools and children's facilities should be accompanied by specifically structured,model surveillance studies that further clarify outstanding questions about infectious disease events and hygiene control. These prospective, concomitant examinations will be essential Germany for the purpose of evaluating and verifying the effectiveness of the required hygiene measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schizotypy is defined as a time-stable multidimensional personality trait consisting of positive, negative, and disorganized facets. Schizotypy is considered as a model system of psychosis, as there is considerable overlap between the 2 constructs. High schizotypy is associated with subtle but fairly widespread cognitive alterations, which include poorer performance in tasks measuring cognitive control. Similar but more pronounced impairments in cognitive control have been described extensively in psychosis. We here sought to provide a quantitative estimation of the effect size of impairments in schizotypy in the updating, shifting, and inhibition dimensions of cognitive control. We included studies of healthy adults from both general population and college samples, which used either categorical or correlative designs. Negative schizotypy was associated with significantly poorer performance on shifting (g = 0.32) and updating (g = 0.11). Positive schizotypy was associated with significantly poorer performance on shifting (g = 0.18). There were no significant associations between schizotypy and inhibition. The divergence in results for positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy emphasizes the importance of examining relationships between cognition and the facets of schizotypy rather than using the overall score. Our findings also underline the importance of more detailed research to further understand and define this complex personality construct, which will also be of importance when applying schizotypy as a model system for psychosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has announced plans to stabilize its pesticide use by 2020. Yet, future climate change will possibly increase the difficulty of meeting this goal. This study uses econometric estimation to explore how climate impacts Chinese pesticide usage and subsequently to project the future implications of climate change on pesticide use. The results indicate that both atmospheric temperature and precipitation increase pesticide usage. Under current climate change projections, pesticide usage will rise by +1.1 to 2.5% by 2040, +2.4 to 9.1% by 2070, and +2.6 to 18.3% by 2100. Linearly extrapolating the results to 2020 yields an approximately 0.5 to 1.2% increase. Thus, to achieve stabilization, more severe actions are needed to address this increase. Possible actions to achieve the reductions needed include using better monitoring and early warning networks so as to permit early responses to climate change-stimulated increases, enhancing information dissemination, altering crop mix, and promoting nonchemical control means. Additionally, given that increased pesticide usage generally increases health and environmental damage, there may be a need to more widely disseminate safe application procedure information while also strengthening compliance with food safety regulations. Furthermore, pest control strategies will need to be capable of evolving as climate change proceeds. Globally, efforts could be made to (1) scale up agrometeorological services, especially in developing countries; (2) use international frameworks to better align the environmental and health standards in developing countries with those in developed countries; and (3) adapt integrated pest management practices to climate change, especially for fruits and vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zhundong coalfield in Xinjiang, China, is the largest integrated coal basin newly found. The present work concentrates on the application of chemical looping combustion (CLC) with a Zhundong lignite, which is characterized by high sodium content. Some experiments in a laboratory scale fluidized bed facility with an active iron ore oxygen carrier, were performed using the lignite as fuel and CO 2 as gasifying agent at a temperature of 900 °C, with the objective of investigating its combustion performance and sodium transfer behavior in CLC. Results indicate that the gasification reactivity of the three coals follows the order of German lignite > Zhundong lignite > American bituminous coal in the current experimental conditions. During reducing stage, the unique product of sodium transfer from coal to the fly ash is albite (NaAlSi 3 O 8 ) due to the reactions between sodium and other coal ash. The sodium deposition on the oxygen carrier particles was not found. 40 reducing-oxidizing cycles were performed, and sodium accumulation in the bed materials with cycles was found due to some ash staying in the bed. However, the growth of bed particles due to the sodium accumulation was not observed by determining the particle size distributions of bed materials. This indicates that burning the high sodium Zhundong coal in the present conditions have no influence on the particle agglomeration. Finally, a literature survey was made and results indicate that the main sodium in the Xinjiang coal basin of China is water soluble with an average value of 64%. The pure salt of NaCl, as one common water soluble sodium phase in Zhundong coals, was introduced to a bed of iron ore particles at 900 °C with regard to investigate the influence of NaCl on fluidization stability. Based on the measurements of pressure drop, bed temperature and SEM-EDS, it was found that NaCl does not react with the iron ore but in fact only acts as glue between iron ore particles. Further, the sodium transfer routes in CLC of Zhundong coal with iron ore based oxygen carrier are given and some discussions are made with regard to practical operation. The corrosion problems on the heating surface in the air reactor can be significantly reduced compared to a conventional Zhundong coal fueled furnace, since most of sodium will release and be converted in the fuel reactor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon isotope (δ13Corg) analyses of non-marine clastic rocks and neritic carbonates and black shales spanning the Silurian/Devonian transition are compared from two richly fossiliferous sequences in Qujing of East Yunnan and Zoige of Sichuan, South China. The two sections, Xishancun and Putonggou sections in South China, reveal positive δ13Corg shifts happening in the Upper Pridoli and Lower Devonian and reaching peak values as heavy as -25.2%‰ (Xishancun) and -19.9%‰ (Putonggou) in the lowermost Lochkovian following the first occurrence of the thelodont Parathelodus and the conodont Icriodus woschmidti woschmidti (only in Putonggou Section and together with Protathyris-Lanceomyonia brachiopod fauna). These results replicate a globally known positive shift in δ13Corg from the uppermost Silurian to the lowermost Devonian. The δ13Corg variations across the Silurian/Devonian Boundary (SDB) at the two sections in South China exhibit a shift in carbon isotopic composition similar to the detailed SDB curves from the borehole Klonk-1 drilled at top of the Klonk Global Standard Stratotype-Section and Point (GSSP) in the Prague Basin, Czech Republic. In addition, four microvertebrate assemblages, including the Liaojiaoshan, Xishancun, Yanglugou and Xiaputonggou assemblages, are recognized from the Silurian/Devonian transition exposed in the Xishancun and Putonggou sections, respectively. The results from both carbon isotope stratigraphy and microvertebrate assemblage sequences suggest that the SDB in South China is located at the base of the Xishancun Formation (between sample QX-20 and sample QX-21) in the Xishancun Section and the lower part of the Xiaputonggou Formation (between sample ZP-09 and sample ZP-10) in the Putonggou Section. The isotopic trend for organic carbon together with the changes of microvertebrate remains across the SDB can offer an approach to a potential correlation of the SDB from different sedimentary facies, which help to correlate the marine with non-marine deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. In China's Nong Zhuan Fei (NZF) communities, farmers living in rural villages are uprooted and moved into newly constructed urban apartments when the government purchases their land for residential and commercial development. With their relocation from a traditional rural setting to a modern urban setting, residents of NZF communities face lifestyle-based risk factors for diabetes and other chronic diseases. We reported estimates of diabetes prevalence, risk factors, and health-related quality of life among adult Chinese NZF rural-to-urban migrants. Methods. We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study through a U.S.- China partnership with an NZF community of 3,184 residents. Health and disease history, risk factors, and sociodemographic information were collected by questionnaire. Participants completed a 24-hour diet recall, three-day physical activity recall, a health-related quality of life Short-Form 36 (SF-36) health survey, the Beck Depression Inventory, and fasting blood glucose tests. Results. We gathered complete data from 1,150 of 1,772 eligible participants. The prevalence of diabetes was 11.6% (95% confidence interval 9.8, 13.6). Diabetes risk increased significantly with age, income, obesity, and hypertension. Based on SF-36 scores, residents aged ≥60 years with diabetes reported significantly greater physical (47.7 v. 70.2, =50.001) and emotional (76.9 vs. 89.7, p50.006) limitations, more bodily pain (79.7 vs. 84.9, =50.021), and worse overall physical health (67.6 vs. 76.0, p=0.015) than those without diabetes. Conclusion. The Chinese government hopes to integrate an additional 250 million people into city living by 2025. As the NZF population increases, so may the prevalence of diabetes associated with the change from a rural to an urban lifestyle. Action is needed now by public health professionals to prevent a possible diabetes crisis in NZF communities in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the case of a Chinese firm that has upgraded to lead firm position in the global biomass power plant industry mainly through acquisitions of technological frontier firms in Denmark. Sustaining the lead firm position was, however, challenged by difficulties in developing innovative capability. Drawing on the literature on (i) firm-level technological capability and (ii) knowledge transfer in international acquisitions, we explain the reasons for insufficient innovative capability building. Based on these empirical findings, we suggest maintaining the existing upgrading framework but applying it analytically in a more flexible manner that avoids linearity, hierarchy and segmentation while stressing the co-existence of and inter-relationships between the different types of upgrading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial upgrading in China is rapidly increasing the competence requirements for employees on the shop floor. The institutional environment in China, however, does not seem very supportive: the quality of vocational education is often low and Chinese labor law provides strong incentives for companies to use temporary labor. This paper examines the competence development practices for blue-collar workers in automobile companies in China. Against expectations, automobile companies in China do not pursue ‘low road’ strategies but have designed intensive internal training programs and long-term career paths for blue-collar workers. Different theoretical explanations for the competence development approaches are discussed: human capital theory, high-commitment work systems theory, production systems theories, industrial relations and institutionalist theories. The paper is based on qualitative case studies of German, Japanese and domestic automobile manufacturers in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Small-scale summer rainfall variability in a semiarid zone was studied by deploying five vertically pointing Micro Rain Radars (MRRs) along a nearly straight line and by using 12 rain gauges in the study area of the Xilin River catchment in China. The spatial scales of 4 and 9 km correspond to the resolution of precipitation radar and rainfall products from satellites. The dataset of the MRRs and rain gauges covers two months in the summer of 2009. Three parameters, that is, spatial correlation, intermittency, and the coefficient of variation (CV), were used to describe the rainfall variability as based on the data from the MRRs and rain gauges. The probability of partial beamfilling in a 4-km (9 km) pixel over a 30-min temporal scale was 17%-20% (28%-37%). More accurate equipment can measure lower rainfall intermittency. For scales of 4 and 9 km, the median CV of the accumulation times that were longer than 3 h with rainfall > 1 mm was 0.17-0.42. The accuracy of areal rainfall measured by different quantities of equipment was also evaluated. One MRR was sufficient for measuring the daily areal rainfall at a 4-km scale, with a fraction of prediction within a factor of 2 of observations of 1.0 and a correlation coefficient of ≥0.58 when daily mean rainfall was >1 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, China has undertaken a significant institutional reform of its admission system in elite higher education (namely, Independent Freshman Admission, IFA), adopting a multistage selection strategy characterized by recommendation and interviews as an alternative channel of admission to the national college entrance examination (gaokao). Using IFA administrative data from Peking University, we reveal the mechanism of educational inequality through criterion transformations from standard test scores to comprehensive evaluations on competence. Significant associations were found between students' socioeconomic status origins, prior academic credentials, and whether they passed the selection process. This study contributes a unique and representative case of Chinese elite universities explaining why privileged groups maintained their advantages in this reform as well as in a rapidly expanded system of higher education. It also provides a better understanding of social stratification and elite reproduction in contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional facial expressions provide important nonverbal cues in human interactions. The perception of emotions is not only influenced by a person’s ethnic background but also depends on whether a person is engaged with the emotion-encoder. Although these factors are known to affect emotion perception, their impact has only been studied in isolation before. The aim of the present study was to investigate their combined influence. Thus, in order to study the influence of engagement on emotion perception between persons from different ethnicities, we compared participants from China and Germany. Asian-looking and European-looking virtual agents expressed anger and happiness while gazing at the participant or at another person. Participants had to assess the perceived valence of the emotional expressions. Results indicate that indeed two factors that are known to have a considerable influence on emotion perception interacted in their combined influence: We found that the perceived intensity of an emotion expressed by ethnic in-group members was in most cases independent of gaze direction, whereas gaze direction had an influence on the emotion perception of ethnic out-group members. Additionally, participants from the ethnic out-group tended to perceive emotions as more pronounced than participants from the ethnic in-group when they were directly gazed at. These findings suggest that gaze direction has a differential influence on ethnic in-group and ethnic out-group dynamics during emotion perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of sectorial reforms on current account imbalances, with a special focus on China. In particular, we investigate to what extent reforms pertaining to the financial sector, social protection, and healthcare may contribute to a rebalancing of China's persistent current account imbalances. Our forecasting results suggest that reforming the financial sector would be a significant contributor to the country's rebalancing with an effect much larger than that of capital account liberalization. Strengthened provisions of social protection and publicly-funded healthcare are also found to contribute to a rebalancing of the Chinese economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the study on the legal perspective of market surveillance in China. It mentions that the legal perspective focuses on Law on Product Quality, Law on Import and Export Commodity Inspection, and Law on Standardization. It says that China collaborates with trade partners to ensure product safety.

In contemporary China, rural-urban migration takes place at a considerable scale. Due to its scale, as well as the particular context in which migration happens, studying the case of China can reveal important lessons on how policies can be designed to enhance positive impacts of migration on source communities. Relying on a review of literature from the fields of sociology, geography and economics, an analytical framework of positive contributions of China's internal migrants on the development of source communities, of the migration process itself and of the institutional, administrative and social contexts of migration is constructed. Interactions between these contexts on the one hand and the migration process and the associated contributions of migrants on the other hand are highlighted. The framework provides a guideline for approaching similar problems elsewhere and offers support in the identification and assessment of possible policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Yuchiling Mo deposit, East Qinling, China, belongs to a typical porphyry Mo system associated with high-K calc-alkaline intrusions. The pure CO2 (PC), CO2-bearing (C), aqueous H2O-NaCl (W), and daughter mineral-bearing (S) fluid inclusions were observed in the hydrothermal quartz. Based on field investigations, petrographic, microthermometric and LA-ICP-MS studies of fluid inclusions, we develop a five-stage fluid evolution model to understand the ore-forming processes of the Yuchiling deposit. The earliest barren quartz±potassic feldspar veins, developed in intensively potassic alteration, were crystallized from carbonic-dominant fluids at high temperature (>416°C) and high pressure (>133MPa). Following the barren quartz±potassic feldspar veins are quartz-pyrite veins occasionally containing minor K-feldspar and molybdenite, which were formed by immiscible fluids at pressures of 47–159MPa and temperatures of 360–400°C. The fluids were characterized by high CO2 contents (approximately 8mol%) and variable salinities, as well as the highest Mo contents that resulted in the development of quartz-molybdenite veins. The quartz-molybdenite veins, accounting for >90% Mo in the orebody, were also formed by immiscible fluids with lower salinity and lower CO2 content of 7mol%, at temperatures of 340–380°C and pressures of 39–137MPa, as constrained by fluid inclusion assemblages. After the main Mo-mineralization, the uneconomic Cu-Pb-Zn mineralization occurred, as represented by quartz-polymetallic sulfides veins consisting of pyrite, molybdenite, chalcopyrite, digenite, galena, sphalerite and quartz. The quartz-polymetallic sulfide veins were formed by fluids containing 5mol% CO2, with minimum pressures of 32–110MPa and temperatures of 260–300°C. Finally, the fluids became dilute (5wt.% NaCl equiv) and CO2-poor, which caused the formation of late barren quartz±carbonate±fluorite veins at 140–180°C and 18–82MPa. It is clear that the fluids became more dilute, CO2-poor, and less fertile, with decreasing temperature and pressure from quartz-pyrite to late barren veins. Molybdenite and other sulfides can only be observed in the middle three stages, i.e., quartz-pyrite, quartz-molybdenite and quartz-polymetallic sulfide veins. These three kinds of veins are generally hosted in potassic altered rocks with remarkable K-feldspathization, but always partly overprinted by phyllic alteration. The traditional porphyry-style potassic–phyllic–propylitic alteration zoning is not conspicuous at Yuchiling, which may be related to, and characteristic of, the CO2-rich fluids derived from the magmas generated in intercontinental collision orogens. Among the fluid inclusions at Yuchiling, only the C-type contains maximum detectable Mo that gradationally decreases from 73ppm in quartz-pyrite veins, through 19ppm in quartz-molybdenite veins, and to 13ppm in quartz-polymetallic sulfide veins, coinciding well with the decreasing CO2 contents from 8mol%, through 7mol%, to 5mol%, respectively. Hence it is suggested that decreasing CO2 possibly results in decreasing Mo concentration in the fluids, as well as the precipitation of molybdenite from the fluids. This direct relationship might be a common characteristic for other porphyry Mo systems in the world. The Yuchiling Mo deposit represents a new type Mo mineralization, with features of collision-related setting, high-K calc-alkaline intrusion, CO2-rich fluid, and unique wall-rock alterations characterized by strong K-feldspathization and fluoritization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Numerous studies have described the adverse associations between particle mass and respiratory health. The aim of the study was to analyze the associations of particle properties, especially size-segregated particle number concentrations (PNC), and respiratory mortality in Beijing, P.R. China. We gathered daily values of respiratory mortality and air pollution data of the Beijing urban area. Generalized additive models were used to estimate the associations. Single pollutant models showed that delayed concentrations of SO2, total PNCs, and PNC of 300–1000 nm were adversely associated with total respiratory mortality. There was an indication that adverse health effects of PNCs might be stronger for stagnant air masses. Two-pollutant models verified the independence of associations of total PNCs of other pollutants (SO2, NO2, and PM10). In conclusion, particle number concentrations, especially accumulation mode particles, might be factors influencing the adverse associations between particulate matter and respiratory health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary in the non-marine succession is expected at Jiayin in the Heilongjiang River area, China. Zircons from a tuff sample from the Baishantou Member of Wuyun Formation in Jiayin were analyzed by the laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U-Pb dating and fission-track dating methods. Ages of 64.1±0.7 Ma (U-Pb) and 61.7±1.8 Ma (fission-track dating) were obtained, which allow re-evaluation of a previously reported late Maastrichian age for the tuff layer that was in conflict with the paleontological evidence. These results confirm the Danian age of the section in agreement with the paleontological evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of flooding on rhizospheric organic acid concentrations of three abundant flooding tolerant plant species ( Alternanthera philoxeroides Mart., Arundinella anomala Steud., Salix variegata Franch.) from the water fluctuation zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR, Yangtze River) were investigated. Soil solution samples of eight low molecular weight organic acids were obtained from rhizotrons using micro suction cups during 3 weeks of waterlogging, after 6 weeks flooding and after a 1 week recovery. To estimate the contribution of water temperature and microbial community, plants in sterile glass bead substrate and original Yangtze sediment were submerged in laboratory at +10°, +20° and +30°C. Waterlogged plants did seldom express a significantly different pattern of rhizospheric organic acid (OA) composition compared to control plants. Flooding caused no burst of organic acid concentration in soil solution: All species express a silencing strategy. Average OA levels were higher in A. anomala rhizosphere than in the other two species, but increased again after resurfacing in all species. Temperature had a stronger influence in sediment than in sterile setup. In contrast to field measurements, succinate, malate and citrate were detected in the sterile setup. Microbial contribution appeared to have great influence on increasing OA occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibodies against polymorphic structures on human neutrophil antigens (HNAs) play a role in alloimmune-mediated neutropenia and are the leading cause of antibody-mediated transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI). This study aimed to determine the frequencies of HNAs in the major Han ethnic group living in Guangdong Province, Southern China. A total of 493 healthy Chinese Han blood donors from Guangzhou were recruited. DNA samples were isolated and typed for all five HNA-1, -2, -3, -4, and -5 systems using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction approaches. Results were compared with available data from other Chinese cohorts and other Asian and Caucasian populations. In this cohort, the gene frequency for HNA-1a (0.667) was approximately twice that of HNA-1b (0.333). In contrast to Caucasian populations, HNA-1a represents the most frequent allele in the Chinese population. HNA-3 system genotyping revealed comparable frequencies for HNA-3a (0.738) and -3b (0.262) in Chinese and Caucasian populations. Homozygous HNA-3bb individuals were found in 5.64% of our cohort. HNA-4 genotyping revealed no HNA-4bb homozygous individuals. In contrast, HNA-5bb homozygous individuals represented 2.43% of the population. Typing the HNA-2 system for the single-nucleotide polymorphism C42G showed that the C-allele (69%) is overrepresented and is associated with an increased number of HNA-2a-positive neutrophil subpopulations. This study describes for the first time the frequencies of all HNA systems, including the newly identified HNA-3, within one cohort of Chinese Han population. Comparison with Caucasian populations may allow assessment of anti-HNA alloimmunization and estimation of alloimmune neutropenia and TRALI incidence in Chinese populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The link between concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and respiratory morbidity has been investigated in numerous studies. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to analyze the role of different particle size fractions with respect to respiratory health in Beijing, China. METHODS: Data on particle size distributions from 3 nm to 1 μm; PM10 (PM ≤ 10 μm), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide concentrations; and meteorologic variables were collected daily from March 2004 to December 2006. Concurrently, daily counts of emergency room visits (ERV) for respiratory diseases were obtained from the Peking University Third Hospital. We estimated pollutant effects in single- and two-pollutant generalized additive models, controlling for meteorologic and other time-varying covariates. Time-delayed associations were estimated using polynomial distributed lag, cumulative effects, and single lag models. RESULTS: Associations of respiratory ERV with NO2 concentrations and 100-1,000 nm particle number or surface area concentrations were of similar magnitude-that is, approximately 5% increase in respiratory ERV with an interquartile range increase in air pollution concentration. In general, particles < 50 nm were not positively associated with ERV, whereas particles 50-100 nm were adversely associated with respiratory ERV, both being fractions of ultrafine particles. Effect estimates from two-pollutant models were most consistent for NO2. CONCLUSIONS: Present levels of air pollution in Beijing were adversely associated with respiratory ERV. NO2 concentrations seemed to be a better surrogate for evaluating overall respiratory health effects of ambient air pollution than PM10 or particle number concentrations in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grazing of grasslands changes soil physical and chemical properties as well as vegetation characteristics, such as vegetation cover, species composition and biomass production. In consequence, nutrient allocation and water storage in the top soil are affected. Land use and management changes alter these processes. Knowledge on the impacts of grazing management on nutrient and water fluxes is necessary because of the global importance of grasslands for carbon sequestration. Soil water in semi-arid areas is a limiting factor for matter fluxes and the intrinsic interaction between soil, vegetation and atmosphere. It is therefore desirable to understand the effects of grazing management and stocking rate on the spatial and temporal distribution of soil moisture. In the present study, we address the question how spatio-temporal soil moisture distribution on grazed and ungrazed grassland sites is affected by soil and vegetation properties. The study took place in the Xilin river catchment in Inner Mongolia (PR China). It is a semi-arid steppe environment, which is characterized by still moderate grazing compared to other regions in central Inner Mongolia. However, stocking rates have locally increased and resulted in a degradation of soils and vegetation also in the upper Xilin River basin. We used a multivariate geostatistical approach to reveal spatial dependencies between soil moisture distribution and soil or vegetation parameters. Overall, 7 soil and vegetation parameters (bulk density, sand, silt and clay content, mean weight diameter, mean carbon content of the soil, vegetation cover) and 57 soil moisture data sets were recorded on 100 gridded points on four sites subject to different grazing intensities. Increasing stocking rates accelerated the influence of soil and vegetation parameters on soil moisture. However, the correlation was rather weak, except for a site with high stocking rate where higher correlations were found. Low nugget ratios indicate spatial dependency between soil or plant parameters and soil moisture on a long-term ungrazed site. However, the effect was not found for a second ungrazed site that had been excluded from grazing for a shorter period. Furthermore the most important soil and vegetation parameters for predicting soil moisture distribution varied between different grazing intensities. Therefore, predicting soil moisture by using secondary variables requires a careful selection of the soil or vegetation parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Associations between air temperature and mortality have been consistently observed in Europe and the United States; however, there is a lack of studies for Asian countries. Our study investigated the association between air temperature and cardio-respiratory mortality in the urban area of Beijing, China. Methods: Death counts for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases for adult residents (≥15 years), meteorological parameters and concentrations of particulate air pollution were obtained from January 2003 to August 2005. The effects of two-day and 15-day average temperatures were estimated by Poisson regression models, controlling for time trend, relative humidity and other confounders if necessary. Effects were explored for warm (April to September) and cold periods (October to March) separately. The lagged effects of daily temperature were investigated by polynomial distributed lag (PDL) models. Results: We observed a J-shaped exposure-response function only for 15-day average temperature and respiratory mortality in the warm period, with 21.3°C as the threshold temperature. All other exposure-response functions could be considered as linear. In the warm period, a 5°C increase of two-day average temperature was associated with a RR of 1.098 (95% confidence interval (95%CI): 1.057-1.140) for cardiovascular and 1.134 (95%CI: 1.050-1.224) for respiratory mortality; a 5°C decrease of 15-day average temperature was associated with a RR of 1.040 (95%CI: 0.990-1.093) for cardiovascular mortality. In the cold period, a 5°C increase of two-day average temperature was associated with a RR of 1.149 (95%CI: 1.078-1.224) for respiratory mortality; a 5°C decrease of 15-day average temperature was associated with a RR of 1.057 (95%CI: 1.022-1.094) for cardiovascular mortality. The effects remained robust after considering particles as additional confounders. Conclusions: Both increases and decreases in air temperature are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. The effects of heat were immediate while the ones of cold became predominant with longer time lags. Increases in air temperature are also associated with an immediate increased risk of respiratory mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his influential Tibetan Renaissance (publ. 2005), Ronald Davidson categorizes the two eminent masters of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, Sa-skya Pandita Kun-dga'-rgyal-mtshan and 'Bri-gung 'Jig-rten-mgon-po, as "neoconservatives," portraying them as having an un-Buddhist and inauthentic fixation on India, and as working to suppress any deviation from their norms. This paper critically investigates Davidson's general and specific interpretations of his categorization and raises the question of methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study describes an event-specific quantitative Real-time PCR detection method for the transgenic Bt rice line Kemingdao 1 (KMD1). This rice line which is not approved in any country so far is likely to be approved in China in the near future. The developed primers amplify a DNA sequence spanning the integration site of the genetic construct in KMD1. DNA sequence information of this unknown site necessary for primer design was achieved using SiteFinding-PCR technique. The specificity of the detection method was shown by testing a number of different transgenic and conventional plant varieties (e.g. rice LL 601, LL 62, Bt 63). As alternative to genomic DNA, we developed double target hybrid amplicons as synthetic calibration standards in Real-time PCR. These amplicons contained both one copy of the KMD1 event-specific sequence and one copy of a sequence of the rice reference gene gos9. The limit of quantification (LOQ) of the method was tested to be 0.05%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand precipitation variability in a warmer-than-present world with elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, this study presents high-resolution palynological and element geochemical analyses of a late Pliocene drill core (3.5–3.0 Ma) from the today hyperarid Qaidam Basin on the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau. Quantitative rainfall estimates based on modern pollen-climate transfer functions indicate a 10-fold higher annual rainfall during the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (mPWP; 3.264–3.025 Ma) than today, with values of 300–400 mm/a. Throughout the late Pliocene, the Qaidam Basin was covered with a temperate semi-desert shrubland. Varying percentages of the local lakeshore vegetation and long-distance arboreal pollen, as well as fluctuations in carbonate-silicate geochemistry, indicate a highly variable rainfall. Our study suggests that precipitation in the northern Qaidam Basin was primarily controlled by an East Asian Monsoon system (EAMS) that was located further north than today. Spectral analysis of the Artemisia /Chenopodiaceae (A/C) pollen ratio indicates an orbitally controlled cyclicity with a strong link between moisture availability and insolation forcing. A decline in precipitation before the end of the mPWP at ca. 3.15 Ma is likely to be linked to cooling in the North Atlantic and initial Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet build-up. Our study identifies NH insolation and ice-sheet advances as major controls of the late Pliocene variability and strength of the EAMS in semi-arid NW-China. • 10-times higher rainfall (300–400 mm/a) than today in the Qaidam Basin during the late Pliocene (3.5–3.0 Ma) • Semi-desert Artemisia -Chenopodiaceae shrubland prevailed throughout the late Pliocene • Rainfall during the late Pliocene was linked to the East Asian monsoon which was located further northwards than present • High rainfall variability was controlled by orbital cyclicity and Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet advances [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]