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Objective: The present study aimed to identify the relationship of α‐2‐macroglobulin and microvascular vessel pathology with steroid‐induced femoral head necrosis in the Southeast Chinese population. Methods: This study enrolled 40 patients diagnosed with steroid‐induced necrosis of the femoral head. Patients had various stages of femoral head necrosis. The differential expression of serum proteins and mRNA from patients with steroid‐induced necrosis of the femoral head (SINFH) and healthy volunteers was analyzed by western blot and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QT‐PCR). The pathological change in osteocyte necrosis was indicated by hematoxylin and eosin stain and immunohistochemistry. Results: Hematoxylin and eosin stain showed histopathology changes in the necrotic area of patients with steroid‐induced INFH: bone trabeculae were fewer and thinner, became broken, fragmented and structurally disordered; intraosseous adipose cells became enlarged; the arrangement of the osteoblasts became irregular; and vacant bone lacunae increased. QT‐PCR showed significantly lower levels of α‐2‐macroglobulin in the serum of patients with SINFH than in controls (P < 0.05). Immunohistochemical staining and western blotting demonstrated that the expression of α‐2‐macroglobulin was significantly decreased in the necrotic area of SINFH patients (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The α‐2‐macroglobulin may be associated with the pathology of SINFH. The multiple pathological reactions occur in SINFH and α‐2‐macroglobulin may serve as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of SINFH or a promising therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH), which has been found in about 10 % of normal individuals, does not produce symptoms but may be associated with an increased risk of cerebral posterior circulation ischemic (PCI) stroke. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of VAH in Chinese patients with cerebral infarction and investigate whether VAH is an independent risk factor for PCI stroke. Methods: The medical records of 841 Chinese stroke patients were reviewed retrospectively. All patients underwent either cervical contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) or cervical computed tomography angiography (CTA). There is no standard definition of VAH; we defined it as a vertebral artery <2 mm in diameter and the whole artery was slim or absent on CE-MRA or CTA. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify significant independent risk factors for PCI stroke. Results: There were 230 patients (27.3 %) diagnosed with PCI stroke and 91 patients diagnosed with VAH (10.8 %). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that VAH, male gender, and stenosis of the posterior circulation were independent risk factors for PCI stroke. Conclusions: Our results show that VAH is not rare in Chinese patients with stroke and that its presence increases the risk of PCI stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, the word "unemployment" was taboo in the Chinese mainland. In the 1980s, surplus workers from various enterprises were described as "job-awaiting (daiye) people." However, after Beijing decided to deepen economic reforms in the early 1990s, the growing numbers of surplus workers have forced the state to bring the problem into the open. This paper will analyze the unemployment crunch of the 1990s, which consists of cyclical unemployment, structural unemployment, and frictional unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to the government's Marxist employment policy, under which every individual had to have a job, mainland China enjoyed a low unemployment rate during the first three decades of the Chinese Communist Party regime. With the coming of economic reform, however, the side- effects of this full employment policy have been exposed one after the other and unemployment has become an increasingly prominent problem. Over the past decade, the regime has made efforts to reform its labor employment system on market-oriented lines. But solving the unemployment problem will require further reforms in areas other than the employment system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, floods have been an intensifying problem as they have hit major grain-producing regions and seriously affected grain yields. In addition to climatic causes, man-made damage to the environment instigated by shortsighted policies has contributed to this serious problem. The situation has worsened with economic reform; irrigation systems are in serious disrepair and the infrastructure and conditions for agricultural production remain backward as investment has leaned to the industrial sector. As a result, natural disasters have come to determine whether there will be a bumper harvest. The 1995 floods have damaged a large portion of the crops, and ills anticipated that 1995 grain production will be relatively low. As a further consequence, since grain price and inflation are closely related in the mainland, the recent floods and decreased 1995 grain production will likely kindle another round of inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Beijing government has undertaken a series of reforms of main land China's old-age pension system in an attempt to deal with social and economic problems arising from an aging population. The reforms have centered on extending socialized pension provision to non-state-owned enterprises. In addition to the compulsory pension scheme, the government is encouraging enterprises to offer supplementary schemes and employees to purchase their own individual insurance policies. However, the egalitarian habits of the past and lack of confidence in the government have combined to make some enterprises and individuals reluctant to pay the compulsory premiums. The resulting funding difficulties must be solved promptly, or they will seriously hamper economic development and even affect social stability throughout the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's comments on the reform of mainland China's retirement pension system. The author argues that while this system makes it possible to link pension payments to individual contributions and length of service, it also allows better paid employees to subsidize to a certain extent the pensions of their lower-paid colleagues.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plays a role in preventing and treating COVID-19 in China. Based on the manifestations and symptoms of COVID-19, our study used the data mining method to summarize related therapeutic experience left by predecessors who used TCM to treat epidemics in their eras. Initially, we collected abundant medical records with similar manifestations of COVID-19 in Chinese ancient times. The key words including wen (), yi (), li (), and zhang () were searched in ZhongyiZhiku (https://www.zk120.com/) from Warring States Period (475 BC-221 BC) to the Republic of China era (1912-1949) to locate ancient medical records according to inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. Moreover, COVID-19-related manifestations and corresponding medications in those records were categorized. Eventually, Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System version 2.5 was used to build a medical record database of TCM treating COVID-19. Our study collected 263 epidemic medical records comprising COVID-19 related manifestations and found that Chinese Materia Medica (CMM) combinations excavated from ancient medical records included Ren Shen Bai Du San, Wu Ling San, Xiao Chai Hu Tang, Da Cheng Qi Tang, Da Chai Hu Tang, Ling Gui Zhu Gan Tang, and Qing Wen Bai Du Yin. The recurrent CMMs with a high frequency for treating COVID-19 manifestations were Scutellariae Radix (Huang Qin), Paeoniae Alba Radix (Bai Shao), Poria (Fu Ling), and Bupleuri Radix (Chai Hu). Our study suggests that TCM might offer new therapeutic strategies for COVID-19., (© 2022 American Association for Anatomy.)

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a kind of malignant tumor with higher recurrence and metastasis rate. According to historical records, the dry rhizomes Cyperus rotundus L. could be ground into powder and mixed with ginger juice and wine for external application for breast cancer. We studied the effect of the ethanol extract of Cyperus rotundus L. (EECR) on TNBC cells and found its' apoptosis-inducing effect with a dose-relationship. But the function mechanism of EECR on TNBC is still mysterious. Hence, the present research aimed to detect its function mechanism at the small molecule level through ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) metabolomics., Methods: The CCK-8 assay and the Annexin V-FITC/PI assay were applied to test the effect of EECR on MDA-MB-231 cells and MDA-MB 468 cells at various concentrations of 0, 200, 400, and 600 μg/ml. UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS based metabolomics was used between the control group and the EECR treatment groups. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to visualize the apoptosis-inducing action of EECR and filtrate significantly changed metabolites., Results: The apoptosis-inducing action was confirmed and forty-nine significantly changed metabolites (VIP > 1, p < 0.05, and FC > 1.2 or FC < 0.8) were identified after the interference of EECR. The level of significant differential metabolites between control group, middle dose group, and high dose group were compared and found that which supported the apoptosis-inducing action with dose-dependence., Conclusion: By means of metabolism, we have detected the mechanism of EECR inducing apoptosis of TNBC cells at the level of small molecule metabolites and found that EECR impacted the energy metabolism of TNBC cells. In addition, we concluded that EECR induced apoptosis by breaking the balance between ATP-production and ATP-consumption: arresting the pathways of Carbohydrate metabolism such as Central carbon metabolism in cancer, aerobic glycolysis, and Amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, whereas accelerating the pathways of ATP-consumption including Amino Acids metabolism, Fatty acid metabolism, Riboflavin metabolism and Purine metabolism. Although further study is still needed, EECR has great potential in the clinical treatment of TNBC with fewer toxic and side effects.

Purpose: Kidney transplant recipients suffer from a variety of symptoms, and symptom management is crucial in improving their quality of life (QOL). Accordingly, this study aims to identify the symptoms experienced by kidney transplant recipients and examine the relationship amongst antecedents, symptom experience and QOL of recipients in China., Methods: A total of 300 kidney transplant recipients were investigated in one of the most first-rate hospitals in China by asking them to fill out a self-designed general questionnaire, the Symptom Experience Scale, the Sense of Coherence Scale (Chinese version), the Revised Life Orientation Test (Chinese version) and the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (Chinese version)., Results: Kidney transplant recipients experienced multiple symptoms that were frequent, severe and bothersome. The final model showed significant consistency with the data. In the QOL model, post-transplant time, complications, immunosuppressive agents and sense of coherence explained 30.7% of the variance of symptom experience. Moreover, habitual residence, economic burden, post-transplant time, kidney function, optimism and symptom experience accounted for 70.6% of the variance on QOL., Conclusions: We can explain the relationship between antecedents, symptom experience and QOL amongst Chinese kidney transplant recipients by using Symptoms Experience Model. Clinicians and caregivers can manage the recipient's symptoms during follow-up from psychological, physical and medication management perspectives. Improving sense of coherence, maintaining optimism and managing symptoms are essential for enhancing QOL.

Objective: To explore the trend of hypertension prevalence and related factors in Yi people from 1996 to 2015., Methods: Three successive cross-sectional surveys were conducted in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in 1996, 2007 and 2015, respectively. A total of 8448 participants aged 20-80 years (5040 Yi farmers, 3408 Yi migrants) were included in final analysis., Results: Overall, the age-standardised prevalence of hypertension in migrants was significantly higher than in farmers. Furthermore, the age-standardised prevalence rates increased from 10.1% to 15.3% to 19.6% in Yi migrants and from 4.0% to 6.3% to 13.1% in Yi farmers during 1996 to 2007 to 2015. The highest 2015-to-1996 ratio of age-standardised hypertension prevalence was in male farmers (ratio=4.30), whereas despite the highest prevalence of hypertension, the equivalent figure in male migrants was 1.57. The older age, overweight and obesity were persistent risk factors of hypertension in three periods. After adjusted for age and body mass index, the difference of hypertension prevalence between 1996 and 2015 then vanished in male migrants (OR=1.335; 95% CI: 0.884 to 2.015) and female farmers (OR=1.267; 95% CI: 0.590 to 2.719). The disparities of hypertension prevalence between Yi migrants and farmers were not statistically significant in all subgroups when adjusted for age, body mass index and education., Conclusions: Over the past two decades, the hypertension prevalence in Yi people has significantly increased. Yi migrants were more likely to be hypertensive than Yi farmers which was predominantly driven by the discrepancy of body mass index between them., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Wujingang region was taken as the study area to explore the relationship between landscape pattern and river water quality. Remote sensing image was interpreted and buffer zones were constructed, and then landscape patterns characterized by land-use patterns and five selected landscape metrics including Number of patches (NP), Area-weighted mean patch fractal dimension (FRAC &#95;AM), Shannon's diversity index (SHDI), Shannon' s evenness index (SHEI), Contagion index (CONTAG) in each buffer zone were obtained. By employing the correlation analysis between the landscape pattern and river water quality, the results indicated that the river water quality was influenced by landscape pattern. The percentage of built-up area was positively related with water quality indicators, demonstrating that the percentage of built-up area was one of the key factors affecting the river water quality, while the percentage of cultivated land showed a negative relationship. Furthermore, the relationships between the selected five landscape metrics and water quality were also revealed. SHDI and SHEI were significantly positively related with water quality indicators, while CONTAG showed the opposite relationship.